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The Academy of Sciences at Paris has recently heard a report on certain
explorations made in 1847-8-9 by M. Rochet d'Hericourt, a traveller in
north-eastern Africa. This traveller has, by repeated observations,
determined the latitude of Mt. Sinai to be 28 deg. 33' 16", of Suez 29
deg. 57' 58", of Devratabor 11 deg. 51' 12", and of Gondar 12 deg. 36'
1". Mt. Sinai is 1978 metres (about 6500 feet) high. Mt. Dieu 2174 metres
(7200 feet), and the highest of the Horch Mountains 2477 metres (8100
feet). The Lake of Frana, south of Gondar, is 1750 metres (5700 feet)
below the level of the sea, and its depth in one place is 197 metres
(645 feet). Rar-Bonahite, the highest peak in Abyssinia, is 4330 metres
(14,200 feet) high, but not high enough to have snow. The traveller
describes a great variety of hot-springs, some of which contained living
fish an inch long. The geology of Abyssinia he has thoroughly
investigated. In the north, the principal rocks are granite and syenite.
Among the plants he describes is a magnificent lobelia, almost large
enough to be called a tree, which is found to the very summits of the
mountains, and to a height which would not be supposed to admit of such
a growth. He also finds the plant whose root has been found to be a
specific against hydrophobia. Of this he brought back seeds, which have
been planted in the Jardin des Plantes with success. A peculiar breed
of sheep M. Rochet d'Hericourt thought worthy of being transferred to
France, but of the pair he sent the female died on the route. This
sheep has a very long and silky fleece. On the shores of Lake Frana he
also found a very large sort of spiders, whose cocoons, he said, were
converted into excellent silk. He thinks these spiders might be brought
to Europe, and employed in producing silk, but in this he probably does
not enough consider the difficulty, or rather the impossibility, of
domesticating and feeding these insects.

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Enormous fossil eggs were found a few weeks since subjects of curious
discussion in Paris, and several notices were translated for the
New-York papers. The eggs were discovered in Madagascar. M. Isodore
Geoffrey St. Hilliare, in a recent report to the _Academie des
Sciences_, furnished further details; and three eggs and some bones
belonging to a gigantic bird, which have been presented to the Museum of
Natural History in Paris, would seem to l