General Science. 373 



nal anxiety, and turned back in wrath upon her pursuers to search for it. 

 Mr Moodie, who happened to be on foot at the time, was the individual 

 that the animal first caught sight of, and she instantly rushed upon him. 

 To escape from an angry elephant in open ground is often difficult enough 

 for a well-mounted horseman. My friend gave himself up for lost ; nor 

 would the activity of despair have availed him— the animal was close at 

 his heels. But just at the moment when she was about to seize or strike 

 him to the earth with her upraised proboscis, he fortunately stumbled and 

 fell. The elephant, unable at once to arrest her impetuous career, made an 

 attempt to thrust him through with her tusks as he lay on the ground be- 

 fore her, and actually tore up the earth within an inch or two of his body, 

 and slightly bruised him with one of her huge feet as she passed over him. 

 Before, however, she could turn back to destroy him, Mr Moodie contrived 

 to scramble into the wood, and her young one at the same instant raising 

 its cry for her in another direction, the dangerous animal went off without 

 searching farther for him. — Juvenile Keepsake. 



III. GENETIAL SCIENCE. 

 ^J 12. Volcano in Australasia. — The crater of a volcano has been discovered 

 in the vicinity of Segenhoe, and it has been increasing daily. Huge heaps 

 of pitchy and adhesive mould lying around the mouth, crushing and 

 tumbling in incessantly, afterVsraothering the flame for a little, serves to 

 render the combustion more fierce and rapid. Few of the natives will 

 venture to '^ sit down " nearer than within a mile of the volcano. — Aus- 

 tralian, October 30th, 1828. 



13. Account of an Earthquake in New South Wales. — An earthquake has 

 been recently experienced up the country. Several smart shocks were 

 felt amongst some of the mountain ranges distributed over the district of 

 Argyleshire, somewhere about 25 miles from Lake George. The concus- 

 sion is represented to have lasted some minutes. It was preceded by the 

 springing up of a gentle breeze from the S. W. quarter, which swiftly in- 

 creased to the velocity of a hurricane tearing up whole trees by the roots, 

 and scattering their branches through the air like chaff. While the hur- 

 ricane raged with the utmost violence, the earth in various places becarpe 

 convulsed, heaving up into changing billowy ridges, yawning and closing, 

 and splitting here and there into destructive chasms. Some few stock 

 huts were partially demolished, and others shifted from their former foun- 

 dations. One side of a cattle fence was altogether upturned, but, from 

 the isolated nature of the country, ^here being but tew other inhabitants 

 than the solitary grazier, his men, and herds, and still fewer fixed habita- 

 tions, the injury effected to the property was but trifling, and the convul- 

 sion was wholly sparing of life. After the combined elements had raged in 

 this way for some minutes, their roar gradually diminished for about an 

 hour, when it again increased with stunning bursts of thunder, torrents 

 of rain, and blasts of vivid lightning. Men stood aghast, and the cattle 

 ran cowering for shelter to the hills. The storm for the short time it con- 

 tinued, is represented as having been almost unprecedented in violence. — 

 Sydney Gazette. 



