286 Miscellaneous, 



poured forth jets of water and a fine dark grey-coloured sand. 

 No sand lias ever been found in tlie deepest excavations, either 

 at that spot or within many miles ; so that it must have been 

 forced up from a great depth. The heaps of sand thrown out 

 varied from the size of a molehill up to twelve feet in diameter, 

 and three feet deep. At the cessation of the shocks the large sand- 

 heap was still wet and the ground showed signs of having been 

 recently flooded. The water rose some inches from the ground, 

 and so far as could be ascertained, it was cold. It appears that 

 there are in the neighbourhood several "burning wells," which are 

 supposed to be connected with volcanic agency, but none of them ex- 

 hibited any change duriag the earthquake. — 2. On March 9th, at 2 

 a.m., an earthquake was felt at Christiania, in many places in Nor- 

 way, along the west coast at Verblungas and Drontheim, and the 

 tower of Frauenkirche rocked so violently that the bells began to 

 ring. — 3. The earthquake felt in Norway on March 9th appears to 

 have extended as far as the Shetland Isles. The keeper of the light- 

 house on the Flugga rock, which is situated about a mile and a half 

 north of Unst, reports that at 1.20 a.m. on the same day, the tower 

 began to shake terribly, and continued doing so for thirty seconds. 

 There was no wind or sea to cause the vibration, and it must, there- 

 fore, be attributed to the shock of an earthquake. If the shocks 

 felt at the Shetlands and Norway are in any way connected, they 

 must have proceeded in a north-easterly direction from the former to 

 the latter place, occupjdng a period of forty minutes — ^the wave 

 having a velocity of about seven or eight miles per minute. — Header. 



Coal in China. — Extensive mines of coal exist in the mountains 

 to the north-west of Pekin. Three varieties of coal are obtained, 

 called dry, smoke, and white coal respectively. The dry coal is a 

 sort of coke, and is admirably adapted for all household purposes. 

 The smoke and white coal are well suited for and employed by 

 steamers. — Journ. Soc. Arts. 



Geological Map of the Coal District of Westphalia and 

 THE Ehine Peovinces. — This Map is about to be published by the 

 Directors of the Westphalian Mine Association. In the prospectus 

 it is stated that the annual yield of the district equals about one- 

 eighth of the total annual product of Great Britain, and that West- 

 phalian Coals are superseding those imported by Germany from 

 England and Scotland. 



Oknithichnites in the Liassic (?) Formation of Kansas. — 

 Mr. B. F. Mudge, late State Geologist, has recently discovered foot- 

 prints of birds in sandstone of Liassic (or later) age, on the banks of 

 the Eepublican Eiver, Kansas. The tracks are referrible to two 

 species of birds, but no names are given to them. No other tracks, 

 no fossils, no imprints of rain-drops, nor any other peculiarities 

 common to the Connecticut deposits were found associated with 

 these tracks. — Amer. Journ. Science, March, 1866. 



