The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Volume 8Sir David Brewster, Robert Jameson Archibald Constable, 1823 Contains the proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Wernerian Natural History Society, etc. |
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acid albumen angle animals appear bones breccia calcareous Captain Scoresby carbonic acid Carinthia Carniola cave cavern characters circumstances coast colour considerable containing curious deposits discovery distance Dr Herschel earth Edinburgh equal exhibited experiments feet feldspar fossil fresh-water formations genera genus glass Greenland height hyænas ignited images inches increase interesting Island crystal Istria Journal kind lake lens lenses light lime limestone magnet males manner mass Massachusets matter memoir Mohs motion mountains nearly nitric acid object observed Omalius d'Halloy parallel passed period perpendicular petrifactions pieces pitchstone plants population Potash present principles prism produced quantity rays refraction remains remarkable Right Ascension rock Saltzburg seen shells shew side singular snow Solfatara solid species specimens stalactites succory summit surface tion toises travertine Trieste tufas whole wire yolk
Popular passages
Page 224 - Our sun with all the stars we can see with the eye are deeply immersed in the milky way, and form a component part of it.
Page 350 - ... 15", W., land was seen from the mast-head to the westward, occasionally, for three successive days. It was so distinct and bold, that Captain Manby, who accompanied me on that voyage, and whose observations are already before the public, was enabled, at one time, to take a sketch of it from the deck, whilst I took a similar sketch from the mast-head, which is preserved in my journal of that year. The land at that time nearest to us was Wollaston Foreland, which, by my late surveys, proves to...
Page 114 - ... Ocean. Did the skin present, externally, that thinness of hair, scaliness of surface, and naked appearance, which characterize the living elephants of the equatorial regions, or did its condition, as to hair, indicate an animal fitted, by its clothing, to reside in a cold climate? The covering was of three kinds:— bristles nearly black, much- thicker than horse hair, and from twelve to sixteen inches in length; — hair of a reddish-brown colour, about four inches in length; and wool of the...
Page 242 - The sun is melting the snow on all sides, and its surface will not bear us any longer. I have sunk up to my neck as well as others. The surface is more and more ragged, and broken into chasms, rifts, and ravines, of snow with steep sides. Ponds of water form in the bottoms of these, and the large and deep pools at the bottoms of the snow hollows, and which were in the earlier part of the day frozen, are now liquid. It is evident from the falling in of the sides of the rents in the snow, that there...
Page 343 - The colours were yellowish-white and greyish-white. All the stars of the fourth magnitude were visible through the meteor, even in its most vivid coruscations. Ursa Major was at one time encircled with such a characteristic blazonry of light, that the Bear seemed to spring into figure, and to be shaking his shaggy limbs, as if in contempt of the less distinguished constellations around him. The Pleiades were almost observed by the light produced by the aurora ; though Venus, and all the superior...
Page 60 - It must already appear probable, from the facts above described, particularly from the comminuted state and apparently gnawed condition of the bones, that the cave at Kirkdale was, during a long succession of years, inhabited as a den by hyaenas, and that they dragged into its recesses the other animal bodies whose remains are found mixed indiscriminately with their own...
Page 370 - ... needle, with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance ; but that the action of the particles of the fluid in the wire is...
Page 162 - By this combination of segments, a lens four feet in diameter will be formed, and will obviously possess the same properties as if it consisted of solid glass. The advantages of this construction may be very shortly enumerated.
Page 356 - ... in length, and 6 to 9 in width. The sides ' of each hut were sustained by a wall of rough stones, and the bottom appeared to be gravel, clay, and moss. The access to these huts, after the manner of the Esquimaux, was a horizontal tunnel perforating the ground, about...
Page 240 - The dazzling brilliancy of the snow was rendered more striking by its contrast with the dark-blue colour of the sky, which is caused by the thinness of the air ; and at night the stars shone with a lustre which they have not in a denser atmosphere. It was curious, too, to see them when rising appear like one sudden flash, as they emerged from behind...