114 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 32., Aug. 9. '56. 



the others, which are undoubted natives, still 

 keep their Teutonic or Saxon names ; as the oak, 

 ash, beech, maple, hazel, birch, holly, &c. The 

 trees probably brought from Italy, he says, are 

 the box (Buxus), the elra ( Ulmus) ; the indige- 

 nous having a Saxon name, Wych hazel; service 

 (Sorbus), poplar (Populus)^ &c. 



I hope I have now given good reasons for my 

 first assertion, that the box, at any rate, is in all 

 probability not indigenous. A. Holt White. 



botti.es filled by pressure op the sea. 



(2"^ S. i. 493.) 



Your correspondent John Husband, who 

 wishes for information respecting the statements 

 of the Rev. John Campbell in his Travels in South 

 Africa in 1815, and also the account given by 

 Captain S. Spowart of the " Wilberforce," of ex- 

 periments made by him in 1855, will find allusions 

 to the phenomenon by various writers ; among 

 others I beg to refer him to vol. i. Bridgewater 

 Treatises, page 345, where Dr. Buckland, treating 

 of the pressure at different depths of the sea, says 

 that — 



" Captain Smyth, R.N., found on two trials that the 

 cylindrical copper air-tube under the vane attached to 

 Massey's log collapsed and was crushed quite flat under 

 the pressure of about 300 fathoms (1800 feet). A claret 

 bottle filled with air and well corked was burst before it 

 descended 400 fathoms. He also found that a bottle 

 filled with fresh water and corked had the cork forced in 

 at about 180 fathoms." 



He also refers to a personal statement made to 

 him by Sir Francis Beaufort, who had often made 

 the experiment with corked bottles, some of them 

 being empty, and others containing some fluid. 

 But the result was various : 



" The empty bottles were sometimes crushed, at others 

 the cork was forced in, and the fluid exchanged for sea 

 water. The cork was always returned to the neck of the 

 bottle ; sometimes, but not always, in an inverted posi- 

 tion." 



Let me also refer your correspondent to that 

 magnificent book. The Geological Observer, by 

 Sir Henry de la Beche, where he will find obser- 

 vations respecting differences of pressure at dif- 

 ferent depths of the sea, which will satisfy him 

 that the statements respecting the bottles are not 

 at all incredible. Sir Henry computes the pres- 

 sure at a depth of 100 feet to be 60 pounds to 

 the square inch, including that of the atmosphere, 

 while at 4000 feet the pressure would be about 

 1830 pounds to the square inch. 



Speaking of animals which inhabit very deep 

 seas he says : 



" It has been observed that the air or gas in the swim- 

 ming bladders of those brought up from a depth of about 

 3300 feet (under a pressure of about 100 atmospheres), in- 

 creased so considerably in volume as to force the swim- 



ming bladder, stomach, and other adjoining parts, outside 

 the throat in a balloon-formed mass." 



Thus we see that the claret bottle collapses in 

 the deep sea, while the air-bottle of the deep sea 

 fish expands until it bursts when it reaches the 

 upper regions. 



The author of the Geological Observer refers to 

 Pouillet, Elemens de Physique Experimentale, 

 vol. i. p. 188. confirmatory of the above fact, and 

 adds that Dr. Scoresby in his Arctic Regions, 

 vol. ii. p. 193., relates that in a whaling expedition 

 on one occasion a boat was pulled down to a con- 

 siderable depth by a whale, after which the wood 

 became too heavy to float, the sea water having 

 forced itself into the pores. He then refers to the 

 Reports of the British Association, vol. xii., in 

 which the researches of Professor E. Forbes are 

 recorded. Before concluding, let me add that 

 some have supposed the porousness of the glass 

 would sufficiently account for the phenomenon of 

 the empty bottle becoming filled with water and 

 yet the cork remaining in the same position, and 

 even the wax which covered It unbroken. But 

 it seems to me more probable that the pressure, 

 when not sufficient to break the bottle, might yet 

 be enough to reduce by compression the size of 

 the cork and the covering of wax, thus giving 

 space for the water to enter, which would readily 

 under such pressure rush through the minutest 

 inlet : the wine would keep the cork in its original 

 position, and, on being drawn up, expansion to its 

 former bulk would be instantaneous. But this is 

 only a guess. E. Flood Woodman. 



London. 



TEMPLE AT BAALBEC. 



(2»'l S. ii. 49.) 



The origin of this temple is involved in ob- 

 scurity ; the present structural remains are of 

 the Corinthian Order chiefly, including probably 

 the church erected by Constantino (Eusebius, 

 Const., iii. 58.*; Eusebius, Orat. Const., c. 18.; 

 Sozomen, v. 10., vii. 15. ; Greg., Abulpharagii 

 Hist. Compend. Dynast, p. 85.). There is no 

 evidence of its erection by Solomon, as " the 

 house of the forest of Lebanon " (1 Kings, vii. 2.) 

 or Baalhamon (Sol. Song, viii. 11.). "When we 

 consider," says Volney (v. ii. c. 29.), " the extra- 

 ordinary magnificence of the Temple of Balbek, 

 we cannot but be astonished at the silence of the 

 Greek and Roman authors." John of Antioch 

 (Malala) says that " JElius Antoninus Pius built 

 a great temple to Jupiter at Heliopolis, near Li- 

 banus in Phoenicia, which was one of the wonders 

 of the world " {Hist. Chron., lib. xi.). 



* GIkov tvKrqpiov e»c(c\ij(7io? t« iiiyitrrov koX napa. roitrSe 

 KaTo/3aAAd>A€i'0s' <os to ixtj €k tou jtovtos ttov ailavos aitofj yva- 

 <r6ev vvv tovto npiaTov ipyov Tv\elv. 



