3. Microscopic examination of Soundings, made by the U. S. Coast Survey of the Atlantic Coast of the United States; by Prof. J. W. BAILEY, (16 pp. 4to. with a plate; from vol. ii, of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge.)-After special details with referenee to the character of the material in each case of sounding, Prof. Bailey gives the following very important statements as the general results of the examinations.

1st. The most remarkable fact determined by the examination of the above mentioned soundings is, that in all the deep soundings, from that of fifty-one fathoms S. E. of Montauk Point, to that of ninety fath oms S. E. of Cape Henlopen, there is a truly wonderful development of minute organic forms, consisting chiefly of Polythalamia, which occur in an abundance rivalling those vast accumulations of analogous forms constituting the marls under the city of Charleston, S. C.

2d. While there is a general resemblance between the species found in all the deep soundings above mentioned, the same species of Poly. thalamia occurring with few exceptions at each locality, yet each place has its predominant species; thus in the most southerly soundings, (H, No. 1, 90 fathoms,) there occurs a much greater number of Globigerina than in any of the others; while Textilaria atlantica, although pres ent, is by no means so abundant as in "G, No. 8, 89 fathoms."

3d. Infusoria, as well as Polythalamia, occur in the deep soundings; but the infusoria are few in number, and consist of Coscinodisci, Galli onella sulcata, and other species, which probably swim freely in the ocean; while none of the littoral parasitic species, such as Achnanthes, Isthmia, Biddulphia, Striatella, and Synedra are found.

4th. It is worthy of notice that in the deep soundings not a single specimen was found of Polythalamia belonging to the Plicatilia of Ehrenberg, (Agathistiques of D'Orbigny,) while a number of these forms were found in the shallow soundings, and they are well known to occur in vast quantities around the shores of Florida and the West India Islands. This group of Polythalamia appears to have been cre ated after the deposition of the chalk formation, in which no trace of such forms occurs, while they are very abundant in the tertiary depos ites. Their entire absence in the deep soundings, where vast numbers of other Polythalamia occur, and their presence in littoral deposits, would seem to indicate that for their abundant development compara. tively shallow seas are necessary; thus affording additional evidence of difference in the depths of the seas from which the cretaceous and tertiary beds were deposited.

5th. The deep soundings were all from localities which are more or less under the influence of the Gulf stream, and it is not improbable that the high temperature of the waters along the oceanic current may be the cause of immense development of organic life, making its path, as is shown by the soundings, a perfect milky way of Polythalamia forms. The deposits under Charleston may have been produced under the similar influence of an ancient gulf stream.

6th. From the presence of such great numbers of Polythalamia in the deep soundings, there results a very large proportion of calcareous matter, thus presenting a striking difference between them and the quartzose and felspathic sands nearer shore.

7th. The littoral sands obtained in shallow soundings at first view appear to afford little promise of affording any Infusoria. But notwithstanding their coarse, and, in some cases, even gravelly nature, they all yield by levigation a considerable number of silicious Infusoria, which in variety and abundance exceed those found in the deep soundings.

8th. None of the soundings present anything resembling the vast accumulations of Infusoria which occur in the Miocene infusorial marls of Virginia and Maryland: and, indeed, I have never found, even in estuaries, any recent deposit at all resembling the fossil ones, in abundance and variety of species, with the exception of the mud of a small creek opening into the Atlantic near Rockaway, Long Island.

9th. The occurrence of the pebble of limestone with encrinal plates in the gravel of F, No. 10, S. E. of Little Egg Harbor, is of some interest, as the nearest beds from which it could have come are the Silurian formations of Pennsylvania or northern New Jersey. It indicates a transportation of drift to a considerable distance sea-ward.

10th. In addition to the quartzose grains in the soundings, fragments of feldspar and hornblende (recognizable under the microscope by their cleavage planes and color) are found. The quartz, however, predominates, its grains being sharp and angular in the deep soundings, and often rounded or even polished in the shallow ones.

IV. ASTRONOMY.

1. On the new Ring of Saturn; by W. C. BOND, Esq., Director of the Observatory of Harvard University, (Ast. Jour., vol. ii, No. 1, May, 1851.) I had intended not to have made any communication on the subject of the new interior ring of Saturn, until an engraving had been prepared to exhibit its position and appearance. However, as I have been disappointed in this respect, and our continued observations having placed the fact of the existence of the ring beyond question, I will now ask permission to communicate some extracts from our note-book. [The engraving has since been made.]

