418 Scienttjic Intelligence. — Meteorology. 



cumstance strikes me as one not devoid of interest in the theory 

 of the formation of springs ; and it would be very desirable 

 that some researches upon this subject should be set on foot in 

 high nortliern latitudes. In the narrative of Admiral Wran- 

 geFs Travels, still in MS., there occurs a remarkable instance 

 of very considerable rivers in very cold countries being with- 

 out water in winter, like our ditches and small brooks. He 

 was riding, to the north of Yakutsk, in about Q5° lat. over the 

 ice of a large river, when the ice suddenly gave way, and his 

 horse went under. He was himself saved by being thrown up- 

 on the ice at the moment his horse fell. He was lamenting the 

 loss of his horse to the Yakutskis who accompanied him, as he 

 knew not where to get another, when they laughed, and as- 

 sured him they would soon get his horse back, and with a dry 

 skin too ! They got some poles and broke away the ice, under 

 which the bed of the river was perfectly dry, as well as the 

 horse and his saddle. The Yakutskis were therefore aware that 

 there was no water in the winter-time at the bottom of rivers of 

 this size ; and in this case the water must have disappeared be- 

 fore the ice had gained sufficient thickness to bear a loaded 

 horse. Similar accidents, and similar results must doubtless 

 have frequently occurred, during the many journeys which the 

 English have made in North America ; and the agents of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company must be well acquainted with the real 

 state of the small rivers in winter, in these high latitudes ; i. e, 

 whether all of them are in a fluid state below the ice or not. 

 I am collecting materials to ascertain the southern limit of per- 

 petual ground-ice in the Old World ; those I have are not yet 

 very complete ; but I am already aware that this phenomenon 

 extends much farther in a southerly direction in Siberia than in 

 Europe. The farther we go east, the more southerly we find 

 the limit of perpetual ground-ice. Humboldt found at Bogos- 

 lovsk, in lat. 59° 45' N., at the eastern foot of the Ural Moun- 

 tains, small pieces of ice at the depth of six feet in the summer. 

 No permanent ice has been found in Tobolsk in 58"" N. ; but 

 at Beresow, in 64" N. where Erman found the temperature 

 of the ground above -j-l°R. at the depth of 23 feet, we learn 

 from the observations of M. Belowski, that the lower dis- 

 tricts are never without ice in the ground, so that it is pro- 



