The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-24 00:00:00

SUPPOSED MURDER.

On Sabbath morning the inhabitants of Alain-street,
Calton, were thrown into a state of consternation by an
alarm of murder. It appears that Agnes Sutherland or.
Thomson, residing at 14, Main-street, a woman of
int( mperate habits, and who is said to have been
labouring under delirium tremens for the last eight
days, has been cohabiting with a sheriff's officer,
named Archibald Smith, belonging to 197, lligh-
street. About a quarter past three o'clock the
neighbours were alarmed by the cries of murder,
murder, help me," from the unfortunate woman, who
had her head out of the open window. About half-
past three one of the neighbours lifted
her window
and spoke to her, when she exclaimed, "Will
you no help me ; see hoo he's kicking me.' Such
scenes were not unusual, and the neighbours did not
expect that the matter would end so seriously. About
four o'clock Smith left the House, when the neigh-
bour who had spoken over the window, alarmed by a
heavy fall, entered the house, and found the
unfortunate woman lying dead on the floor ; the body
was very much discoloured. Yesterday forenoon
Smith was apprehended by Serjeants Mitchell and Arnot,
of the eastern division of the City Police, and was
committed to prison. The case is undergoing an in-
vestigation by Sheriff Bell. Yesterday afternoon, Dr.
Easton of the Central Police Establishment, and Dr.
Young of Eastern district, held a post mortem examina-
tion upon the body, the result of which has not yet
transpired. The body of the deceased, who was 33
years of age, was interred last night about eight o'clock.
—North British Mail.

GEOLGGICAL DISCOVERIES.
The following extracts from the diary of one of the
superintendents, although relating. almost exclusiuely to
scientific and geological matters, will be perused, we have
no doubt, with interest by many of our readers:- ." On
r t yK oe
berry,
rl3), n(iseol
cCarlkliendi
because
eEjsuqt
iltnugthhr
the East
the p
tFractiornopef so
ting into the county of Cork), the section of a new road
exposes a great number of large trees, pines, oaks, and
birch, all broken short with a jaggard fracture ; the
branches lying in all directions, but chiefly from east to
west, and sometimes the bark adhering to the under
side. The fragments of the trunks are from 10 to 12
feet asunder, all upright. and bedded on a white argilla-
ceous clay beneath the peat or turf. An intelligent
peasant observed to me that he understood it was some
great flood that destroyed this forest "in the ould an-
cient times." But I did not notice any boulders or de-
bris in the peat or clay substrata. However, such
statements, though coming from unlearned lips, may be
traced to remote traditions, and contain hints orthe-true
causes of the catastrophe. It was an unlearned man in
the United States who first conjectured that the striated
marks on the rocks of the old and new continent were
caused by the drifting of icebergs over the bottom of
ancient waters ; and the theory has set at rest many a
geological controversy. The same peasant also pointed
out to me in sundry places detached heaps of half-burned
brown stones, about the size and shape of powdered
pavement, and evidently broken with the hammer. These
were broken in shallow, vat-shaped hollows, generally
about 20 feet by 13, and us, d in the brewing of the bior
(beer), the mead of Ossian's heroes, but the rude tribes
of these " ould ancient times"—the Lughenhagh whom
Brian (Horhoime or Boru) expelled from Ireland. So
my informant told me. I have similar remains of these
primitive brewing vats ; and once heard from an old
mountain patriarch, that the secret of the manufacture
had been preserved inviolate for many generations, until
it rested with two brother, and
.one of them slew the
other, and then dispatched himself, lest the secret should
ever transpire."

PAINFUL NECESSITY.—During the long drought
of last summer, an American paper says, water became
so scarce in a parish, that the farmers' wives were obliged
to send their milk to town genuine.