Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 157 



reference to the immediate proximity of the volcano which has pro- 

 duced the deposit, it would be easy to refer the whole to an alluvial 

 origin, so characteristic are the undulating lines of deposition, the 

 alternation of coarse and fine materials interstratified, including now 

 large angular masses of rock, and again graduating into the finest 

 silt and mud. In some places the lines of deposition are curved in 

 regular undulations, and in others they meet at a sharp uncon- 

 formable angle. Close observation alone detects that the whole 

 material is volcanic — pumice, scoria, sand and fine dust, including 

 large blocks of inflated lava and tufa. 



It is impossible to see any difference in the general character of 

 these deposits and of those which cover Pompeii, only that the lat- 

 ter being mostly the result of one eruption are less varied than the 

 former, and more regularly stratified. In both, the evidence of 

 aqueous action is very obvious ; and we have historical as well as 

 geological evidence of the eruption of vast volumes of aqueous va- 

 pour with the lapilli, scoria and fine ashes from Vesuvius, which, 

 condensing into rain, produced a deluge of hot mud, filling the most 

 intricate recesses of the Pompeian houses, and producing the ap- 

 pearance of an aqueous deposit in the ash hills of the flanks of Ve- 

 suvius. In Herculaneum we see the same phsenomena in a more 

 remarkable manner. Here, owing to a much larger accumulation 

 of material — to subsequent overflows of lava and the superincumbent 

 weight thus produced, with the aid of water, the ashes were conso- 

 lidated into so compact a mass, that some writers have even doubted 

 whether Herculaneum had not been destroyed by an overflow of lava 

 in the first instance. That such was not the fact is well known, 

 and the condition of the antiquities imbedded there quite forbid the 

 idea were no other evidence attainable. — Silliman's Journal, Sep- 

 tember 1851. 



ON THE SULPHUR DEPOSITS AT SWOSZOWICE AND RADOBOJ. 



Professor L. Zeuschner has given a description of the sulphur 

 stratum of Swoszowice near Cracow. It is situated in the tertiary 

 formation. Sulphur and gypsum lie in parallel beds in a deposit of 

 marl of considerable thickness. The entire deposit is 243 feet thick, 

 and contains five layers of sulphur at almost equal distances of twelve 

 feet. The uppermost layer of sulphur consists of grains of sulphur 

 about the size of hemp-seed, which are disseminated through the 

 marl. Sometimes the grains are attached like bunches of grapes. 

 The second layer of sulphur is separated from the first by a gray 

 marl of from 1 2 to 30 feet in thickness. The layer itself consists of 

 email nodules of compact sulphur, is thicker than the former, being 

 from 2 to 9 feet, and presents parallel layers separated by marl. 

 The sulphur contains scarcely any admixture of foreign substances. 

 In some places groups of sulphur crystals occur mixed with small 

 crystals of calcareous spar. Only these two upper layers are worked, 

 while the three lower ones are only known by boring experiments. 

 The sulphur layer at Hadoboj in Croatia has been described by 



