“s - | Miscllanies , 407 
ie a ent =< hic N.P.D. n° 43’, heaissocetnaittl by the © 
% pn was observed by Mayer, 1756, September 15. (See Mr. ‘Baily’s 
can 
; 
ij 
i 
} 
cal 
7 edition of x Oushgne, Mem. Astron. Soc. Vol. iv.) 
9. Tee forme at the bot bot n of a river.—In the Journal for April, 1839, 
“pane 186, is a letter from r. Sheffey on the subject of ice found at the 
* bottom of thoes and seas. The explanation of this perhaps, is, that the ra- 
pidity of rrent prevents ice forming on the surface; but at the bot- 
» tom where tion makes the current much less rapid, it becomes possible 
for the eer to turn into ice. _If I remember rightly, this is an explana- 
tion I heard in Prof. Jameson’s s Nat. Hist. class, Univ. Edinb. The same 
Plon will apply to seas, where the agitation on the surface prevents 
freezing; but at the bottom where the water is still, ice is found. oo 
Kingston, U.C., Nov. 5, 184). ; so Srastiom: 
10. Depth of the Ocedn’=-The sea was recently sounded by lead and 
line, in lat. 57° south, and long. 85° 7' west from Paris, by the officers of 
the French ship Venus, during her voyage of discovery; at a depth of 
3470 yards, or 25 miles, nu bottom was found. The weather was very 
serene, and it is said that the hauling in of-the lead occupied sixty sailors 
more than two hours. In another place in the Pacific Ocean, no bottom 
was found at the depth of 4140 yards—W. Y. Jour. of Com. Nov. 17, 
1840. ‘ 
Wl. Obituary of Ebenezer P. Mason.—Died at Richmond, Va., on the 
26th of December, 1849, Mr. Ebenezer P. Mason, in the 22d year of his 
age. His last work, the conclusion of an Introduction to Practical As- 
tronomy, (Svo. pp. 141 ,) was finished only three weeks before his mga 
From the biographical sketch prefixed to this work by Prof. Olmsted, 
make the following extracts, in the expectation that an eerie’ 5 -satgs 
will appear in some future humber. 
“Immediately after completing this ireatise, (which he held: not be 
persuaded to leave unfinished,) Mr. Mason yielded to the solicitations of 
his relatives at Richmond, Va., who had for some time been urging him 
to hasten to that milder climate, with the hope of preserving, or at least of 
prolonging, his valuable life. In Jess than two weeks after he reached 
his friends, he experienced a sudden prostration, and quietly sunk into the 
arms of death. 
“The present treatise on Practical Astronomy was chiefly written in 
the spring of 1840, before his health failed. Early the ensuing summer 
symptoms of consumption began to develop themselves; and hoping to 
receive benefit from the invigorating climate of Maine, and eager to em- 
brace every opportunity for making astronomical observations, he obtained 
the post of assistant in the Commission under Prof. Renwick, which ex- 
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