| Show geological Gt exploration OF THE ISLAND OF TAHITI 11 monsieur gernler Gern fer a french mining engineer h has lately made a geographical survey of the island of Tali tail tahiti iti the results of which are embodied in a report which is now being published in a french newspaper le lemesnager printed at papette Pa peete so much interesting information is contained in this report that we cannot resist the temptation to translate that which has already appeared for the benefit of the readers of the times S F times the island of tahiti is the result of a series serles of volcanic eruptions a fact easily established by the various strata of the discharged matter or by the positions of the streams whether of a remote or a recent date these eruptions were not continuous and we have proved that there chave have been long periods of uninterrupted tranquility during which the island must have been traversed by water courses of considerable size hence it is probable that at this epoch a territory of comparatively wide ex eg tent sprang up from nom the sea and re clothed itself in vegetation since there are to be deenin seen in queen valley entire trees completely carbonized and covered by a layer of basalt animals perhaps numer numerous us must have lived at that time and wl wo have had the good fortune to examine the remains of one of them which was imbedded bedded im in a stratum of freestone formed between two of these periodical eruptions subsequently came the outpourings of basalt trap and all the rocks of which almost the entire island is at present formed for a long time the molten mass ran over the C country in torrents it first filled the crevasses cre and smaller valleys c caused by earlier outbursts then cooled in regular layers as is to be remarked at various points 11 in tahiti these last eruptions at length ceased in their turn and the tha country assumed the appearance which it now presents but what desolation reigned then jhen upon the still hissing body of lava no ve vegi citation tation no animal life and no water meanwhile the conge which followed cleft the rocks in every direction the waters penetrated the minutest fissures and ran thence following the general declination towards the sea the beds of the streams changing ng with the lapse of time grew larger an and d became at last the valleys which we see today to day but many ages were necessary to consummate this great work the surfaces of the rocks ere long began to decompose under atmospheric action and furnished a soil of rire rare fertility for it is a fact well established that this kind of volcanic production contains already all the elements necessary to vegetation then bunches baches of floii flowers ers erb plants and trees began to appear in the midst of that quiet the industrious which build the coral reefs established themselves in large numbers bumbers numbers upon the western coast where the winds winda prevailing from the southeast never retard their labors by the dashing waves from the time that a coral barrier was thus formed along the shore all the pebbles and decayed vegetation convoyed conveyed by b y the rivulets from fr n the elevations in the interior to the toast coast were deposited in the smooth sea in such sueh a way as to form that belt of country so regular and vend so fertile which extends from the ocean to the base of the volcanic mountains this territory which rests in many points on the coral eoral reefs themselves has a breadth always greatest at the opening of the larger valleys and decreases in approaching the points of land upon the eastern coast the sea is always more disturbed by the winds and it has not permitted the corals corald to spring up so rapidly since he the waves break upon the shore with such force as to materially affect the labors of the insects and prevent the formation of so large reefs as those which exist on the coast that is protected we will now set out from papette and make the tour of the island following fo ll owing around the coast this belt of country nearly level and of greater or less extent formed in a manner that we shall observe and upon which it was easy to build an elegant and convenient thoroughfare rough fare in leaving papette Pa peete and directing our steps towards the west this strip of country is at first narrow and decreases in wid width th aa far as cape faaa faaea where it A ceases entirely before arriving at this point we noticed the quarry from which is taken nearly all the stone used for bu building alding purposes in the town this is a sort of grey feldspar and contains little crystals of pyroxene at cape faaa faaea the road is cut into the edge of a hill which borders upon the sea here is a red rock which in decomposition produces a reddish clay mingled with greyish grayish particles in the midst of these clays are separate spheroids harder and in a less advanced advance state of decay the same minerals are found at the village of faaa faaea merethe He here rethe the level country expands but beyond the town I 1 Is is ag again ain aln contracted the road is a second time cut ut in the hills the base of which is washed by the sea these are composed of a red paste interspersed with crystals of the decomposition of this rock furnishes red clay readily formed into an inferior kind 0 of