GEOLOGY. '271 



quired in working it, because a wet mine gave a higher temperature 

 than a dry mine. Hitherto there had been very great difficulty in 

 making observations and experiments in mines. He had had some 

 discussions with Professor Phillips on the subject, and he hoped that 

 before long they would arrive at some process by which they would 

 be enabled to make more satisfactory and conclusive experiments of 

 the continually varying temperature in these mines, and its effects 

 upon the incrustation of the earth. 



EFFECTS OF LONG-COXTLNTTED HEAT. 



The effects of long-continued heat, illustrative of geological phe- 

 nomena, is the subject of a report by the Rev. TV. Vernon Harcourt, 

 in the volume of the Reports of the 'British Association for 1860. In 

 1833 the British Association intrusted a commission, consisting of 

 Prof. Sedgwick, Dr. Daubeny, Dr. Turner, and Mr. Harcourt, with 

 the task of illustrating geological science by experiments. To the 

 last fell the lot of conducting a portion of these experiments in two 

 iron furnaces in Yorkshire, at Elsecar and Low Moor, the former 

 being worked for a period of five and the latter for fifteen years. 

 The materials consisted of a variety of minerals in various conditions 

 in one box, and organic remains, both of plants and animals, in 

 another box. The various substances in the boxes were separated in 

 crucibles. The boxes were placed in the interior of the furnaces 

 during their erection. At the end of fifteen years the Low Moor 



*~j / 



furnace was blown out ; nothing was left of the boxes but the iron 

 straps by which they were bound, in a state of oxidation. A few 

 crucibles and parts of crucibles only survived the wreck of their con- 

 tents ; all the minerals, choice pieces, weighed powders, and compo- 

 sitions had disappeared ; and all the exactness with which Prof. 

 Phillips had arranged them was lost labor. The deposits at Elsecar 

 at the end of five years had not fared better. Two specimens, how- 

 ever, were worthy of notice. One exhibited the conversion of river 

 sand into sandstone, with a vacuity in its axis left by the volatiliza- 

 tion of a plant. It was a stone of much tenacity, and came out a 

 perfect cast. The other specimen was a translucent blue mineral, 

 belonging to the class of Lapis lazuli. Outside the boxes under the 

 bottom stone in Low Moor furnace Mr. Harcourt had also placed 

 other crucibles, containing a bar of zinc, a block of tin, a pig of lead, 

 and a plate of tile copper. The changes in them were very remark- 

 able, showing the action on each other under the heating influence. 



INTERESTING FACTS RELATIVE TO THE GEOLOGICAL HIS- 

 TORY OF CEYLON. 



It appears from the recently-published investigations of Sir Emer- 

 son Tenueut, on the natural history of Ceylon, that the elephant of 

 Ceylon is not, as has hitherto been invariably supposed, identical 

 with that of India, but presents numerous variations from the struc- 

 ture of that animal ; and that it belongs to a distinct species exist- 

 ing only in Ceylon and Sumatra. The importance of this discovery 

 is perhaps at first not wholly apparent, but a very little thought 



