180 Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology and Geology. 



to characterize new species, so much as, by giving minute descrip- 

 tions, to afford some correct ideas of the structure of these animals. 



Greatest diameter, 

 Breadth, 

 Height, 

 Aperture, 



Since the above observations were made, in January and Feb- 

 ruary of the present year, several other vessels have arrived from 

 the same place. They presented nothing new, however ; but on 

 one of them was a great quantity of Lepas Nauta, intermixed with 

 Lepas anatifera. 



I have been favoured by Dr Dickie with the inspection of a large 

 Balanus, from the rocks at Ichaboe, and by Dr Shier, with several 

 species of Patella, found among the guano. These, and other ob- 

 jects, from the same island, may perhaps be considered worthy of 

 being noticed on another occasion. 

 Abebdeen, 10(^ June 1845. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



METEOROLOGY AND GEOLOGY. 



1. Phosphorescent Rain. — It was stated to the French Academy 

 of Sciences, that, on the 1st November 1844, at half-past eight in 

 the evening, during a heavy fall of rain, Dr Morel- Deville remarked, 

 as he was crossing the court of the College Louis-le-Grand, in 

 Paris, that the drops, on coming in contact with the ground, emitted 

 sparks and tufts {aigrettes^ of light, accompanied by a rustling and 

 crackling noise ; a smell of phosphorus having been immediately 

 afterwards perceptible. The phenomenon was seen three times. M. 

 Duplessy saw at the same hour a remarkable brightness in the 

 northern sky. 



2. Fossil Meteoric Stones. — ^The acute Olbers remarks, " It is 

 a fact worthy of attention, and one which has not hitherto attracted 

 notice, that fossil meteoric stones have never been found, like fossil 

 shells, in secondary and tertiary formations. Are we to conclude, 

 that, previously to the last change which the surface of our earth un- 

 derwent, no meteori; stones had fallen upon it, while at the present 

 day, according to Schreibers, it is probable that seven hundred aero- 

 ites fall every year?" (Olbers, in Sch^imacher's J ahrbiich, 1838, 

 . 329.) Problematical masses of native iron, containing nickel, 



"ave been found in Northern Asia (near the gold-washing establish- 

 ment of Petropawlowsk, not quite 100 English miles south-east from 

 Kusnezk) at a depth of 31 feet; and recently in the Western Car- 



