350 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



suits of which he has presented to the French Academy, with the 

 observation, that the limits for different agricultural products were the 

 same in the early as in the more recent periods ; and that, from the 

 time of Augustus till now, there has been no sensible modification 

 of temperature either as regards the months or the years. 



WATERSPOUT. 



A WATERSPOUT of great size occurred on Thursday, the 2d of 

 August, in Chattanooga county, Georgia. It is reported to have made 

 an impression in the earth thirty feet deep and forty or fifty feet wide. 

 Forest-trees of great size were torn up by the roots, and rocks weigh- 

 ing several thousand pounds were removed to a considerable distance. 

 It is but a short time since one of these phenomena of nature occurred 

 near the same place, at what is called Stephens Gap ; it made a singular 

 hole in the ground about three feet deep and eighteen or twenty feet 

 in diameter, the sides of which are perfectly perpendicular, and as 

 smooth as they could be made with a spade. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE SATELLITE OF NEPTUNE. 



THE following observations on the satellite of Neptune, made at the 

 Cambridge Observatory, have been communicated to the American 

 Academy, by the director, Mr. Bond : The light of the satellite we 

 have found to be nearly equivalent to that of a star of the fourteenth 

 magnitude, as stars of that class, brought as near to Neptune as is its 

 satellite, about equal the latter in faintness. The elements of the 

 satellite's orbit, as computed from five measurements taken near the 

 times of its greatest elongation, are: Periodic time, 5.8752 days. 

 Inclination 30. Ascending node, 300 if the motion be direct. Mean 

 distance, 16."3 at the mean distance of Neptune. 



Under good definition, Neptune shows a round disk, distinguishing 

 it from stars of the same brightness. Its color is bluish, resembling 

 the light of Uranus. There has been noticed more than once an ap- 

 pearance somewhat of the nature of that from which Mr. Lassel has 

 inferred the existence of a ring; but whether it is caused by a ring, or 

 by the inner satellites \vhich probably exist, or whether it be only an 

 optical appendage, it would be difficult to determine. 



