its weight by calculation between thirty-eight and thirty-nine tons. An overhanging ledge of the same kind of rock is situated up the hill, thirty feet above the spot whence the mass under consideration commenced its slide.

There could be nothing very remarkable in the movement which occurred on the night of the 12th, but for the nearly level surface across which it moved. It is agreed on all hands that the angle of declivity throughout the entire distance which was eighty feet, was only from 13° to 15° 40'. The entire descent for the distance, or the difference between the original and the present level of the mass, is but eighteen feet. The stone did not turn over in its course. The surface over which the mass moved is a gradually inclined plane, unmarked by any natural furrow or depression. The soil is a common loam, five or six inches in depth, while the subsoil is a cohesive red clay. The field had been under cultivation for several years. A crop of wheat was raised upon it the year previous; and of course the ground was not covered by green sward. A few coarse stones and pebbles are observable in the soil. The rock encountered several of these in its progress, some of which were crushed, while others were turned aside. There was much vegetable matter accumulated about the rock (in its original position) in a state of decomposition. The surface of the rock is not blackened as if it had been acted upon by fire, but is covered here and there with the customary growth of lichens. A magnetic needle brought near it is scarcely turned aside from the magnetic meridian.

In its descent, it cut through, or tore asunder numerous roots (of living trees), some of which were two or three inches in diameter. It cut a trench from ten to thirteen feet wide and about three feet in depth, spreading the soil to a distance on either side as it moved along. There is no very considerable accumulation of soil in advance of the stone as it now lies, although portions of the red subsoil appeared scattered down the hill from thirty to eighty feet in front of its present location. There was rain attended by thunder and lightning on the night of the slide, but unaccompanied by wind; and nothing presented itself in the appearances near the spot to indicate a water-spout or any unusual fall of water.

The only suggestion to account for the removal of the stone which has thus far been made, is that of J. W. Hudson, Esq., the Principal of the Winsboro Academy; it is the following: at the lower side of the original bed of the mass stands a pyramidal rock, four feet in thickness, weighing eight or nine tons. Mr. H. supposes that the heavy end of the sliding rock was supported upon this, which, giving way, produced the motion, which on the ordinary laws of gravitation carried the mass down the inclined plane. From this opinion Dr. Kersh strongly dissents, as he thinks that the shape of the moving mass compared with that of the original bed it occupied, proves such a position to have been impossible.

4. Contributions to the Mycology of North America.—Mr. Curtis would make the following additional remark to his article, page 349. Under Helicoma Berkleyi:-add "I suspect that this fine species should form the type of a new genus, for which I propose the name Systrephium.

Until a fuller examination, however, it may remain under Helicoma." He observes also, that the number of Bosc's species (p. 350), should have been stated at "eight or ten."

5. Yield of Lead in Great Britain, (Mem. Geol. Surv. Great Britain, ii, p. 730).—The following table gives the amount of lead ore and lead afforded by the mines of the United Kingdom, for the years 1845, 1846, 1847:

Isle of Man,

Total,

1,523

1.663

1.699

1,944 1,641 1,159

2,259 2,316 2,575 78,267 74,564 83.747 52,695 50,16155,703

It appears from the enquiries that the produce of merchantable lead from the ore throughout the kingdom averages about 68 per cent.; and that 7 to 8 ounces of silver is the average quantity at present procured from the ton of lead.

6. British Association, (Athenæum.)-This Association for the Advancement of Science, met at Swansea on Wednesday, the 9th of August. At 8 P. M. an address was delivered by the President of the meeting, the Marquis of Northampton. The summary of the proceedings is as follows: On Wednesday, the General Committee assembled. -On Thursday, business began in all the Sections, the Ethnological sub-section forming the only exception; and in the evening, Dr. Percy delivered a discourse on smelting iron, in the Baptist chapel.-On Friday, all the sections again met except the Ethnological; during the afternoon there were sailing matches and boat races; and after the ordinary, Mr. Vivian threw open his grounds, but the wet weather interfered with the general enjoyment of the Sections. On Saturday there was no meeting of the Sections; and a very large party set off at eight in the morning to visit the iron-works of Ystalyfera, and other points of interest in the Swansea valley. Another party made an excursion to the bone caves and cliffs of Gower; while a third, consisting of Lord Wrottesley, Sir Philip Egerton, Sir H. De la Beche, Prof. Owen, Prof. Forbes, Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Bowerbank, Lieut. Spratt and Mr. Jeffreys, went with Mr. M'Andrew in his yacht, the Osprey, on a dredging excursion in the Bristol Channel. Some of the Botanists, with Mr. Babington at their head, made an excursion around the coast from Oystermouth to Pennard Castle, and obtained many rare plants. less energetic visited the zinc works of Mr. Vivian, and spent the remainder of the day in Mr. Llewellyn's grounds of Penllergare. Here a boat impelled by the electrical current was at work on one of the lakes. In the evening there was a promenade at the schoolroom, very fully attended.

