186 _. Drought in Sicily &e, 
3. Drought in Sicily. 
Extract of a letter from Abbe F. Ferrara, Palermo, Oct. 
10, 1 } 
“ There has been an extraordinary heat, and dryness, 
throughout the whole island, during the present year.(1822.) 
The harvest has beenalmost nothing in Ba-te rn,Sicily, where 
there has been no rain from Dec. 1821 to Oct. 1822. They 
have lost a great many trees, and the water has failed in a 
great many fountains. ‘The thermometer has stood at Pa- 
lermo, in the months of June, July, Aug. Sept. and Oct. at 
‘80°—100°, Fah.” 
4, Secondary Granite—M. Marzari bas observed in the 
vicinity of Recaro, in ltaly, the following arrangement, pro- 
ceeding from below upwards: 1. Mica Slate; 2. Dolerite ; 
3. Red sand-stone, with coal and bituminous marls; 4. 
Alpine or magnesian limestone ; 5. Porphyritic syenite. In 
the valley of Lavis (Aviso) he observed the following suc- 
cession of rocks from below, upwards: 1. Grey-wacke ; 2. 
Porphyry; 3. Red Sandstone; 4. Alpine Limestone ; 5. 
Jura ye tee 6. Granite and augitic masses, without 
olivine. And Brieslac, in a memoir lately published, says, 
that the secondary granite, placed upon alpine limestone, is 
the same as the beautiful granite of Egypt, and contains 
great masses of quartz, with imbedded tourmaline. 
Edin. Philos. Jour. 
detailed account of a new fluid, of a very singular nature, 
which he has recently discovered to exist in the cavities of 
minerals. It expands about thirty times more than water; 
and by the heat of the hand, or between 75° and 83°, it al- 
Ways expands so as to fill the cavity containing it. The va- 
cuity thus filled up, is of course a perfect vacuum; and at@ 
temperature below that now mentioned, the new fluid con- 
tracts, and the vacuity reappears, frequently with a rapid ef- 
fervescence. ese phenomenz take place instantaneously 
m several hundred cavities, seen at the same time. 
