The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

WEST-LOTHIAN.

At the close of July vegetation generally had as-
sumed a languid aspect in consequence of the pre-
vious drought. Some refreshing showers, however,
fell during the first week of August, and since then
,
there has been a timely supply of moisture. nder
this favourable change of weather late sown turnips
came away freely, and now promise, with a con-
tinuation of growing weather, to be an average
crop. In all other cases turnips will be a full aver-
age. At present there are no symptoms of finger-
and-toe. Potatoes also received much benefit from
the showers, and recovered their freshness to a great
extent where they were injured by frost ; but on the
other hand, they have, in exposed situations suf-
fered severely from the heavy winds which oc-
curred in the middle of the month. What between
this visitation, by which the strength of the plant
will be diverted from the tubers to the production
of new stems, and the drought at a more early
stage, the crop will be small in size, and
will not likely reach an average, even under the
most favourable circumstance. Some fields of
these have already been disposed of, the
last known sale being at the rate of £25 per
Scotch acre, the purchaser digging the crop, and the
farmer doing the carriage. Barley harvest coin•
menced about the 14th, and became general about
the 20th of the month, being a fortnight earlier
than last season. The crop is abovelin average both
in quantity and quality, and a full half of it is shorn.
Wheat appears to be the earliest of our cereals. It
is of fine quality, and nearly half cut. About a
third part of the oats are in the stook. Although.
this crop is short in straw, it will yield an average
quantity of grain of good quality. Some progress
has been made in the cutting of beans, which are
well podded and filled, and present a fair length of
straw. Pasturage has improved this month; but it
suffered so much from the previous dry weather
that it cannot be said to be abundant.

GEOLOGICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.—With
regard to geological periods, Egypt appears to be
of recent formation. The conical mountains, composed of
horizontal layers of grit, which skirt the desert of Korasco,
the table-land of the same formation extending from Egypt
to Fezzan, are still all but untouched by the convulsions of
the terrestrial crust which have since occurred. This cir-
cumstance and their aridity show that they have but re-
cently emerged from the waters of the sea ; a fact confirmed
by the briny wells they contain, and the saline efflores-
cences which are met with on the surface of the :soil.
There is one circumstance, however, which tells against
this conclusion, namely, the remains of vast petrified
forests which are to be found in the African deserts ;
forests, the vegetation of which was far more varied
than that of the fertile valley of the Nile. Then remains
of petrified forests exist. at different pints from the environs
of Suez to the sands of the Libyan Desert. On the table-
land behind Mokatam, east of Cairo, are large petrified
trunks of trees, from eight to ten metres in length. Some
seem to have belonged to the palm species, others to dico-
tyledonous plants. In the transversal sections the concen-
tric layers of the sap are clearly distinguishable, some even
display those radiating fissures which characterise dry
wood. They are generally of a dark grey blue, but in some
cases whitish, as if pertaining to the fir species. The illu-
sion is complete until a piece is picked up and weighed in
the hand, when its heaviness convinces us of their state of
petrifaction. The origin of these forests can only be ex-
plained by supposing these regions to have been in a state
of vegetation previously to their being submerged for
thousands of years, and then again. abandoned by the sea
as they are now. The Egyptians and other ancient nations
had a great aversion for the sea, as if they remembered
some great catastrophe caused by it. Pliny relates that a
king named Typhon gave iris name to a comet which ap-
peard in his time. and caused great inundations in Egypt
and Ethiopia. This name of Typhon seems derivable friau
loufem, which in Arabic means deltue.—Gajigeeni.