The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-20 00:00:00

SCIENTIFIC VARIETIES.

(From the Scotsman.)
We have derived the materials for the follow-
ing Notices (except the last), from the 14t1
and 15th numbers of Professor Jamieson's Phi-
losophical Journal.--They consist of abstracts
in a popular form, of articles in the two num-
bers, mixed up with our own comments and dis-
cussions.

CHRONOMETERS.--Captain Wauchope of
the Royal Navy has suggested to the Admiralty,
a plan for regulating chronometers, which is
now under trial at Portsmouth. It is known
that of all the methods of finding the longitude,
the most easy in practice, and, therefore, the
best, is that of comparing the time found by
observing the sun's place at mid day, with that
indicated by a chronometer adjusted to the me-
ridian of Greenwich. The great disadvantage
attending the process is, that the ship's chro-
nometer must be taken ashore to be compared
with a standard one, or to be regulated by astro-
nomical observations. Sometimes ships have
not time for this operation, which is, besides, at-
tended with some risk to the instrument. To
simplify the process, Captain Wauchope pro-
poses, that a flag staff should be erected on a
conspicuous spot where a well regulated chro-
nometer is kept, sliming the time at Greenwich ;
and that a little before -noon a signal should be
hoisted, which should be hauled down at the
precise instant when it is noon at Greenwidi.
Here, for instance, the signal might be pl;:ced
on the Calton Hill, and made to exhibit Green-
wich
time, as ascertained by a chronometer
regulated by astronomical observations in the
Observatory. A ball of four feet diameter placed
on a staff, would serve as a signal, and its descent
would enable every ship in Leith Roads to get
a correct rate, without trouble, and far more
accurately than by the best sextant and artificial
horizon in the hands of the most experienced
observer. It would at the same time enable all
the watchmakers in the city to compare the
going of their time pieces with true time. The
masters of dock-yards at the great ports, and at
the naval stations abroad, might be entrusted
with the management of the signals ; and a
transit instrument placed at a north and south
window in a store, would answer all the purposes
of an Observatory.
THIBET.—We shall by and bye have more
correct accounts of one region of Asia which
has long baffled the curiosity of Europeans, we
mean the great central plateau of Thibet. A
Dr. Gerard has lately visited the valley of the
Setledge, where he found rye growing at the
height of 15,000 feet, in the latitude of 32 or
33 ; and fossil shells were found in Secondary
limestone at a still greater elevation. Even at
the height of 20,000 feet, in this parallel, Dr.
Gerard did not encounter perpetual snow, which
ought to be found descending to a lower level
by 9,000 feet. "In these regions, which for a
long time were inaccessible, Dr. Gerard met
with one of the most intrepid philologists known
in Hungary, named Cosma de Kords. This
traveller, after advancing towards the centre of
Asia, arrived at Kinnaour, in Thibet, where he
fixed himself in the Monastery of Kanum, and
lived among the monks of the Lamaic religion.
Aided by a learned Lama, lie made great pro-
gress in the study of the literature of Thibet,
and discovered an Encyclopaedia in forty-four
volumes, which treated of the arts and sciences.
The medical part of this large work forms five
volumes. The art of lithography has been
practised at the principal city of Thibet from
time immemorial, and it has been used to dis-
play the anatomy of the different parts of the
human body. It appears that science and letters,
flying from the tyranny of the caste of the Brah-
mins, abandoned the plains of Hindostan, and
took refuge on the mountains of Thibet, where,
until the present time, they remained totally un-
known to the rest of the world."

HOT SPRINGS.—Hot . springs are most nu-
merous in volcanic districts, and near primitive
mountains. Dr. Bishoff, a German philosopher,
endeavoured to ascertain by experiment, what
quantity of heat would be required to maintain
the hot springs at Carlsbad, in Bohemia, at the
temperature which they presently exhibit, for
7,000 years ; and he finds that it would require
5,000,000,000 cubic feet of half melted basalt,
to produce the'requisite supply of caloric. The
basalt is supposed to be put at a melting heat
into the water at 11 of Iteaumur, and always
added in sufficient quantity to keep up the tem-
perature at 59 (164 of Fahrenheit.) The
5,000,000,000 feet of basalt amount to nearly
one 25th part of a cubic mile, or a mass about
twice as large as Arthur's Seat. This affords
a strong argument against the old doctrine,
which ascribed the heat of warm springs to beds
of decomposing pyrites- or burning coal. In-
deed the existence of an internal heat pervading
the whole mass of earth, is the only cause that
can afford an adequate explanation of this and
some other phenomena.

