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THE
EDINBURGH NEW

PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

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THE

— _ EDINBURGH NEW
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL,

EXHIBITING A VIEW OF THE

PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS

IN THE

SCIENCES AND THE ARTS.

CONDUCTED BY

ROBERT JAMESON,

REGIVS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, LECTURER ON MINERALOGY, AND KEEPER OF
THE MUSEUM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH ;

Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh; of the Antiquarian, Wernerian and Horti-
cultural Societies of Edinburgh; Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and of the Royal
Dublin Society; Fellow of the Linnean and Geological Societies of London; Honorary Member
of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta ; of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and of the Cam-
bridge Philosophical Society; of the York, Bristol, Cambrian, Northern, and Cork Institutions ;
of the Royal Society of Sciences of Denmark; of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin; of the
Royal Academy of Naples; of the Imperial Natural History Society of Moscow; of the Imperial
Pharmaceutical Society of Petersburgh ; of the Natural History Society of Wetterau; of the Mi-
neralogical Society of Jena; of the Royal Mineralogical Society of Dresden; of the Natural His-
tory Society of Paris; of the Philomathic Society of Paris; of the Natural History Society of
Calvados; of the Senkenberg Society of Natural History ; of the Society of Natural Sciences and
Medicine of Heidelberg; Honorary Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New
York; of the New York Historical Society ; of the American Antiquarian Society; of the Aca- ©
demy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York; of
the Natural History Society of Montreal, 5c. §c.

Vol.T

APRIL...OCTOBER 1829.

TO BE CONTINUED QUARTERLY.

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276 é 7 7
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR ADAM BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH;
AND LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, & GREEN,
LONDON.

1829.

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CONTENTS.

.. Page
Arr. I. On the State of Natural History, and the progress

whichit has made since the return of the Maritime
Peace. By Baron Cuvier, - 1
Il. On the Excavation of Valleys, as iDustested by the ‘
Volcanic Rocks of Central France. By CuaRies
Lyz.t, Esq. F.R.S. Vice-President of the Geologi-
cal Society of London, &c, and Roprricx Impry
Murcuison, Esq. F.R.S, Secretary to the Geologi-
cal Society of London, &c. With Three Plates.
(Communicated by the Authors), - - 15
III. Sketches of the Meteorology, Geology, Agriculture,
“Botany, and Zoology of the Southern Mahratta
Country. By ALEXANDER Turnsutt Curistie,
M.D. Member of the Wernerian Society... (Conti-

nued from p. 120. of preceding Volume), - 49
IV. On Thirst in Snow-covered Countries. By Mr J. F;

Stoane. Communicated by the Author,.. - 65
V. On Clinkstone or Phonolite. By C. G. Gmeuin, 68

VI. 1. Observations concerning Fossil Organic Remains.

By J. C. Doornix, M.D. &c. »2. Werner’s Views

. of the Natural History of Fossil-Organic Remains.
8. Werner’s Advice to Students of Geology, 72

VII. Observations on the Characters and Affinities of)Dar-

winia, Brunsfelsia, Browallia, Argylia, Eccremocar-

pus, and of a Plant improperly referred to the latter

genus. By Mr Davin Don, Librarian of the Lin-

nean yes Member of the Imperial Academy

N Curiosorum, of the Royal Botanical Society

of | and of the Wernerian Society of Edin-
burgh, &c. Communicated by the Author, - 83

VIII. A Notice of the Beaver, from Observations made on |

Two Liying Specimens at present in this Country, 90

Art. IX,

XI.

XII.

XII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.
XIX.

XX.

XXL

CONTENTS.

1. Climate of New South Wales.
Sennar, - a

2. Climate of

Fordel near Inverkeithing, 1829. By the Rev.
W. Roserrson junior, of degrees: Com-
municated by the Author, -

On the Cavities containing Fluids in Rock-Salt.
By Witi1am Nicor, Esq. Lecturer on Natural
Philosophy. Communicated by the Author,

List of Geological and Mineralogical Collections in
Great Britain and Ireland, Po

Observations on the Geology of the Meywar Dis-
trict. By James Harpie, Esq. Member of the

Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta. Con-

cluded from p. 335. of preceding Volume, —

On a Submarine Forest on the Coast of Tiree, one
of the Western Isles.
of Inverary. Communicated by the Author,

Ascent to the Summit of the Jungfrau, in the Can-
ton of Berne, - - - -

Answer to Dr Fiemine’s View of the Evidence
from the Animal Kingdom, as to the former Tem-
perature of the Northern Regions. By W. D.
ConyBeare, Esq. F.R.S. M.G.S. &c. Commu-
nicated by the Author, s =

By the Rev. Corin Smitn

‘ 93-96
. Analysis of the Water of a Spring on the Estate of

118

116

125

148

142

Of the Continuity of the Animal Kingdom by means ©

of Generation, from the first Ages of the World
to the present times, -

152

On a new species of Tapir, iticavlal’ in the Toscan!

with Remarks on Antediluvian Animals,

Fossil Antediluvian Animals mingled with Human
remains in the Caves of Bize, -

On the Structure and Mechanism of the ore of
the Chemeleon. By Joun Houston, Esq. Mem-
ber of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,
Conservator of the Museum, and Demonstrator
of Anatomy in the School of Sargery: &e. With
a Plate, - - -

Description of several New'td Rare Plants which
have flowered in the neighbourhood of Edin-
burgh, and chiefly in the Royal Botanic Garden,
during the last three months,

7” =.

155

159

161

178

a

te.

a)

CONTENTS. iii
Art-XXH. Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to October 1.
cane : 1829, calculated for the Meridian of Edinburgh,
iO Mean Time. By Mr Georce Inwes,. Aber-
deen, - - - - - 189

XXIII. Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History
Society. (Continued from former Volume,

PAODLP TT gretrnoesenivteS ats co) Of 19R

XXIV. Screntiric INTELLIGENCE.

ASTRONOMY.
1. Observations on the Comet of Encke, - - 193

METEOROLOGY.

2. Malaria. 3. ited of the Aurora Borealis on the Mag-
netic Needle. 4. Rain at Bombay, - - 193-4

GEOGRAPHY.
5. Mr Professor Kupfer’s Journey into Siberia, - 194
HYDROGRAPHY-
6. Level of the Caspian, - - - - ib.
ZOOLOGY.
7. Height of the Patagonians. 8. Hint to Dissectors of Hu-
man Bodies. 9. The Giraffe and Unicorn. 10. Female

Child with Two Heads. 11. Observations on a Human
Monster belonging to a new genus, - 195-197

BOTANY.

12. On the Calcareous Crystals which occur in _ Tissues
of living Vegetables, = - . - - 199

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

I. Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed. By Gzorce Jounston,
M.D. Fellow of the Royal Ci < mn seam &e.
Vol. I. Phznogamous Plants, - e 200

Il. Plante Asiatice Rariores ; or, Descriptions and Figures
of a Select Number of Unpublished East Indian Plants.
By N. Waxticn, M. D. &c. - - - ib.

III. The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of
Chronic Diseases, &c. By James Ciark, M.D. Fellow
of the Royal College of Physicians of London. 1 Vol.
8vo, - - - - - . 202

— wa
al

iv CONTENTS.

Arr. XXV. List of Patents granted in England from 28d Ja-
nuary to 28th March 1829, *
XXVI. List of Patents granted in Scotland from 0th
March to 5th June 1829, - -

203

204

CONTENTS.

| al P.
Arr. I. Biographical ‘of M. Puitipre Prev. By Ba- iy
ron Cuviser, - = - 205
II. On the Ergot , and its Effects on Man and
Animals. By 217

Ill. On Hibernation, and the Action of Cold upon Ani-
mals, - “ - 219
IV. General Observations on Univalves. By CuarLes
Cou.ier, Esq. Staff-Surgeon at Ceylon. Communi-
cated by Sir James Macericor, Director-General
of the Army Medical Board, F. R.S., &c. &c. 225
V. An Account of the Inundation of a Coal-work at Beau-
_jonc, near Leige, belonging to Messrs Colson and
Company, and of the remarkable ye * of a num-
) ber of the Miners, - - 237
VI. Sir oem 5 smd of Mineralogy in Vi-
250
VII. eer Case of niihiaieds Refraction. “By
Joun Cruicxsuank, Esq. Professor of Mathematics
in the Marischal College, Aberdeen. Sea
* cated by the Author), - 254
f VIIL. Analysis of Galena, from Castleland Hill, near faved
keithing. By Mr A. Rosertson junior, Inver-
4 keithing, (Communicated by the Author), - 256
? 1X. Notice of a large Greenstone Boulder in the Pentland
Hills. By James D. Forses, Esq. (Communicated

“a

by the Author), - - ' = 259
X. Notice of Mite on the ses at By Mr
-Furnt, - - 262

XI. On the Gearqanistes which appear to have accom-
panied the Deposition of the Tertiary Formations.
In a Letter addressed to M. ApotpHe Broneniart,
by M. Marcet be Serres, - - 264
XII. On Pasturages, their importance and their extent, in :
the different Countries of Europe, . 272

Arr. XIIL.
XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.

