376 Scientific Intelligence. — Geology. 



and to the turret retraced his steps. When morning came, a 

 welcome crowd greeting, asked if he had met the ghost ? " O, 

 yes !" replied the knight, " dead as a door nail behind the 

 screen he lies, where my sword has pinned him fast ; bring the 

 wrenching bar and we'll haul the disturber out." With such a 

 leader, and broad day to boot, the valiant throng tore down the 

 screen where the sword was fixed, when lo ! in a recess, lay the 

 fragments of a chapel organ, and the square wooden trunks 

 made for hallowed sounds were used as props to stay the work 

 when the hall was coated round with oak. The wondering 

 clowns now laughed aloud at the mysterious voice. It was the 

 northern blast that found its way through the crannies of the 

 wall to the groaning pipes, that alarmed the country round for 

 a century. 



10. Fossil Frogs ^ ^c. — Goldfuss, in the Nova Acta Physico- 

 Medica Acad. Cses. Leop. Carol. Nat. Cur. for 1831, describes 

 the following fossil remains of various amphibious animals he 

 detected in brown coal, in the vicinity of Bern. 1. Rana dilu- 

 viana. 2. Salamandra oxygia, two inches and a half long. 

 3. Triton noachicus, two inches in length. 4. Ophis dubius. 

 This remarkable remain he is of opinion belongs either to a 

 snake or a snake-shaped fish. 



11. On the Permanence of the Earth^s Axis of Rotation. — 

 " It appears,''' says Mrs Somerville, in her admirable work, 

 " from the marine shells found on the tops of the highest 

 mountains, and in almost every part of the globe, that immense 

 continents have been elevated above the ocean, which (ocean) 

 must have engulfed others* Such a catastrophe would be oc- 

 casioned by a variation in the position of the axis of rotation on 

 the surface of the earth ; for the seas tending to the new equator 

 would leave some portions of the globe and overwhelm others. 

 But theory proves that neither rotation, precession, nor any of 

 the disturbing forces which affect the system, have the smallest 

 influence on the axis of rotation, which maintains a permanent 

 position on the surface, if the earth be not disturbed in its rota- 

 tion by some foreign cause^ as the colHsion of a comet, which 

 may have happened in the immensity of time. Then, indeed, 

 the, equilibrium could only have been restored by the rushing of 

 the seas to the new equator, which they would continue to do 

 till their surface was every where perpendicular to the direction 



