Scientific Records. prehending Notices of new Discoveries or Improveits in Science or Art; including, occasionally, sinar Medical Cases; Astronomical, Mechanical, Phiphical, Botanical, Meteorological, and Mineralogical nomena, or singular Facts in Natural History; etation, &c.; Antiquities, &c.; List of Patents; e continued in a series through the Volume.] MECHANICAL PARADOX. r having inserted so many original letters on this E, pro and con, we think it will be acceptable to our if we afford them the opportunity of hearing what 1 upon it in other quarters. The following letter dressed to the Manchester Guardian, in consequence . Roberts's experiment, which was described in a late er of this publication. TO THE EDITOR. -If you will allow a hardly visible star amongst ight luminaries of the scientific hemisphere to haa remark upon Mr. Roberts's experiment on friction, appeared in your valuable paper of last week, then it me to suggest, that, as a perpendicular line on the sented waggon, if produced, must, by the direction e revolving pulley, be made to form an acute angle the horizontal diameter of the pulley, the weight of waggon will act upon Mr. Marriott's scale, indepenof the friction; and, although the weight may be the > during quick, as slow motion, yet it may render the with a given power, a certain time, its polish will not be revolutions in the same time? Is there not more friction anything like so high as if the grinding-stone made more there?--Your faithful servant, Warrington, Feb. 14, 1825. D. experiment inaccurate, especially as an increased velocity Again, if the stated law of friction be correct, then how is it that if metal is held to a revolving grinding-stone, LIST OF NEW PATENTS. To Samuel Crosley, of Cottage Lane, City Road, Middlesex, for an improvement in the construction of gas regulators or governors.-1st February.-6 months. To Timothy Burstall, of Bankside, Southwark, and John Hill, of Greenwich, engineers, for a locomotive or steam-carriage.-3d February.-6 months. To George Augustus Lamb, D. D. of Rye, Sussex, for a new composition of malt and hops.-10th February. 6 months. To Richard Baduall, jun. of Leek, Staffordshire, silk. manufacturer, for improvements in the winding, doubling, spinning, throwing, or twisting of silk, wool, cotton, &c. -10th February.-6 months. To John Heathcoat, of Tiverton, Devonshire, lacemanufacturer, for improvements on the method of manufacturing silk.-11th February.-6 months. · The following case, related by Doctor Meyers, B centiate of the Royal College of Physicians in London, and an eminent practitioner there, in a letter to the Hem. Bas Cochrane, on the effects of the vapour bath on his own per son, must carry conviction along with it It gave him considerable ease in a disorder with which he strangulated hernia, and inflammations of the stomach and To Francis Melville, of Argyle-street, Glasgow, piano-was afflicted, (the stone)-and answered the other inten- bowels. forte maker, for his improved method of securing the tions for which he used it-for he died at an advanced From its power of determining to the surface of the small piano-fortes, commonly called "square piano-fortes," period of life, having for many years been in the constant body, it is useful where any acrimony is to be discharged from the injuries to which they are liable from the tension habit of using the tepid bath."-Clarke's Essay. or where any unequal balance of the circulation is to of the strings.-Dated 18th January, 1825.-6 months "In combating the general apprehensions of catching removed. In the former view it may be employed in se to enrol specification. cold, after the use of the warm and vapour bath, Dr.ral affections of the skin, as leprosy, ulcers, and syphis, To Edward Lees, and George Harrison, brick-makers, Kentish justly observes, that if the skin be rubbed dry, in the latter, in chronic catarrh and diarrhoeas. It of Little Thurrock, Essex, for an improved method of and the absurd custom of going to bed, and sweating, be first it chiefly assists the effects of mercury, and in the making bricks, tiles, &c.-1st February.-6 months. avoided, we are less liable to partial torpor, or cold in any ter supplies the advantages of a milder climate. To John Thin, of Edinburgh, architect, for a method part, after warm bathing, than at any other time,' and "Its general effects in rheumatism, and other infam of constructing a roasting-jack.-1st Feb.