15S 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1866. 



GEOLOGY. 



Recent Eaiithqttak.es. — 1. The first shock of 

 an earthquake at Chittagong, Bengal, was felt on 

 December 15th, 1S65, at 6.50 p.m., and between 

 that time aud 2 a.m. on the twentieth of the same 

 month, twelve distinct shocks were felt, of various 

 degrees of intensity. In Thannah Roajan the earth's 

 surface cracked in several places, and poured forth 

 jets of water and a fine dark grey-coloured sand. No 

 sand has ever been found in the deepest excavations, 

 either at that spot or within many miles, so that it 

 must have been forced up from a great depth. The 

 heaps of sand thrown out varied from the size of a 

 molehill up to twelve feet in diameter, and three 

 feet deep. At the cessation of the shocks the large 

 sand-heap was still wet, and the ground showed 

 signs of having been recently flooded. The water 

 rose some inches from the ground, and so far as 

 could be ascertained, it was cold. It appears that 

 there are in the neighbourhood several " burning 

 wells," which are supposed to be connected with 

 volcanic agency, but none of them exhibited auy 

 change during the earthquake. — 2. On March 9th, 

 at 2 a.m., an earthquake was felt at Christiania, in 

 many places in Norway, along the west coast at 

 Verbluugas and Drontheim, and the tower of Erau- 

 enkirche rocked so violently that the bells began to 

 ring. — 3. The earthquake felt in Norway on March 

 9th appears to have extended as far as the Shetland 

 Isles. The keeper of the lighthouse on the Elugga 

 rock, which is situated about a mile and a half 

 north of Unst, reports that at 1.20 a.m. on the same 

 day the tower began to shake terribly, and continued 

 doing so for thirty seconds. There was no wind or 

 sea to cause the vibration, and it must, therefore, 

 be attributed to the shock of an earthquake. If the 

 shocks felt at the Shetlands and Norway are in any 

 way connected, they must have proceeded in a north- 

 easterly direction from the former to the latter 

 place, occupying a period of forty minutes — the 

 wave having a velocity of about seven or eight miles 

 per minute. — Reader. 



Pterodactyles not Reptiles. — Mr. H. Seeley 

 says ;— " It seems to me no hard task to determine 

 whether the Pterodactyle has the organization of a 

 reptile or of a bird; I find it in every essential 

 principle to be formed on the avian plan. Yet it 

 differs more from existing birds than they do among 

 themselves, and therefore cannot be included as an 

 order of Aves ; for 1 he points of structure in which 

 it differs from birds are those in which all existing 

 birds agree. I therefore regard it as forming a 

 group of equal value with Aves (Saurornia), each 

 as a sub-class, forming together a great class of 

 birds. Its distinctive characters are — in having 

 teeth, in the simple convex or concave articula- 

 tion of the vertebrse in the separate condition 



of the tarsal and metatarsal bones, in having 

 three bones in the forearm instead of two, in a 

 peculiar carpal bone, in the sacrum formed of few 

 vertebra, and in the modification of the wing by 

 the enormous development of the phalanges of one 

 finger. The sub-class so characterized forms a 

 parallel group with the true birds. Whether it 

 may not in some points of organization rise above 

 birds, is a question on which I offer no opinion, 

 further than to state that in none of the typical 

 mammalian characters docs it approach the 

 mammals." — Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 



Araucarian Cones.— In the " Geological Maga- 

 zine" for June, Mr. W. Carruthers characterizes two 

 Araucarian cones from the secondary beds of Britain, 

 allied to existing Australian species : one, A. sphai- 

 rocarpa, from the inferior oolite, Bruton, Somerset- 

 shire ; the other, A. Pippingfordiensis, from the 

 wealden in a mass of hard greenish grit at Pepping- 

 ford, in Ashdown forest. 



Sibeeian Mammoth.— Another specimen of the 

 Elephas prim/genius has been discovered in the bay 

 of Tazooskaia, in the government of Tomsk. The 

 flesh, skin, and hair are said to be in a perfect state 

 of preservation. A commission has been named by 

 the Academy of St. Petersburg for the purpose of 

 taking measures to disinter the monster and remove 

 it to St. Petersburg. It was discovered accidentally. 

 A native in search of some domestic animals which 

 had strayed, perceived a great horn sticking up in 

 the midst of a marshy moor. In his endeavours to 

 remove.it, he broke the horn and perceived a piece 

 of skin from the head, which was covered with 

 reddish hair nearly three inches in length. — Public 

 Opinion. 



New Minerals. — In the Comptes Rendus for 

 March 19th, M. Pisani describes a Cornish mineral 

 to which he gives the name Clienevixite . It is an 

 arseniate of copper and iron, the iron being in the 

 state of ferric oxide. M. Pisani gives its hardness 

 as 4'5, and its density as 3'93. The colour is 

 a blackish green, and the fracture conchoidal. 

 Adamite, a new and interesting hydrated arseniate 

 of zinc is also described in the Comptes Rendus for 

 March 19th. Adamite is similar in crystalline 

 form and in constitution to olivenite. It occurs 

 with native silvei - , limonite, and calcitc, at Chanar- 

 cillo, Chili. The crystallography of adamite has 

 been worked out by M. cles Cloiscaux. Knop has 

 described under the name of Paclinolite, a mineral 

 occurriug in Greenland with cryolite, and presenting 

 a weathered aspect. It differs from cryolite chiefly 

 by containing calcium. 



•Honour to Science. — The University of Oxford 

 has conferred an honorary doctorate on Professor 

 Alphonse de Candolle of Geneva, Dr. Hooker of 

 Kew, Professor William Thompson of Glasgow, aud 

 Professor Phillips, the veteran Geologist. 



