General Science. 446 
above ike Saatz on a declivity, partly in tlie vicinity of the 
Eger, and partly in a gorge which descended to that river. This 
hill was formed of a sort of earthy coal, covered with a bed of 
sand and allnvia. Qn the upper part of the declivity weie se«> 
veral springs, which dofet themselves in the small but rugged 
hills of moving sands upon the banks of the Eger, w hich flowed 
at the distance of about 400 yards ■, from the village. These 
springs appear to have excavated large subterranean hollows, so 
that the church, the houses and the gardens, rested only on 
pillars as it were, wMcli became weaker and weaker every day ^ 
For some time back, Kthe grand bed appeared to sink m severe! 
places ; but in the month of February a great noise was heard 
at midnight ; the inhabitants felt that the earth was decending ; 
and they found next morning, that half of the village had dis- 
appeared, and had fallen to a considerable distance from the 
place which it occupied. The hill and the church, indeed, had 
almost wholly disappeared, and at some distance there w'as a 
mass of debris, from which the roof and the chimneys only ap- 
peared. The church is now eighty feet below the place on 
>vhich it was built. It is divided into two parts, one of whichL 
is burned, and the spire overturned: only one-iifteenth part of 
the houses now remain, and even these are not in a state of se- 
curity. The Eger appears to have undermined, by degrees, the 
supports of the whole of the hill, which Were very much inclined 
in front. — Gilbert’s Annalen der Physih^ 18S0. 
40. Weight of the Dutch Pound Trqy.—In a paper read before 
the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth, on the weight 
of the Dutch Troy pound, Mr Anderson demonstrated, that the 
original weight of that pound had been 7680 grains. After sta- 
ting the theoretical investigation by which he arrived at this re- 
sult, Mr A. remarked, that it was strongly confirmed by an 
examination which he entered into some time before, with the 
view of determining the weight of the Scotch pound, from the 
various multiples and subdivisions of that weight, in the posses- 
sion of the Guildry of Perth. 
This set of weights, he stated to have been presented by Go- 
vernment to the Guildry of Perth at the time of the Union, and 
to be uncommonly accurate from the mmee to the stone^ through* 
, VOL. IV. 8. APEIL 18^1. F f 