-2 months. that after thus using a warm bath we are the least sensi- matory diseases, the relief of tension and abatenient To Samuel Crosley, of Cottage Lane, City Road. Mid-ble to the impression of cold.' That this is the fact, we pain, which follow its use, as well as its extensive poved dlesex, for certain apparatus for measuring and register- know from personal experience, having frequently gone of restoring a broken constitution, afford strong grounded ing the quantity of liquids passing from one place to anto the warm bath, chilled by the influence of the external expectation from its application in this disease. other.-1st February.-6 months. atmosphere, in the winter, and returned from bathing, with a sensation of general warmth, which the cold air was unable to diminish. This is farther confirmed by the testimony of Count Rumford, whom Dr. Kentish has quoted. So far from feeling chilly,' says that active philosopher, or being particularly sensible to cold, on coming out of the bath, I always found myself less sensible to cold after bathing, than before. I even observed, repeatedly and invariably, that the glow of health, and pleasing flow of spirits, which resulted from the full and free circulation of the blood, that (warm) bathing had brought on, continued for many hours; and never was followed by any thing like that distressing langour, which always succeeds to an artificial increase of circulation, and momentary flow of spirits, which are produced by stimulating medicine.' "The mischief, which arises from exposure to cold, after being heated, is occasioned not by the presence of excessive heat, but from the circumstance of having become cool, after the excess of heat. The experiments of Sir Charles Blagden, Dr. Fordyce, &c. in a room heated to upwards of 200°, which were repeated by Dr. Dobson and others at Liverpool,-the constant practice of the Russians, of passing from a hot bath to roll naked in the snow, the habit of the Romans of pouring cold water over the body, immediately on emerging from the hot bath, &c. all prove the correctness of the principles above stated. The first-mentioned gentlemen passed out of the heated room, after every experiment, immediately into the cold air, without any precaution; and after exposing their naked bodies to the great heat, and sweating violently, we instantly went into a cold room (says Sir C. Blagden) and staid there even some minutes before we began to dress, yet no one received the least injury. And Mr. Parke assured Dr. Currie, that, in repeating those experiments at Liverpool, after remaining some time in the stove, where the heat was as high as 202°, he went into the external air without a great coat, or any other than his usual clothing, during a hard frost, and perceived neither injury nor inconvenience.""Medical Review. "The Russians, (says Dr. Sanches) it cannot be doubt. ed, owe their longevity, their robust state of health, their happy and chearful temper, mostly to their baths; and the Doctor adds, that all indisposition arising from violent exercise, producing chills, with all the attendant bad consequences; that inflammations of any part of the body, To James Ayton, of Trowse Millgale, Norfolk, miller, even if attended with internal or external tumours and for an improvement or spring to be applied to bolting-fever, may be successfully combated by the Russian baths: mills, for the purpose of facilitating and improving the also, in all chronic diseases, arising from excesses in eating dressing of flour and other substances.-19th February.- or drinking, and the gratifying of other pleasures which debilitate and enervate both the body and the mind, the attentive physician will find considerable aid in the use of the Russian baths; and Tooke, in his Life of Catharine, says, that the baths are in such general use in Russia, as to produce a decided influence on the physical character of the nation.'"-Clarke's Essay. To Edward Lees, of Little Thurrock, Essex, for improvements in waterworks, and in the mode of conveying water for the purpose of flooding and draining lands, applicable also to other useful purposes.-19th Feb.-6 months. To Thos. Masterman, of the Dolphin Brewery, Broadstreet, Ratcliffe, Middlesex, brewer, for an apparatus for bottling wine, beer, and other liquids, with increased economy and despatch.-19th February.-2 months. To Edmund Lloyd, of North End, Fulham, Middlesex, for a new apparatus from which to feed fires with coals and other fuel-19th February.-2 months. To Benjamin Farrow, of Great Tower-street, London, ironmonger, for improvements in buildings, calculated to render them less likely to be destroyed or injured by fire than heretofore.-19th February.-6 months. To Jesse Ross, of Leicester, hosier, for a new apparatus for combing and straightening wool, cotton, and other fibrous substances.-19th February.-6 months. To Jacob Mould, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, Middlesex, for improvements in fire-arms:-communicated from abroad.-19th February.