24 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



month. This latitude, by dead reckoning up to the time of taking the sights, was 

 used to work the sights of the chronometer, and accordingly, on the morning of the 

 1 9th May, the ship's situation was estimated 60 miles to the south-west of her actual 

 position at that time. 



GENERAL SCIENCE. 



SxTETXiTES OF JuPiTER. — At a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences, in 

 consequence of M. Paravey having asserted that the ancients had discovered some of 

 the satelHtes of Jupiter, M. Arago endeavoured to ascertain if it were possible for him 

 to observe any of these satellites with the aid of a magnifying len?, using only one that 

 was darkened, in order to obscure the radiations. The experiment proved abortive, 

 nnd it was in consequence to be repeated, as the moon at the time was above the 

 liovizon. It was suggested by IM. Ampere, that it would require a peculiar organiza- 

 tion in the visual organs to enable an observer to perceive the satellites without a 

 telescope. 



The Gosiet of Halt.et. — The following particulars respecting the orbit of this 

 comet are contained in Le Voleur: — One of the most remarkable circumstances con- 

 nected with this comet, is the size of its orbit. It is an elongated oval, the total 

 length of which is about thirty-six times the distance of the sun from the eai-th, and 

 the greatest breadth of the oval is about ten times that distance. The nearest extre- 

 mity of its orbit is distant from the sun about half the distance of the earth from that 

 planet; and its most distant extremity is thirty-five times and a half that of the earth 

 from the sun. As the light and heat derived from the sun naturally decrease according 

 to tlistance, hence it follows that the heat and light from the sun will be, at the 

 most proximate point of the comet, four times more than on the earth, and at its 

 most distant extremity 6000 times less than at the opposite point. At one of the 

 extremities of the comet, the sun would appear four times lai-ger than it does to our 

 earth, while at the other its size would look like that of a star. The vicissitudes of 

 temperature resulting from these positions ai-e evident. Suppose the earth to be trans- 

 ported to the most distant extremity of the comet, liquids would congeal, and it is 

 probable that atmospheric air, and all the permanent gases, would become liquid. 

 On the contrary, were the earth at that pai-t of the comet nearest to the sun, liquids 

 would assume a gaseous form; metals would be hquified, would form a new ocean, 

 and would occupy in the bed of the present one the place of the waters, which had 

 become vapour." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Amber. This remarkable substance is found in Prussia, and has for more than 



three thousand years excited the curiosity of naturalists and the avidity of traders. It 

 is uncertain even at present, whether it belongs to the animal or to the vegetable king- 

 dom: almost all writers agree, that it forms no part of the mineral. It is a sort of 

 solid bitumen, very light, of a vitreous fracture, and generally of a milky white, or 

 yellow colour; although it is sometimes found brown or black, and sometimes quite 

 opaque. It is combustible, evaporates, and diffuses an agi'eeable odour. Succin is that 

 sort which is most crystaUized and transparent; and what the Prussians term amber 

 has a less vitreous fracture, and a more earthy appearance. From tl'hzKr^ov (Elec- 

 tron), the Greek word for amber, is derived the term Electricity; so that an insigni- 

 ticani fossil has, from its power of attracting light bodies, given its name to the cause 

 of the most imposing and terrible phenomena in nature, — 



" The lightning's lurid glare, and thunder's awful crash." 



Heinitz supposes that its formation must be attributed to forests submerged by the 

 ocean, and afterwai-ds covered with sand; the resinous particles, being distilled into 

 amber, and the rest of the wood forming a residuum, or caput mortuum : and what 

 strengthens this supposition is, that wood is generally found near it, which renders 

 its vegetable origin probable. The supposition of its mineral origin is disproved by 

 distillation, and by the foreign hodies found in its substance. 



M. Schweigger, an eminent entomologist, has carefully examined the insects con- 

 tained in the amber; and he has found that many of them would belong to genera 

 of insects now existing, but that none of them were specifically the same. Professor 

 Germar of Halle has been occupied in a similar investigation, and he also thinks that 

 none of them are identical with analogous species now living. 



