When first dug out it is friable and has a very gritty feel, falling abroad on being thrown into water like lime when it is slaking. In the sample I have sent I find several minute nodules of carbonate of lime, which will of course alter the results as given above. No. 7 is a coarse silicious grit, and No. 8 is basalt again. Beyond which I did not consider it necessary to extend my search. I do not venture to offer any hypothesis on the discovery of the above interesting facts, but content myself by bringing to the notice of the members of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta the singular circumstance of shells in a high state of preservation lodged in a calcareous bed, being found in the midst of volcanic matter. I hope some day to be able to ascertain the limits of the fossil beds. The following is a section of the shaft: 1. Surface soil, black, 3 feet. 2. Soft basalt, 2 do. 3. Hard basalt, 7 do. 4. Soft basalt, 1 do. 5. Wacke with nodules of limestone, 3 do. 8. Hard basalt. VIII.—Meteorological Register at Barelly, in 1831. By H. S. Boul The detached thermometer was in an open northern verandah, the moistened bulb thermometer was inside the house. The barometer was a plain tube with brass scale. The barometer tube was filled with unboiled mercury, and the air gathered and extracted by repeatedly reversing it. In the "GLEANINGS," for October, 1831, I mentioned the altitude of Barelly, gained from a few observations, as about 1080 feet. I was surprised at the result myself, but could not account for it. I think I must have made some mistake in recording the observations, or perhaps in adjusting the scale to the tube. The barometer with which the above observations were made was precisely similar to the former one, but not the same. A set of 10 observations in May, compared with those of the corresponding times in Calcutta, gives altitude of Barelly, feet 742.29. Another set of 10 observations in the same month, feet 745.58; a 3rd set of 10 in the same month, feet 730.32, and a 4th set of 10 gives feet 755.4, and a set of 31 observations in June gives, feet 753.35. With the former tube and scale, a set of eight observations in May, 1830, gave the altitude of the " oaks" at Masuri, 6796 feet above Calcutta; with the same barometer in November, the same 1st set of 10 Calcutta Barometer 29.617 Thermometer 92.94 year, 15 observations gave the altitude, feet 6777.7, and another set of 10 made it, feet 6775.1, and then the latter were taken after a long march in the hills, during which the barometer had been repeatedly refilled. I have a barometer made by Bate, on the principle of Guy Sussac's syphon barometer, with Captain Kater's improvements, (that is the description given of it,) and it seems in excellent order. This stands about .05 higher than a barometer of the above simple make, and filled in the same easy manner as above mentioned. (I should mention that the tubes used have all been of large bore.) But I have no means of discovering the error of either. The following observations were made at Hardwar, near the centre of the pass, in a house about 150 feet above the bed of the Ganges: Bar. 32°. Ther. The height deduced from comparison with corresponding altitudes in Calcutta is, from those in the Journal*, 1214 feet above Calcutta, and from those at the Surveyor General's Office, 1276 do. The latter are more numerous. The mean of these would be about 1245 feet, and if the estimated altitude above the river be deducted, it would leave the height of the Ganges at Hardwar above Calcutta about 1095 feet. The barometer used was, as before, a plain tube, freshly filled with mercury. Though not tried, I suppose the depression of the moist bulb thermometer must have been near 30°. In elucidation of the remarks on filling barometers when the air is damp, (vide Journal of the As. Soc. ii. 260.) I may record the following experiments made by myself: On the 12th July last, when the depression of the moist bulb thermometer was 90, I filled a tube which stood exactly the same as one filled on the 3rd June, when the air was very dry; in both these tubes My barometer stands on an average .044 lower than the Surveyor General's, which will make an addition of 50 feet necessary to the altitude calculated.—ED. the mercury stood about inch .05 lower than that in the English baro meter above mentioned. On the 1st August, I emptied the tube which had been filled on the 3rd June; and refilled it: the results of this and a few more experiments I give below: The tube was wiped with an iron wire, round which silk was bound for about six inches, and on the last occasion, I heated the silk over a fire, and kept up a smart friction in the tube, till I felt a sensible heat from it. I should think that similar results might always be gained. The height at which the mercury stood, after this method of drying the tube, being the same as regards the English barometer as what it was when it was filled in very dry weather on the 3rd June. IX. Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. Wednesday Evening, the 26th December, 1833. Captain W. N. FORBES, Engineers, in the Chair. The Proceedings of the last Meeting were read.-G. A. BUSHBY, Esq. proposed at the last Meeting, was elected a Member. A. HAMILTON, M. D. Surgeon of H. M. 41st Regiment of Foot, at Moulmein, was proposed as a Member by Mr. TWINING, seconded by Mr. PRINSEF. Messrs. MACKENZIE, J. S. STOPFORD, and Mr. A. BEATTIE, proposed by Mr. BAGSHAW, Seconded by Dr. TYTLER. A letter was read from M. J. J. MARCEL, Ancien Directeur de l'Imprimerie Royale, Membre de la Commission d'Egypte, &c. requesting to know the result of his application of the 14th July, 1830, and presenting copies of his Translations from the Arabic. Mr. MARCEL was elected an Honorary Member on the 4th January, 1832, but the announcement had unfortunately miscarried. A letter from G. A. BUSHBY, Esq. Officiating Secretary to Government, General Department, intimating the resolution of the Right Hon'ble the Governor General in Council, that the privilege of franking accorded to |