-6 months. To Henry Burnett, of Arundel-street, Middlesex, for improvements in machinery for a new rotatory or endless lever action :-communicated from abroad.-19th Feb. 6 months. To John Beacham, of Paradise-street, Finsbury-square, cabinet-maker, for improvements in water-closets.-19th February.-2 months. 6 months. The Investigator. [Comprehending Political Economy, Statistics, Jurisprudence, occasional passages from Parliamentary Speeches of a general nature, occasional Parliamentary Documents, and other speculative subjects, excluding Party Politics.] WARM AND VAPOUR BATH. Extracts from the Works of the Hon. Basil Cochrane, Dr. Kentish, Sir Arthur Clarke, M. D. &c. to shew the efficacy of vapour bathing in the cure of several diseases, viz. rheumatism, scrofula, cutaneous eruptions, glandular swellings in the neck, gravel, palsy, gout, dropsy, consumption, fever, inflammation of the bowels, bilious and liver complaints, water in the brain, &c. [Continued from our last.] "On this principle the Doctor informs us, that when Dr. Franklin, the American philosopher, was in England many years ago, he recommended to him the use of a warm bath twice a week, to prevent the too speedy access of old age, of which he then thought he felt the approach; and to relieve infirmities under which he actually laboured. 6 "Your very polite attention to me, and the very bete. ficial, as well as agreeable accommodation per kids has afforded me, by the use of your invaluable and inproved vapour bath, when suffering under severe laten and indisposition from late and repeated attacks of the gout, demand from me my most particular achte ment. The utility of the bath to invalids of various case, is too obvious to urge me to enter into a minute deal your very useful invention. By your machinery, pr of any degree of heat, whether medicated or Det, may be conveyed with facility and comfort to any part and when required, to the whole body.-Every one versant with the innumerable ills that await the frame, must have deplored, with me, the dific inconvenience, the loss of time, and, in some cares, de utter impossibility to obtain a warm water bath in the ark bed-room, and, when obtained, how insufficient and di cult the management! All this is effectually obviases br your ingenious contrivance. After eighteen wee ful confinement to my chamber, by a most unrea of the gout, I was induced, by your invitatio persuasion of several of my medical friends, to be p my carriage to inspect your vapour bath. I proved it, and immediately used it, and repeated eight times, about the heat of 120 degrees on Fahre thermometer, and continued its operation each time minutes. On my first trial, I was directly schedu eased from pain, and am now enabled to purs wonted and professional occupation with ease and co I can now, without assistance, get in and out of riage, though, on my first visit to you, I was unable the one or the other without much help; and it was difficulty, and by the use of crutch-sticks, I got the your hall. My general health, since my first van has much improved: the exercise, the variety a since engaged my mind, the change of air, from c finement, has conjoined to restore me, under completely. I am, therefore, fully satisfied of the lence of your vapour bath, and its general un variety of complaints to which the animal eccess ject, when judiciously administered. But I will clude this long letter, without adding any thing this subject, as I trust the world will soon be in p of your plan, which will indeed be a blessing to the ing part of the community, and which, by due ment, may and will become a lasting benefit to t "That a due attention to a strict purity of pers sufficiently observed in this country, cannot be The matter thrown out by the exhaling arters quently permitted to accumulate for a long t "We have dwelt particularly upon this point, with the surface of the skin; by obstructing perspiration hope of contributing to the removal of a popular prejudice, ter is, with justice, supposed to give rise to 12 which opposes the use of an important agent in the pre-cutaneous disorders, which might have been pret vention and removal of disease. In conclusion, we may they are now known to be cured, by the vapore appeal, in corroboration of the principle above stated, to by simply bathing in warm water. The quanti persons of sedentary habits, who possess but a moderate scaly matter which may be observed floating on the vigour of constitution, whether they have not marked the of the bath, after a person, not in the habit of different effect of external cold upon their frame, when they affords sufficient evidence of the necessity of c have gone into the air, chilled already by a cold apart ablutions."