the Devonian Rocks of Moravia. 79 



Tauern Alps,* other palaeozoic fossils have been found on 

 the northern side of the crystalline axis of the Eastern Alps, 

 and notably at Dienten, to the south of Salzburg. 



Having inspected some of these fossils from Dienten, kind- 

 ly shewn to us by the Chevalier V. Hauer, which are in ]\Ion- 

 tauishtische Museum of this place, M. De Verneuil and my- 

 self ai'e of opinion, that they belong to the upper Silurian 

 gi'oup ; and my friend further believes, that tliey are of the 

 same age as the Silurian schists of Feugerolles in Normandy. 

 We are now about to proceed into the Austrian Alps, on our 

 way to the meeting of the Italian Naturalists at Venice, and 

 in this journey we hope to gain some additional information 

 on this interesting point ; it being now evident, that the Alps, 

 as a whole, are not composed of rocks of a more recent date, 

 but they exhibit towards their centre, sutficient evidence that 

 numbers of the masses of schist, grauwacke, and limestone, 

 now in a highly metamorphic condition, and which are 

 flanked on both sides by limestones of Liassic and Jm*assic 

 were originally members of a regular palaeozoic series. 



Believe me to be, my dear Professor Leonhard, your faith- 

 ful friend, 



Roderick I. MuRcnisox. 



ViEXNA, Aujuft 5, 1847. 



On the Height of the Aurora Borealis. 

 By G. A. RowELL. 



In a paper I submitted to the British Association at the 

 late meeting, I endeavoured to shew the correctness of the 

 theory which I first submitted to the Ashmolean Society in 

 November 1839, on the cause of the aurora; that is, that 

 electricity rises with the vapour in the tonnd regions, and is 

 carried thence by the superior trade-winds towards the colder 



* See Transactions of the Geological Society of London, vol. iii. p. 307. 



