8d4 Scientific Notices — Miscellaneoun* [Nov. 



merce : and we duly appreciate the laudable and fostering care 

 which our statesmen have evinced to facilitate its extension 

 and stability. ^ ' • ; 



The Zetland Islands have too long been the bugbear, the 

 -Scylla and Charybdis of northern mariners ; hence commerce 

 has been repelled from them ; and one grand source of their 

 improvement and prosperity injudiciously obstructed. Besides, 

 they might afford a secure refuge and resting-place, not only to 

 vessels trading in the North Sea, but also to others forced by 

 boisterous weather, and unavoidable accidents, into their lati- 

 tude. And when, superadded to these circumstances, are con- 

 sidered the barbarous and iron-bound nature of the coast, and 

 the dangerous rapidity and variety of the currents, it cannot 

 but be highly gratifying to learn that this important chasm in 

 our maritime knowledge is in progress of being filled up. 



For this purpose the Admiralty, in the month of May, this 

 year, sent to Zetland their surveyor, Mr. Thomas, an officer 

 whose ability, experience, and indefatigable zeal are so con- 

 spicuous ; and who has more particularly displayed his 

 dexterity and talent in his surveys of the two metropolitan 

 rivers of England and Scotland, and their adjacent coasts ; 

 and we trust that no delay or impediment will now occur to a 

 work so very desirable, and which will reflect so much honour 

 on the enlightened liberality and humanity of our Admiralty, 

 and on the skill and activity of its surveyor. 



The coast of Zetland is everywhere bold, and prominent, and 

 intersected with numerous and excellent harbours, of which 

 the headlands are the sublime and natural beacons ; and there 

 are few situations in which the seaman can be placed where the 

 confident guidance of an accurate chart might be of such para- 

 mount utility, and few where the want of it might be so perilous 

 and fatal. Such a chart of Zetland would be a permanent one ; 

 unlike in this respect to many, regarding other parts of Great 

 Britain, which require to be frequently modified to suit the 

 changes produced by the action of the waves in the formation 

 and dissolution of sand-banks. And where, even the best 

 charts can be too often of little other use, from the scarcity of 

 harbours, than to present more distinctly to the unfortunate 

 mariner the locality of his inevitable and impending ship- 

 wreck. Y. 



15. On the Thermometrical State of the Terrestrial Globe, 



M. Arrago, in an article in the " Annales de Physique," 



'discusses tlie question of the temperature of the globe at its 



'J=«urfac?e,"and arrives at this conclusion, that in Europe in general, 



a'iid in particular in France, the winters, some centuries back, 



have beeh as cold as at present. He grounds his opinion upon 



the fact of the freezing of the rivers and seas at a great number 



