Scientific Intelligence. Meteorology. 387 



ed the very reasonable suspicion that we were upon a shoal. How- 

 ever, upon sounding, there was no bottom with 130 fathoms. 

 From the topmast, the sea appeared, as far as the eye could 

 reach, of a dark red colour, and this in a streak, the breadth of 

 which was estimated at six English miles, and which here and 

 there spread into short side branches. As we sailed slowly 

 along, we found that the colour changed into a brilliant purple, 

 so that even the foam, which is always seen at the stern of a 

 ship under sail, was of a rose colour. The sight was very strik- 

 ing, because this purple stream was marked by a very distinct 

 line from the blue waters of the sea ; a circumstance which we 

 the more easily observed, because our course lay directly through 

 the midst of this streak, which extended from south-east to 

 north-west. The water, taken up into a bucket, appeared in- 

 deed quite transparent ; but a faint purple tinge was visible 

 when a few drops were placed upon a piece of white china, and 

 moved rapidly backwards and forwards in the sunshine. A 

 moderate magnifying glass proved that these little red dots, 

 which, with great attention, could be perceived with the naked 

 eye, consisted of infusoria, which were of a spherical form, en- 

 tirely destitute of all external organs of motion. Their very 

 lively motions were only upward and downward, and always in 

 spiral lines. The want of a powerful microscope precluded a 

 more minute examination ; and all attempts to preserve some 

 of the animals, by drying a drop of water on paper, failed, as 

 they seemed to dissolve away. They were extremely sensible 

 to the effect of nitric acid ; for a single drop, mixed in a glass 

 of this animated water, put an end, almost instantaneously, to 

 the life of the millions that it contained. We sailed for four 

 hours, at a mean rate of six English miles an hour, through 

 this streak, which was seven miles broad, before we reached the 

 end of it ; and its superficies must therefore have been about 

 168 English square miles. If we add, that these animals may 

 have been equally distributed in the upper stratum of the water, 

 to the depth of six feet, we must confess that their numbers in- 

 finitely surpassed the conception of the human understanding/* 

 Poeppigs Travels. 



8. Questions respecting the Effects of Clearing Land. A 

 Letter addressed by the French Minister of Finance to the Se- 



