Metemvlogy, 



71 



part of which became solid first, by throwing off its heat into the regions 

 of free space ,* that by the continual escape of heat in this way, the solid 

 crust is constantly thickening; that the earth, in short, is a cooled star, 

 which has been extinguished only at its surface. 



We cannot but regard this as one of the most curious and important 

 truths ever given to the world ; a truth which, though it has no immediate 

 bearing on the arts of life, cannot be barren of useful consequences, since 

 it gives us more correct ideas of ihe globe we inhabit, and promises to 

 throw a flood of light on many abstruse and difficult questions in science. 

 (^Scotsman^ March 29.) 



Burmese Petroleum Wells. — Some of these are from 37 to 53 fathoms 

 in depth, and are said to yield at an average, daily, from 1,30 to 185 gallons 

 of the earth oil. The wells are scattered over an area of about sixteen 

 square miles. The wells are private property, the owners paying a tax of 

 5 per cent, of the produce to the state. This commodity is almost uni- 

 versally used by the Burmans as lamp oil. Its price on the spot does not, 

 on an average, exceed from 5d, to lyt. per cwt. The other useful mineiral 

 or saline productions of the Burman empire are coal, saltpetre, soda, and 

 culinary salt. One of the lakes affording the latter, which is within six or 

 seven miles of the capital, was examined by the gentlemen of the mission. 

 (Crawfo)'d's Mission to Ava.) 



Art. V. Meteorology, 



A Raw-Gauge, on a new and 

 greatly improved construction 

 (Jig. 4 1 .) has been invented by 

 Mr. Samuel Crosley, Engineer, 

 London, and described in Gill^s 

 Technological Repository/, vol. ii. 

 p. 17. Its superiority consists in 

 its power of self-registering the 

 quantity of rain fallen. It con- 

 sists of a funnel (a) of the usual form, through which the rain passes to a 

 vibrating trough {b\ when, after a sufficient quantity has fallen into its higher 

 side (c), it preponderates, discharges the rain, which escapes by a tube, and 

 at the same time, by its vibratory action, moves a train of wheel-work and 

 indexes, to record upon a dial-plate the quantity of rain fallen. We have 

 not been able to learn that any instruments of this sort are actually on 

 sale ; but the invention is most ingenious, and ranks with Kewley's balance 

 thermometer {Enc. of Gard., § 1489.), which might also be made a register- 

 ing thermometer on a similar principle. 



Destruction of an Oak Tree by Lightning. — The trunk of the tree was 

 about 15 ft. in height, li or 2 ft. in diameter at the branches, and 3 ft. in 

 diameter at the root. The top of the tree was separated, as if by the stroke 

 of a hatchet, and without any appearance of carbonisation ; the trunk was 

 torn into a thousand pieces, exceedingly small in size when compared with 

 the original mass, and thrown to a great distance. Such was the division 

 and destruction, as to induce the supposition that in certain cases the light- 

 ning might cause the entire dispersion of the tree. {Bid. Un.) 



Rain at Bombay. — During the first days of the rainy season, the quan- 

 tity that fell was thirty-two inches, and then all the roads became like 

 rivers. In England, at an average, not more than the same quantity falls 

 during the whole year. [Jam. Jour., Dec. 1827, p. 182.) 



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