-Clarke's Essay. ment and want of muscular exertion; or, on the other hand, with a general warmth, and an active state of cutaneous circulation. In the former case, the chilliness continues for a considerable time, and is with difficulty overcome by active and continued excrcise: in the latter, the impression of the external cold is not perceptible, or is soon overcome by the glow which moderate exercise brings forth."-Medical Review. "The cases to which the vapour bath seems best adapt cd, are chiefly gout, rheumatism, palsy, several affections of the skin, as leprosy and ulcers; also, after dislocations, and in white swellings of the joints. It is also of use in female obstructions, chilblains, tetanus, dropsy, diabetes, YELLOW FEVER. "Dr. Johnson, in his observations on the yellow says, that the vapour bath, which is now introduce navy, is likely to prove one of the most useful to draw the blood to the surface of the body, and the internal congestion which exists on the vital "The more general and immediate effects of bathing in fever, are-it disposes to a calm sleep, and seems to regulate the discharge by promoting it when too little, and restraining it if in without injuring the tone of the stomach, or reduca patient's strength, objects of the first considerat exacerbations which happen sooner or later in the eras me lessened, if not prevented; the head is preserved from DUTIES ON METALS. winter quarters will be pretty comfortable. Fuel and pro- | as an axiom, that, if the power of moving bodies be given, it The persons interested in the iron-trade will, by the esta.. and the length of such carriages varied according to circum, chain.. A bag of cotton, a balk of timber, or a hogshead of sugar, might thus be conveyed the whole distance in a few hours, and might be received, with perfect safety, at the termination of its course, by a steel spring trap. Though this period may be rightly termed the age of spe culative improvement and adventure, this scheme is not of that origin: it is the result of many years' mature delibera tion, and has been repeatedly and urgently submitted to private and public consideration fifteen years ago. It is now, with fearless confidence, obtruded on general notice; the chief motive being a disinterested wish to promote public benefit, by the most simple, economical, and efficacious method. The experiment may be made upon a short dis id, for £80 to £85, but the duty is £60 per ton. This party, including Mr. Kendal, who was assistant surveyor tance, at comparatively small expense; and I most anxiously quer to lower the duties on all foreign metals (if not tain F, at the mouth of Mackenzie's River, to explore the gistracy to the subject.-Yours, &c. some instances wholly remove them) which would der an addition to the revenue from a source perly new, and would be of general service to the agritural and manufacturing industry of the country. If exclusion of foreign grain be impolitic, the same must 1 as regards foreign minerals. If an unrestricted inourse with the world be our true interest, it must, in a mount sense, be the case in respect to the rude mate and primary ingredients of capital.-Globe & Traveller. The Traveller. SECOND OVERLAND EXPEDITION. (From the Dumfries Courier.j * arctic circle. INVESTIGATOR. 14, Concert-street, Liverpool, Feh 17, 1825. P.S. If extreme swiftness, or the movement of extraordinary weight, were required, it would be quite easy, at the same time, to apply a propelling power behind the carriages. of the immensity of the vacuum which it would be necessary country stretching to the eastward, as far as the Copper- far-travelled countrymen. ptain Franklin and suite, including our friend and IMPORTANT CAUTION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING HERALD. the following communication, which is occasioned by the melancholy death of Lady Mostyn. I send you this in the hope that it may be the means of saving some fellow-creature from a similar accident, and shall be glad to see all possible Fublicity given to it. People in general are not aware of the very great danger of jumping, or even of dropping from any vehicle in rapid motion; they imagine that it is almost the same thing as jump. ing from it while it is in a state of rest. But the danger is much greater. I shall endeavour briefly to explain the principle whence this danger arises, in hopes that all who read this statement will be so impressed with it, as to call it to mind should they ever he in a situation to require it. At the moment when a person parts from a vehicle, the body is acted upon by two forces. One is that of gravity, which would bring it to the ground by its own weight, in the same manner as if the carriage were at rest: the other force is the im pulse given by the motion of the vehicle; so