B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 67 



termination of the exact moment of the shock, and it is 

 highly desirable that such a simple instrument shall be ex- 

 tensively employed throughout the world in the investiga- 

 tion of these phenomena. Professor Abbe suggests that 

 earthquakes are not beyond the reach of the Army Signal- 

 office predictions. 7 6 1 , X., 444. 



RECENT VOLCANIC PHENOMENA IN ICELAND. 



During the past winter attention was directed in Norway 

 to the falling of dust from the atmosphere, which at first 

 was supposed to be of meteoric origin; but Professor Kjerulf 

 decided that it was more likely to have been disseminated 

 from some active volcano. The precise source was unknown; 

 but from the direction of the wind, and the known condi- 

 tions, it was suspected that some volcano in Iceland was 

 concerned. This surmise has been confirmed by the more 

 recent advices from that country, which report a very re- 

 markable series of volcanic phenomena, first commenced by 

 earthquakes, then followed by an eruption accompanied by 

 dust and ashes. On March 29, 1875, the fall of the ashes was 

 so excessive that it covered the eastern country sides, Jokul- 

 dal especially, with a coat six inches in thickness, and all that 

 day, although elsewhere it was bright and sunny, the people 

 were in absolute "pitch" darkness. Fountains and rivulets 

 were dammed by the ashes, and every mountain stream ran 

 dark and muddy between banks covered with drifts of ashes. 

 The farmers fled out of the ash-covered country with their 

 cattle, in search of pastures not yet destroyed by the scorice, 

 but with what chance of saving their live stock does not 



CD 



appear. 



There is no calculating the extent of this calamity, nor 

 its effect upon the habitable portions of Iceland, although 

 from present appearances it threatens to be extremely wide- 

 spread. 3 A, Mai/, 22, 1875, 649. 



THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH. 



Mr. Hind, of Nova Scotia, calls attention to the fact that 

 the equatorial bulge of the earth's surface may have been 

 much larger in earlier geological epochs than at the present 

 day, and that Captain Clarke's and General Schubert's in- 

 vestigations, according to which the earth's equator is an 



