1818.] Scientific Intelligence. 229 



calcination, yield 11*3 parts of oxygen, and leaves the red oxide 

 as a residuum ; he has not been able to produce this oxide bfr 

 means of oxymuriatic gas. If the red oxide of manganese should 

 prove to be a specific degree of oxidation, there will be four 

 oxides of manganese, in which 100 parts of the metal will be 

 united with the following quantities of oxygen, respectively : 

 28-105, 37-47, 42-16, and 56-21 : the second of these cannot, 

 however, be reconciled with the doctrine of chemical propor- 

 tions, unless we consider it as a combination of the first two. 



M. Arvidson has analyzed an oxide of manganese, composed 

 of very large and beautiful crystallized needles, that was found 

 at Undenas, in Westrogothia, and has found it to be the hydrate 

 of the deutoxide. Exposed to the action of fire, it yields 10 

 per cent, of pure water, and 3-07 of hydrogen, and is then 

 reduced to the red oxide. Hence it follows that its composition 

 is such, that the oxygen of the water is -^ that of the deutoxide. 

 The hydrate crystallizes differently from the peroxide ; the crys- 

 tals are generally larger ; it does not soil the fingers like the 

 peroxide, and it gives a reddish brown powder. The manganese 

 of Ilefeld has been analyzed by Klaproth, but he does not seem 

 to have been aware of the difference between this and the per- 

 oxide. (Ann. de Chim. et Phys. Oct. 1817.) 



V. State of the Weather in Ice/and during the Spring of 1817.* 



Reikevig, Aug. 17, 1817. 



Last winter was one of the severest we have had for a long 

 while, in particular from the beginning of Feb. to the end of 

 March, with changeable winds and heavy snow, by which even 

 several persons lost their lives. From the beginning of the 

 month of April until the 1st of May, we had often fine and mild 

 weather with thaw, so that we began to flatter ourselves with 

 the hope of a good spring. But on May 2, we had a storm from 

 the north, with much snow; and from that day until St. John's 

 Day (July 7), we had nothing but northerly winds with frost and 

 cold weather ; which was the reason that a considerable quantity 

 of sheep, in particular in the district of Skaptefield, as well as a 

 number of lambs, died. 



The growth of the grass began very late ; so that even about 

 St. John's Day it became necessary in many places to give hay 

 to the cows, which is very uncommon in this country. 



The Greenland drifting ice, which had left the northern lands 

 in the beginning of April, returned again in the first days of May, 

 and surrounded the whole of the western, northern, and eastern 

 lands; from the Birdmontain (Labrabiarg), wes't of Breidefiord 

 to Easterhorn ; from the eastern laud it drifted along the coasts 

 of Skaptefield, Rangervalle, and Arnaes districts, even to Rey- 



• Translated from the Danish Official Gazette, published at Copenhagen, Oct. 



Uj loll. 



