206 Scientific Intelligence — Geology. 



semble the siliceous tufa deposited by the hot springs of Iceland. 

 Captain Newbold states, that the siliceous deposits are apparently 

 of older date than the calcareous, and were probably formed when 

 the waters of the supposed springs had a somewhat more eleva- 

 ted temperature. 



4. Lithographic Stones. — A new locality, affording a superior qua- 

 lity of lithographic stone, has been opened at Belb^ze, Haute 

 Garonne, in the French Pyrenees. According to M. Leymerie, 

 they are inferior to none before known, being even superior in 

 hardness to the stone from Munich. This locality belongs to the 

 cretaceous formation, while all previously discovered have been 

 found in the Jurassic system of rocks. — Ulnstitut, 9th July 1845, 

 p. 245. 



5. Gradual rise of Newfoundland above the sea. — It is a fact 

 worthy of notice, that the whole of the land in and about the neigh- 

 bourhood of Conception Bay, very probably the whole island, is rising 

 out of the ocean at a rate which promises, at no very distant day, 

 materially to affect, if not to render useless, many of the best har- 

 bours we have now on the coast. At Port-de-Grave a series of ob- 

 servations have been made, which undeniably prove the rapid dis- 

 placement of the sea-level in the vicinity. Several large flat rocks, 

 over which schooners might pass some thirty or forty years ago with 

 the greatest facility, are now approaching the surface, the water being 

 scarcely navigable for a skiff. At a place called the Cosh, at the head 

 of Bay Roberts, upwards of a mile from the sea-shore, and at several 

 feet above its level, covered with five or six feet of vegetable mould, 

 there is a perfect beach, the stone being rounded, of a moderate size, 

 and in all respects similar to those now found in the adjacent land- 

 washes. — Newfoundland, Times. 



6. Burning Well. Communicated in a Letter from F. B. Hough^ 

 dated Giistavus, Ohio, Aug. 21. 1845. — The land near the centre 

 of the township of Southington, Trumbull County, Ohio, is low and 

 boggy, although water is not easily found by digging. The soil at 

 the surface is clay, with some sand, and the rock below in this dis- 

 trict is light-coloured sandstone, which underlies the coal strata of 

 Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. No coal has ever been found 

 here below this rock, or north or west of this locality. The nearest 

 beds of workable coal are twenty miles distant. A pit was sunk for 

 water in this region in June last, by Mr Wannemaker, to a depth of 

 twenty-four feet, and was continued sixty-seven feet seven inches 

 beyond this by boring. It passed through clay, in some parts con- 

 taining selenite, and at bottom reached a coarse sand from which 

 the gas was derived, resting upon a rock, probably sandstone. Upon 

 striking into the sand, the carburetted hydrogen gas rushed up by 

 the sides of the augur rod, with a shrill whistling noise, upon which 

 the workmen left the well, and withdrew the drill. They experienced 

 no difficulty in breathing, and can now descend into the pit without 



