470 Miscellaneous LUelligence. 



know whether their emission was attended by a crackling or 

 snapping noise, as is the case when the electric spark is elicited 

 from a charged jar ; but, though he was most attentive, he was 

 not conscious of hearing the least noise. — Edin. Journ. iii. p. 

 415. 



5. The Potato. — This plant, the solarium tuberosum of botanists, 

 grows wild in the environs of Lima, in Peru, and fourteen 

 leagues from Lima, on the coast, and has been found wild in 

 the kingdom of Chili. It is cultivated by the Indians in Peru 

 and Chili, who call it papas. It grows spontaneously in the 

 forests near Santa Fe de Bogota, and among the rocks on 

 Monte Video. The wild plants, however, produce only very 

 small roots of a bitter taste. The native country of this plant 

 is therefore at length ascertained. — N. Monthly/ Mag. 1820, 

 p. 678. 



6. Geology of the Himdldyd Mountains. — At a late meeting 

 of the Geological Society, a paper on the valley of the Sutlej 

 river in the Himalaya Mountains, by Henry Thomas Cole- 

 brooke, Esq., Vice-president, G.S., was read. 



The banks of the Sutlej, in the lower valley, at the elevation 

 of 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, are composed of lime- 

 stone, which is apparently primitive. The general inclination 

 . of the strata is stated to be 10 or 15°, and the direction much 

 diversified. At Jaure, on the northern bank, hot springs issue 

 within two or three feet from the river. A thermometer plunged 

 into one of them rose to 1 30^° of Fahrenheit, while the tempe- 

 rature of the river was 61°. The water has a strong sulphurous 

 smell, and incrusts the pebbles among which it rises with a 

 yellow substance. Lime-stone seems the rock in the hills 

 which bound the adjacent valleys. Among the specimens is a 

 stalactite from the roof of a cave near the top of the Carol 

 mountains, and about 6,500 feet above the level of the sea. 



In crossing the Himalaya Mountains at the Bruang Pass, 

 which is the route of communication between the middle valley 

 of the Sutlej and the valley of the Paber, and of which the 

 extreme altitude is 15,000 feet, mica slate, gneiss, and granite. 