that the body strikes the ground with the velocity (or violence) given it quences which generally follow from jumping out of a carof mind to sit still, and even should be thrown out by the carriage being overturned, the danger is not near so great as that arising from jumping from it; for the very obstacle riage going at full speed. Now, if a person have the presence pany have already built a house, and laid up proers of the travellers will be fixed, where the above The want of the canoes which were abandoned at Cape by these compound forces; and hence the dreadful conse 25, and where they expect to be met by sixteen able d seamen, all natives of Argyleshire, who were sent ast season, and who have had ample time to forward In nstruments and luggage intrusted to their care. voyage through the principal lakes, the travellers be conveyed in American steam-boats, and when this pocket! mmodation ceases, they will procure, as formerly, services of stout Canadian boatmen. And here we mention one of the greatest evils attendant on the ition: namely, that it requires upwards of twelve ths to convey them to what may be called the ing point of discovery. And however heavily the - may hang on their hands, they must patiently the tardy lapse of an arctic winter; and even the sun begins to peep above the horizon, there are above six or eight weeks, during which they can traIn many respects their with any thing like safety. Correspondence. QUICK CONVEYANCES. TO THE EDITOR. SIR, There is not any occasion for either canals or railroads for the conveyance of merchandise (they being inanimate objects) between Manchester and Liverpool. Those objects may be conveyed and reconveyed in a more expeditious manner. In mechanics it is well known and admitted which overturns the carriage, must, at the instant, in some degree stop it, and deprive it of a great part of its velocity; so that the person thrown out strikes the ground with little more velocity (or violence) than that acquired from gravity, or the weight of the body. It should also be recol lected, that in nine cases out of ten where horses run away with a carriage (especially a four-wheeled-one), they stop without overturning it, as they necessarily, in a short time, are exhausted of wind, and cannot continue their speed. These facts are daily confirmed by experience, as all readers of the public journals must perceive. In hopes that this may be a caution to many, Cambridge, Feb. 1. I am, &c. L. C. MR. HENRY BELL. TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-Several stray numbers of your excellent and useful miscellany lately fell into my hands by accident. I have read them with great pleasure, and some profit; and since I have been able to summon courage enough to address you, I hope you will not be offended that I frankly and honestly express my opinion of your work. This, Sir, is the age of periodicals,—we have them pouring in upon us from all quarters, not by twos and threes, but by dozens and scores; we have them of all kinds and characters-religious, moral, and political; of all shapes and sizes; and, what is better, of all prices, from the aristocratic and genteel demand of six shillings, down to the plebeian and vulgar charge of three-halfpence. I have seen and read more or less of almost the whole of the periodicals of the present day, and I hope you will not suspect me of an attempt to flatter you, when I say, that, in my judgment, none of them contains so much useful instruction and agreeable amusement in the same limited compass, and for the same money as yours; and in a commercial age and country like this, the last mentioned quality is no slender recommendation. profit and pleasure, is entirely overlooked and neglected, I have long been of opinion, Sir, that, if we do not I do not mean, however, to fill my paper merely with compliments on the general excellence of your publica-ble and truly honourable purpose of paying respect to the tion, although, in the outset, I could not avoid it. My attention has been particularly attracted by an article in your number for Tuesday, 9th November last, in which you have, with much good sense, humanity, and philanthropy, introduced to the notice of your readers the case of a very meritorious, but much overlooked and neglected individual, Henry Bell. I understand, from the article, that you share this merit and honour with the editor of the Manchester Gazette. I have no wish to step between you, for the purpose of awarding to each his fair share of honour and merit; but I certainly think that you both deserve the gratitude and the thanks of every man who is a true friend to the best interests of his country, to the happiness of mankind at large, and to every thing that is laudable and