186 Drought in Sicily ^c, 



3. Drought in Sicily. 



Extract of a letter from Abbe F. Ferrara, Palermo^ Oct. 

 10, 1822. 



"There has been an extraordinary heat, ani dryness, 

 throughout the whole island, duringthe presentyear.(l822.) 

 The harvest has been almost nothing in Eastern, Sicily, where 

 there has been no rain from Dec. 1821 to Oct. 1822. They 

 have lost a great many trees, and the water has failed in a 

 great many fountains. The thermometer has stood at Pa^ 

 lermo, in the months of June, July, Aug. Sept. and Oct. at 

 80"— 100°, Fah." 



4. Secondary Granite. — M. Marzari has observed in the 

 vicinity ofRecaro, in Italy, the following arrangement, pro- 

 ceeding from below upwards: 1. Mica Slate; 2. Dolerite ; 

 3. Red sand-stone, with coal and bituminous marls; 4. 

 Alpine or magnesian limestone ; 5. Porphyritic syenite. In 

 the valley of Lavis (Aviso) he observed the following suc- 

 cession of rocks from below, upwards: 1. Grey-wacke; 2. 

 Porphyry; 3. Red Sandstone; 4. Alpine Limestone ; 5. 

 Jura Limestone ; 6. Granite and augitic masses, without 

 olivine. And Brieslac, in a memoir lately published, says, 

 that the secondary granite, placed upon alpine limestone, is 

 the same as the beautiful granite of Egypt, and contains 

 great masses of quartz, with imbedded tourmaline. 



Edin. Philos. Jour, 



5. A new Fluid, with remarkable Physical properties dis- 

 covered in the cavities of Minerals. — Dr. Brewster, in a pa- 

 per before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, has given a 

 Retailed account of a new fluid, of a very singular nature, 

 which he has recently discovered to exist in the cavities of 

 minerals. It expands about thirty times more than water; 

 and by the heat of the hand, or between 75° and 83°, it al- 

 ways expands so as to fill the cavity containing it. The va- 

 cuity thus filled up, is of course a perfect vacuum ; and at a 

 temperature below that now mentioned, the new fluid con- 

 tracts, and the vacuity reappears, frequently with a rapid ef- 

 fervescence. These phenomena take place instantaneously 

 is several hundred cavities, seen at the same time.. 