RELATIVE AGE OF MOUNTAINS.—M.
Elie de Beaumont read lately to the French
Academy of Sciences, a Memoir, in which he
developes some interesting ideas respecting the
relative age of mountains. The doctrine of
Werner was, that the primitive mountains crys-
tallized first out of the universal fluid in the
positions which they now occupy ; that the tran-
sition rocks were deposited on their sides at a
lower elevation ; and then the secondary strata
above these, filling up the bottoms of the vast
cavities originally existing among the older
rocks. But the discoveries made during the
last twenty years have led many geologists to
believe that the relative age of the rocks follows
an order in some measure the reverse of this—
that the original surface of the globe was formed
of strata nearly horizontal, that chain of moun-
tains rose up from below, at different periods,
bursting through the level envelope, and that this
process was going on from time to time, while
the newer secondary rocks were still forming.—
Supposing this opinion to be correct, the newt
question is, at what geological epoch were the
different known chains of mountains protruded
from below. The positions of the sedimentary,
that is the secondary and tertiary strata, afford
data for determining this point. All these have
been formed in a position either nearly or en-
tirely horizontal. If we find some of them lean-
ing against the protruded masses of Granite or
Trap in positions highly inclined, we may con-
clude that these have been lifted out of their
original situation by the upileaving of the central
mass, and of course are older than the rocks
that disturbed them. If we find other strata in
contact with the same masses, but touching them
only with the edges, and still occupying a hori-
zontal position, we may conclude that these have
been deposited since the disturbing force ceased
to act, and are newer than the central
ihus, to take an example from our own neigh-
bourhood, the sandstone strata on the east, west,
and north side of Braid and Blackford Hills clip
away from these hills in every direction, or they

' may be said to lean against the hills with their
edges raised at a considerable angle. They
cou!d not have this position originally, and must
therefore have assumed it in consequence of the
masses of claystone and clinkstone composing
these hills, being thrust up from below long
after the sandstone beds were formed. As re-
gards the surface of the earth, therefore, Braid
and Blackford Hills are newer than the sand-
stone strata which surround them. Pro-
ceeding upon data of this and other descrip-
tions, M. Beaumont thinks—l. That the moun-
tains of Erzegebirge in Saxony, and Cote d'Or
in Burgundy, are newer than the Jura limestone,
but older than the Green Sand and chalk. 2.
That the Pyrenees and Appenines are of about
'the same age with the chalk formation. 3. That
the western part of the Alps is newer than the
tertiary formations, and had in fact been raised
up after the last of the solid strata were formed,
but prior to the deluge. Nor is it obvious that
the protrusion of such immense masses as the
Alps or Pyrenees from the bottom of the sea,
must have dislodged a vast body of water, and
created a series of waves high and powerful enough
to cause a transitory but destructive flood, by pass-
ing over the parts of the neighbouring dry land
which were only one or two thousand feet above
the sea. In this way, he thinks, some of those re-
volutions may be accounted for which seem to
have extinguished animal life at different periods,
and prepared the way for new creations ; and he
considers it as not improbable that the last
flood, the deluge of the Scriptures, was caused
by the protrusion of the Andes. Without pro-
nouncing on the soundness of this last opinion,
we may state, that the leading idea of Mr. Beau-
mont's hypothesis has often occurred to our-
selves. Sir James Hall, for instance, in exa-
mining the diluvial scratchings and groovings
on the surface of the rocks in Scotland, found
that on the west coast they pointed to the Atlantic,
on the east to the German Ocean, and on the south
to St. George's Channel. He accounts for this
by supposing, that though the great waves them-
selves passed eastward, the tail or residue of
their waters rushed down from the hills in all
directions to the plains. But it has often struck
us, that the diversity of direction in the scratches
is more simply explained by supposing that the
currents which produced them consisted merely
of the waters dislodged by the upheaving of the
Grampians and the great Transition chain of
the south of Scotland—which waters would of
course rush away to the sea on all sides from
the central masses. It does not follow that
these two mountain ranges were raised at the
same time, or either of them at or.e thrust.
Ages may have passed between the protrusion
of the one and the other, and each may have
mounted to its present elevation by a succession
of lilts. It is not impossible that either of them
may be rising still. Perhaps the earthquakes
felt annually at Comrie, may be the expiring
efforts of that force, which first made the Gram-
pians ascend from the bottom of the ocean.
Neither does it follow that the Andes, or other
American mountains, may not have risen long
after our Scottish hills existed, and caused ano-
ther new and transitory inundation.
CANALS.—LEAKAGE AND WASTE OF
WATER.—We are told in the " Narrative of
Major Long's Expedition," that the waste of
water from leakage and evaporation in the
New York Canal, is much greater than was
anticipated, amounting, "on an average, to one
hundred cubic feet per minute for every mile of
route." (p. 71.) This is equal to 144,000
cubic feet, or 900,000 gallons per day, a quan-
tity of water not much less than what would
serve the city of Edinburgh for the same space
of time. The genet al breadth of the canal is
40 feet ; and supposing the annual evaporation
to be 60 inches, the quantity which passes off"
from one mile of the surface in one day, would
only be 3000 cubic feet, or the 47th part of
what is loSt by leakage. Such a loss from
leakage seems to us scarcely credible. Either
Liere must be some error in the statement, or
the work must surely be very imperfect.