” XX.

XXL

XXII.

XXIII.
XXIV.

XXV.

XXVI.

CONTENTS.

Biography of M. Bosc. By Baron Cuvier, ~« a
On the Land Crabs of Jamaica. » ALEXANDER
Barciay, Esq. - «
On the Red Pigment called Carucru or Chica. By
Joun Hancock, M.D. Sromnneerianne 7 the

Author), .

Report on the Impression a on the Casi by
the Foot of the Sow. (Communicated by Messrs
Rosert Spirrat and Rosert StEvENson junior), 285

On the Tertiary Fresh-water Formations of Aix, in
Provence, including the Coal-field of Fuveau. By
Roperick Impey Murcuison, Esq. and Cuar.es
Lye.t, Esq. junior, Secretaries to the Geological
Society ; with a Description of Fossil Insects,
Shells and Plants, contained therein, by Joun
Curtis, F. L.S., J. De C. Sowersy, F.L. S., and
J. Linpuey, Esq. Professor of Botany in the Lon-
don University. er by the Au-
thors), - 287

Inquiries popes the Relative Age of Si
tains,

Observations on the Crigetinte or Ailigators of Gui-
ana. By Joun Hancock, M.D. (Communicat-
ed by the Author), - - . 803

Researches in regard to the Ancient Hiaoey of our
Domestic Animals, and our Common Plants. By
M. Dureav de la Malle, -

Observations connected with the Migration of the
Herring and Mackerel, as noticed in the British
Channel. By Major W. D. Morrison. ys
municated by the Author), - _ 817

On the Naturalization of the Cashmeer Shawl-
Goat in England. By C. T. Towsr, Esq. of
Weald Hall, Essex,

On the German Polish for Wood, - |

Inquiries respecting certain Changes houtend to
have taken place in Domestic Animals, transport-
ed from the Old to the New Continent. By M.

280

283

299

309

321
323

Routtn, M. D., - . re 326
On the Action of the Spinal Marrow in —"
tion. By M. Frourens, - 338 .

On the Vision of the Mole. By M. Qaewnains

Saint Hivatre, - - 340

-

—

CONTENTS. iii

Art. XXVII. Colours which different Substances communicate
to the Flame of the nov Re By M. Buzen-
GEIGER, - 341
XXVIII. Description of several New or Rare Plants which
have flowered in the neighbourhood of Edin-
burgh, and chiefly in the Royal Botanic Gar-
den, during the last three months, - 344
XXIX. Celestial Phenomena from October 1. 1829 to
January 1. 1830, calculated for the Meridian of
Edinburgh, Mean Time. By Mr Georce
Innes, Aberdeen, - - - 351

Page

XXX. Screntiric INTELLIGENCE.

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

1. Influence of Electricity in the Formation of certain Inorga-
nic Bodies. 2. Metallic Electricity. 3. Influence of Me-
teorological Phenomena on Dry Piles, - - 354-9

METEOROLOGY.

4. Remarkable Coldness of the late Spring. 5. Changes of
Climate at Sheraz. 6. Effects of the Aurora Borealis on
the Magnetic Needle. 7. A Storm in the Mediterranean,

accompanied with Castor and Pollux Lights, - 360-2
CHEMISTRY.

8. Thorine, a new Earth, - - Mag 363
) MINERALOGY.

9. Notice respecting the presence of Websterite in the Plas-
tic Clay of Auteuil, near Paris; by M. Brononiart. 10.
Tale and Mica. 11. Native Sulphuric Acid. 12. Disco-
very of Iodine in an Ore of Zinc. 13. Inquiries into the
Structure of Bodies which Crystallize regularly. 14.
Glassy Felspar, now called Ryakolite, - - 363-6

GEOLOGY.

15, Discovery of Iodine and Bromine in certain Salt-springs
and Mineral-waters in England. 16. Examination of a
Limestone Deposite, by M. Vauque.in. 17. Bones of
Paleotheria discovered in a bed of the coarse Limestone
Formation, near Paris. 18. Caves containing Human
Bones, - - - - 366-8

iv CONTENTS.

Page
ZOOLOGY.

19, European Beaver. 20. Original of the Cat and Dog. 21.
On the Prickle which exists in the Tail of the Lion. 22.
Insufflation of Animals. 23. Pigeon continued to live
two days without Brain and upper part of Spinal Mar-
row. 24. The Sprat not the young of the Herring and
Pilchard. 25. White Bait not the young of the Shad.
26. On Squalus maximus. 27. On Killing Molluscous
Animals. 28. Terrestrial Shell Animals may be carried
alive great distances. 29. Formation of the Shell of the
Cyprea. 30. On the Tape-worms found in Water. 31.
Comparative Analysis of the Bones of the different

Classes of Animals, . - - 369-375

BOTANY.

82. Rice Paper. 38. Method of Preserving Funguses. 34.°
Germination. 35. Notice by Mr R. Spirrat of a speci- _
men of Bovista gigantea, remarkable for its great size.

36. The Dahlia. 37. Caprification, - 375-8

STATISTICS.

38. Influence of Indigence on the Mortality of Men in the dif-
ferent Countries of Europe from the commencement of
the Nineteenth Century. 39. On the Distribution by
Months of Conceptions and Births, in its relations to
Seasons, Climates, &c. 40. Berlin Geographical Socie-
ty, - - - - 878-383

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

I. Elements of Veterinary Pathology, and Theoretical and —
Practical View of the Medical and Surgical Treatment
of the principal Domestic Animals, - -, 384
II. The Journal of a Naturalist. Second Edition, 8vo. 1819, ib.
III. An Encyclopedia of Plants ; comprising the Description,
Specific Character, Culture, History, Application to the
Arts, &c. &e. Edited by J.C. Loupon, F. L.S.H.S.&e. 386

Art. XXXI. List of Patents granted in England from 30th
March to 19th June 1829, - - 390

XXXII. List of Patents granted in Scotland from Ist
July to 7th September 1829, - 392

THE

EDINBURGH NEW

-

PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

On the state of Natural History, and the progress which it has
made since the return of the Maritime Peace. By Baron
Cuvier *.

Avr the first origin of society, man was enjoined to make himself
acquainted with the objects of nature. Our sacred books repre-
sent, at their commencement, the Creator as making his works
pass under the eyes of the first of our race, and ordering him to
impose names upon them,—a happy allegory, which plainly
teaches us, that one of our first duties is to fill our minds with
the goodness and wisdom of the Author of Nature, by a con-
tinued study of the works of his power. This duty, like all
others, is in man an innate feeling; and traces of it are to be
found in the opinion of nations at all the epochs of their history.
The Hebrews make its aceomplishment enter into the merits
of the prince whom they present to us as the ideal. of human
wisdom. ‘That other ideal of every thing great, Alexander has
indissolubly connected his memory with that of Aristotle ; and
it is even from this concurrence of the most fortunate of war- ~
riors ‘and the greatest of philosophers, that the history of our
science begins. Similar coincidences have marked the epochs of
its most brilliant advances. The kings, of whom the history of
France speaks with most pride, St Louis, Francis L., Henry IV.,
and Louis XIV., are precisely those who afforded it the most
* Eloges Historiques, t. iii. p. 450.
‘APRIL—JUNE 1829. A

2 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History.

protection. With their great renown are, in some respects,
associated the more humble names of Rubruquis, Vincent de
- Beauvais, Belon, Tournefort, and Plumier. It would seem as if
these princes remembered that of so many monuments raised
to Alexander, the works of Aristotle form the only one that
has continued imperishable.

Natura history, in fact, is one of those sciences in which ge-
nius is impotent, unless seconded by power; and the efforts of
power vain, unless its results are arranged by the co-operation
of genius.

The names, which man is ordered to impose, are not inco-
herent signs applied by chance to some isolated objects. To
render them appropriate and significant, the objects, as it is
said, must pass before the namer; in other words, he must
compare these objects, apprehend the relations of their simila-
rity and difference, and classify them ; which he cannot do unless
he see them together, and make himself intimately acquainted
with them. In short, to name well, taking the word in its fullest
acceptation, it is necessary not only to know well, but, it may be
said, to know all. The superstition of the Cabalists believed: in
the magic power of names. This was a false consequence of a
principle, that names, were they perfect, would aeeeeonieh the
essence and aggregate of things.