praiseworthy in civilized society. Our name and talents of James Watt, by the erection of a monument to transmit his memory to future generations. I thought this a very fit season to bring forward the claims of living merit, and to remind the public, that, while they displayed so much zeal to honour departed genius, they ought to cake care not to incur the reproach of allowing a man to starve in obscurity, whose claims on the gratitude of the British public are almost equal to those of James Watt, but whose good fortune has not been equal to his merits, and who, therefore, really stands in need of some assistance. For this purpose I addressed a letter to the editor of the Glasgoro Chronicle, with a request that it might be inserted in his paper, in the hope that the attention of the public might thereby be directed to the case of Mr. Bell, leaving him at liberty to make whatever alterations Men of genius have, in all ages and in all countries, he thought necessary, or to keep it out, and call the atcomplained loudly of the neglect and ingratitude of their tention of the public to the matter in any other way he contemporaries. They have commented in terms of glow-thought more effectual. The letter never appeared; the ing indignation on that disgraceful selfishness which in-subject never was mentioned in the paper. What was duced mankind to enjoy the profit and pleasure, resulting the reason of so obstinately neglecting a matter of so from the exertion of their talents, without bestowing on the much interest and importance, I never learned. inventors that honour and reward which is so justly their Glasgow editors have too much patrician feeling to allow due. Much of this is, no doubt, to be ascribed to their themselves to notice the communications of plebeian corown self-esteem. Men of genius, like men who want respondents. You and your brother editor, however, have given a new proof of the truth of the old proverb—“ A genius, are apt to fall into mistakes in estimating the ex.. tent of their own talents, the merit of their own disco- prophet is not without honour, except in his own country." veries, and the benefits which have resulted from them; You have done ample justice to the merits of Mr. Bell, but, making all due allowance for the exaggeration and I hope your example will be followed by all those who have the same means of engaging the public attenarising from this source, every person, who is conversant with the history of those men whose inventions and dis- tion. I would entreat the editors of all periodical pubcoveries have conferred important benefits on the human lications to remind the public, from time to time, that Mr. Bell has conferred an important benefit on his counrace, must be perfectly aware that these complaints are substantially true and correct; and, should the memories try, for which he has as yet received no reward, although of your readers fail to recal to their recollection former he has reduced himself to poverty by those experiments of examples, they have a case in point (as the lawyers say) which the public is now enjoying the advantage. By of no ordinary kind, before their eyes, at the present means, something like these, I would fain hope that the moment-Henry Bell, a man whose talents and invention, people of this country will eventually be induced to do or, perhaps, to speak more correctly, his fortunate and in- justice to Mr. Bell, and that no future son of genius, genious application of a previous invention, has been the when contemplating his fate, will have reason to repeat means of conferring on mankind one of the most important the bitter malediction of Burns, when lamenting the fate benefits which the history of science records; who has of poor Ferguson: created a new era in the history of navigation and commerce, and facilitated the means of intercourse between the most distant quarters of the globe in a manner and by means which the most ingenious and enlightened speculator of former ages did not dare to anticipate; and yet this man, from whose talents thousands and tens of thousands are every day reaping a plentiful harvest of "My curse upon your whinstane hearts, -I am, Sir, your obedient servant, F. SETTING THE TEETH ON EDGE. TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-I should wish to know, through the medium your valuable Kaleidoscope, what is the reason that the noise occasioned by the filing of iron, or any other wat of the kind, takes effect upon the teeth of man, more that any other part of his body, and which of the five sens disturbed thereby ?