SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
461 
to those of Santorin, in Greece. On the 1st June a submarine volcano 
cast up igneous matters in such quantity, that a tongue of land has been 
formed with the continent. This ground is as yet unapproachable, on account 
of the incandescence of the rocks, as well as the sulphurous vapours from 
the fissures. M. Deville asked that the Academy should take an interest 
in these new eruptions, as it did in those of Santorin. — Vide Comptes 
Bendus , July 1. 
A Burning Well. — While some artisans were engaged in making borings 
for an artesian well at Narbonne, the water rushed forth with great vio- 
lence, and soon burst into flame. The flame, which arises from the combus- 
tion of carburetted hydrogen, is reddish and smoky, and does not emit a 
smell either of bitumen or sulphuretted hydrogen. The u sinking ” for the 
spring was made on the left branch of the Aude, in a plain situate about 
two metres above the sea-level, and composed of alluvial mud. The 
alluvial mud extends to a depth of six metres ; then follow tertiary lime- 
stones and marls, with the remains of marine shells. At the depth of 70 
metres, the spring containing the inflammable gas was met with. 
The Plant-beds of North Greenland. — From the report made by the Sec- 
retary of the Committee on this subject to the British Association at its 
recent meeting, it would seem that nothing has as yet been published on 
the points investigated. Mr. Whymper started from Copenhagen on the 
20th of April, but no intelligence has since been received from him. 
The Leaf -beds of Hampshire. — The report on this subject was presented 
to the British Association by Mr. W. Stephen Mitchell, who pointed out 
that there was a better chance of determining the remains from these beds 
than those from many others. He laid stress on the fact that we know the 
age of the beds from stratigraphical evidence not depending on botanical 
testimony. 
The Internal Heat of the Earth forms the subject of a memoir by Dr. J. 
Schwarez, who arrives at the following conclusions : — The different corol- 
laries of the central-fire doctrine were not adequate to explain the different 
groups of natural phenomena, for the sake of which these corollaries were 
deemed essential fifty years ago. The whole system of the central-fire 
doctrine, the alleged dubious moment of the increase of underground tem- 
perature alone excepted, was bound up merely by artificial ties j and as soon 
as the question of the supposed increase of underground temperature will 
be, by direct empirical argument, decided in the negative, then the ruin of 
the whole central-fire system would be inevitable. The memoir concludes 
with some suggestions as to how experiments should be made in order to 
ascertain the temperature of the earth, at different depths, simultaneously in 
different quarters of the globe. — British Association : Dundee Meeting. 
Palceozoic Insects of Nova Scotia. — Professor Dawson, of McGill’s 
College, Montreal, has a paper in the Geological Magazine, in which he 
describes some interesting insect-remains from the palaeozoic rocks of Nova 
Scotia. In the Nova-Scotian coalfields insects have not hitherto been 
discovered, except in some fragments found by the author some time since. 
Last year, however, a very beautiful wing was found by Mr. J. Barnes, of 
Halifax, in a bed of shale at Cape Breton. This specimen has been ex- 
amined by Mr. S. Scudder, of Boston, who pronounces it to be a member 