The

On Monday, there was business in all the Sections. Dr. Carpenter lectured on microscopic structures in the evening, to a large audience. Tuesday, the Sections met; and the Mayor gave a dinner to the principal strangers. In the evening there was a promenade. On Wednes

day some of the Sections met; and in the afternoon the concluding general meeting was held for the customary ceremonial proceedings.

The meeting was a good one, though the wet weather interfered somewhat with the comfort and pleasures of the occasion. The amount of scientific business accomplished was less than at many of the preceding meetings.

7. Lithoceramic.-MM. CHEUVREUSSE and BOUVERT of Paris, have proposed to replace the timber used for supporting the rails of a railroad, by a mineral compound, to which they have given the name Lithoceramic.

8. Kumptolite, (Athenæum.)-The courtyard of the Admirality, Whitehall, has been covered with a paving of India rubber. It is laid down in pieces about twelve inches square and one thick. The quadrangle at Buckingham palace, formed by the erection of the new wing, will also be covered by this material, which its projectors have named "kumptolite." Its chief recommendation is that it deadens all sound, rendering the passage of a vehicle or horses perfectly noiseless.

9. Dip of Magnetic Needle.-According to M. QUETELET, the dip of the magnetic needle at Brussels, on the morning of April 14, 1848, was 68° 0.4 He has kept observations of twenty-two years, and states that in 1827, it was 68° 56' 5. The diminution amounts to three minutes a year.

10. Arctic Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, (Athenæum, No. 1089, Sept. 9, 1848.)-A fishing cutter arrived at Stromness, brings the news that an American whaler visiting Lievely, in Disco Island, had learnt that on the 2d of July, Her Majesty's ships Investigagator and Enterprize, under Sir John Ross, had reached the harbor, and landed dispatches to the care of the Danish governor, to be forwarded by the first vessel to Europe. The expedition immediately proceeded in search of Sir John Franklin. The crews were all well.

11. Lithographic Limestone, (Athen.)-Indian papers notice the discovery in the Deccan, of a bed of lithographic limestone, of great extent and excellent quality.

12. Ray Society, (Athen., Aug. 26.)-The Ray Society held its fifth annual meeting at Swansea-the Marquis of Northampton filling the chair. The Report stated that although no great increase of numbers had occurred during the past year, the funds were larger, in consequence of most of the new members subscribing from the commencement. The remaining work for 1847, Prof. E. Forbes's "Monograph of the British Pulmograde Medusa,"-with three new works, Part iv, of Messrs. Alder & Hancock's "Nudibranchiate Mollusca," the "Correspondence of John Ray," and vol. i, of the Bib. Zoologiæ et Geologiæ of Prof. Agassiz, for 1848, were stated to be ready for distribution. Though all the works for 1848 were ready, not a third of the subscriptions for that year had been paid. The meeting was well attended, and several new members were added.*

13. Museum of Economic Geology, England.-The building for this museum is nearly completed on an excellent site in Piccadilly; £30,000

*Subscribers in this country will hereafter receive their copies, through Mr. G. P. Putnam, publisher and bookseller, in New York and London, who has been appointed agent for the Society.

of the public money were voted for its construction some years ago. It is suggested that the Geological Society should be furnished with rooms in the building.

14. Interesting Collections for sale.-The attention of colleges, academies, public schools, and private collectors of objects of natural history, literature, &c., is invited to the following notice :

A private gentleman who in the course of a long life, as opportunities have offered in Europe and America, and at considerable expense, has indulged his taste in collecting various objects of art, science and literature, and being now too infirm, as well as advanced in life, to prosecute these pursuits, and indeed feeling unable to take the necessary care, has concluded to relieve himself, by disposing of such a portion of his collections as he can spare, retaining only what may require less trouble, while contributing to his enjoyment during the rest of his life. He therefore takes this mode of offering it to the public and private institutions of his country, as an opportunity of obtaining rare and valuable objects, not often to be met with and not to be neglected. The first is