The first diagram of the new interior ring of Saturn was made by G. P. Bond, on the night of the 11th of November, 1850. The memorandum in the note-book runs thus:

"November 11th, 22h 50m sidereal time, (=7h 30m mean solar time,) very good definition. We notice to-night, with full certainty, the filling up of light inside the inner edge of the inner ring of Saturn; also, what is very singular, where the ring crosses the ball from c to d (referring to a diagram), or below the edge, there is a dark band, no doubt the shadow of the ring. But there is also a dark line from a to b, or above the ring, very plainly to be seen, as there can be no question of the line where the ring crosses the ball.

"The light which fills the corners of the inner ring at x and y is suddenly terminated on the side towards the ball. The light does not arise, I think, from any optical cause, for I cannot see why the same appearance should not be visible on the outside of the ring, or, indeed, of any object which we look at. Am very confident of having seen to-night a second division of the ring, near the inner edge of the inner ring."

"November 15th, 7h 30m. Examined the new ring of Saturn with different powers, best definition with 400. New ring sharply defined; edge next the ball. W. C. Bond thinks he sees the new ring clear of connection with the old, but the side next the old ring is not so definite as next the planet, so that it is not certain whether the new is connected with the old ring or not. Where the dusky ring crosses Saturn, it ap pears a little wider at the outside of the ball than in the middle. Where the new ring crosses Saturn, it appears not so dark as the shadow of the ring below on the body of the planet."

"8 P. M. The best definition of Saturn's ring we have ever had. G. P. Bond examined with powers 140 and 400. Cannot be sure that the new ring is divided from the old one, but there can be no doubt that it exists; its inner edge is sharply defined. I did once or twice fancy, with the higher powers, that there was a division between the old and new rings. All the southern region of Saturn is dusky and

striped with belts.

Outer diameter of outer ring,

Inner diameter of inner ring,

Breadth of outer ring,

Inner diameter of dusky ring,

43"-9 =29 3

Distance of its inner edge from old ring,

= 2·3

26 3

= 1.5

"According to Encke's measures, Astr. Nach., No. 338, the inner diameter of the inner ring should be, at the above date, about 29′′-8; whereas, by the above measures, we make the inner diameter of the new ring to be only 26"-3."

Our observations, continued to the 7th of January, fully confirmed the deductions which we had drawn from those of the 11th and 15th of November.

The same appearances were noticed by the Rev. W. R. Dawes, at his Observatory, near Maidstone, in England, on the 25th and 29th of November, and subsequently by Mr. Lassell, of Starfield, near Liverpool. An account of their observations is given in the Royal Astronomical Society's Notices for January 10th, 1851.

2. On the Total Eclipse of the Sun, of July 28, 1851; by R. T. PAINE, Esq. Although there will be many inducements for travellers from the United States to visit Europe this summer, it is believed there is no one stronger than the total eclipse of the Sun which will take place on Monday, the 28th of July, and which being visible over a great extent of the surface of the Earth, will be one of the most important that will happen for many years.

On this occasion a total or partial obscuration of the Sun may be seen throughout the greater part of North America, (Mexico and the southern extremity of Florida being excepted,) throughout Europe, in the western, northern, and northeastern parts of Asia, in the northern and northwestern parts of Africa, in Greenland, &c., whilst the line of the central and total eclipse will pass over 191 degrees of longitude, or from the vicinity of Sitka, the capital of the Russian settlements on our northwest coast, to the southeastern extremity of the Caspian sea.

But in no part of the United States will the eclipse be total; the greatest obscuration within our territory taking place at Cape Flattery,

in Oregon, at the entrance of the Straits of Fuca, where the Sun at 4h 56m, A.M., or twenty-four minutes after it rises, will be about fivesixths (10° 3') obscured on the north side. At San Francisco the greatest obscuration will take place before the Sun rises, but as the end of the eclipse may be seen, it is hoped it will be carefully observed not only there, but at every place in California and Oregon, where are suitable instruments, as a long time will elapse before another as favorable an opportunity offers, for the determination of the longitude.

Indeed, a total eclipse of the Sun at any particular place so seldom occurs, that but a small part of those inhabitants of the earth who remain stationary, ever have an opportunity of beholding this, the most sublime of all phenomena. In April, 1715, the Sun was entirely hidden by the Moon at London, and again in May, 1724, at Paris, but in the course of the long interval between those years and 1901, and perhaps much longer, the shadow of the Moon has not again passed, and will not, over either of those cities. The only total eclipse that has happened in Boston, since its settlement in 1630, as is believed, was that which took place under such very favorable circumstances, on June 16th, 1806, and by the list of eclipses from 1824 to 1901, originally published in the Columbian Sentinel, and afterwards in an abridged form in the American Almanac for 1831, it appears that there will not be any other, certainly within the present century; moreover, it is very probable, that there are many places in this country, at which there has not been, since their settlement by Europeans, even one.