M. Girtanner affirms, that amber is formed by a large ant (the Formica riifa of 

 Linnffius); he conceives it to be a vegetable* oil, rendered concrete by the acid of 

 those animals, which inhahit old forests of fir trees where the fossil amber is found. 

 The amber, when first dug, is ductile hke wax, and becomes liai'd on exposiu-e to 

 air. Certain it is, that no insect is so commonly found in amber as the ant. Wal- 

 lerius asserts, that the black and dark-coloured amber is often found in the bowels of 

 cetaceous fishes. Others imagine that it is produced by a fish or an aquatic animal. 

 It is certain, however, that amber must have passed from the fluid to the solid state ; 

 for foreign substances, such as leaves, msects, small fish, fi-ogs, water, pieces of wood 

 and straw, ai-e often contained in it; and it is most esteemed when it contains any of 

 these substances. 



The Fhcenicians were the first who navigated the North Seas in search of this sub- 

 stance. By the ancients it was considered as valuable as gold and precious stones. 

 Its value, at present, is much diminished, though it is still required in some manufacto- 

 ries ; for, at Stolpe in Pomerania, and Kcenigsberg in Prussia, workmen are employed in 

 making from it small jewels, scented powder, spiritous acid, and a fine oil, that is used as 

 a varnish. Amber is exported to Denraai-k and Italy, but Turkey is the chief market 

 for the commodity ; and a certain portion of it is carried every year to the Holy 

 Kaaba at P.Iecca. This substance has long been regai'ded with superstitious venera- 

 tion by several of the northern nations of Europe, as well as in Asia Elinor; but v;hat 

 gave rise to this we have not been ahle to trace. Among the peasantry of Scotland 

 amber heads have long been held as a complete antidote to the effects of witch- 

 craft; and, in consequence, one or more beads of it were very commonly carried in the 

 pocket: but, that it might have complete efficacy, it was considered necessary, that it 



should be accompanied by the following couplet, written on paper, wrapped round the 

 bead, and secured by a red silk thread: — 



*' Lammar (amber) beads and red thread 

 Keep the witches at their speed." 



A twig of the mountain ash, or rowan tree, was supposed to have precisely the 

 same effect. Among the higher classes in Scotland, in former times, amber beads 

 were much worn, and were always strung with red silk thread. 



The quantity of amber annually found in Prussia amounts to more than two hundred 

 tons, and the revenue derived from it by the crown is three or four thousand pounds. 



Amber is obtained on the Prussian coast, between PiUau and Palmnicken, a tract of 

 land about eighteen miles in length ; and sometimes upon the surface of the water, 

 where it is collected by means of nets. It is, however, only after violent north and 

 north-west winds that any large quantity is drawn to the shore. Quarries, or pits, 

 have been opened at Dirschkeraen, on the hills near the coast, and their produce is less 

 variable. In digging for it, the first stratum is found to be sand, then clay, then a 

 layer of branches and trunks of trees, then a considerable quantity of pyrites, whence 

 sulphuric acid is prepared, and lastly a bed of sand, through which the amber is dis- 

 persed in small pieces, or collected together in heaps. It assumes various; shapes, as 

 that of a pea, an almond, a pear, and letters, very well formed; and even Hebrew and 

 Arabic characters. It is found in other places in the interior of Prussia; and the 

 largest piece of amber which has yet been seen was found at Schleppacken, about 

 twelve German miles from the Lithuanian frontier. It is fifteen inches in length, 

 and seven or eight in breadth; it may be seen in the Museum at BerUn. Amber is 

 also to be found in the high hills of Goldapp, seventy-five miles to the south-east of 

 Kcenigsberg, and in the heights and valleys on the Vistula, in the neighbourhood of 

 Thorn and Graudenz. A large piece of amher was cast ashore, about twenty-five 

 years ago, at Peterhead, county of Aberdeen, in Scotland. 



