358 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 



New York, a small plate of polished gold of known purity 

 was attached to the bottom of a vessel where any great fric- 

 tion from the motion of the vessel was avoided. The ship 

 sailed to Liverpool and returned to this port. The gold 

 plate exhibited in no wise the presence of mercury and had 

 retained its original brightness. 



A crystal of Beryl of unusual size was received from Ack- 

 worth, N. H. It had no perfect termination, was nine inch- 

 es in its transverse diameter and weighed 47 pounds. 



Mr. Chilton gave the results of his examination of a bottle 

 of water from a mineral sprmg in the island of Cuba. When 

 the bottle was opened, a strong odor of sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen gas was emitted. It is a weak mineral water containing 

 not more than 3 or 4 grains of solid matter in a pint. Its 

 chief ingredients are sulphate of lime and muriate of magne- 

 sia. 



Dr. DeKay communicated his observations on a paper 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1 827, 

 entitled " a newly discovered genus of serpentiform fishes, 

 by J. Harwood, Prof, of Nat. History, &c. Dr. D. in his 

 paper shewed the strong probability that the new genus 

 Ophiognathus of Prof Harwood had been anticipated as far 

 back as 1819 by Dr. Mitchill who had described a similar 

 animal under the name of Saccopharynx. An account of 

 this genus was subsequently published in the first volume of 

 the Annals of the Lyceum. 



Mr. Roberts of Portsmouth, N. H. presented the horns of 

 several remarkable animals from Zanguebar on the north 

 east coast of Africa. Among them were the horns of the 

 Bos coffer, Antilope oreas and A. leucophea. 



June. — Mr. Barnes announced that he had recently re- 

 ceived information that the Scnccio vboratus, a plant grow- 

 ing in the northern part of the state of New York, had prov- 

 ed in many instances a deadly poison to sheep. 



Dr. Mitchill communicated information of the fact that 

 there had been a recent fall of meteoric stones at Nashville, 

 Tennessee. Further details were expected. 



Mr. Featherstonehaugh offered some observations on the 

 remarkable fossil deposits of Stonesfield and Tilgate Forest, 



