FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 
435 
to detect the compounds of cerium. It will, perhaps, be found, in course 
of time, tliat cerium, a metal which, by its cliemical properties, resembles 
iron in many respects, is not so scarce in nature as we have hitherto 
been led to suppose, 
A short time ago we read in the Courier da Paris something to this 
oifect : — " For some time past the waters of the little bay of Vulcano, 
at Santorino, have been spoken of as having the property of cleaning 
the copper-sheathing of vessels ; but this precious quality has not been 
made use of so much as we should have expected, and since the year 
1821 the bay has been almost abandoned by ships. Lately, however, 
experiments have been made to prove the fact anew ; the Solon, a screw- 
packet-boat, stationed in the Levant, received orders to go to Santorino 
and remain some hours in the Bay of Vulcano. Although coated with 
many layers of red-lead, the iron keel of the Solon had collected and 
fixed an endless number of shells, sea- weeds, zoophytes, &c., so that its 
course had been notably impeded. But after a short delay iu the Bay of 
Vulcano these shells and seaweeds were detached with ease by the aid 
of a brush, and a knot an hour more was immediately gained in speed. 
Three other French ships and two English brigs followed the example of 
the Solon, and these had coppered keels. The effect was the same on 
all, and no less surprising than agreeable to the captains of the vessels." 
The cause of this may be thus explained : In recent times a sub- 
marine island made its appearance within the crater of Santorino"-. In 
1810 it was still 15 fathoms below the surface of the sea, but in 1830 it 
had risen to within three or four. It rises steeply, like a great cone, 
from the bottom of the sea, and the continuous activity of the submarine 
crater impregnates the surrounding waters with sulphurous and 
sulphuric acids. The coppered bottoms of ships lying at anchor for a 
short time in the Bay of Vulcano are cleaned by the acid produced 
in this natural volcanic process. 
IT. de Ifordmann, of Helsingford, in Finland, a naturalist dis- 
tinguished by his scientific expeditions into Caucassia and the Crimea, 
has just terminated tlie first two parts of a great work upon the 
Pffilcontology of Southern liussia {PaUonlologic de la Itusste Mc'ridiotiale). 
The exploration of certain rich fossiliferous deposits that he found near 
Odessa and in Bessarabia has enabled M. do jSTordmann to make some 
interesting and important discoveries. His first paper is really a 
treatise upon fossil bears. To those already known he adds a new 
variety, Ursiis si^elaus Odessaliis. He proves, by many and varied con- 
siderations, that the fossil JJrsus spelceus differs essentially — as Cuvier 
always affirmed, in spite of the contrary opinion upheld by De Blain- 
ville — from the existing bear, Jlr&us ferox. In the second memoir are 
described and figured (the drawings being made by the author himself) 
a great number of fossil quadrupeds belonging lo the genera Felis, 
Hyana, Ccinis, Mustela, Fquus, S,r. Among them C'anis meridionalis, 
different Solipedes, and a certain number of Hodents are entirely new 
species. Judging from what the papers say, M. do Kordmann's 
For a figure of this remarkable island and some adjaccut ones, sec Beudunt, 
Geoloyie, p. IU.— T. L. V. 
