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MISCELLANY. 
ing some Barnacle-shells upon the starlings of Rochester Bridge. Upon looking 
closely I found that many of them contained within their valves a small spiral 
shell—the Common Periwinkle \_Turbo littoreus , Linn.—Ed.] —and it appeared 
to me that they had either destroyed the Barnacle and taken possession of its 
shell, or had crept into those which had died from natural causes.—W. H. 
Bensted, Maidstone , Feb. 7, 1838. 
Petrescent Tree. —On Tuesday last, the stone-getters at the Oak Bottoms 
Stone-delph, Breightmet, near Bolton, discovered a tree about thirty feet long and 
forty inches in circumference, in a petrescent state, in a solid rock, about forty 
feet from the surface of the earth, and at least thirty feet beneath the strata of 
rock. The inside of the tree is completely petrified, and covered with an incrust¬ 
ation of carboniferous matter.— Sheffield Iris , March 13, 1838. 
METEOROLOGY. 
Meteors on the Nights of Nov. 12—14.—It has now been observed for 
nearly forty years that an astonishing number of meteors are always to be seen 
during the nights of the 12th, 13th, and 14th of November. Alexander Yon 
Humboldt has inserted an advertisement in the Berlin papers, suggesting to 
scientific men in different parts of the world a variety of observations, with a view 
to ascertain whether this phenomenon is not in some way connected with telluric 
magnetism.— The Guide , Oct. 14,1837.—QThese are the peculiar meteors termed 
“ shooting stars.”— Ed. Natl] 
Patrick Murphy, Esq. —The Sumbeam , No. vi., for March 10, contains a 
portrait and brief notice of Mr. Murphy, the gentleman after whom thousands 
and hundreds of thousands of persons went mad a few short weeks ago, and who 
is now all but forgotten. If Mr. Murphy’s theory should yet prove true, the 
history of his scientific career will only add another to the already numerous and 
instructive instances of the neglect and contempt with which new discoveries— 
however important— are treated as well by the learned as the ignorant. We are 
glad to find that the Cheltenham Looker-On continues steadily to compare the 
prophecies of Mr. M. and the actual state of the weather. The Monthly Chroni¬ 
cle for March contains some specious objections to Murppiy’s nomenclature, and 
which, did we think they could mislead any reflecting individual—we should not 
fail to expose.— Editor. 