The fun6ral of the unfortunate Miss I3oTH
took place on Sunday in Poplar Church, quite in a private
manner. Lieutenant CROWTHER and his friend Air.
SCI MIDT attended on the occasion. The deceased was
interred, as she had requested, by the side of her sister. It
is said that a lady of rank has taken the surviving sister
under her protection.

REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE.-It is a re.
markable circumstance, that No. 11 Pilot-boat has been at
sea since Monday, the 21st ult., and that, during that long
period, she has not boarded the whole of her hands ; an oc-
currence which, we have been told, has not occurred in
the course of the last twenty years. The circumstance is
owing to the prevalence of easterly winds during the last
fuur weeks.—Liverpool

HINCKLEY.—We are very sorry to hearthat
the distress of the poor b f this town has been increased
this week by two hundred additional families, at least,
being added to the list of unemployed poor, in consequence
of the disturbed state of the stocking manufacture. Out of
a population of about 6,000, upwards of 4,000 are sup.
ported by the poor-rates and charitable contributions,—
Champion of the East.

RARA -Avis.—For fourteen years, a black,
bird, singularly marked, its head and shoulders being per-
fectly white, has regularly made its appearance in the
garden of a gentleman in High-street, Boston, and be-
came in fact so constant a visitant as to be invariably fed,
and domesticated. The poor bird's mellifluous notes,
however, ceased yesterday, when ho was found dead in the
garden of his benefactor.--Boaton Gazette.

ofB;
cot linfesbuutriyi,tewdaspahrefisdh
oens
Aoifo
nSdta.yG even-
ingi! esTavern, for the purpose of taking
:funrdtAhaSetrttn:lsiteGeeepFetosii.rellgeigne:'"opopnoss'ition to the conduct of the select
vestry. At about half-past seven, Mr. ROGERS, the
senior churchwarden of St. Giles's, opened the business of
the evening. There were about 300 persons present.
Mr. Wax Liv having been called to the Chair, congro.it.
hated the parishioners on the result of their trial, by wh'acti
it was decided that the vestry was an open one. P,e then
censured the conduct of the select vestry, mad said that
the Bill which they proposed to bring into Parliament in
the next session, was a mast infamous document. Mr.
WAXLEY concluded by moving several Resolutions, which
went to pledge the Meeting to oppose the select vestry,
and any Bill which they might bring in, the provisions of
which did not secure to the parishioners the annual elec.
tion of a responsible body for the regulation and govern-
ment of these parishes, or any Bill which shall violate or
tend to diminish any of the rights, privileges, or elective
franchise now enjoyed by the inhabitant rate-payers. The
Resolutions having been agreed to, the Meeting adjournd.a
The following anecdoto of BYRON is related
by his biographer, Mr, MOORE While Lord Byfor.
and Mr. PEEL were at Harrow together, a tyrant scone
few years older, whose name was ....... . claimed
a right to, fag young PEEL, which olaim (whether rightly
or wrongly I know not) Prv,i, resisted. His resistanee„
however, was in vain • not only sub.
dued him, but determined to punish the refractory slave;
and proceeded forthwith to put this determination in prac-
tice, by inflicting a kind of bastinado on the inner fleshy
side of the boy's arm, which, during the eperatiou, was,
twisted round with some degree of technical skill, to ren-
der the pain snore acute. While the stripes were succeed-
ing each other, and poor. PHEL writhing under them,
BYRON saw and felt for the misery of his friend ; and,
although he knew that ho was not strong enough to fight
, with any hope of success, and that it was
dangerous even to approach him, he advanced to the
scene of action, and with a blush of rage, tears in his eyes,
and a voice trembling between terror and indignation,
asked very humbly if
tell him, how many stripes he meant to inflict ?'—.‘ Why,'
returned the executioner, you little rascal, what is that
to you Because, if you please,' %Ai d Bractx, holding.
out his arm, I would take half "