Scientific Intelligence — Miscellaneous. 197 



luvial deposits brought down by streams and rivulets in volcanic 

 countries, as in Auvergne and the Phlegrsean fields. There are but 

 a few bones of the most gigantic species ; the collection fortunately 

 is the richest in those bones that were most i-are in the British and 

 Hunterian Museum. 



Dr Mantell adds, " I have had Mr Dinkel* to make a restored 

 outline of the Dinornis, or rather of its skeleton, which I have been 

 able to make complete from the collection of my son.f The originals 

 of the colossal species must have been glorious bipeds, some ten or 

 twelve feet high, with a beak, as already remarked, like a cooper" s 

 adze. The birds were of all dimensions, fi'om those of a water-hen 

 to the colossal moa." 



" The collection is offered for sale to the British Museum. To 

 form it must have been a work of great labour, exposure, and even 

 danger ; the bones were found in places distant from any English 

 settlement, and they had to be brought on men's shoulders, through 

 untracked forests, lakes, moors,''' &c. {^American Journal of Science 

 and Arts, Second Series, vol. v., No. 16, May 1818, p. 431.) 



24. On the Geographical Distribution of Animal Species. By 

 Professor C. B. Adams. — In illustration of the principles of distri- 

 bution of species, as connected with climate, so ably enforced by Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz, it was stated, that four hundred species of mollusca 

 were found in a small part of the island of Jamaica in a few weeks ; 

 that one-fourth of these were land- shells, of which new species were 

 found by the collector with every ten miles travel. As a remarkable 

 example of the difference of station of different species, a small salt 

 pond on the peninsula of Port-Royal was described, in which Cerithium 

 atratum occurred very abundantly from the mai-gin to eighteen inches 

 depth, where C. literatiim coumiences, and extends to three feet in 

 depth. Although the two species approximate to contact at the zone 

 of eighteen inches in depth, they do not intermingle. — (^American 

 Journal of Science and Arts, Second Series, No. 13, vol. v., p. 168.) 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



25. Projected Physico-Geographical Survey of Kumaon and 

 Gurhwal. — It will be seen in the orders, published this day, that 

 Lieutenant Strachey, of the engineers, brother we believe of the dis- 

 tinguished officer attached to the Thibet mission, has been placed at 

 tlie disposal of the Lieut.-Governor, for special duty at Kumaon. 

 Lieut. Strachey is to make a physico-geographical survey of that pro- 

 vince, and will be assisted in this important work by a number of na- 

 turalists, particularly those who have studied the productions of the 

 now world ; among them, we believe are Majors Cautley and Madden, 



* The celebrated artist, formerly employed by I'rofessor Agassiz. 

 t Mr Walter Mantell, from whom the collcctiou wab obtaiucd. 



