. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 39 many places. For a considorabb ! distance above the moath of Black River the bank of the'lake is low and without rock. Thirteen years ago the bank was generally sloping, with a wide bearh; now the waves b3at against a perpendicular bank, which, from continual abrasion, often falls off. From one to three roods in width ave worn a'.vay annually. Hot and Cold Springs.—In the Blue Blountains, about 37 miles from Batavia, in the Island of Java, th^re is a spring of water, so hot, that few psrsons c
. Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences. AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 39 many places. For a considorabb ! distance above the moath of Black River the bank of the'lake is low and without rock. Thirteen years ago the bank was generally sloping, with a wide bearh; now the waves b3at against a perpendicular bank, which, from continual abrasion, often falls off. From one to three roods in width ave worn a'.vay annually. Hot and Cold Springs.—In the Blue Blountains, about 37 miles from Batavia, in the Island of Java, th^re is a spring of water, so hot, that few psrsons can bear immersion in it; within Uttlc more than two feet of this almost boiling cauldron an- other spring arises, so cold, that it almost instantly benumbs those who attempt to use it. Those waters overflowing, join in a current, and supply a bath formed by the natives, of such a temperature as to be delightful at all seasons of the year. GENERAL SCIENCE. Fixed Stars. Dr Brlnkley, Bishop of Cloyne, has found, by computation, that the star Lyra has a parallax of l.'l; or, what is the same thing, that the radius of the earth's annual orbit would, if seen from that star, subtend an angle of 1.' I; hence it, follows that its distance is 20,159,665,000,000 miles, or 20 billions of miles. Sir William Hcrsehel, from repeated measurements, considered the diameter of this star as three-tenths of a second; and, consequently, its diameter must be 3000 times greater than that of the sun, 2,659,000,000 miles, or three-fourths of the size of the whole Solar System, as circumscribed by the Georgium Sidus. It has, however, been thought probable, by many eminent Astronomers, that this apparent parallax is due only to the defects of the instruments employed; and we are inclined to attach much importance to this opinion, especially as we find that the amount of this observable parallax has always diminished with the improvements of the instruments. Under any circumstances, the distance of the F
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