238 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ments and flakes of bitumen. We found the pillar to be of solid ealt, 

 capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front and pyramidal be- 

 hind. The upper or rounded part is about 40 feet high, resting on a 

 kind of oval pedestal, from 40 to 60 feet above the level of the sea. 

 It slightly decreases in size upwards, crumbles at the top, and is one 

 entire mass of crystallization. A prop, or buttress, connects it with 

 the mountain behind, and the whole is covered with debris of a light 

 stone color. Its peculiar shape is doubtless attributable to the action 

 of the winter rains. A similar pillar is mentioned by Josephus, who 

 expresses the belief of its being the identical one into which Lot's 

 wife was transformed. Clement of Rome, a contemporary of Jose- 

 phus, and Irenzeus, a writer of the second century, also mentions this 

 pillar." Lynches Expedition to the Dead Sea. 



GEOLOGY OF SCINDE, BRITISH INDIA. 



No sooner was the conquest of Seinde, India, effected, than a geo- 

 logical investigation of the newly acquired province was immediately 

 commenced under the orders of Sir Charles Napier. Under his aus- 

 pices the exploration of the countries on the right bank of the Indus, 

 including the Hala and Solyman mountains, has been successfully ac- 

 complished, and the results communicated to the Royal Geological 

 Society of London. By means of copious collections of fossils trans- 

 mitted to England, Sir R. I. Murchison has ascertained that these 

 rocks of the Indus, which extend over the greater part of the Punjaub 

 and the valley of Cashmere, belong to the same great nummulitic 

 formation which occupies so vast a space in Southern Europe, and 

 which, ranging from the Pyrenees and Alps, through Egypt, Asia 

 Minor, and Persia, as far as Hindostan, is of the true older tertiary, or 

 eocene age. To the north of Delhi, a considerable tract of the sub- 

 Himalayan hills, which there skirt the great plain of Hindostan, has 

 been explored minutely. The existence of nummulitic rocks, as in 

 Scinde and Beloochistan, was here also developed, overlaid on their 

 lower flanks by more recent tertiary deposits, loaded with fossil bones 

 of mammalia, tortoises, and crocodiles. 



GEOLOGY OF THE PACIFIC. 



THE following extracts are taken from Mr. Dana's recently published 

 " Geology of the Exploring Expedition." 



The Pacific Ocean exceeds by ten millions of miles the area of all 

 the continents and islands on the globe : over this wide void are scattered 

 about six hundred and seventy-five islands, whose united area, excluding 

 New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Salomons, and a few other large is- 

 lands, is only forty thousand square miles (less than the State of New 

 York). Yet this small space presents the sublimest and most beautiful 

 scenery in the world, and supports the richest tropical vegetation. No 

 native land quadruped, however, is found in the \vhole ocean. 



Most of the islands lie within the tropics, and, in all, the groups are 



