222 



produced by volcanic explosion there can 

 be little doubt, and that tliey are frequently 

 accompanied l)y jiowerfiil electric action lias 

 long been known : to which of these causes 

 are we to look for the powerful effects 

 here witnessed ? 



Organic liemnins A paper has been 



communicated to the Geological Society by 

 Dr. Buckland stating tliat he has ascer- 

 tained tliat the bony rings of the suckers of 

 cuttle fish arc frequently mixed with the 

 scales of various fisli, and the bones of fish 

 and of small ictliyosauri in the bezoar- 

 shaped fa!ccs. from the lias at Lyme Regis. 

 Tliose rings and scales have passed undi-. 

 gested through the intestines of the icthyo- 

 sami. Dr. Prout has also found that the 

 black varieties of these bezoars owe their colour 

 to matter of the same nature with the fossil 

 ink-bags in the lias ; hence it appears that 

 the icthyosauri fed largely upon the sepire 

 of those ancient seas. He has also ascer- 

 tained, by the assistance of jMr. JliUer and 

 Dr. Prout, that the small black rounded 

 bodies of various shapes, and having a jio- 

 lished surface, which occur, mixed with 

 bones, iji the lowest strata of the lias, on 

 the banks of the Seveni, near Bristol, are 

 also of ficcal origin : they appear to be 

 co-extensive with this bone bed, and occur 

 at many and distant localities. He has 

 also received from Mr. Miller similar small 

 black faecal balls from a calcareous bed 

 nearly at the bottom of the carboniferous 

 limestone at Bristol : this bed abounds 

 with teeth of sharks, and bones, and teeth, 

 and species of other fishes. Until they can be 

 referred to their respective animals, the 

 author proposes the name of Nigrum 

 Grsecum for all those black varieties of 

 fossil faeces. They may have been derived 

 from small reptiles, or from fish, and, in the 

 case of the lias bone bed, from the mollus- 

 cous inhabitants of fossil nautili, and ammo- 

 nites and belemnites. In a collection at 

 livme Regis there is a fossil fish from the 

 lias which has a ball of Nigrum (ira;eum 

 within its body: for this the author proposes 

 the name of Icthyocojiros. He also pro- 

 poses to affix the name of Sauro-copros to the 

 so called bezoar stones of the lias at Lyme 

 Regis, which are derived fi-om the Icthyo- 

 sauri, and the name of Hiainocopros to the 

 Album GrKCum of tlie foLisil hya?na. The 

 form and mechanical structure of the balls 

 of Sauro-copros, disposed in spiral folds 

 round a central axis, are so similar to that 

 of the supposed fir cones oi luli, in the 

 ch.alk and chalk marl, that the author has 

 concluded that these, so long misnamed 

 luli, are also of faecal origin. On exami- 

 nation he finds many of them to contain the 

 scales of fish, and Dr. Front's analysis 

 proves their substance to be digested bone. 

 The spural intestines of the modern shark 

 and ray aftbrd an analogy that may 

 explain the origin of this spiral structure, 

 and the abundance of the teeth of sliarks 

 and palates of rays in chalk, renders it pos- 



Varieties. [Aug. 



sible that the luli may have been derived 

 from these animals. For these the pro- 

 visi<mal name of Copros luloides is pro- 

 posed. The author has also recognised two 

 other varieties of these f<ecal substances in 

 a collection of fossils brought from the fresh 

 water formations near Aix, in Provence. 

 Dr. Buckland concludes that he has esta- 

 bhshed generally the curious fact, that, in 

 formations of all ages, from tlie carbonife- 

 rous limestone to the diluvium, the faices of 

 terrestrial and aquatic carnivorous animals 

 have been preserved, and proposes to include 

 them all under the generic name of 

 Coprolite. 



An English Stew An Engineer, of the 



name of Vazie, has taken out a patent for 

 various processes connected with food. 

 Among them is a dish whicli he denominates 

 an " English Stew." We know not if our 

 readers are at liberty to make it, or can do 

 so without infringing his patent ; but the 

 ))roportions are, one pound of rump steak, 

 and one pound of a leg of mutton cut into 

 slices : put these in tlie stove, (his own 

 peculiar one, but any other would answer) 

 and place thereon two full grown onions 

 shred small, two table spoonfulls of rice, one 

 desert spoonful of salt, and one tea spoonful 

 of pepper, together witli a slice of bread, 

 and as much cold water as will rise to one 

 third the height of the boiler. 



Force of rwining Water. — An inter- 

 esting communication of facts and observa- 

 tions as to the power which running wafer 

 exerts in removing heavy bodies has been 

 communicated to the Geological Society. 

 The heavy rains which fell during three 

 days of Augustj 1827, swelled to an unusual 

 height, the small rivulet called the College, 

 which flows at a moderate declivity ttom tl)e 

 eastern water-shed of the Cheviot hills, and 

 caused that stream not only to transport 

 enormous accumulations of several thousand 

 tons weight of gravel and sand to the plains 

 of the TiU, but also to carry away a bridge 

 then in progress of building, some of the 

 arch stones of which, weighing from half to 

 three quarters of a ton each, were propelled 

 two miles down the rivulet. On the same 

 occasion the current tore away from the 

 abutment of a miU-dam a large block of 

 green stone pori)hyry, weighing nearly two 

 tons, and transported the same to the dis- 

 tance of a quarter of a mile. Instances are 

 related to occur repeatedly in which from 

 one to three thousand tons of gravel are 

 in like manner removed to great distances 

 in one day, and whenever four or five 

 hundred cart-loads of this gravel are taken 

 away for the repair of roads, one mo- 

 derate flood replaces the amount of loss 

 with the same quantity of rounded debris. 

 Parallel cases of the powxr of water are 

 stated to occur in th.e Tweed, near 

 Coldstream. 



Sulistitnte for Oil in Clocks, <^r It is 



well known tliat tlie gradual change of oil, 

 when applied as a lubricating medium to 



