EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 163 



party as of great interest in questions recently brought under discussion as 

 to the forces originally concerned in consolidating and subsequently in uplift- 

 ing the strata. He proceeded to notice numerous spar veins ; and he ob- 

 served, " From the information of the very intelligent managers of the 

 underground works, the effects of dislocations or disruptions ot the rocks 

 were ascertained to follow a certain geometrical law, which has been often 

 insisted upon by myself, and admitted by Mr. Hopkins in his excellent pa- 

 per on Physical Geology in the Cambridge Transactions. The Wren's Nest 

 hill is one of several hills, all composed of Limestone and Shale, subjacent to 

 the Coal formation, and directed from north to south. It appears probable, 

 from the appearances at the south end of the Wren's Nest, that the elevation 

 of this interesting ridge was accomplished before the rocks were consolidated, 

 since the strata are found to bend round in a manner difficult to understand, 

 unless the rocks were soft at the time of the movement. The Coal forma- 

 tion is generally conformed to the Silurian Limestones and Shales." The Coal 

 is charred near the Rowley Basalt ; and i t was suggested by the Professor 

 that these and other interesting phenomena might deserve the special in- 

 vestigation of the Philosophical Institution, and ample illustration by a col- 

 lection of characteristic specimens. 



EXTRACTS FR0:M FOREIGN JOURNALS. 



METEOROLOGY. 



On the Tempests of Western India. By Mr. W. Bedfield, of 



New York The object of this paper is, to prove that the violent storms 



which so often visit the islands of the Atlantic do not present an erratic and 

 indeterminate character, but, on the contrary, that they are remarkably re- 

 gular. After researches founded on facts, the author announces that these 

 blasts of wind generally follow the same direction, namely, to the north-west 

 between the tropics, and at a latitude of 30" north. Near this pa- 

 rallel the tempest turns to the north, and subsequently its direction 

 is north-east, in a region occupying the elevated latitudes of the At- 

 lantic. The course thus pursued by the hurricane is wholly independent of 

 the direction of the wind which it may present in the different points it 

 traverses. In fact, observation points out that, in similar cases, the wind al- 

 ways moves like a vortex round a common centre, during the entire progress 

 of the hurricane, in a circuit limited by the lateral extent of the tempest, 

 and in a fixed direction, from left to right, that is, from west to south. Thus 

 the general course of the hurricanes of the Atlantic seems to be that of the 

 great marine current called " gulf-stream."— BiftfloAAe^we UnUerselle de Gc 

 neve. 