Such is the object of this department of science, which un-
reflecting minds would doom to contempt, under the name
of Nomenclature. To refute their assertions, it is only neces-
sary to repeat the fundamental condition which we have just
announced, namely, that to name well, it is necessary to know
well. Now, those beings, and those parts of beings, which it is
necessary to know, present themselves by millions; and. still it
is not enough to know them singly: they are subjected to an
order, and to mutual relations, which must also be known ; for
it is in this order, and by these relations, that they have each a
part to perform, that they disappear each at their particular pe-
riods, that they are reproduced always alike, always according
to the same relative proportions, and with the powers and facul-
ties necessary for the maintenance of these proportions, and of
their part in this scene of continual change, » Not only is each
being an individual organism ; the whole world is one, only mil-

fs wri Ret Pa ete eT

Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. 8

lions'of times more complicated ; and what the anatomist does
for a°single animal, for the little world, according to the ex-
pression of the mystical philosophers of the middle age, it is the
buisiness of the naturalist to do for the great world, the univer-
sal animal, the aggregate of that astonishing multiplicity of
© Fortunately the human intellect has also an organising power,
the ‘tisé of which is elicited by a sort of instinct. It is, as it
were, independently of his will, that the observer classes, names,
brings together, and distinguishes ; just as it is by instinct, and
With scarcely any reflection, that the rudest tribes create a lan-
guage, subject it to rules, over which, it might be imagined,
that a philosophical analysis had presided.

“But in systems of classification as in languages, there may be

_ infinite degrees of extent and accuracy, and even of that qua-

lity, more easy to be felt than defined, which, in the sciences, as
in the works of‘art, is denominated elegance. _ |
“Phe ancients made no attempts to form a general system; and
two eéenturies ‘had already elapsed since the revival of letters,
before one was ventured to be proposed. Linnzeus was the first
who had the boldness to undertake this immense enterprise, and he
saw his courage receive the most satisfactory reeompence. The
sagacity of his distributions, the precision of his terminology,
the very extent of his system, made him be almost universally.
recognised as dictator. A multitude of young men, enrolled
under his' colours, and swearing only by him, dispersed them-
selves over the globe; and, as an ingenious writer has ‘said,
everywhere interrogated nature in his name. In ten years, his
nomenclature had become a universal and necessary language.
“His edifice, however, still rested upon ruinous bases. Not’
ving’ sufficiently contemplated the innumerable quantity of
species which people the surface of the globe, he imagined that
short definitions would be sufficient to distinguish them, arid
that’ characters taken solely from their external configuration, —
would serve for their distribution; and, on this confidence, his’
pupils believed ‘that they had found his genera and species
wherever they thought they could apply his phrases. Hence
arose inextricable mistakes and embarrassments. So long as he
lived, his authority was sufficient to reduce them to order; but
a2

4 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History.

when the master was removed, anarchy possessed itself of the
nomenclature, and the universal language sie became the
language of confusion.

In reality, Buffon, Daubenton and Pallas, had und up
better paths, by giving more perfect models of descriptions ; and
Jussieu had shewn how many more delicate and more numerous
relations must be apprehended by him who would pretend: to
distribute the productions of nature in such a manner as to
satisfy the mind. But to change habits that have become —
general, is to effect a revolution; and the most necessary revo-
lutions do not take place without some circumstance for which
it is often necessary to wait a long time.

On this occasion, it has been better seen how every thing aids
the progress of science, even the delays and oppositions which
it appears to experience. The events which have disturbed the
world, and for a time dried up the external springs from which
natural history derived its riches, obliged it to retire within it-
self, and subject what it possessed to a new examination, more
fertile than the most fortunate career could have been. During
this apparent rest, all the parts of the system have been deeply
studied ; the interior of animals has been explored ; even mineral
substances have been reduced to their mechanical elements, A.
still more intimate analysis has been made of them by a more im-
proved chemistry; the earth itself, in this interval, has been,
it may be said, dissected by geologists; its depths have been.
sounded ; the order of superposition of the strata which form its
envelope has been discovered. In the deficiency of foreign
contributions, the interior of the ground on which we walk
became the tributary of science. The beings whose remains it
encloses have again appeared upon the earth, and have'revealed
a natural history anterior to that of the present day, different in
its forms, and yet subjected to the same’ laws, and which has.
given these laws a kind of sanction which no person could have.
expected. Botanists did not accumulate in their herbariums so
many plants; but with glass in hand, they demonstrated’ more
and more the intimate structure of the fruit. and seed, the va.
rious relations which connect the parts of the flower, and the
indications which these relations furnish for a/natural, distri.
bution. The most delicate parts of the tissue, of organised.

ae Pt

Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. 5

bodies have been laid open. Medicine and chemistry have
united their efforts to appreciate, in its minutest details, the
action of the external elements upon the living being. The
different combinations of organs, or what is called the diffe-
rent classes and genera, have not been less studied than the
general theories. ‘The internal structure of the minutest ani-
mals, ascertained by dissection, has been made as well known
as that of the human being. Each of the organic systems
has, in like manner, been submitted to a particular exami-
nation. The brain, that index of the intellectual faculties ; the
teeth, those signs of the nature and energy of the digestive
powers ; the osseous system especially, which is the basis of all
the others, and which determines the general forms of animals,
have been followed out, even in the smallest species, and in their
smallest parts. M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire undertook to demon-
strate the identity of the plan on which nature has formed the
vertebrate animals. ‘The most dissimilar forms were found by
him to be referable to the same model; and, even in monsters
themselves, he still found the traces of each point of ossification.
_ It may readily be conceived that after studies like these,
no more should be said of external and artificial methods.
The old natural history ceased to reign, and a science full of
youth and vigour, armed with means entirely new, saw the

_ return of peace lay open to it the world. Its energy has borne

witness to this renovation. From all civilized countries ardent
young men have darted forth into distant climates. The ice of
the pole, the pestilential marshes of the torrid zone, the cruelties
of savage nations, have all been braved. Who does not call to
mind the sufferings thrice endured by the companions of Ross
and Parry ; the horrors to which those of Franklin and Rich-
ardson were exposed ; the entire and absolute destruction, by
disease, of all Captain Tuckey’s’ expedition on the Zaire?
And how many have been victims? Peron and Delalande
expired, almost within sight of their native land, in consequence
of their fatigues in burning climates. Havet was cut off at the
moment when he set his foot on the shore of Madagascar, that
land of promise, as Commerson called it, but whose approach
seems to be guarded by contagion, the most cruel of monsters.
Godefroy was murdered in an insurrection of the ignorant in-

6 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History.

habitants of Manilla against the strangers whom they supposed
to have introduced among them the cholera morbus. _ Duvaucel,
dangerously wounded by the ferocious beasts on the henkais of
the Ganges, has long languished on a bed of pain. ti

.. This devotion to science has not been confined to.the young
alone. Noel de Moriniére, whose age and former labours gave
him so just a title to repose, did not hesitate to seize the «

tunity of visiting Norway and Lapland. The cold of the North
Cape brought on inflammation of his brain, of which he died
at Drontheim.

_ Foreign nations also have had their martyrs to natural his-
tory. ‘The adventurer Badia, murdered on the road to Mecca;
the young and interesting Ritchie, perishing in despair at Fez-
zan; Kuhl falling a victim to the contagious climate of Ba-
tayia, did not cool the ardour of their successors, who quickly
filled up their places. Very recently the intrepid Bowdich,
guided only by hope, went forth to penetrate ‘anew into, the in-
terior of Africa, respecting which he has given such interesting
accounts. He was accompanied by his young wife, a lady of
the greatest accomplishments and talents, who, like him, had,
by long study, prepared herself for this new enterprise... Every
thing seemed to promise the most happy results. Seareely had
he arrived at the Gambia, when death put an end to his projects,
and to the expectation of the friends of science. But renown is
nowhere to be purchased but by danger or suffering. . Science,
like victory, subjects to hard conditions those whom»she enrols
among her followers.

Happily there are also successes which console aie en-
courage, of which several marine expeditions are shining exam:
ples. ‘There is no longer a christian nation which does not send
out such expeditions, and which does not consider it honourable
to contribute in this manner to the progress of natural history
and geography. Still more, the zeal of private individuals no
longer scruples to engage in similar undertakings. .After:the
Russian Admiral Krusentern’s voyage round the world, which
had already enriched zoology and geography, we hayeseen
Count Romanzof sending out, Captain Kotzebue at his own ex-
pense, and this expedition’ has been not less fortunate than the

or

Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. T

other. . Who could have imagined such an event 130 years ago,
when Peter the Great built on a lake his first frigate ?

_ Among the French, Captain Freycinet has been particularly
useful to physics and astronomy, and notwithstanding his ship-
wreck, brought home a multitude of valuable objects collected
by his medical officers, MM. Quoi, Gaymard, and Gaudi-
chaux. Of these, scientific Europe will soon be in possession,
through the attention of the government, which has ordered
their publication ; and in this matter we have reason to praise it,
for it/has too often happened, that after expeditions have been
sent out at a great expense, the small additional sum has been
refused which would have rendered their results useful to the pub-
lic. . MM. Milius and Philibert have peopled our gardens with
many vegetables of the torrid zone. Already what we learn of
Captain Duperrey’s expedition, excites our curiosity and kindles
our hopes. ‘Thus, every thing announces that our navy will
not remain behind any other in brilliant results of their exer-
Sree een nnniel atampadendl canes

- However, a much less expensive method, and onie still: more
fruitful with respect to ‘natural history, has been devised and
. putin practice by some governments, since the commencement
of the period of which we are speaking.

