282 Scientific Intelligence. 
than ours, yet that this casita meron generally, contains a flora 
distinct from that of the actual flora of the districts mentioned, and 
analogous rather to that of vodeniis ticknaed several degrees more to the 
south, the flora of the deposit at Schossnitz answering, it will be seen, 
to that of the vegetation in the southern portion of the United States, or 
to that of the north of Mexico. Professor Goppert purposes to lay the 
results of the en of the Schossnitz deposit before the scientific 
Superficial Temperature ; by W. Horxtns, Esq., (Quart. Jour. Geol. 
Soc., viii, 56.)—The following are some of the important deductions 
brought out in this extended paper, the whole of which is worthy of at- 
tentive perusal and study. 
The present effect of the internal heat of the globe on the mean tem- 
ced b 
perature of the surface, as dedu y Poisson, is about sth of a de- 
gree: and the rate of increase of temperature on descending below the 
surface is 1° F. for every 60 feet. the effect of the internal heat 
increase would be twenty times as great as now, or about 20° F. for 
every 60 feet; if 10°, the temperature at 60 feet would exceed : 
F., a physical condition inconsistent with the existence of animal life on 
the surface. Prof. Hopkins hence concludes that internal heat cannot 
have modified the external temperature within the more recent geolo- 
gical epochs. 
The sun (and therefore our syutesy) eH according to O. Struve, 
at such a rate as to describe anare of 1d of a second in a year to an eye 
situated at the mean distance of the stars of ihe first magnitude ; which 
motion would require a period of nearly 700,000 years to pass over @ 
space equal to that of the mean distance of the stars referred to from the 
earth. 
which the earth is. But the influence on space pe stars eoaliat must 
a exceedingly small and wholly inappreciable. There is no source of 
old among them, and the remoter distance from the stars that migh 
acqubied would fail to modify at all the effects of our sun, and can ac 
count for none of the cold of the so-calied glacial period. 
hanges in the arrangement of the land and in ote direction of the 
oceanic currents, are now generally admitted, since the able discussion 
of the subject by Sir Charles Lyell, to be efficient causes of ria 
the earth’s temperature. Prof. Hopkins discusses the effects p thei 
thermal lines, and on the production of glaciers, under aidferest eben 
of this kind. -He shows that to produce glaciers in England by 29 x 
vation of the northern part of Europe, or by an elevation of the bed 
au Atlantic so as to unite the two continents, an reer of ther 
li n the ny = the ais the temperatu 
3 at the year, and so the limit of the snow. 1 
s limit is the limit in summer, which is much above t 
n for 32°. The descent of glaciers is fi from. 1,500" 
y the snow =— Tt heme Sots that | to produce 
