478 Queries and Answers. 



leiin (August, 1830) are two short articles (No. 113, 114.) 

 on some supposed changes in the level of the sea. The former 

 (No. 113.) is an abstract from the Edinburgh New Philosophi- 

 cal Journal, for September, 1828 (p. 336.); the latter is the 

 substance of a paper by Dr. K. C. Schmeider, in Kastner's 

 Archiv fur die gesammte Naturlehre (vol. xviii. p. 332.), 

 which originally appeared in a small brochure, entitled Etwas 

 zur Erl'duterung iiber physikalische Neuigkeiten, not, however, 

 much known. I place, as follows, some remarks from each of 

 these papers, which I am at a loss to reconcile : — 



From No. 1 1 3. p. 1 69. — " L'on sait qu'a basse maree la Mer 

 Rouge est a 8m. 12' plus basse que la Mediterranee, et a haute 

 maree a 9 met. 9'. " [It is known that the Red Sea at low 

 tide is 8 metres 12' lower than the Mediterranean, and at high 

 tide 9 metres 9'.] 



From No. 114. p. 170. — " La Mer Rouge est plus haute 

 que la Mediterranee parce qu'elle est plus remplie d'eau par la 

 maree d'Ocean Indien." [The Red Sea is higher than the 

 Mediterranean, because it is more filled with water by the 

 tide of the Indian Ocean.] 



From No. 1 13. p. 169. — " La Mer Sud parait etre 7 metres 

 plus elevee que PAtlantique, d'apres M. Humboldt." [The 

 South Sea appears to be 7 metres more elevated than the 

 Atlantic Ocean, according to M. Humboldt.] 



From No. 1 1 4. p. 1 70. — Le Golfe du Meocique est a 20 pieds 

 plus haute que la Mer du Sud, parce que les vents alises 

 chassent l'eau dans le golfe," &c. [The Gulf of Mexico 

 is 20 ft. higher than the South Sea, because the trade winds 

 drive the water into the gulf, &c] 



As a parallel passage, I add this, from Mr. Ly ell's Princi- 

 ples of Geology (vol. i. p. 293. 1st edition) : — " It is supposed 

 that the Red Sea maintains a constant elevation of 4 or 5 

 fathoms above the Mediterranean, at all times of the tide." At 

 any rate, one of the statements in the Bulletin must be incor- 

 rect ; and which that is, the editor has not stated. 



There is another observation in No. 114. which I do not 

 understand. Dr. Schmeider, speaking of the Mediterranean, 

 says : — U evaporation continuelle et Petat isole de cette mer en 

 ont rendu ses eaux moins salees" (p. 170.) [The continual 

 evaporation and the isolated condition of that sea have rendered 

 its waters less salt.] Dr. Marcet (Philosophical Transactions, 

 1819) says, "The Mediterranean contains rather larger pro- 

 portions of salt than the ocean ; " and Mr. De la Beche 

 (Manual, 2d edition, p. 5.), after quoting Dr. Marcet, adds, 

 " The superior saltness of the Mediterranean, though an inland 

 sea, is attributed to the evaporation of its surface, which is 