Young naturalists have gone to settle in different climates,
and, from the central point which they have chosen, hunting
and fishing in all directions, their researches have been much
more ive than they would have been, had they only
touched at a few ports. Thus Austria has sent to Brazil MM.
Mikan and Schott ; Bavaria, MM. Spix and Martius ; Prussia,
MM. Dolfers‘and Sello; while the government of the Low
Countries has successively kept at Java MM. arene Kuhl,
and Van Hasselt.
~The king of France has employed equal perseverance and
munificence in favouring establishments of this kind, and_his
views have been perfectly seconded by the ministers entrusted
with the departments of the interior and of the navy. France has
sent out her ‘scientific ambassadors to all quarters, and war it-
self has not interrupted this new diplomacy. M. Delalande first
betook himself to Brazil, where he made very fine collections,
and afterwards to the Cape of Good Hope, for the same pur-

8 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. |
pose. MM. Diard and Duvaucel, led at first by their zeal, but
finding every where the most generous protection, collected an
immensity of objects in Bengal and the Isles of Sunda, and es-
pecially at Sumatra, which had never before sent any thing to
the cabinets of Europe. M. Leschenault, during a residence of
five years on the coast of Coromandel, has scarcely left any
thing unknown of the productions of that rich country. He
has lately set out for North America, and we are already in-
formed that he has there resumed his labours with fresh ardour.
M. Fontanier is at Teflis in Georgia, engaged in collecting the
productions of the Caucasus, a labour in which he is seconded
by M. Gamba, the French consul in that city. M. Caillaud,
among his discoveries in Nubia, and as far as the borders of
Abyssinia, has made some which are not less interesting to natu-
ral history than to the study of antiquity. ‘They complete those
for which we are indebted to the scientific men of a memorable
expedition. M. Milbert and M. Lesueur have traversed the
United States. M. Happel Lachesnaye has resided in Carolina
and Guadeloupe. M. Moreau de Jonnés had already, during
the war, made important observations at Martinique. M. Pley
has visited several of the Antilles, and touched at Terra Firma.
From all these places great quantities of plants and animals
have arrived at the Museum. M. Milbert especially, a distin-
guished artist, who had formerly accompanied Baudin as far as
the Isle of France, excited by M. Hyde de Neuville, our ambas-
sador to the United States, has made unheard of exertions in
his researches, and has sent home nearly sixty cargoes. With-
out being originally a naturalist by profession, he is one of those
to whom natural history will owe the deepest gratitude. |

It was, on the contrary, after preparing himself by the stu-
dies and reflections of many years, that M. Auguste Saint-Hilaire
visited Brazil. A profound botanist and an accomplished. na-
turalist in every department, during the five years which he
passed there he made great collections of animals, minerals, and
especially plants, forming a magnificent supplement to ‘those
which M. Humboldt made some years before in Mexico, Peru,
and Columbia, and of which that general ohclenae wen
described so astonishing a number.

This passion for science has even made its way among the

etd

ee a a ae a a

eS ae ee ee
a --*

~ Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. “9

higher orders of society. Prince Maximilian of Neuwied has

been exceeded by none in courage, in patience, or in the num-
ber and interest of the objects which he has collected in’ Brazil.
Prince Paul William of Wurtemberg, leaving Europe at the
age of twenty-three, ascending as far as the upper Mississippi
and the great lakes, and trusting himself to the most savage
tribes, has explored the central parts of North America more
completely than they ever were before. What is already known
of “his discoveries excites the most lively desire to see them
soon published.

- Even persons. winging in commerce no longer despise this
kind of‘riches. There are some who, along with their account-
books, keep journals of their scientific observations. M: Dussu-
mier, a “young merchant and shipmaster of Bordeaux, who has
made several voyages to China, has never failed to bring each
time his'tribute to the Museum. His returns are there expect
ed and ‘marked’ as at the custom-house or exchange.

-* For’a long time naturalists in vain sought for accurate infor-
tiation respecting the great Cetacea, which it is so difficult to
examine, and still more to place in our cabinets. It was the
master of a private vessel, Captain Scoresby, who furnished it,
and that, too, in the most complete and precise manner.
‘By a revolution of ‘entirely the same nature, the- European
séttlements in the two worlds are now becoming foci of intelli-
gence which rival those of Europe. “We have nothing better
executed than Russell’s descriptions of the serpents and fishes
of Bengal, or Buchanan’s fishes of the Ganges, the figures of
which were drawn by natives. M. Dussumier had drawings of
plants made by Chinese painters at Canton, of which the pupils
of M. Redouté would not be ashamed. Wilson’s Birds of the
United States, drawn, engraved, and printed in that country, and
by ‘artists of that country, do not yield to our most beautiful col-
lection¢; and there is no difference, as to solidity and authen-
ticity, between the descriptions which are sent us by the natives
of these great colonies, the Bartons and Mitchells, and those which
we draw up ourselves. ‘The botanic garden of the English East
India Company at Calcutta, under the direction of Dr Wallich,
ee ee as beautiful RE «oS URN

Mi!

10 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History.

time that it surpasses them all in the facility which the climate
there affords of rearing and studying that magnificent vegetation
of warm countries, of which in Europe we see but meagre spe-
cimens.

The noble liberality with which the learned of different nations
communicate what they possess, adds still more to the ra-
pidity with which science advances. We have already in the
Paris Museum the objects collected last year by the English
near the North Pole, and those which they have just obtained
from their new discoveries at Botany Bay. We have specimens
of all the fossils disinterred in Great Britain, Germany, and
Italy. Java furnishes nothing to the Dutch of which we do
not immediately participate. No jealousy now exists, no other
emulation than that of more powerfully a to the ge-
neral diffusion of knowledge.

It is through this immense union of efforts, that we are now,
it may be said, only beginning to acquire an idea of the riches _
of organic nature. Linnzus, in 1778, in his general review of
vegetables, indicated about 8000 species. There are 25,000 in
Wildenow’s System, which was commenced thirty years la-
ter. M. Decandolle, in the general system which he is at
present drawing up, will describe 40,000; and, MM, de
Humboldt, Kunth, Martius, and St Hilaire, are preparing rich
supplements to it. In a few years the number will have ex-
ceeded 50,000. The extraordinary forms which they assume
are not less surprising than these numbers; and certainly Lin-
nus could never have imagined the existence of the Rafflesia, a
parasitic plant, having neither stem nor leaves, and consisting
solely of a flower, but of a flower three feet in diameter. It was
in the depths of the forests of Sumatra that this plant wasa
short time ago discovered.

Buffon estimated the number of existing quadrupeds at about
300. M. Desmarest, in a recent work, has counted more than
700; and he himself is far from considering his enumera-
tion as complete. It was supposed that the large species at
least were all known, but India has furnished very large
quadrupeds in abundance; four or five stags, as many) bears,
two rhinoceroses, and even a tapir, a genus which was sup-
posed to exist only in America. It is especially to MM.

Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. 11
Diard and Duvaucel that we owe these additions in the class of
quadrupeds; and they are inserted, with many others, in the
great work which MM. Geoffroy St Hilaire and Frederick Cu-
vier have undertaken in this department of zoology.

_ The menageries in which these animals have been collected,
have afforded to the observer means of examining instinct, and
of fixing with precision the limits by which that faculty is sepa-
rated from human intellect. The labours of M. Frederick Cu-
vier on this subject have opened a new path in this department

of philosophy.
We have no precise ideas as to the number of birds, reptiles,

and fishes, on which there have not lately been any general
works; but all the collections swarm with nomiaperiin waiting
to be described.

