194 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



cules. I then examined another glass of water, out of the same 

 pitcher, and with the aid of a microscope, before the snow was put 

 into it, found it perfectly clear and pure : the snow was then thrown 

 into it, and on solution the water again exhibited the same pheno- 

 menon hundreds of animalcules, visible to the naked eye with 

 acute attention, and, when viewed through the microscope, re- 

 sembling most diminutive shrimps, and, wholly unlike the eels 

 discovered in the acetous acid, were seen in the full enjoyment of 

 animated nature. 



4 1 caused holes to be dug in several parts of the mass of snow in 

 the ice-house, and to the centre of it, and in the most unequivocal 

 and repeated experiments had similar results ; so that my family 

 did not again venture to introduce the snow-ice into the water they 

 drank, which had been a favourite method, but used it as an external 

 refrigerant for the pitcher. 



* These little animals may class with the amphibia which have 

 cold blood, and are generally capable, in a low temperature, of a 

 torpid state of existence. Hence their icy immersion did no violence 

 to their constitution, and the possibility of their revival by heat is 

 well sustained by analogy ; but their generation, their parentage, 

 and their extraordinary transmigration, are to me subjects of 

 profound astonishment*.' 



14. ANTIPATHY OF THE CHAMELEON TO BLACK. 



Whatever may be the cause, the fact seems to be certain, that the 

 chameleon has an antipathy to things of a black colour. One which 

 Forbes kept uniformly avoided a black board which was hung up 

 in the chamber; and, what is most remarkable, when it was forcibly 

 brought before the black board, it trembled violently, and assumed 

 a black colour f. It may be something of the same kind which 

 makes bulls and turkey-cocks dislike the colour of scarlet ; a fact 

 of which there can be no doubt J. 



15. PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA IN THE GULF OF ST. 

 LAWRENCE. 



Captain Bonnycastle, R.E., whilst coming up the gulf on the 7th 

 September, 1826, observed this phenomenon under the following 

 interesting circumstances. At two o'clock, A.M., the mate, whose 

 watch it was on deck, suddenly aroused the captain in great alarm, 

 from an unusual appearance on the lee bow. The night was starlight; 

 but suddenly the sky became overcast in the direction of the high land 

 of Comwallis county, arid a rapid, instantaneous, and immensely bril- 

 liant light, resembling the aurora borealis, shot out of the hitherto 

 gloomy arid dark sea on the lee bow, and was so vivid that it lighted 



* Silliman's Journal, xviii. 57. 

 f Oriental Memoirs) p. 350. \ J. R,, Nat, Mag., ii. 269. 7 