It also appears, by the list above referred to, that in the course of the seventy-five years between 1826 and 1901, the shadow of the Moon passes but three times over any part of our widely extended Atlantic coast, viz. on November 30th, 1834, over a small part of Georgia and South Carolina; on August 7th, 1869, of North Carolina and Virginia, and on May 28th, 1900, over part of Virginia. Annular eclipses, it is true, occur more frequently, as those of April, 1791, and February, 1831, were, and those of May 26th, 1854, and September 29th, 1875, will be, visible in Massachusetts, or four in about a century and a quarter; but these eclipses, although beautiful, have little of the sublimity that attends a total obscuration.

Rare therefore, as is, in general, the occurrence of a central eclipse at any particular place, it occasionally happens, that some places are, in this respect, especially favored. Thus, the eclipse of July 8th, 1842 was, and that of the present year will be, central in Poland in lat. 50° 36-7 N. long. 27° 5 5 East, so that the inhabitants of that spot will have an opportunity of beholding two total eclipses of the Sun in the course of nine years. In this country the central path of February 12th, 1831, was crossed in Alabama by that of November 30th, 1834, and in Virginia by that of September 18th, 1838, and in 1853 the two eclipses of June 6th and November 30th, will both be central in the Pacific Ocean in long. about 125° West, lat. 2° South; these are, how. ever, but exceptions to the general rule, and the places thus favored are nearly points on the surface of the Earth.

The width of the shadow of the Moon on the 28th of July next, will vary as usual whilst passing over the Earth, but in Greenland, Norway,

Sweden and Prussia it will be about 140 geographical miles. If, therefore, the central path given below, be carefully marked on a good map, and a line be drawn parallel thereto to the north and another to the south, at the distance of seventy miles or a little less therefrom, the places at which the eclipse will be total will be easily seen, there being of course some doubt as to those situated like Elsineur, just within the edge of the shadow, as a small error in the Moon's tabular latitude is not uncommon. Within the lines thus drawn are included in America several of the Russian settlements southeast of Sitka, part of British Oregon, two of the forts of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Great Slave Lake, the winter harbor of Capt. Ross in 1830, and of Capt. Parry in 1822, the Northern part of the Island of Disco, in Baffin's Bay and several of the Danish villages on the Western coast of Greenland; and in Europe the Northern part of Iceland, the astronomical observatories at Christiana, Koeningsburg, Warsaw, and Nicolaef, also the cities of Bergen, Gottenburg, Carlscrona, Calmar, Frederickshall, Jorkoping, Dantzic, Elbing, Pillau, Jitomir and Cherson; and in Asia, Tifflis and Bakou, between the Black and Caspian, besides many others of less note; but Sitka, and Stockholm, Copenhagen and Odessa are not included within these limits, the two former being situated a little too far to the north, and the two latter to the south.

The most favorable of all situations for observing the eclipse will be where central, on the western coast of Greenland, in the southern part of Norway, Sweden, and of the Island of Oland, and in Prussia, on the Baltic, between Dantzic and Koeningsburg; as the Moon being there quite high the duration of total darkness will be greater than where nearer the horizon. Thus where central, in the vicinity of Port Stewart, the Sun being low in the east, and of Tefflis, in the west, the duration of the total obscuration will be 2m. 26sec. and 2m. 31sec., at Fort Providence 2m. 49sec., in Greenland 3m. 49sec., near Bergen 3m. 38sec., near Pillau 3m. 20sec., and where central, in the vicinity of Nicolaef 2m. 55sec.

Although, as is above remarked, the diameter of the perfect shadow on the Earth, is only about 140 geographical miles, the extent of the partial shadow is comparatively very great. Indeed, if we reduce the time of the end of the eclipse at Sitka, and of the beginning at Warsaw, to a common meridian, as that of Greenwich, it will be seen that the latter precedes the former by one minute, so that although these places differ 156 degrees in longitude and their distance from each other is more than 5400 geographical, or 6200 English miles, the eclipse will begin at Warsaw on the right side of the Sun, 61 seconds before it will end at Sitka, on the left; the Sun, throughout the intervening space, being more or less obscured.

The elements of the Sun and Moon, for the following computations were deduced from the English Nautical Almanac, but their diameters and the parallax of the latter, were increased by the quantities recently recommended by Prof. Airy as the result of twelve years observations (1836 to 1847) at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The ellipti city of the earth being considered to be th.