_ After the beautiful collective descriptions of birds by MM.
Levaillant, Audibert, and Vieillot, MM. Temminck and Laugier
haye lately undertaken one which already approaches the 300th
plate, without there being any thing in it that has appeared in
former works. |

The Count de Lacepede, twenty years ago, in his celebrated
History of Fishes, described not less than 1500 fishes, comprising
all. those.of which authors had spoken, as well as those which
he had seen. The royal cabinet alone possesses at the present
day 2500, of which more than the half have been added within
the last ten years. But these 2500 species probably form but a
small proportion of what the sea and rivers will furnish. The
rivers of France produce about 50, and the Ganges alone has
already afforded 270 to Dr Hamilton Buchanan. There is no
doubt that the other rivers of warm countries possess propor-
Similar augmentations are manifested in M. de Lamarck’s
greatworks on the Invertebrate Animals, in that of M. Lamou-
roux on the Polyparia, and in the magnificent work which M. de
Ferussac has lately devoted to the land and fresh-water Mollus-
ea alone. M. Rudolphi has almost revealed a world. in his his-
tory-of the worms which live in the bodies of otheranimals. |

‘Inthe class-of -insects in particular, the numbers are altoge-
ther-astonishing. ‘There is no country, however well examined
it'may ‘be, that does not daily ‘furnish new species; and it is by

12 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History.
thousands that each traveller brings them home from warm cli-
mates. The royal cabinet alone at present possesses more than
25,000 species ; and, according to the most moderate estimates,
there are at least as many in the other cabinets of Europe which
it does not possess. M. de Latreille, who has done more than any
one else in advancing the knowledge of this class of ‘animals,
has calculated that a person intending to describe all that’ have
been collected, would require thirty years of very assiduous la-
bour ; and, in the course of that time, if the zeal of travellers
is not relaxed, there will have arrived an equal number of new
species. And, let it be observed, I only speak here of mere ex-
ternal descriptions. With respect to the internal organization,
two or three of these beings which the vulgar treat with con-
tempt, might occupy the whole of a man’s life. :

We cannot look without admiration on that work on the ana-
tomy of a single caterpillar to which Lyonnet devoted ten years.
A similar examination of the Maybug, recently made by a young
naturalist, M. Strauss, is not less calculated to confound the
’ imagination. In this small body, scarcely an inch long, there may
be counted 306 hard pieces, serving as an envelope, 494 muscles
for moving them, 24 pairs of nerves for animating them, all di-
vided into innumerable filaments; 48 pairs of trachez not less
divided, for carrying ‘air and life into this inextricable tissue.
The delicacy and regularity of the whole afford a delightful
spectacle. Down to the beautiful arrangement of the colours,
all seems calculated to please the eye of man, wit man a _
haps never before saw it since the creation. =~

What can be more calculated to: excite our eldest than
the object of so many beauties lavished by Nature on the most
hidden of her works, those which are most withdrawn from our
view? ‘Those thousands of fishes, for example, whose scales
shine with the splendour of gold and of all the precious stones,
in which all’ the colours of the rainbow are displayed, reflected
in bands, spots, undulating and angular lines, always regular,
and always of admirably combined or contrasted shades. For
whose pleasure were those wonders destined, which the depths
of the ocean conceal from us? They cannot even be seen by
each other, for the light scarcely penetrates into the depths
where they live. The more one reflects, the stronger becomes the

Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History. 18

persuasion. that so many beauties purely relative to man, are an
attraction for man. The wonders of the earth, like those of
the heavens, are destined to captivate our mind, to excite our
genius. It is the continuation of the command to see and name,
with which the life of our species opens; it is the path that is
to lead us, whether to higher contemplations or to inventions
only useful.

In fact, natural history makes no step without physiology and
philosophy marching with an equal step, and without society
receiving their common tribute. Nor does the epoch of which we
have been speaking shine less for the sciences of experiment and
combination, and for their applications to our wants, than for
those enormous accumulations of the objects of our studies; and
it would not require less time than I have already occupied, to
present a mere enumeration of the benefits these sciences have con-
ferred. I would shew all that botany has gained for us. The
araucaria cedar, brought from Brazil by M. St Hilaire, and
which will form so fine an ornament for our southern woods, I

would speak of the Phormium tenazx, formerly imported by M. de
la Billardiere, and whose propagation in France is now insured.
Its threads, which are smaller, and at the same time stronger,
than those of hemp, will be of the greatest utility forour navy. I
would make known the services which M. Leschenault has ren-
dered to the Island of Bourbon, by teaching the inhabitants, what
they were previously ignorant of, the mode of applying their cin-
namon-trees to use, and the new source of riches which he has
given to Cayenne, by transporting there the tea-plant of China.
In reality, our colonies live only on the gifts of our botanists, and
it is surprising they have not erected monuments to Jussieu arid
Desclieux, who procured for them the coffee-tree, or to Poivre:
and Sonnerat, who went, amid so many perils, to seek out spice.
trees for them. I would explain how the discoveries of botany.
are rendered doubly useful by those of chemistry, which, in
these later times, has succeeded in unfolding the medicinal
principles, and in appreciating, almost mathematically, the de-
gree of virtue of each substance. The labours of M. Sertiirner,
of MM. Pelletier and Caventon, would appear here with lustre.
I would join those of M. Chevreul on the principles of animals,
which open new views in physiology ; those of M. Mitscher-

‘

14 Baron Cuvier on the state of Natural History.

lich and M. Beudant on the production of crystals, which af-
ford important ideas both for mineralogy and for the theory
of the earth. But, above all, should we see physiology it-
self, the science of life, conducted by natural history, che-
mistry and physics, opening up on all sides untrodden paths,
and giving the greatest hopes to humanity. That multiplicity
of forms under which life shews itself in so great a number of
different animals, has given rise to less confined views of it ; and
the rigour of the experiments to which it has been submitted has
impressed upon the science to which its investigation belongs
a character of precision, of which, fifty years ago, it could not
have been thought susceptible. A generous man, M. de Mon-
thyon, by the prizes which he founded for it, still gives it a live-
ly impulse; and already, what among ourselves M. Edwards
has determined respecting the action of external agents on living
bodies, M. Serre on the formation of the bones and the de-
velopement of the brain, M. Magendie on the process of absorp-
tion and the distinction of the nerves of the will and of sensa-
tion, and M. Fleurens on the particular functions of each of the
masses of the brain, announces.a new era, of which the i ree
ment of the art of healing cannot fail to be the term._

But I perceive that these brief indications have already car-
ried me beyond the range to which I had designed to limit
myself. Their fuller exposition I shall reserve for another
opportunity. Let it suffice for the present, that I have sketched
the picture of the tribute which peace has bought to the sciences.
It enables us to see at once the immensity of nature, and the
enjoyments which its investigation still promises us. All the
labours of naturalists, it must be allowed, are as yet but slight
perceptions, furtive glances cast over this vast field. But let
not this idea discourage. The only one that could truly be’
discouraging would be, that we had arrived at the end, and
that there remained nothing more to exercise the genius of the’
observer.

ores

t-A5. ),

oY ee EST ae
On the Excavation of Valleys, as illustrated by the Volcanic
Rocks of Central France. By Cuantrs Lyrett, Esq.
' FR. S., Vice-President of the Geological Society of Lon-
don, &e. ; and Ropericx Imery Murcuison, Esq. F.R. S.
Seeretary to the Geological Society of London, &c. (Com-
municated by the Authors *.)

-§ ja 4

"Pur illustration afforded by the volcanic phenomena of Cen-
tral France, of the power of rivers in excavating valleys, has
already engaged the attention of many authors; but every ad-
ditional fact and argument bearing on this subject, will, it is
hoped, be of interest ; and apology will be unnecessary, should

- we repeat, for the sake of perspicuity, some doctrines on the

origin of valleys, long ago announced by Saussure, Playfair,
and Montlosier, since it is well known that the opposite opi-
nions of De Luc and his school have enjoyed almost an equal
share of favour amongst our countrymen.

Before we advert to examples of lava currents, which have
suffered considerable destruction from the erosive action of run-
ning-water, it will be necessary to remark some characteristic
peculiarities of form in such currents as have remained nearly
entire and unaltered from the time of their first flowing, either
because they descended over a surface elevated above the levels
of torrents or rivers, or because, where they occupied a water-
course, they diverted the stream into another direction, so that
its new passage was not worked out through the lava. In these
eases, the lateral termination of the current is generally abrupt
and broken, and such as would not have been anticipated by
those who have not observed phenomena of like nature in lavas
proceeding from existing volcanoes. Thus the current, or
“ Cheire +” of Puy de la Vache in Auvergne, crosses an in-
clined: plane immediately on leaving its crater, and proceeds in

* Read before the Geological Society of London, December 5th and
19th 1828.

+ “Cheire” or “ Cherre” is the local name of basaltic currents in Au-
vergne, and M. de Montlosier states (p. 48. Essai sur la Theorie des Voleanos),
thal it is derived from the Latin word “ Seire” signifying rugged places or
defiles; and hence, in the old deeds relating to this country, the word
“ Cherule.” (Dvuc.)

