2S0 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



[1854. 



side of tin' Lake. It is probable, la the supposed absence 

 of the undulation described by Mr. Logan, that the i I ■ »■ I i a 

 River group would form the floor ol the Lake a few miles 



north of a line drawn between Osv ;o and the Credit. 



This would be succeeded by it narrow band of the I tica slate, 

 and then by the Trenton limestone and its associated rocks, 

 reposing upon the metamorphic series displayed at the east end 

 of the Lake. The existence, however, of the undulation before 

 alluded to would have the effect of changing, in some measure, 

 the subaqueous outcrop of these rocks. We may, perhaps, con- 

 nect the phenomenon which has recently occurred at Niagara, 

 with others of the same class recorded as having been v. itnessed 

 at Port Hope, Cobourg, and Rice Lake, if we suppose that the 

 anticlinal axis spoken of by Mr. Logan — persisting in those sinu- 

 osities which had already distinguished its progress — trended to 

 the south shore, and died away in the direction of the middle cf 

 the Lake. The effect of this undulation would be to bring the 

 (Jtica slate within the excavating influence of the waters of the 

 Lake south of Niagara. An inspection of ;i chart of Lake On- 

 tario shows how unequally this excavating process has gone on. 

 Between Toronto and the Niagara river we find on Lieut. Her- 

 bert's chart the following depths: — At about live miles south of 

 Toronto, 180 feet; 14 miles, 402 feet; 22 miles, 210 feet. In 

 other parts of the Lake still greater unevenness in its floor occurs, 

 which is scarcely to be explained by tertiary formations. Now, 

 when we consider that the phenomenon at Grafton was accom- 

 panied by the " water boiling, as you see in the lesser rapids of 

 the St. Lawrence,!' (See Canadian Journal, Vol. II., page 63.) 

 the hypothesis becomes well grounded that these Lake convul- 

 sions arise from the sudden liberation of vast masses of carbu- 

 retted hydrogen and other gases which result from the decompo- 

 sition of immense accumulations of vegetab'e and animal remains, 

 which distinguish the black bituminous shales of the Utica slate. 

 The Niagara river daily exhibits the vast supply of carburetted 

 hydrogen which the Niagara Limestone and other rocks over 

 which it flows near the Falls, is capable of producing, and the 

 Utica slate is especially distinguished by the presence of this gas 

 in vast abundance. 



The phenomena at Port Hope, Rice Lake, Grafton, and Nia- 

 gara, become at once connected, if it be true that the Utica 

 slate forms a portion of the bed of the Lake a few miles north 

 of the mouth of the Niagara river, and that the suddenly libe- 

 rated gases from that rock are capable of producing the effects 

 observed. It is clear that, under such circumstances, the earth- 

 quake which occurred on March 13th, 18^3, which was felt at 

 Toronto, Niagara, &c, would assist the escape of the pent-up 

 gases, and might, therefore, play a secondary part in occasioning 

 the rush of waves on the shores noticed at Niagara, but not be 

 the actual cause of the phenemenon. 



The boiling appearance of the Lake produced off Grafton, in 

 1847, is precisely what would be observed as the effect of the 

 escape of gas from the floor of the Lake ; and it is well known 

 that deep wells and shafts sunk in the Utica slate in its exposures 

 in the township of Whitby are rapidly filled, when left in a state 

 of repose, with light carburetted hydrogen mixed with sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen. The same phenomena are observable in deep 

 wells sunk in the Hudson river group at Toronto, and during 

 the last summer a constant bubbling up of carburetted hydro- 

 gen occurred during many weeks in a well on Queen Street. The 

 Utica slate, however, from its remarkable bituminous character, 

 is particularly distinguished by the emission of gases when its 

 strata are penetrated, and thus affords reasonable grouud for the 



i poihesis that many violent Lake convulsions are caused 

 by the sudden lib. -ration of pent-up gasi .-, resulting from the 

 <l composition of the carbonaceous accumulations which charac- 

 terize it. 



