Hazel Nuts found iti a singular State at a great Depth. 225 



blance to feldspar, from which it nevertheless differs, in con- 

 sequence of its great fusibility, and by the property which it 

 possesses of being very much augmented in volume by the 

 action of the blowpipe when it is heated to redness. There 

 are two varieties, one of which is white, and the other greenish. 

 The result of a hasty analysis of it, which I have performed, 

 gives the same composition as triphane and spodumene, — with 

 this difference, that it contains sodium instead of lithium. The 

 greenish variety contains also lime and a little magnesia. I 

 presume that this may be the same mineral as the killinite, 

 Cleaveland, vol. i, p. 309. 



Mr. Walmstedt, professor of chemistry at Upsal, has per- 

 formed a series of researches upon prehnite, of which, as it is 

 in Latin, I take the liberty to send you a copy. — Amer. Journ. 

 of Science. 



HAZEL NUTS FOUND IN A SINGULAR STATE AT A GREAT 

 DEPTH. 



We have been kindly presented, by Sir John Hay, Bart., 

 of Smithsfield and Hayston, with a packet of hazel nuts, found 

 upon one of his farms at Bonnington, about one mile south 

 from Peebles. The nuts were found in a bog, about eight 

 feet below the surface. The top soil was three feet of meadow 

 clay, beneath which was a layer of grayish-coloured gravel 

 about four feet and a half thick. The bottom of the bog con- 

 sisted of a mixture of gray sand and brown moss, with some 

 branches of stumps of trees, quite rotten. The nuts were 

 found nearest the bottom of this substance. The bog is part 

 of a meadow about 1 500 yards long, by about from 300 to 600 

 feet broad, having a declivity of about 1 foot in 400. 



Upon opening these nuts, we were surprised to find that 

 the kernel i?i all of them had entirely disappeared, though the 

 membrane "which inclosed it, and the nut itself, were as entire as 

 if the nut had been fresh and ripe. By opening the nut care- 

 fully, the membrane could be taken out in the form of a perfect 

 bag, without the least opening. The substance of the kernel 

 must therefore have escaped through the membrane and the 

 shell in a gaseous form, or must have passed through them 

 when decomposed or dissolved by water. In some of the 

 nuts that had not arrived at maturity the bag was very small, 

 and was surrounded, as in the fresh nut, with the soft fungous 

 substance, which had resisted decay. 



Vol. 60. No. 329. Sept. 1825. F f SOME 