bricks the means employed in the manufacture of these are not perhaps such as the nature of the clay requires the stone in its ordinary state is generally used in the construction of houses it is easy to cut and as might be expected has little durability from tournant Machet cau the road threads a sandy plain as far as the village of Puna runa ania along this part of the route the mountains although covered with a rich vegetation presents very steep declivities sweeping sometimes ome times with a circular form at the river runs through a basaltic trap and trach itic formation here the zone of level levei country is of considerable width crossing the sands and the district of paea several streams of water varying in size run through this section the rocks which compose the beds of these are identical with those already mentioned these rivulets correspond to the valleys which are deep well wooded and of a pecullar peculiar character character enlarging I 1 a as s they run into the interior the valleys are usually cut by a terrace the hight bight of which varies from front thirty to three hundred feet there the streams form a cascade above this the valle valie valley vailey still extends and a new cascade and an another terrace interrupt its regul regularity rit Y at mara alara the mountains extend quite ite down to the sea and present a cl circular lar and vertical notch about feet fe in height at the foot of this are two grottos the first and most remarkable of which has a depth of feet this is filled with water of great depth fed by numerous infiltrations that fall in rain from the walls of of the cave upon which the streams have deposited a layer of earth and lime colored like the rose probably by the action of vegetable matter within this grotto has lids the form of a half cone of which the summit is the bottom of the cave and its opening the base the observer standing at the trance eu thinks he sees the bottom of the cavern at a very short distance and he is greatly astonished upon throwing a stone with all his strength to find that the projectile instead of hitting the end barely reaches i the middle from mara to and thence to the interval mentioned gradually increases in width at the latter point it attains the breadth of two miles here the magnificent plantations of M soares scares co are established the valley of baraoa opens into this estate estate and we ascend it the formation in this vicinity is not remarkable one notices only at certain points the beauty of the crystals of pyro pyroxene xene xeno of which are the base of all the rocks roas s the valley is remarkable for a very beautiful ul cascade and an alphi theatre about three and a half miles from the entrance from to the belt of level land retains its size we stop at the last named village to visit the lake of Vai val hiria hirla which is situated at the higher end of the valley that opens into this district the road which leads to the lake follows the bank of the river running between two mountains the sides of these are often perpendicular so that every moment the cliffs on one side becoming impassable the traveller is obliged to cross the stream this however has a steep bank and its bed is covered with round and moveable moveably move able pebble stones which compel him to pay alose attention to his steps under pain of slipping and falling into a rapid and tumultuous current going and returning in this must be crossed one hundred and ana twelve times at the mouth the valley of Vai val hiria is large and has a fertile soil at the end of a two hours walk this contracts and shows upon its sides a succession of terraces with vertical walls which are adorned by falls of water of greater or less volume one notices also several cones from three to six ht indred hundred feet in elevation which frequently occupy the center of a grand amphitheatre and sometimes separate the stream into two branches after five hours of fatiguing travel we reached a point where the river divides itself into two rapid streams and a very steep declivity is before us the two torrents which form the river are fed by the waters of the lake but only by permeating the rock for as we shall see this body of water has no outlet at the surface we climbed the abrupt ascent before us the g ground aund being covered with a mul mui multitude e of jbf fei we ve soon reached an extensive plateau surrounded by lofty peaks which is very fertile and preserves a strong vegetation having crossed this ascended and descended the brow of a hill we behold the lake of Vai Val hiria hirla before us this body of water is in a vast basin in the midst of high mountains open only on the side of the valley by which we approach all the waters baiers that strike upon the steep declivity fall into the lake in the most beautiful fui ful cascades the silver threads of which are in strong contrast with the sombre vegetation of the places obscured by the dark clouds that move slowly across the sides and above the summits of the mountains it rains almost constantly at this point which is occasioned by the tho condensation of the moisture of the sea breezes when they reach the peaks the shores of the lake are almost inaccessible the natives cross it by swimming supporting themselves upon up jef fei it was by observing the time required