The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-25 00:00:00

THAMES.

STEALING WINE IN THE LONDON DOCK.—John Walter,
a cooper, about 30 years of age, was brought before Mr.
Selfe charged with stealing a sample bottle of Sherry wine,
the property of the London Dock Company, from their
premises.
Mr. John George, a constable in the employ of the Dock
Company, said that yesterday afternoon he saw the pri-
soner leaving the dock at the west gate, and suspecting
him, he stopped him and asked him if he had anything
about him belonging to the company. The prisoner re-
plied in the negative. He searched the prisoner and found
in his coat pocket a sample bottle of sherry. He asked the
prisoner where he obtained it, to which he answered that
he obtained it at the No. 3 vault, and that a
cooper named Wellbrook drew it for him. He
made inquiries and ascertained that no such per-
son was employed in No. 3 vault as Wellbrook. The
prisoner then said he found the bottle of wine secreted
behind some wood. On making inquiries he discovered
the bottle of sherry had been stolen from a truck which had
contained a large number of samples of wine for transmis-
sion to merchants in the city. One numbered 178 was
missing. The sample bottle taken from the prisoner was
N 0.178 and labelled in the usual manner.

The prisoner, in defence, said ho found the sample bottle
of wine concealed in a dust bin.

Mr. Selfe—That won't do. You have taken that pint
sample of wine from a truck, or some one in the dock gave
it you to carry out. You are liable to two months impri-
sonment for this. You are fined 40s. for the unlawful pos-
session of the wine.

THE TEMPERATURE OF TEE EARTH'S

CRUST.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester Literary
and Philosophical Society a paper was read by Mr.
W. Fairbairn, LL.D., " On the Temperature of the
Earth's Crust, as exhibited by Thermometrical
Observations obtained during the sinking of the
Deep Mine at Dukinfield." He says:—" During
the prosecution of researches on the conductivity
and fusion of various substances, an opportunity
occurred of ascertaining by direct experiments,
under favourable circumstances, the increase of
temperature in the crust of the earth. This was
obtained by means of thermometers place in bore-
holes, at various depths, during the sinking of
one of the deepest mines in England—namely,
the coal mine belonging to Mr. F. D. Astley,
at Dukinfield, which has been sunk to a depth
of 700 yards. The increase of temperature in de-
scending shown by these observations is irregular;
nor is this to be wondered at if we consider the
difficulties of the inquiry, and the resources of error
in assuming the temperature of a single bore-hole
as the mean temperature of the stratum. At
the same time, it is not probable that the tempera-
ture in the mine-shaft influenced the results. The
rate of increase has been shown in previous expe-
riments to be directly as the depth, and this is
confirmed by these experiments. The amount of
increase is from 51 deg. F to 57.1 deg., as the depth
increases from 51 deg. to 231 yards, or 1 deg. in 99
feet ; but, in this case, the higher temperature is
not very accurately determined. From 231 to 685
yards, the temperature increases from 571 deg. F
to 751- deg. This is a mean increase of 1 deg. in
76.8 feet, which does not widely differ from the
results of other aservers. Walferdin and Arago
found an increase of 1 deg. in 59 feet ; at Rehme,
in an Artesian well, 760 yards deep, the increase
was 1 deg. in 54.7 feet ; De La Rive and Marcet
found an increase of 1 deg. in 51 feet at Geneva.
Other experiments have given 1 deg. in 71 feet.
The observations are affected by the varying con-
ductivity of the rocks, and by the percolation of
water." The author has exhibited upon a diagram,
in which the ordinates are depths and the abseissas
temperatures, the results obtained between depths of
531 and 717 yards. The strata of the mine are
also shown in section. Additional to these, the
author gives a table of similar results in another
pit at the same colliery, taken between the depths
of 1671 and 467 yards, and showing an increase of
temperature of 1 deg. in 106 feet of descent. As-
suming, as an hypothesis, that the law thus found
for a depth of 790 yards continues to operate at
greater depths, we arrive at the conclusion that at
2/ miles from the surface a temperature of 212
deg. would be reached, and at 40 miles a tempe-
rature of 3,000 deg,, which we suppose sufficient to
melt the hardest rock.