248 ' Miscellaneous Notices. Augt.] 
nodules were buried in soil and gradually or suddenly compressed and incorporat- 
ed with the other alluvial strata of clays and sands. 
Its fate has been watched, when thrown up from the beds of those nullas on dry 
land, and exposed to the sun and atmosphere. It undergoes an evident decomposi- 
tion, first losing its shells and shelly coating. The red hard nucleus then gradu- 
ally softens, and the mass itself crumbles, and is in time lost in the soil, to which it 
imparts some portion of its colour. 
If in the decay of the shelly exterior, the lime, instead of disengaging from the 
rest, could be supposed to incorporate with the nucleus iron clay, we should evident- 
ly have the elements of red nodular cancan although perhaps in the present spe- 
cimen, there is too small a proportion of lime (50 per cent.) to compose anything 
but a cancar of very inferior quality. 
3. Analytical Examination of different Waters. 
From where taken up. 
Quantity 
of the 
water, 
oz. dr. 
The quantity 
of salt ob- 
tained, 
dr. scr. gr. 
The degree 
of heat ap- 
plied. 
The time 
it took to 
evaporate 
h. m. 
Remarks. 
Megnah Doudcundah, . . 
4 
0 
0 
0 
U 
15t(° 
3 
36 
Very dirty. 
Diamond Harbour 
4 
0 
0 
2 
7 
150“ 
3 
13 
Chittagong Water, 
4 
0 
0 
1 
fi 
158“ 
3 
30J 
Very dirty. 
Luckipore, 
4 
0 
0 
1 
3 
150“ 
3 
20 
Saugor Sea Water, .... 
4 
0 
0 
1 
l 
150“ 
3 
40 
Very dirty. 
Cnlna Wafer, 
Patanliaut Dacalty River 
Water, 
4 
0 
0 
0 
0 
152“ 
3 
26 
4 
0 
0 
*1 
5 
150“ 
3 
22 
The above examination was conducted by Dr. Young, Surgeon to the Suburbs of 
Calcutta. Dr. Young also examined the tank waters brought from Sagar Island, and 
from Kijree, and found in the Kijree 3 grains of salt to a pint ; in tbe Sagar, 6 
grains to a pint, above 1811. 
4. Atmospheric Tides. 
In No. 5. of tbe Gleanings, p. 158, is an account, taken from the Philosophical 
Transactions, of a theory proposed by Mr. James Prinsep of Benares, to account for 
the daily and annual tides of the atmosphere as indicated by the barometer. He refers 
these changes to the action of temperature, and not of gravity, and from the tables 
he has given, he has left little doubt as to the real connection of the two phenomena, 
i. e. rise of the barometer and fall of the thermometer. In the 59th number of the 
Foreign Quarterly Review is an article, giving an account of Laplace's fifth or sup- 
plementary volume of the Mecanitpte Celeste, from which the following is extracted. 
“ In the last chapter of this hook he discusses the influence of the sun and moon 
in causing periodic oscillations of tire atmosphere. From the comparison of a 
great number of observations of the barometer and thermometer made in the Royal 
Observatory of Paris with the formula; which express the action of the two planets, 
the influence of these bodies seems distinguishable in causing an atmospherical flux 
and reflux, but its quantity is extremely small, and by the application of the calcu- 
lus of probabilities Laplace found that the existence of the phenomenon, in our lati- 
tudes at least, is very doubtful. He is rather disposed to ascribe the lunar influence 
indicated by the observations to the elevation and depression of the waters of the 
ocean, which form a large portion of the base of the atmosphere, and not to the di- 
rect effect of the attractive forces of the moon. The solar action he attributes to the 
expansion caused by the heat of the sun. An equally numerous and accurate set of 
observations made at the equator, where the actions of the sun and moon are exert- 
ed with the greatest force, would probably have the effect of determining this curious 
but as yet doubtful point.” 