Bllsoellaneniui Intelligence^ 



Identity *»f l>>-nui»ii<- or Voltaic Electricity with Static or 

 Prletlonal Electricity.— By Professor Faraday. • 



The Friday evening meetings for the seai 



stitution "i 1 Friday last, tl pi rung tci I 



Faraday to a very crowded audience. 'I opement 



of electrii al principli produc ; aph. 



To illustrate the subject, there was an exleusivi 



teries, consisting ol 150 pairs of plates, supplied by thi I I graph 



( lompanj . and ei of wire, coven 



of which in coils were immersed in tub ol si rw the effect of 



mi! arsion on the conducting properties of the wire in subrrx pi - 



ations. The principal point which Professo was anxious to 



illustrate, was the confirmation wbi oflhe 



electric telegraph have afforded of the identity ol dynamic or voltaic 

 electricitj with static or'frictional electricity. In the first ever, 



he exemplified the distinction between conductors and 

 impressing strongly on the audience that no known substance is eilh'-r a 

 perfect conductor of electricity or a perfect non-conductor, the most pi 

 known insulator transmitting some portion of the electric fluid, whilst 

 metals, the best conductors, offei con iderable resistai don. 



Tims the copper wires of the submarine egraph, though covered 



with a thickness of gutta percha double the diameter of the wire, permit 

 an appreciable quantity of the electricity transmitted to escape through the 

 water ; but the insulation is nevertheless, so good that the wire retains a 

 charge for more than half an hour after connexion v, rli the voltaic ha 

 has been broken. Professor Faraday staled that he had witnessed thi> effect 

 at the Gutta Percha Works, where one hundred miles of wire were im- 

 mersed in the canal. After communication with a volatic battery of great 

 intensity, the wire became charged with i city, in the same manner as 



a Leyden jar. and he received a succession of forty small shocks from the 

 wire, alter it had been charged and the connexion with the battery broken. 

 No such eflect takes place when the coils of wire are suspended in the air, 

 because in the latter case there is no external conducting substance. The 

 storing-up of the electricity in the w ire when immersed in water is exactly 

 similar to the retention of electricity in a Leyden jar, and the phenomena 

 exhibited correspond exactly with those of static electricity, proving in this 

 manner, as had previously been proved by charging a Leyden jar 

 with a volatic battery, that a dynamic and static electricity arc only dif- 

 ferent conditions of the same force ; one being great in quantity, but of low- 

 intensity, whilst the latter is small in quantity, but of great intensity. 

 Some interesting facts connected with the conduction of electricity have 

 also been disclosed by the working of the submarine telegraph, which 

 Professor Faraday said confirmed the opinion he had expressed twenty years 

 ago, that the conducting power of bodies varies under different circum- 

 stances. In the original experiments by Professor Wheatstone. to ascertain 

 the rapidity with which electricity is transmitted along copper wire, it was 

 found that an electric spark passed through a space of 280.000 miles in a 

 second. Subsequent experiments with telegraph wires have given differ- 

 ent results, not arising from inacuracy in the experiments, but from 

 different conditions of the conducting wires. It has been determined that 

 the velocity of the transmission through iron wire is 16.000 miles a second, 

 whilst it does not exceed 2700 miles in the same space of time in the tele- 

 graph wire between London and Brussels, a great poition of which is 

 submersed in the German Ocean. The retardation of the force in its passage 

 through insulated wire immersed in water is calcidated to have an impor- 

 tant practical bearing in effecting a telegraph communication with America ; 

 for it was stated that, in a length of 2000 miles, three or more waves of 

 electric force might be transmitting at the same time, and that if the current 

 be reversed, a signal sent through the wire might be recalled before it 

 arrived at America. Professor Faraday concluded by exhibiting a 

 beautiful experiment illustrative of the identity of voltaic and frictional 

 electricity. The terminal wires of a powerful secondary-coil apparatus 

 were placed seven inches apart within the receiver of an air pump, and 

 when the receiver was exhausted, a stream of purple colored light passed 

 between the wires, resembling, though more continuous and brilliant, the 

 imitation of the aurora borealis produced when an electric spark is passed 

 through an exhausted glass tube. The volatic power employed to pro- 

 duce this effect of static electricity was only three cells of Grove's battery. 



* From the London Mechanics' Magazine, January 7. 