-Yours, &c. QUESITOR. Our correspondent is informed, that we do not pretend to explain the phenomena which is the subject of h note; but we shall take an early opportunity to insert is the Kaleidoscope some very curious instances of the m ner in which the teeth of different individuals have been affected, even to bleeding, by different sounds, et noises. -Edit. Kal. 1 Castle...... B-7+ Black 5 Knight C5-A—6+MATE, A B M C D E F G To Correspondents. ERRATA in the Essay "On Satire," in our last-For read "opima," for "longane," read "longan;" f read "Elûgeln" for "deo," read "des;" for read "Nachruhms." The Editor having been last week summoned the Lancaster Assizes, as a witness, whence he has (Monday) returned, trusts that correspondents deem it a slight if their favours are merely and knowledged, without, for the present, pledging their b tion. We have received the communication of X Printed, published, and sold, EVERY TUESDAY, Ziterary and Scientific Mirror. UTILE DULCI." mis familiar Miscellany, from which religious and politicalmatters are excluded, contains a variety of original andselected Articles; comprehending Literature, Criticism, Men and Manners, Amusement, Elegant Extracts, Poetry, Anecdotes, Biography, Meteorology, the Drama, Arts and Sciences, Wit and Satire, Fashions, Natural History, &c. &c. forming a handsome Annual Volume, with an Index and Title-page.-Its circulationrenders it a most eligible medium for Literary and Fashionable Advertisements.-Regular supplies are forwarded weekly to the Agents. La legère couche de vie, qui fleurit à la surface du globe, ne Yanslated expressly for the Kaleidoscope from a recent French work. CONTINUATION OF THE MINERAL CRUST. We discover, by examining the excavations made in TUESDAY, MARCH 22. 1825. PRICE 3d and retain their two valves. These oysters are much more, supposed to have been swept away by the waters; but it These banks of oysters are covered with a very considerable mass of sand and free-stone, containing neither shells nor fossil bodies of any kind; which, however, cannot but be considered as a marine formation. It appears, therefore, that a certain space of time must have elapsed, during which, the sea no longer supported organized beings, or at least that it had lost the power of preserving them. What cause, then, can have removed from our valleys these thick layers, some of which are also exceedingly hard? It has been supposed that strong currents of But what water, of which our rivers are only very inconsiderable remains, have swept them away to the sea. current of water, what torrent would be capable of carrying away the enormous masses that must have been displaced to form our valleys? Those rivers, whose existence is admitted, cannot have flowed with sufficient rapidity to produce this effect, on account of the extremely gentle declivity of their beds. The Seine flows through the most inclined of these valleys, and during its greatest inun In the layers of later deposition, shells, more or less similar to those of the gross calcarious earth, begin to ap-dations, has not power to displace a stone as large as a pear. man's head. How could these currents of water, which were often confined within a very narrow space, have carThese different depositions, particularly the large mass of sand, being extended over a soil, already rendered nearly ried away the lower layers to so great a depth, without level by the great formations of sweet water, caused all its injuring the soft sandy soil, in many places projecting in This is peaks above the valleys, at very considerable heights? remaining inequalities entirely to disappear. proved by the circumstance, that, in all places from which How can it be imagined that no part of this broken soil causes of recent occurrence have not removed the mass of was ever precipitated into the streams of water, so as to sand, with part of the lower layers, the sand is constantly have produced at least some analogy between the layers found upon their beds, and those deposited upon the surOur soil, however, already began to assume an appear- found at the same depths. When the We must now, Madam, enter upon a part of the sub-rounding hills? But the alluvial soil of the valleys is so - something like that which it now wears. I of chalk formed the surface of the basin, the hills of ject of our investigation replete with difficulty. No ad- far from corresponding in quantity to the mass of matter ntmartre, Sanois, and Montmorency, were not in ex-missible supposition has yet been made respecting the that must have been removed in the course of their force, and the land which they cover constituted part of mation, that their widest parts are often found to contain lakes, or collections of water, that would certainly have immense valley between the hill of chalk, then situated been filled up, if they had been formed in the manner we tards the south, at Montrouge, Meudon, &c. and