43^ ' Scientific InteUigencc: 



pare fine splinters of these minerals and compare them with 

 similar splinters of the mineral whose fusibility is to be ascer- 

 tained. These lue expressed by the six numbers, with the 

 addition of a decimal numl)er, which expresses nearly how 

 much more difBcultly fusible the mineral appeal's to be, than 

 the corresponding number of the scale. 



14. Becent Deposits of Salt. — M. Engelhard informs us that 

 mining implements have been discovered in the salt-mines 

 of Hallein, and in such a position, in regard to the beds of rock- 

 salt at present worked, as to lead to the conclusion, that de- 

 posits of salt have taken place since the commencement of the 

 working of these mines, deposits formed by the action of water 

 on the previously existing beds of rock-salt. This fact is in- 

 teresting in many respects, and affords a warning to geologists 

 to be careful to distinguish between original and ancient de- 

 posits, and those of a very recent date formed by the action of 

 water' and air on ancient formations. 



15. Height of the Coast-line of Fuel. — In the account of the 

 results of the French Northern Scientific Expedition, it is 

 stated, that the determination of the mean level of the sea has 

 permitted the measurement, at a great many points, of the line 

 of marine algae (Fucus vesiculosus) ; a line which is horizontal 

 and well defined, forming for the observer a very good mark 

 along the whole coast of Finmark. At the same time a veri- 

 fication has been obtained of the continuity of the lines and 

 terraces which indicate what was the ancient level of the sea 

 at remote periods. It appears that there is a want of hori- 

 zontality in these lines. Thus the superior line of the Alton 

 Fiord, where it attains a height of 67 yards, gradually be- 

 comes lower towards the open sea, and has only a height of 

 28 yards in the neighbourhood of Hammerfest. These re- 

 sults are of a nature to interest geologists (L'Institut). 



16. Oxides of Tin and Copper in Spring JFater. — Berzelius, 

 in an analysis of spring water from Saidschiitz, in Bohemia, 

 discovered traces of oxide of tin and of oxide of copper, which 

 he thinks may be traced to the olivine of the plutonic rocks 

 from which it flows ; the olivine, he adds, affording traces of 

 these two oxides. 



17. Analysis of Fossil Bones. — Von Bibra has published 



