362 Scientific tntelligence — Geology. 



causes an itching pricking pain, as though needles were continu- 

 ally piercing it. The temporary loss of sight is occasioned by 

 the impossibility of opening the eyelids for a single moment, the 

 smallest ray of light being absolutely insupportable. The only 

 relief is a poultice of snow, but as that melts away, the in- 

 tolerable tortures return. With the exception of twenty men 

 and the guides, who knew how to guard against the calamity, 

 the whole division were struck blind with the norumpi, three 

 leagues distant from the nearest human habitation. The guides 

 galloped on to a village in advance, and brought a hundred In- 

 dians to assist in leading the men. Many of the sufferers, mad- 

 dened by pain, had strayed away from the column, and perished 

 before the return of the guides, who, together with the Indians, 

 took charge of long files of the poor sightless soldiers, clinging 

 to each other with agonized and desperate grasp. During their 

 dreary march, by a rugged mountain path, several fell down 

 precipices, and wei"e never heard of more. Miller himself suf- 

 fered only fifteen hours from the norumpi, but the complaint 

 usually continues two days. Out of 3000 men, Cordova lost 

 above 100. The regiment most affected was the VoUigeros 

 (formerly the Numancia), which had marched from Caraccas, a 

 distance of upwards of 2000 leagues. — Mem. of' General Miller. 



GEOLOGY. 



3. Discovery of Saurian Bones in the Magnesian Conglo- 

 merate near Bristol. — Although some of the earliest noticed 

 Saurian remains were the fossil Monitors of Thuringia, discover- 

 ed in the Continental equivalents of our magnesian limestone, 

 — characterized by the same testacea and fishes which occur in 

 corresponding formations in the North of England, — it does not 

 appear that Saurian remains have been until now detected in this 

 geological site in our own series. Recently, however, a quarry 

 of the magnesian conglomerate, resting on the highly inclined 

 strata of carboniferous limestone, at Durdham Down, near Bris- 

 stol, has afforded sonie Saurian vertebrae, ribs, femora, and pha- 

 langes, together with claws, the latter of considerable proportional 

 size: a coracoid bone has also been found, approaching very 

 nearly to that of the Megalosaurus. The general character of 

 the bones seems intermediate between those of this genus and the 



