160 Scientific Intelligence, [Feb. 



On the left bank of the Brahmoputra and the Caribari hills, 

 or cliffs, which, for a considerable extent, consist generally of slate- 

 clay, horizontally disposed, with a stratum of yellow (or more 

 properly green) sand lying above it, indurated at the bottom in 

 some places, and accompanied with ferruginous concretions. 

 In many places, a stratum of clay i^ found resting on the green 

 sand ; and over it, the bank is composed of white or red sand 

 mixed with gravel. 



In different parts of the cliff, coarse-grained sandstone, clay 

 ironstone concretions, nodules of slate clay and fossil wood have 

 been found. In a bed of organic remains, situated under a small 

 hill on the cliff, about seven feet below the level of the highest 

 flood of the river, and 150 feet above the level of the sea, with 

 layers of clay above and beneath, and resting upon alternate 

 strata of sand and clay, a variety of fossils have been found, 

 resembling in characters those which have been discovered in 

 similar strata in the London and Paris basins. 



On the banks of the Festa where it issues from the Rhotan 

 mountains to descend into North Bengal, the rocks are found to 

 consist principally of sandstone, containing much mica. Ferru- 

 ginous sandstone was found in one place, and wood coal in 

 another, where the sandstone comprises large pebbles. The 

 banks of the Subeck, another river which descends from the 

 Rhotan mountains, present similar strata. 



Article XVI. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, AND NOTICES OF SUBJECTS 

 CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 



I. Crystallizniion of Red Oxide of Copper by Heat. 



Mr. Chenevix, in his analysis of the arseniate of copper and of iron 

 (Phil. Trans. 1801), has remarked, that by exposing oxide, hydrate, or 

 carbonate of copper, without addition, to a violent heat, in an open 

 crucible, he frequently obtained the red oxide of copper, presenting 

 all the properties of this species of ore. On one occasion, he sa3'S, 

 that the well-experienced eye of the Count de Bournon recognized a 

 lump of it to be a mass of semi-fused artificial red copper ore. 



Some time since I exposed a quantity of protoxide of copper to 

 heat and air in an iron vessel with the intention of converting it into 

 peroxide ; I accidentally observed that the characters of the red oxide 

 of copper were even more distinctly marked than they appear to have 

 been in the mass obtained by Mr. Chenevix. 



The bottom of the mass is in the form of that of the vessel in which 

 the copper was burned — a portion of a sphere. 



The mass consists of layers of pure copper, and of the red oxide> 