16 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

the shape of a long dike or mound, rising in the middle be-
tween 100 and 200 feet high above, the plain ; and its:sides,
which are about, 50. feet high, instead of slanting down, gently
to the subjacent granite, descend at the rapid angle of 40° or
45°. The same lava,in a lower part of its course, presents a —
long steep face towards the lake of Aidat, of which it occasioned
the formation, by damming up the course of the stream, ...
Several of the “ cheires,” descending from the western gra-
nitic plateau from the chain of Puys of the Monts Dome, exhi-
bit the same phenomenon in a striking manner; but it will be
sufficient to allude to that branch of the lava-current of Céme,
which changed the course of the Sioule, and of which M. de
Montlosier has given so faithful and animated a description *.
“* But what,” says he, ‘ has this branch of the lava-current.of
Céme effected? After encrusting all the higher. portions jof
_ Mont Ceysatt, it descended to the bed of the Sioule, and barred
the course of that river, by presenting to it an impenetrable
barrier. The waters thus checked, must, in rising gradually,
at length have overrun this parapet, had they not found, some-
what higher up upon the left, an argillaceous hill, through
which they insinuated themselves, and in which, after softening
the entire mass, they made enormous excayations,. and finally
poured themselves into the bed of the Monges one and a-half
league higher than the ciginel point of junction of that stream
with the Sioule.”, aertod Jo
- The barrier of lava before onan ‘caused presi the, point
where it stopped the course of the Sioule,.a stagnant» water
called the Etang de Fung. The side facing towards the: Etang
is a steep rocky slope 80 feet in height, the general inclination.
of which is at an angle of 45°, and entirely devoid of vegeta-
tion.’ The. lava is compact, and does not appear to have suf-
fered at» all from decomposition, and. as there has: been’ no
stream at the bottom to undermine and remove a talus, any ex-
ternal waste can only have had the effect of diminishing the ori-
ginal declivity. On the other hand, this barrier of lava would,
present a still loftier, precipice, were not its base.concealed by
a deposit of white alluvial. clay, formed in the Etang de Fung:
before its drainage, the depth of which is unknown. me _

* Essai sur la Theorie des Volcanos d’Auvergne, p. 93.

aaa

Excavation of Valleys. 17
height now exposed is sufficient to strike an observer inexpe-
rienced in volcanic phenomena with astonishment... They who

have examined modern lavas are aware, that the surface and
sides. of the stream consist, even while it is moving on, of a

thick, coat of »scorize and solid lava, and often to a considerable

depth, of broken angular masses of heavy lava, so that the ex-
ternal form of the current bears no resemblance to that assumed
by a liquid mass. —

_ Below the Etang de Fung, the ‘ cheire” of Céme occupies

the whole valley down which the Sioule formerly flowed, con-

tinuing in full force past the village of Mazayes, which is built
upon, it... We have here, therefore, an opportunity of observ-

ing the original form of a stream of lava, which has taken en-
tire possession of a river-gorge, and has subsequently remained
undisturbed. Notwithstanding occasional irregularities, the
central part of the “ cheire” swells to the greatest height, and

on approaching the gneiss on either side, it generally slopes at

a considerable angle, sometimes not less than 40°. As the gneiss

usually meets it at.a steep inclination, a lateral valley is formed

on each side, destitute of water. If the Sioule, when first
dammed up, had been compelled to find an exit in this direc-
tion, it would naturally have taken its course through one of
these,"passing between the lava and the gneiss. But we may
also affirm, that it would have flowed down the western side,

for when a “ cheire” descends into a valley in a course at right

angles to that of the river which it dams up, the barrier of the
lake, thus: caused is necessarily of much greater height on the
side where the lava enters. Upon this principle, we may ex-
plain why the basalt of the volcano of Chaluzet in Auvergne,
and of Jaujac in the Vivarais is confined to one side of the ri-
ver, viz. that on which are the respective volcanic vents. In
these ‘cases, the rivers opened a new channel between the lava

é and the primary rock, on the side opposite to that on which the

lava first entered. . From considering the above facts, it will ap-

_~pear, that when a river has eaten out a new channel, and the lava

‘presents a perpendicular section on one side, we may easily ex-

_ aggerate the quantity of matter removed, unless we bear in

_ mind the probable form of its original termination. "It is only |

~ when some remnants of the Java are observed on both sides of
APRIL—JUNE 1829. B

18 Messrs ‘Iuyell'and Miurehison on the

the new’ excavation, ne een ere
the extent of the waste) ©) 4
~The waters of’ the. Sioule: aaingy: bes caine niesiialita died
med. up: at the Etang de Fang, opened for themsélvés a tiew
nearly at right angles to. their former coursé; iteorder to
join the Monges. It becomes, therefore, an interesting matter
of inquiry; to learn how the new valley was formed, what: was
the nature of the argillaceous hill mentioned by: M. de: Montlo-
sier, and whether the entire mass was softened, as he supposed,
previous to excavation: As no oné has yet described: this
locality, wé may be permitted to offer # few details concerning
it. The barrier which. originally: separated: the courses of: the
two rivers, consisted of alluvial clay resting on gneiss, so that
the deflected stream. hollowed out its bed sometimes entirely
through clays sometimes: through the subjacent primary rock.
The Sioule is now seen. immediately after its entrance into.the
new valley, washing on its ight bank the foot of a precipiceof
alhivium 140 féet perpendicular; undermined, and in a state of
gradual decay. This bank consists of blue and red clay not la-
iiimated, but shewing by slight shades of colour that:it was de-
posited horizontally; and exhibiting here and there some irregu-
lar sandy beds, ‘about one foot thick, containing small pebbles
‘of griéiss and quartz, but io volcanic fragments, so that: we may
éoneltide the whole to have resulted from the waste of primaty
yoeks *, Not far from this section, the subjacent gneiss:is: seen
wn the same bank, worn through to the depthoof: twelve: feet.
‘The river next flows. for.some distance through an/alluvial plain,
bounded by hills of clay, and. then passes: through.a narrew
gorge of gneiss; which rock on. the right bark overhangs the
river ina cliff 40 feet perpendicular, still slowly: wasting. A
plateau of ancient basalt is-seen at the height of about 250 feet
or more above the Sioule on either bank, and from the-general
structure of the country, we may infer that here, as at Mount
Rovtiee (afterwards to be mentioned) alluvial deposits between
* Primary clay-élite ekists at the distance of a few miles from the Etang
de Fung, on the Wésterh slope of the granite of the Puys of the Monts
Dome, It may be seen between Montari and Brameau, whiere it is ver-
tical. The destruction at some former period, of parts of this formation,

may have occasioned the immense preponderance of argillaceous matter in
the above-mentioned alluvium.

Excavation of Valleys. 19
200’and 300 feet in thickness had filled an ancient excavation,
which in this instance had been effected through gneiss capped
with basalt, as in Mount Perrier, through tertiary marls cap-
ped with a similar basaltic plateau. ‘The exact depth of the al-
luvium removed cannot be precisely stated, but the height of
some parts, which ascend to the foot of the basaltic plateau, is
above 250 feet, and one of the vertical cliffs composed of allu-
vium, of depth unknown, is, as we before stated, about 140
feet high. ‘This new excavation forms a sinuous valley about *
two and a half miles in length, sometimes expanding so widely,
that the Sioule runs in sweeping curves without reaching either
bank, in a valley which may be compared, in point of size,
to a large majority of those im our tertiary and secondary for-
mations, where it is equally difficult to conceive that such pro-
digious effects can have resulted from causes apparently so
feeble. ‘The mode of operation whereby so narrow a stream
has eaten out so wide a valley, may still, however, be detected.
Here and there are the remains of ancient land-falls, the ruins
of alluvial cliffs formerly undermined. ‘These are now covered
with vegetation, and constitute under-cliffs or taluses. By such
obstructions, the stream has been deflected ‘from time to time
against new points of attack, where it is now undermining steep
precipices of clay, and at the top of these are large’ fissures
threatening future land-slips. The solid gneiss moreover, now
occasionally laid bare at the bottom of the valley, causes sudden
flexures in the stream.

In proportion as the distance between the opposite banks in-
creases, (and it often fails in its present bendings to reach either
side), the shifting of the course of the Sioule is becoming less

equent. As the rate of. waste therefore diminishes with the
width of the valley, the mode of its formation may become
at a remote epoch an obscure and difficult problem. We refer
the operation in question to the Sioule, because no extraordi-
nary inundation can have co-operated. For the “ cheire” of
Céme, which flowed down before the formation of the new val-
ley had begun, occupies so low a level, that had the waters risen

Sie Hieicceeate sep Al, Amnengne, the aurlien, ~hebmmethon.shp bho
sical structure of this district, and one of the first successful efforts at com-
bining geographical and geological information. oy

20 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

about 200 feet high, they must have left some marks of their
passage in that lava. But the rugged surface of the “ cheire”
from the Etang de Fung to Mezayes, is remarkable for the en-
tire absence of sand or ‘pebbles of any kind, or the slightest
covering of mud in the numerous hollows, as also for the an-
gularity of the blocks of loose scoriee scattered over it in abun-
me

- These. \debieniobed circumstances send dni to invalidate
the conclusions of some geologists, who attribute powerful ef-
fects, in the shaping of hills and valleys, to mere frost, disin-
tegration, and the vertical descent of rain-water. It is at least
certain, that during the time required by the Sioule to excavate
the’ valley above described, no visible effect has been produced
on the exposed surface of the “ cheire” of Céme.

Volcano of Chaluzet.