that have just been supposing. ards the north, at Beaumont-sur-Oise. At first the calcarious earth, and then different parts of causes that can have formed upon this level surface, the Two principal explanations have been successively approved. One, proposed by M. Deluc, is founded on the All these objections, absolutely unanswerable till now, supposition that the soil has, in many parts of the world, been longitudinally depressed, in consequence of the prevent us from accounting for the formation of the valleys enormous decrease of the substance composing the internal in our neighbourhood, either by the last hypothesis or that mass, occasioned by the numerous volcanic eruptions, suggested by M. Deluc. We are, therefore, compelled whose productions form a considerable part of the mineral to admit that they were formed in a soil rendered level by The internal mass being, in this diminished state, the last marine depositions, without attempting to explain crust. too small to fill up the vacancy within the earth, the solid in what manner this was effected. That these valleys were crust, by which it is surrounded, must in certain places excavated by some cause unknown to us, after the soil was have sunk in. Although the changes thus produced, may reduced to a level, is a fact that admits of no doubt; it is be very inconsiderable compared with the total magnitude proved by the rugged outline of their boundaries. The of the globe, the causes that gave rise to them, may serve different parts of the sandy soil of which they are composed, to account for the existence of the valleys within the basin have so little mutual adherence, that it would be absurd of Paris. I am the more inclined to adopt this supposito suppose them to have been partially deposited upon tion, because it affords very good reasons for the formation each summit." of the primitive mountains and their valleys. In fact, The return of the sea upon our continent, after its long the sharp ridges of granite which form their summits, and sence, is first manifested by a very thin but equal bed of which wear every appearance of having been violently all bivalvular shells. These productions are soon re- broken asunder; the inclined position of the layers deaced by two distinct layers of oysters. The lower layer posited upon their sides, and the identity of the soil found composed of very thick large oysters, some of which upon the mountains and in the valleys between them; all e at least four inches in length; the upper layer, sepa- these circumstances tend to confirm this opinion respectted from the former by a bed of whitish marl, is coming the origin of the primitive mountains. >sed of brown oysters, much smaller and thinner than ose of the lower layer. These two banks are constantly found at the same depth the hills round Paris, however distant they may be from ach other. M. M. Cuvier and Brongniart declare that hey have known them to fail only in one instance. Besides, it is evident that they must have lived in the places where they are found, since they are fastened upon Most of them are whole, one another like those in the sea. The soil at the bottom of our valleys does not, however, resemble that found upon the surrounding hills, neither are the layers deposited upon the sides of the hill, inclined towards the summits. Thus, the soil upon the plains of Grenelle and Pointdu-Jour, and at the bottom of the Seine, at Sevres, is not composed of the sand, the gypsum, or even the gross calcarious earth found upon the neighbouring heights, although the latter, on account of its solidity, cannot be The most evident proofs, that the formation of certain valleys is posterior to that of the soil in which they are excavated, are those enormous blocks of stone (usually of granite) often found upon the summit of hills, composed of a soil quite different from them in nature. They must, therefore, have which they are found; and, in fact, when researches are made, been rolled from some place more elevated than that upon the rock from which they were detached, never fails to be found in the neighbourhood; but, it often happens, that this rock is separated from the hill to which the block has rolled, by a deep valley. It is obvious that the valley must have been excavated at a period posterior to the fall of the stone, which could not have rolled across it. It may generally be discovered, by inspecting the angles of a mass of stone thus displaced, from what distance it has fallen. If it is much worn and rounded at the edges, it may be retains sharp points, it can have traversed only a short space. The correctness of these inferences has been confirmed by observation. concluded, that it has rolled during a long time; but if it still |