170 Miscellanies. 
volcano, also to the streams of lava that find their exit through these 
fissures ; to. the unequal elevation of their sides by the expanding 
force below, he draws the conclusion that the foundations of Etna 
are not immovably fixed, but are undergoing frequent changes. 
Guided by these considerations, and in addition, observing the ex- 
treme slowness with which ejected matter is capable of elevating 
the central peak, and the improbability, from their structure and sit- 
uation, that the layers composing the mountain are in the position 
they were originally accumulated, the author arrives at the follow- 
ing deductions. 
The surface formerly nearly flat, has been first repeatedly frac- 
tured in various lines having a nearly constant direction. The melt- 
ed matters have been poured out through the fissures thus produced, 
and their fluidity must have been nearly perfect, for they have flowed 
through rents of very inconsiderable breadth. These products.were 
then spread on both sides of the fissures, in thin and uniform masses, 
similar to those composed of basalt, which in so many different coun- 
tries, and especially in Iceland, are superimposed above one another, 
forming vast plateaus whose surface remained always nearly hori- 
zontal, in. consequence of the subdivision of successive lines of 
eruption.on an extensive space. ‘The eruptions were, like those of 
the present day, accompanied by disengagements of elastic fluids,, 
which, issuing like the lava itself from the whole extent of the fis- 
sures, carried along with them scorie and cinders. These scorie 
and cinders falling back like rain, both on the lava and on the neigh- 
boring spots, produced those uniform layers of fragmentary substan- 
ces, which alternate with the layers of melted matters. But at one) 
period, it would appear that the internal agent which had already: 
fractured so frequently the solid surface, having doubtless exerted 
an extraordinary pores! pene up that surface, upraised it, and since 
that time Etna has exist 
6. Extract from ¢ a letter from Mr. James Prinsep, dated’ Cal- 
cutta, Oct. 25, 1835.—* I am now engaged in making engravings 
of an antediluvian animal, heretofore. unknown, which ranks between 
the pachydermata and ruminantia, and is provided with four horns. 
We have christened it Stvatherium, in honor. of our Indian god 
Siva.” 
The fossil skeletons of the above animals were found in the val- 
ley of Nerbudda in English India, and form a highly interesting ad-: 
dition to the list of fossil animals.—L Institut, No. 153. 
Dele 