We shall next recall the attention of gockogiabedte to an inte-
resting spot near the village of Chaluzet, on the Sioule, below
Pont Gibaud, where volcanic products were first noticed by
Dolomieu, and of which Mr Scrope has given a brief description
in his recent work. Previous to entering into details, it may be
desirable to give a slight sketch of the lava-current, and of the
source from whence it issued.

Immediately on the north of the village of Pranal rises a co-
nical hill called the Puy, Rouge, composed entirely of red and
black scorie, including much puzzuolana, and many volca-
nic bombs, which materials present about the same degree of
freshness of. aspect as in the volcanoes of the Vivarais. On the
western side of this cone there is a considerable depression to-
wards the village of Chaluzet, resembling a worn-down crater,
and issuing from thence, a powerful stream of lava is to be tra-
ced round the western and southern sides of the Puy Rouge
by Pranal, until it almost entirely occupies the valley of the
Sioule, leaving only a narrow gorge through which that river
forces its passage. Hence the lava deflected to the north-west,
by the lofty and serrated ridge of gneiss which forms the right
bank of the Sioule, follows the course of that stream to Les
Combres, where it terminates. Throughout this space the —
windings of the river are so tortuous, that they must have ma-

Excavation of Valleys. . 21
terially impeded the flow of the liquid matter, and may thus.
probably have occasioned those great protuberances and irregu-
larities of ‘surface, which, although characteristic of all lava-
currents, are remarkably displayed in this. These. peculiar
features are several times repeated, for whenever an expansion
of the valley offers itself, the lava is spread out into a broader
and thinner sheet, and at those points where salient promonto-
ries Of :gneiss-rock seem to have barred its passage, the volcanic
matter» swells up to great heights. Since the mineralogical ac-,
countvof! this current has been described by Mr Scrope *,
we shall:here merely state, that in general characters it is iden-
tical with most others of nearly a contemporaneous origin, in
having an upper part light, cellular, and scoriaceous, which.
passes downwards into a basaltic mass, occasionally divided into
irregular and converging columns, and frequently terminating
at its base in most perfect vertical prisms. The deepest sec-
tion of ‘the lava occurs directly under the village of Chaluzet,
where the left bank of the Sicule consists almost entirely of
vertical:cliffs 400 feet in-depth, exposing in their higher parts

' black and red scoriz, in. their lower columnar basalt... These

rocks abound in caverns, ‘some occurring in scorize black and.

cellular, as those of Vesuvius, whilst others, situated at lower

levels, are grotesquely hollowed out of the compact basalt.
Amongst the were the arcades of ees are remarkably pic-
turesque. —

The Rpuse sale of ie prisms of basalt generally terminate at
some height above the present bed of the Sioule, and whenever
not obscured by debris, they are seen to rest. upon a bed of peb-
bles, of varying thickness, below which the subjacent gneiss is
cut through, down to the actual level of the river. Near Pra-
nal’ this pebble-bed is observable in the cliff, about fifty feet
above the stream, and the space thus denuded exposes a face of
gneiss, ‘nearly vertical, in which lead-mines are now extensively

worked +. If, however, no other than these longitudinal sec-

_ * Geology of Central France, p. 85.

+ The greatest depth of gneiss worn into by the river under the basalt,
appeared to us, after a careful examination, never to exceed fifty or sixty
feet. Mr Scrope had conjectured the amount of excavation through gneiss
(called mica-schist by him), at 200 feet.

22 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

tions had been afforded, there might have existed some difficulty
_ inyproving that this alluvium did at any time pass horizontally
under the basalt, constituting a river bed, and not merely de-
bris covering a mountain slope; but we obtained the most unan-
swerable evidence in support of this fact at Les Combres. There,
within a very short distance of its termination, and when the
lava-current has diminished to the thickness of thirty feet, it
rests upon a pebble-bed, having between it and the stream about
eighteen feet of gneiss*. Fortunately at this point there isan
ancient excavation (said to have been a mine of the Romans),
and a gallery has been driven in horizontally through the upper
part of the gneiss and the superposed alluvium, so that the
lower ends of the columns of basalt form the roof, resting on
the pebble-bed, which can be traced for the space of fifty or
sixty feet inwards on either side of the gallery, occupying, regu-
larly throughout, the space between the basalt and the gneiss.
In this alluvial bed are fragments of old. basalt, with others of
gneiss, and much white quartz and schist. Many of these boul-
ders are quite rounded, whilst others are flat and slightly angu-
lar, as in the bed of the present river, and the surface of the
gneiss on which they are deposited is slightly undulating.

The higher portion of the alluvial bed consists of fine brown
sand, identical with bands occupying similar positions at Mont-
pezat and other localities in the Vivarais, and the ends of the
prisms of basalt terminating upon this sandy bed ee as
in that district, scoriaceous and cellular.

No remnant of the lava of Chaluzet is now found on the right
bank of the Sioule, but it must once have reached it at many
points, as the gorge is every where narrow, and at Pranal can-
not far exceed fifty or sixty feet in width, although here the
basalt, resting on gneiss, forms an impending and vertical cliff,
about 100 feet in height. For two-thirds of this thickness the
basalt is prismatic, and this structure implies its former liqui-
dity and slow cooling on the ‘spot, and that it did not form the
exposed surface of a “ cheire.” It may indeed be contended,
that the Sioule excavated the present chasm between the basalt
and the gneiss, and chiefly through the latter, because this would

* See Plate L.

Baiwvation of Valligfeseesil 93

_ account for some ranges of basaltic prisms lying on the gneiss,
nearly horizontal, and presenting their ends towards the gorge.
For, in the valley of Antraigues in the Vivarais, where a section
isjafforded, of basaltic current abutting against a precipice.of

are nearly horizontal; whereas they are ob-
lique on the slope beneath, and vertical where they rest on the
level. bed, of the ancient river, in accordance with a fact now
generally established, that the axes of the prisms are always at

night angles to the cooling surfaces.
The comparative destructibility of the basalt and the gneiss

is by no means unfavourable to this hypothesis; for although
there are here, as usual, in the gneiss formation, some strata of
a hard granitic texture, yet in general it is a slaty rock, contain-
ing much mica and decomposing felspar, and its high inclination,
usually at an angle of about 65°, and numerous fissures parallel
to. the main course of the river, facilitate disintegration. ‘This
tendency to waste is evinced by the huge slaty masses encum-
bering the foot of the cliffs or the middle of the river-bed. The
basalt, on the other hand, is extremely compact, resists decom,
position, and is only perishable in some parts where the prisms
happen to be vertical; and exposed tothe mechanical action of
an undermining current.

Mr Scrope has observed, that the undisturbed and perfect
state of the cone of loose scoriz whence the lava of Chaluzet
proceeded, demonstrates that no denuding wave, or extraordi-
nary body of water, has passed: over this spot since the eruption ;
and wemay add, that here as at Céme; the upper scoriaceous
surface of the ‘ cheire” preserves its original asperities, and is
in no part strewed oyer with sand or alluvial pebbles. Now,
if we compare the extent of waste at, Chaluzet with that under-
gone by the ‘ cheire” of Céme below Pontgibaud, it is difficult
not,to conclude with Mr Scrope, that the eruption of Chaluzet was
considerably anterior. But wecan haye no_hesitation in assuming
that, Chaluzet is at least as ancienta voleanoas Come. Whence
it follows, that in times comparatively recent, there has passed
through the narrow.gorge of the Sioule near Chaluzet, Ist, The
whole.contents now,remoyed from the higher valley before alluded
to, connecting the Sioule and the Monges ; 2dly, All that has

24 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

been excavated out of the * cheire” of Céme below Pontgibaud ;
Sdly, All the basalt and subjacent gneiss destroyed as above
stated between: Pranal and Combres; and, 4thly,"The whole
detritus of primary rocks brought down from countries’ higher
on the Sioule than the above localities. This enormous: quan-
tity of rock and soil has been carried, we say, through this gorge,
in times comparatively recent ; for the products of Céme and
Chaluzet are modern in comparison with the ancient basalts of
Auvergne, as are the latter in reference to the resireni ——
strata whereon they rest.

If, then, within a period of time inconsiderable with reference
to the earth’s history, the volume of matter carried’ down by a
single tributary stream of the Allier be so prodigious, it is easy
to perceive, that, were all the materials which have been trans-
ported during the same time by other rivers from the central
granitic mountains of France, united and presented to us in one
view, they would bear witness to the force of causes that have
operated, and are still operating, in nature, to an extent = be-
yond the calculation of many es cara

Volcano of Montpexat.

Without regard to geographical connection, we shall next de-
scribe some phenomena analogous to those of Chaluzet, as pre-
sented by the valley of Montpezat in the Vivarais. For the
leading facts relating to this lava-current, we refer to Mr Scrope’s
work *. He, in common with M. Faujas de St Fond, has de-
scribed the primary rock of this district as granite. But the
whole country, from the source of the Ardéche in the Haut
Vivarais to near Aubenas consists of gneiss, composed in gene-
ral of the ordinary ingredients of granite, but distinctly lami-
nated in strata, for the most part of great thickness, often verti-
cal, and always highly inclined, and here rarely deviating from
the same direction, viz. from NW. to SE. Some members of
this formation are composed here, as in Scotland, chiefly of horn-
blende; others are, in mineralogical characters, true granites,

though belonging to the same system, and granite veins are not

uncommon. The verticality of the strata has contributed to
* Geology of Central France.