to cross the lake that we got an idea of its extents the swimmer was sixteen minutes and ana moved at the thle rate of feet a minute which amounts to 1600 feet A bullet shot horizontally after ricochet ting i ii everal several times nearly reached the opposite cliff and we estimated that our rifles would carry a ball almost yards for the depth which is said to be very great we have the following soundings 12 feet at a distance of 45 feet from the shore 21 75 SO 30 27 1 SO no from the latter point the depth did not vary materially from thirty feet the bottom is muddy the shallowness and uniform depth is easily accounted for since all the particles worn off by the overhanging clifus cliffs the sand and rocks unable to run off sink to the bottom at a period not far distant this will reach the eld eid elevation of the banks and there will remain only a marsh which will force its waters over the crest cres mentioned directly into the valley at present thanks to this lake the level of which rises in the rainy season and falls during dry weather the cultivated lands in the valley of Vai Val hiria hirla are protected alike from inundations and drou drout droutha hs when the lake shall turn its waters directly into the valley the fields which it irrigates not having the same uniformity of moisture will greatly depreciate in value we sounded it at dt a few points and as we have shown found a remal remarkable abl abi e regularity of depth but it is probable this reaches its maximum in those places es where the infiltrations are the most e copious pious the rocks which compose these mountains are mainly and identical with those we have remarked before the bed of the lake has not as some have thought the appearance of a crater indeed the utter absence at this point of lava scoriae and cinders leaves no room for the idea that this inverse cone is a crater excavation AT THE lo 10 LOUVRE Es caVat ca lations ions lons are going on in the court of the louvre to ascertain the site of the foundations of the fortress philip augustus the plan of which had been nearly reconstituted from a minute examination of a considerable number of printed documents such was the precision of the orders given to the workmen that at the very first strokes of the pickaxe the trenah trench was discovered which corresponded to one of the principal entrances by continuing the line the workmen soon reached the foundations of the two towers flanking that entrance these towers were constructed of excellent stone well hewn and in a perfect state of preservation THE cincinnati suspension BRIDGE yesterday the greatest work in the country the covington and cincinnati suspension bridge was thrown open to the public during the day according to the money counted atea at each chend end about persons walked over and ana back to view this mammoth structure admired symmetry and beauty of the immense work and view in every direction the fine panorama of the three cities cincinnati covington newport nevy NeNy port and their suburbs aud and the beautiful river above and below GAS fron FROM coffer COFFEE A remarkable communication was ladeby made by br M babinet at the last meeting ot of the academy of sciences on the evolution of gas in the processor proc process essof of making connee coffee if cold water be poured on roasted conlee connee finely ground such as is generally used with boiling water a considerable quantity is generally evolved about equal in volume to the amount of coffee used if a bottle be half filled with this ground coffee and cold water be then poured in until the cork is reached which is to prevent the escape of the gas a violent explosion sufficient to force the cork out of the bottle or even to break the tho latter will result 4 RE REMAINS mains HAINS OP OF EXTINCT ani AxI ANIMALS MALS mr alvord marshal of idaho territory called upon us yesterday and showed showed us a mammoth tooth which had bad once oneo belonged to a monster of vast proportions the specimen is one of three found in the same place one of which weighs over nine pounds the one shown us weighs eight and a half pounds is about eight inches long without the roots which chieh have decayed and are missing three inches in thickness and not less than seven inches in width it was found on salmon river about four miles above the mouth of state creek idaho at a depth of 60 feet from the surface and ten feet from the bed rock bones were also found which evidently belonged to the same animal one of which supposed to be a thigh bone was atlease at least a foot in diameter these latter when exposed to the air crumbled I 1 but the teeth are petrified and in a good state of preservation the tooth shown us indicate that the animal belongs to one of the ller lier tribes if he were as large as we may readily suppose from this tooth it would require a small forest to make him a moderate break breaU breakfast fast he probably belonged to the same age as the mammoth trees in california if so it is easily understood why the trees grew so large they was obliged to do it in self de bense portland oregonians oregonian Ore one gonian tim THE ME METEORIC SHOWER IN SPAIN the correspondent of an english paper writing from saragossa november says for weeks past paa the sky in this part of spain has been without a cloud elaud ani ana |
