of the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. S63 
General Result. 
From the preceding description it appears, 1st, That the Gal- 
lon Hill is a great mass of felspar rock in the state of porphyry 
and greenstone, with subordinate layers and masses of trap-tuff, 
slate-clay, and bituminous shale and sandstone. 2d, That the 
porphyry is traversed by numerous veins of different minerals, 
such as greenstone, calcareous-spar, he. 3d, That the porphy- 
ry appears to rest upon sandstone, and to be covered in part 
with sandstone and other rocks of the same formation. Lastly, 
That all the rocks may be considered as belonging to the coal 
formation. 
Art. XXIII. — Experiments on the Effect (ff the Pressure of 
the Sea at great Depths^ in augmenting the Specific Gravity 
of different kinds of Wood. By William Scoresby junior, 
F.R. S. Edin. and M, W. S.^ 
At great depths, the effect of the pressure of the sea is not a 
little curious. My father met with the following singular in- 
stance, in the year 1794, which I have taken from his log-book. 
On the 31st of May, the chief mate of the Henrietta of Whit- 
by, the ship my father then commanded, struck a whale, which 
ran” all the lines out of the boat before assistance arrived, and 
then dragged the boat under water, the men meanwhile escap- 
ing to a piece of ice. When the fish returned to the surface to 
“ blow,” it was struck a second time, and soon afterwards kill- 
ed. The moment it expired, it began to sink, which not being 
a usual circumstance, excited some surprise. My father, who 
was himself assisting at the capture, observing the circumstance, 
seized a grapnel, fastened a rope to it, threw it over the tail of 
the fish, and fortunately hooked it. It continued to sink ; but 
* This very interesting article forms part of Mr Scoresby’s valuable and amusing 
work on the Arctic Regions, which is now in the press, and to the publication of which 
the public may look forward with the highest expectations. Through the kindness of 
the author, we are enabled to present our readers with his curious experiments on 
the effects of the pressure of the sea at great depths ; but for many additional and 
important details, we must refer them to the original work. — Ed. 
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