200 Scientific Intelligence. — Geology. 



the purpose of forming a new mole on tlie site of the ancient mole. The 

 weather at the time was fine and serene, indeed so calm, that the people 

 of the place, alarmed by the rising of the water, came into the open air 

 with lamps in their hands ; it was at night. The phenomenon was with- 

 out apparent cause ; nothing unusual preceded or followed, — no motion 

 of the earth, — not the slightest shock of an earthquake was perceived. 

 It might have been occasioned by a largo quantity of subterraneous 

 water suddenly rising in the sea. As the adjoining hills abound in 

 caverns, and the natural drainage of the hills takes place chiefly under 

 ground, this explanation is not improbable, especially considering that 

 the phenomenon was entirely local, and confined to the shore of Samos. 

 However it may be accounted for, I have thought the fact deserving of 

 notice, and worthy of being recorded. There is much that is mysterious 

 in the physical history of these islands, especially in connection with the 

 distribution of water, and too many facts on the subject cannot be col- 

 lected ; one may help to illustrate another, and ultimately some satis- 

 factory explanation may be afforded. 



The next phenomenon I have to mention is very extraordinary, and 

 apparently contrary to the order of nature ; it is the flowing by the 

 water of the sea into the land, in currents or rivulets which descend and 

 are lost in the bowels of the earth. This phenomenon occurs in Cepha- 

 lonia, about a mile and a half from the town of Argostoli, near the en- 

 trance of the harbour, where the shore is composed of freestone, and is 

 low and cavernous from the action of the waves. 



The descending streams of salt water are four in number ; they flow 

 with such rapidity, that an enterprising gentleman, an Englishman, has 

 erected a grist-mill on one of them, with great success. I have been in- 

 formed that it produces him L.300 a-year. The flow is constant, unless 

 the mouths, through which the water enters, are obstructed by sea- weed. 

 No noise is produced by the descent of the sea-water, and rarely is any 

 air disengaged ; the streams have been watched during earthquakes, 

 and have not been found affected by them. It is stated that fresh water 

 is perpetually flowing through fissures in the rock from the land into the 

 trench which has been dug for the reception of the mill-wheel, and that 

 when the sea-water is prevented rushing in, then the water in the trench 

 rises higher by several inches than usual, and is brackish to the taste. 

 The phenomenon has been long known to the natives ; familiar with it, 

 it has excited no interest ; they appear hardly to give it a thought. It 

 is only recently that it has been brought to the knowledge of the Eng- 

 lish, within the last five or six years, and it is now become a subject of 

 anxious inquiry and speculation. The little information I have obtained 

 respecting these extraordinary currents, I owe to my friend Dr White, 

 surgeon of the second battalion of the Rifle Brigade ; it was collected 

 by him when stationed in the Ionian Islands, several years after my de- 

 parture from them. Probably they will soon be fully described ; till 

 then, and till they have been minutely investigated, conjectures only 



