170 Miscellanies. 



volcano, also to the streams of lava that find their exit through these 

 fissures ; to the unequal elevation of their sides by the expanding 

 force below, he draws the conclusion that the foundations of Etna 

 are not immovably fixed, but are undergoing frequent changes. 

 Guided by these considerations, and in addition, observing the ex- 

 treme slowness with which ejected matter is capable of elevating 

 the central peak, and the improbability, from their structure and sit- 

 uation, that the layers composing the mountain are in the position 

 they were originally accumulated, the author arrives at the follow- 

 ing deductions. 



The surface formerly nearly flat, has been first repeatedly frac- 

 tured in various lines having a nearly constant direction. The melt- 

 ed matters have been poured out through the fissures thus produced, 

 and their fluidity must have been nearly perfect, for they have flowed 

 through rents of very inconsiderable breadth. These products were 

 then spread on both sides of the fissures, in thin and uniform masses, 

 similar to those composed of basalt, which in so many different coun- 

 tries, and especially in Iceland, are superimposed above one another, 

 forming vast plateaus whose surface remained always nearly hori- 

 zontal, in consequence of the subdivision of successive lines of 

 eruption on an extensive space. The eruptions were, like those of 

 the present day, accompanied by disengagements of elastic fluids, 

 which, issuing like the lava itself from the whole extent of the fis- 

 sures, carried along with them scoriee and cinders. These scoriae 

 and cinders falling back like rain, both on the lava and on the neigh- 

 boring spots, produced those uniform layers of fragmentary substan- 

 ces, which alternate with the layers of melted matters. But at one 

 period, it would appear that the internal agent which had already 

 fractured so frequently the solid surface, having doubtless exerted 

 an extraordinary energy, broke up that surface, upraisedit, and since 

 that time Etna has existed. 



6. Ejctr act from a letter from Mr. .Ia.mes Prinsep, dated Cal- 

 cutta, Oct. 25, 1835. — "I am now engaged in making engravings 

 of an antediluvian animal, heretofore unknown, which ranks between 

 the pachydermata and ruminantia, and is provided with four horns. 

 We have christened it Sivatherimn, in honor of our Indian god 

 Siva." 



The fossil skeletons of the above animals were found in the val- 

 ley of Nerbudda in English India, and form a highly interesting ad- 

 dition to the list of fossil animals. — U Institut, JVo. 153. 



