206 Miscellanies. 



You will conclude from these observations, as I have in the accompa- 

 nying volume, that the mean temperature at Jakouzk is perfectly in 

 accordance with the temperature of the upper strata, which I have 

 observed, by taking my thermometer to a depth of 50 feet {English) 

 below the surface. This being the case, it necessarily follows, that 

 in boring deeper, unfrozen strata will not be reached till the increase 

 of heat resulting from the approach to the centre of the globe shall 

 amount to 6° R., equal to 45|^° Fahr. The experiments which have 

 hitherto been made in the pits of Europe, and those which I have 

 rnade in the Oural mines, carry this increase to 1° R. = 2°.25 F. for 

 every 90 or 100 French = 96 or 106 English feet. Hence, I do not 

 expect the unfreezing at Jakouzk at a less depth than 500 or 600 

 French feet = 533 or 639 English feet. The observations which M. 

 Schergin has made since my departure from Jakouzk, and during 

 which they have descended to a depth of 400 English feet, perfectly 

 confirm what I have advanced concerning the mean temperature of 

 the air and soil of this locality ; for they have since found at 



o 



the depth of 77 feet, English, a temperature of + 19.63 Fahr. 

 *' 119 " " +23.00 



" 382 " " +30.88 



They also indicate, for the strata occurring in this country, an in- 

 crease of heat in the ratio of 1^ R. == 2°.25 F. to about 60 feet, En- 

 glish ; that is to say, a much more rapid augmentation than has beea 

 observed elsewhere. The only method, as it occurs to me, in which 

 we can explain this phenomenon, is by attributing to the upper strata 

 over Northern Asia a greater conducting power of heat than the other 

 parts of the globe, which we inhabit ; and this result will be the more 

 striking, as it comes in some degree to support another result of the 

 same kind. In fact, the excessive variations of temperature which 

 have been observed at Jakouzk, and in other parts of Eastern Siberia, 

 during the course of the solar year, lead us to the conclusion, that the 

 earth's surface is there endowed with a radiating and thermal power 

 much superior to that of Europe. — Comptes Rendus, IQth Avril, 

 1838.— lb. 



35. Analogy between the organic structure and red color of the 

 globules in the blood of animals, and of those red vegetable globules 

 named Protococcus kermesinus. — In a memoir read by M. Turpin to 

 the Academy of Sciences, on globules in animal fluids, we find the 

 following observations : — What has just been stated, regarding the 

 presence of smaller red globules in globules of the blood, is perfectly 

 explained by the very analogous structure of those small red vegeta- 