A collection of minerals made in this country as well as in Europe, containing most of the species and many of the varieties mentioned by Professor Cleaveland in his treatise, and many, perhaps more crystalline forms than are to be found in other American cabinets, with few exceptions; among them there is a fine crystal of gold, which attracted the notice of Professors Vanuxem and Shepard, a double terminated euclase, double terminated topazes, and two imbedded in quartz crystals, and a perfect crystal of the gieseckite brought from Greenland by Professor Giesecke of Copenhagen, probably the best in the country. Most of the specimens are of moderate cabinet size, calculated to be contained in a case convenient to occupy nearly one side of a room, and almost all are ticketed; many with the original labels of the Abbé Haüy, Brongniart, Brochant, Klaproth, Gillet Laumont, Lucas, and Patrin, as well as of other distinguished mineralogists. The duplicates which are not arranged, containing larger specimens, and one especially of the Ackworth Beryl, being a fragment of a crystal about fifteen inches long and near a foot in diameter, the sides of the prism are six inches across. There are also geological and fossil specimens.

Together with the minerals will be sold a set of crystalline forms in wood (with the angles all marked), and those illustrating crystallogra phy. These models were made under the direction of the celebrated Abbé Haüy for the Emperor of Austria, but learning they were wanted for America, he yielded them to the present owner and ordered a new set for the Emperor.

Further information can be given by Professor Silliman, Professor B. Silliman, Jr., and C. U. Shepard, Professor in the Medical College of South Carolina, Charleston, and at Amherst College, who are acquainted with the collection and know its value. There is also

A cabinet of ancient and modern coins and medals, consisting of Greek, Roman, and Colonial coins in gold, silver, brass, bronze, copper, and lead, with Asiatic and African colonial coins, and several finely executed ones of the Brettii, an ancient people who occupied the lower part

of Italy. The modern coins are of gold, silver, and bronze or brass, and some of them scarce and valuable. Among the gold coins of England there are three fine guinea pieces, of Charles II, Queen Anne and George I. Likewise

A collection of European and American autographs in forty quarto cases bound as books. They have been chiefly collected by purchase at considerable cost. The American includes a complete collection of the signers of the Declaration of Independance.

It is unnecessary to go into further details.-Those desirous of availing themselves of so good an opportunity of purchasing, either for private use or for endowing public institutions, will probably desire to examine for themselves, when the fullest information will be afforded.

OBITUARY.

15. Berzelius, (Athenæum, Aug. 26, 1848.)-On the 7th August, aged 69, died the eminent Swedish chemist, Berzelius. In a century which has produced a greater number of distinguished chemists than perhaps of any other class of men of science, Berzelius stood out as a star of the first magnitude. To him more than to any other man, belongs the honor of applying the great principles which had been established by Dalton, Davy, Wollaston, Gay-Lussac, and himself, in inorganic chemistry, to unfolding the laws which regulate the combinations forming the structures of the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

Berzelius was born in the village of Väfversunda, in the canonry of Linkogring, in Ostgothland, on the 29th of August, 1779,-not at Linkagring on the 20th of August, as is often erroneously stated in the many notices of him. His father kept the parish school in the village where young Berzelius was born, and there he appears to have received his early education. At the age of seventeen he commenced his studies at the University of Upsala, hoping to qualify himself for the medical profession.

In the year 1798, Berzelius passed his philosophical examination as preparatory to the final one for M.D. At this time he left the University; and in 1799 we find him assistant to a Dr. Hedin, a superintendent physician of the mineral waters of Medevi. The composition of these waters attracted the attention of Berzelius, and his first published essay was a dissertation in conjunction with Ekeberg on the mineral waters of Medevi. He underwent the examination for a license to practice medicine in 1801, and graduated at Upsal on the 24th May, 1804. On leaving Upsal, Berzelius repaired to Stockholm; where he became assistant to Andrew Spaurnau, who sailed with Cook in one of his voyages round the world, and was then professor there of medicine, botany, and chemical pharmacy. Spaurnau died in 1806,-and Berzelius by his inaugural dissertation on galvanism, and other papers, had already obtained for himself a sufficient degree of confidence to be appointed his successor. Although this chair embraced a very wide range of subjects, as was frequently the case with Swedish chairs at that time, Berzelius devoted himself more especially to chemistry. At first he was not more successful in teaching chemistry than his predecessors; but having received a hint from Dr. Marcet of London that chemical