426 Scientific Intelligence — Geology. 



monuments of the globe bear no trace of organized beings, an abyss 

 which gives no record of life, and sets a bound to our zoological in- 

 quiries. But the researches of the geologist do not rest here ; it still 

 remains for him to investigate changes connected with great moving 

 forces, with galvanism, and with polarity, manifested in cleavage, and 

 joints, and all the other problems connected with the primary rocks; 

 and these inquiries, it is believed, would in future form one of the 

 most iinportant parts of geological investigation. — Sedgwick. 



3. Artesian Wells. — Prof. Sedgwick, at the Plymouth meeting of 

 the British Association, after reviewing the general principle of Ar- 

 tesian Wells, described two districts in which these operations were 

 attended with very different results. In the eastern part of Essex 

 the chalk is covered by sandy beds of the plastic clay, and these by 

 several hundred feet of impervious strata of Londori clay, all dipping 

 together towards the east. The arenaceous beds below the London 

 clay rise higher towards the chalk than the clay does, and absorb a 

 considerable part of the water from the high grounds. By boring 

 through the clays to this sand, springs of water immediately rise above 

 the surface, and are carried off by natural channels. By this supply 

 of water the value of the land has been materially increased, since 

 the country, though abounding in peat bogs, and stagnant ponds dur- 

 inor winter, suffers much from the summer drouojht. The other at- 

 tempts to form Artesian wells, referred to by Mr Sedgwick, were 

 made near Lincoln, which, though surrounded by fens, covered with 

 water in the winter, is not sufficiently supplied during the summer. 

 But the clays supporting the fens of the Bedford level are below the 

 chalk, and though there are pervious beds beneath them, which rise 

 to the north-west, yet the clays are of such enormous thickness that 

 they have never been penetrated ; and even were that accomplished, 

 the high land is so distant that intervening fissures, filled up with 

 impervious materials, might intercept the supply. Expensive sink- 

 ings have been made at Lynn, and also at Boston ; and, after boring- 

 through many hundred feet of clay, they have utterly failed ; and in 

 any future operations in this district, the chance of success would bo 

 very remote. 



4. M. dOmalius on the Mineral Beds of Condros M. d'Omalius 



d'Halloy communicated to the Brussels Academy of Sciences a notice 

 concerning the relative bearing and origin of the deposits of the 

 clay, the sand and the jplitanite of Condros, a country situated 

 between the Meuse, Lesse, and Ourte rivers. These deposits may, 

 according to the terms employed in geology, be considered as consist- 

 ing of beds, masses, and veins. M. d'Omalius, however, considers 

 that tliey have all the same origin. The raineralogical resemblance 