The most remarkable properties of amber are, that, being rubbed, it attracts light 

 bodies. The friction which elicits the electric fluid also renders amber visible in 

 the dark. Dr "Wall remarked, that by ruhhing amber upon a woollen suhstance in 

 the dark, light was also produced in considerable quantities, accompanied w^ith a 

 crackling noise; and, what is still more extraordinai-y, he adds, *' This light and 

 crackling seems in some degree to represent thunder and lightning." 



Ajibergris is a suhstance much of the same nature as amber, but difters from it by 

 its pai'ticular consistence, which nearly approaches to that of bees wax ; sometimes 

 it is granulated, and appears opaque, or of a dark gray. Experiments prove that 

 it resembles amber in its nature. \^Tien analyzed, it is found to consist of phlegm, a 

 volatile acid partly fluid, oil, and a little coaly matter. It dissolves more readily than 

 amber in spu-it of wine. It is most common in the Indian seas, on the eastern 

 coast of Africa, Madagascar, &c, and it is found either floating on the sea, or cast on 

 the sea shore. In this substance, animal and vegetable remains are sometimes found, 

 as, for instance, the parts of birds. The origin of amhergris is probably the same 

 with that of araher. According to M. Aublet (in his Uistoire de la Gidane)^ it is 

 nothing more than the juice of a tree, hardened by evaporation; and if this be true, 

 it is a substance which belongs properly to the vegetable kingdom. The tree which 

 is said to produce it grows in Guiana; it is called cumOy hut has not been examined 

 by other botanists. When a branch is broken by high winds, a large quantity of the 

 juice exudes ; and if it chance to have time to dry, various masses (some of which 

 have been so large as to weigh one thousand two hundred pounds, and more) are 

 cai'ried into the rivers by heavy rains, and through them into the sea; afterwards 

 they ai"e either thrown on the shore, or eaten by fish, chiefly by the spermaceti 

 whale (Physeier viacroccphalus.) This fish swallows such large quantities of this 

 gum resin, that it generally becomes sick, so that those employed in the catching of 

 these whales always expect to find some ambergris in the bowels of the lean whales. 

 Fatlier Santes, who travelled to various places on the African coast, says, in his JEthio- 

 pia Orientalis, that some species of birds, of whales, and of fish, are fond of eating 

 this substance; and the same assertion has been made by Bomare and various other 

 authors. This accounts for the claws, beaks, bones, and feathers of bu'ds, parts 

 of vegetables, shells and bones of fish, and particularly for the beaks of the cuttle-fish 

 (Sepia octopodiaj, which are sometimes found in the masses of this suhstance. M. Au- 

 blet brought specimens of this gum resin, which he collected on the spot, from the cuma 

 tree at Guiana. It is of a whitish-brown colour, with a shade of yellow ; w'hile it melts 

 and tm'ns like wax in the fire. M. Pouelle examined very carefully this substance 

 brought over by IVL Aublet, and found that it produced exactly the same results as 

 amber. These observations seem to place it beyond a doubt, that both amber and 

 ambergris are vegetable products, and that naturalists were mistaken in supposing 

 these substances to be of an animal natm-e, from having found them in the intestines 

 of whales. 



Aurora Borealis. — Sir John Ross states, that during his first Arctic expedition 

 the Aurora Borealis sometimes appeared between the two ships, and also between the 

 ships and the icebergs; and found, in his subsequent experience, both in Scotland and 

 du^'infT his second voyage, proofs, satisfactory to his own mind, that the Am-ora takes 

 place within the cloudy regions of the earth's atmosphere. Under this belief, he 

 founds the following extraordinary hypothesis on the subject: — " The Aurora is 

 entirely occasioned by the action of the sun's rays upon the vast body of icy and snowy 

 plains and mountains which surround the poles." 



Newtonian Svste:u. — J\Ir Walsh, of Cork, addressed a pamphlet to the French 

 Academy, entitled, " Appendix, containing some remarks, and a new theory of Physi- 

 cal Astronomy." In one of the author's margmal notes, he states, that, barring astro- 

 logy, the greatest absurdity ever propagated is that of the Newtonian System! !" 



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