290 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



but he doubted if it made itself the holes which it occupied. — Mr. Bow- 

 erbank could bear testimony to the irritability of Clione, but he did not 

 believe that it bored. He believed it to be a true sponge. It had 

 spicule and tubes like a Halicliondria. With regard to the application 

 of the author's theory to the absorption of the columella of shells, he 

 did not think it was necessary, as the researches of Dr. Carpenler and 

 himself had shown that the shells of the Mollusca were organic and 

 susceptible of absorption. — Dr. Carpenter had seen in the borders of 

 the mantle of Terebralula, siliceous particles in the form of spines. 

 It was not necessary that the granules should be silex,asany hard sub- 

 stance would be sufficient for the purpose. He had seen Pholades in 

 such a position in an excavation, as to render it impossible that they 

 should have turned round for the purpose of boring. — Mr. Jeffreys 

 stated that he had observed that the tongues of many forms of Mol- 

 lusca were constantly renewed in the manner mentioned by the author 

 as occurring with the siliceous granules. — The President drew attention 

 to a fact stated by Mr. Osier in his paper in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions on the boring of mollusks, that in one instance he had observed 

 that the Saxicava rugosa, in boring through a calcareous rock, had 

 been arrested in its course by a layer of argillaceous matter, thus lend- 

 ing great support to the solvent theory. 



9 



IV. Astronomy. 



1. Denial of the Discovery of the tenth asteroid, Diana, — The an- 

 nouncement (in vol. vi, p. 278, Sept., 1848), of the discovery of an- 

 other asteroid, Diana, by Prof. Kaiser of Leyden, proves to have been 

 premature. The statement was derived by us from the Literary 

 World, of July 8, 1848, which was corroborated by a paragraph in the 

 newspapers that the announcement had been made in Schumacher's 

 Journal. As we find no allusion to this alleged discovery in the Eu- 

 ropean Scientific Journals, we cannot doubt that the statement was en- 

 tirely erroneous. 



2. Ecliptic Star Charts. — It is well known that Mr. J. R. Hind, the 

 able Superintendant of Mr. Bishop's Observatory in London, announced 

 a year since or more, a series of star charts comprehending all the stars 

 down to about the tenth magnitude, within the vicinity of the Ecliptic, 

 for the purpose among others, of facilitating the search for new planets. 

 The first sheet, (Hour I.) accompanied with remarks and notes, was 

 advertised for sale in January, 1849, price 25. 6d. 



V. Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



1. Observations on California; by Rev. C. S. Lyman, (from Mr. 

 Lyman's recent correspondence.) — I have been in the country now two 

 months, lacking four or five days — have visited San Francisco and 

 Monterey, and the one hundred and fifty miles of country between. A 

 magnificent plain, one of the finest in California, stretches almost from 

 one place to the other. On the middle portion of it I now am. You 

 may ride hundreds of miles over land covered with stout oats growing 



