Floating Island.

From the earliest times, there are to be found in authors, notices of the singular geological phenomena of floating islands.  Pliny tells us of the floating islands of the Lago de Bassanello, near Rome; in Loch Lomond, in Scotland, there is or was a floating island; and in the Lake of Derwent Water, in Cumberland, such islands appear and disappear at indefinite periods.  Mr. A. Pettingal, jun. has recently described a floating island, about a mile southwards of Newbury port, 140 poles in length, and 120 in breadth.  It is covered with trees; and in summer, when dry weather is long continued, it descends to the bottom of the lake.—­American, Journal of Science.

An immense Medusa.

A species of sea-serpent, was thrown on shore near Bombay, in 1819.  It was about 40 feet long, and must have weighed many tons.  A violent gale of wind threw it high above the reach of ordinary tides; in which situation it took nine months to rot; during which process travellers were obliged to change the direction of the road for nearly a quarter of a mile, to avoid the offensive effluvia.  It rotted so completely, that not a vestige of bone remained.—­(C.  Telfair, Esq. to R. Barclay, Esq. of Bury Hill.)

Himalaya Mountains.

Captain Gerard, in exploring these mountains, with a view to measurement, had ascended to the height of 19,600 feet, being 400 feet higher than Humboldt had ascended on the Andes.  The latter part of Captain Gerard’s ascent, for about two miles, was on an inclined plane of 42 deg., a nearer approach to the perpendicular than Humboldt conceived it possible to climb for any distance together.—­Heber’s India.

Hippopotamus.

The head of a Hippopotamus has recently been brought to England, with all the flesh about it, in a high state of preservation.  This amphibious animal was harpooned while in combat with a crocodile, in a lake in the interior of Africa.  The head measures near four feet long, and eight feet in circumference; the jaws open two feet wide, and the cutting-teeth of which it has four in each jaw, are above a foot long, and four inches in circumference.  Its ears are not bigger than a terrier’s, and are much about the same shape.  This formidable and terrific creature, when full-grown, measures about 17 feet long from the extremity of the snout to the insertion of the tail, above 16 feet in circumference round the body, and stands above 7 feet high.  It runs with astonishing swiftness for its great bulk, at the bottom of lakes and rivers, but not with as much ease on land.  When excited, it puts forth its full strength, which is prodigious.  “I have seen,” says a mariner, as we find it in Dampier, “one of these animals open its jaws, and seizing a boat between its teeth, at once bite and sink it to the bottom.  I have seen it on another occasion place itself under one of our boats, and rising under it, overset it, with six men who were in it, but who, however, happily received no other injury.”  At one time it was not uncommon in the Nile, but now it is no where to be found in that river, except above the cataracts.