Scientific Intelligence— Geology. 201 



can be made respecting their cause. — Dr Davy on t/ie Ionian Islands and 

 Malta, vol. i. p. 164. 



4. Early Rise of the Nile in 1843. — M. Jomard has communicated to the 

 French Academy of Sciences, the curious fact that, in 1843, the increase 

 of the waters of the Nile at Cairo took place two months sooner than usual. 

 In that latitude the rise occurs generally between the 1st and 10th of 

 July, but in this instance it commenced on the night of the 5tli and 6th 

 of Ma}'. It lasted four days, and attained a height of 0.22 metres. 

 Bruce has instanced examples of second floods of the Nile, but these 

 were late and not early risings ; for example, that of 1737, which took 

 place after the autumnal equinox, while the waters were falling and the 

 country was inundated. He remarks that the same phenomenon oc- 

 curred also in the time of Cleopatra ; but such cases are very different 

 from the present one ; for, during the month of May, southerly winds 

 prevail. In Abyssinia, the Nile begins to rise about the 17th or 18th of 

 June, at the commencement of the north winds, which rarely fail to blow 

 at the solstice (Niebuhr, Forskal). In the narrative of Abdellatif it is 

 mentioned, that, in the year 1200, the rise began about the 25th June, 

 but that it was preceded, two months before, by the appearance of a green 

 colour in the waters of the river. This, however, is a very common oc- 

 currence, and quite distinct from the rise now noticed. 



5. Observations on the dissemination of minute Organic Bodies, still living 

 and active, in Asia, Australia, and Africa ; also on the Prevailing Formation 

 of the Oolitic Limestones of the Jura by minute Polythalamous animals. By 

 M. Ehrenberg. — After a recapitulation of the investigations he has al- 

 ready published respecting the presence of minute living organisms in 

 different quarters of the globe, the author mentions twenty-two new lo- 

 calities in Asia, which have afforded him 461 infusoria, consisting of 260 

 species referable to 80 distinct genera. The genus Biblarium, hitherto 

 met with only in a fossil state, at Cassel, has been discovered alive under 

 the form of B. glans, in Asia Minor, near Angora. The genera Spiro- 

 discus, Tetragramma, Discocephalus, and Disoma, are peculiar to Asia, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, the second, which is likewise observed in Lybia. The other 

 76 genera are common to Asia and Europe, and only the first mentioned 

 of these quarters of the globe possesses species which are peculiar to it. 



In the course of his Memoir, the author points out the advantages 

 which arise from subjecting the faintest traces of animal organic life to 

 a searching examination, by announcing that the oolitic limestone of the 

 Jura formation in Germany as well as in England, wherever it is gra- 

 nular, appears to be composed principally of Melonise. The mountain 

 limestones of the lake Onega, in Russia, are in like manner composed 

 of Meloniae of the same species and size. In many instances, these 

 Meloniae of the oolite limestone are so completely transformed into cal- 

 careous spar, that it is impossible even to discover their heads. In 

 other cases, we can recognise a sparry nucleus in the centre of a great 