.
:

;

Excavation of Valleys. 25
the serrated outline of the mountains, and to the. deep and fis-
sured character of the valleys.

_ The cone and crater of Montpezat have as perfect and fresh
an appearance as the most recent in Auvergne. ‘The volcanic
bombs are extremely numerous, and the ashes are so loose, that
there’is no vegetation on the greater part of the northern slope.
As there are no smooth rounded alluvial .pebbles at the bottom
of the crater, or on any part of the cone, the angular blocks of
gneiss near the summit (some heavier than a man can lift) were
not transported thither by water, but must have been ejected
from below. | These have undergone no visible alteration ; a re-
mark that will apply equally to many of the granitic fragments
contained both in the scorize and basaltic lava of this voleano. The
black cellular scorix that were thrown out from the crater towards
Thueyts, attest, if possible, still more strongly than the state of
the cone, that no general inundation has passed over the coun-
try since the eruption.. These ashes and scoriz are very light,
the fragments varying from the size of walnuts to peas, cover-
ing, in beds from three to four feet thick, a rapid acclivity of
gneiss. They have in great part disappeared, but, from the
abrupt shape of the valley, and their feeble adhesion to the sub-
jacent rocky slope, it is clear, that even the force of a very small
body of water would have swept away the whole.

.. The lava of Montpezat descended from a breach on the NW.
side of the crater into the bed of the Fontaulier... Now, it is na-
tural, and indeed almost necessary, to suppose, that. whenever a
mountain stream is thus dammed up, a lake must have been
the result, which would receive for a time all the sand and rocks
brought: down continually from the higher mountains. The
river issuing from such a lake would exert but little power near
its outlet, not being yet charged with foreign matter. These
circumstances are still clearly exemplified in lakes caused by
similar obstructions in Auvergne, and we shall enumerate some
facts there observed, as illustrative of phenomena to be described
in the sequel. At the lake of. Chambon, for instance, where
the lava of Tartaret blocked up the whole valley of. the Couze,
that river has been unable, near its outlet, to wear to the depth
of more than a few feet through the barrier; whereas, not far
below, at Sailhens, where the body of water is not. greater, it has

26 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

cut te the depth of fifty feet:into the compact lava; dnd»stall far-
ther down, in a narrow defile in the granite below Vertietes;:it
has not only pierced, but entirely swept away, at many points,
the whole lava-current,—a break the more remarkable, because
the ‘ cheire” is again resumed in:great force, where the ~valley
widens halow;: spreading near its termination aontayenninntiye
breadth of half a mile. orgs ads

Although the Couze of Chanibon “deen so little effect at
its exit from the lake, it has formed iat the upper extremity an
alluvial tract, several miles in length, and, by the continual in-
flux of matter from the heights ef Mont Dor, it we ay at
some remote epoch, the whole lake.

In like manner, the upper end of the Lac Aides is: ‘atdiies
and encroached upon by a marshydelta. The stream where it
issues has only cut down to the depth of a few feet, passing: be-
tween the granite and the “ cheire,” although at St’ Saturnin,
about twelve miles below, it ‘has not only cut. through the
‘“‘ cheire” (above 100 feet thick), but’ through about oriied
feet of subjacent fresh-water strata.

_ Inthe case of Montpezat, there appears to us clear wiles

of the lava having occasioned a lake, and of the lake having been
subsequently filled, and this lacustrine ideposite, with part of its
barrier, having been finally cut through. |The ‘south \pier.of
the bridge over the Fontaulier at Montpezat, rests on basalt,
constituting that part of the lava-current nearest to the crater:
Overlying this, on the right bank, are seen alluvial deposites,
about thirty feet in thickness, the lower half composed of layers
of volcanic sand, with a few small pebbles of gneiss, the -upper
of coarse gravel, and rounded blocks of gneiss, several tons in
weight, the whole often cemented into a puddingstone by vol-
canic ashes. On the opposite bank, a terrace of this coarse al-
luvion is also seen resting on basalt. About thirty yards higher
up, on the same side of ‘the river, the finer volcanic part of this
deposite is seen reaching down to the level of the river, in thin
sedimentary layers. We may suppose, therefore, that a lake
was formed, and that the lower extremity was principally filled
with volcanic matter, washed down, and perhaps ‘in part ejected
from the adjoining cone. Over successive layers:of this:finer
matter, which at length overtopped the sloping sides of 'thevbar-

Lwcavation of Valleys. 27
rier, the Fontaulier, having first pushed forward a delta across
the lake, ‘brought down its coarse alluvion. It then opened it-
self a passage through the lacustrine alluvium, and is now gra-
- dually eating out a ravine through the subjacent basalt. The

enormous magnitude of some boulders resting on the basalt, do
not imply*a greater power than that of the present river, for we
saw masses of gneiss of as many tons in weight, which had been
recently brought by much smaller torrents into the Fontaulier.
The lava current, after crossing the river at the point above
mentioned, spread itself over the small plain, where the town of
Montpezat stands, and filled the channel of the Pourseille, a
stream which unites with the Fontaulier a short distance below,
at the Castle of Pourchirol *. A few yards above the point of
confluence, the Pourseille falls in a cascade over a cliff, the
upper part of which, to the depth of thirty feet, consists of sco-
riaeeous lava worn through by the stream; below which is a
bed of prismatic basalt, thirty feet in thickness, vertical and
overhanging, for it has been undermined by a copious stream of
water which runs beneath, through a bed of sand and pebbles,
resting on gneiss. This ancient alluvion varies from three to
nine feet in thickness, and is composed of ferruginous brown
sand, and rounded boulders of gneiss, but none of basalt. The
gneiss underneath is worn down in an inclined plane to the
depth of perhaps thirty feet. In the natural grotto thus formed
under the basalt, the original pebble-bed may be studied in
‘nearly as satisfactory a manner as in the mine of Chaluzet be-
fore described+.

Below the Castle, the lava expands itself into a sheet about a
mile in breadth, and about two miles long, forming the rich and
level plateau called Champagne. ‘The Fontaulier here flows on
the north of the plain, in a ravine between the gneiss and the
basalt, the latter presenting towards the river broken, and occa-
sionally vertical, cliffs of about 100 feet in height. One of the

* See Scrope’s Geology of Central France, Plate XV-

+ Mr Scrope, with whose general views on the excavation of valleys in
Auvergne we fully concur, has considerably over-estimated the thickness of
primary rock worn through under basalt at the Castle of Pourchirol. See
Scrope’s Geology of Central France, Plate XV. p. 181.

28 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

small streamlets crossing the broad plateau of lava, and which
was dry when we visited it, has shaped out a channel ‘about
twenty feet deep, and which, near its junction with the Fontau-
lier, is about 100 paces broad. In its gravel-bed we’ saw enor-
mous blocks of gneiss, which it had carried for half a mile over
the slightly inclined plane of the lava current. » In consequence
of accidents, resulting from velcanic causes, the course of the
Fontaulier presents us with -alluvial accumulations of | three
distinct dates. The most ancient occurs at various places under
the lava current. . It is generally not much elevated above the
level of the river, and is seen continually at its edge reposing on
gneiss, and containing no volcanic matter. The next in age is
that seen at the bridge of Montpezat, resting on basalt, and -
containing volcanic sand as well as primary rocks. The last is
the bed of the present river, where, notwithstanding the passage
of the Fontaulier for so many miles through basalt,’ and. that
pebbles of basalt are introduced by the tributary stream de-
scending from pores boulders of tapes frock: relents

oe of Thueyts.. .

The lava current proceeding from the volcanic’ crater of

Thueyts, in the Vivarais, distant only a few miles from that
last described, is remarkable under several points of view.
' 1st, Contrary to the general course of such currents, the main
body of lava has ascended the bed of the Ardéche for about a
mile:and a-half, there occupying the widest part of the valley,
and filling it up to the gneiss on either side.

2d, The Ardéche has eaten its present bed between the pre-
cipitous rocks of gneiss on its right bank, and the sides of the
lava current, exposing in several places a pebble bed between’
the ends of the vertical prisms of basalt and the subjacent |
gneiss. The latter is thus shewn to have been cut into since the
epiich of the eruption, in one instance twenty-five, in another.
seventy feet, below the river alluvion.

3d, The depth of excavation is immense in the narrowest part
of the gorge, where the compact basalt has been eaten into to
the depth of ninety feet, and the hard and solid rocks of
gneiss below for seventy feet more, down to the present level

Excavation of Valleys. 29

of the river Pn single arch, only fifteen paces in width, spans

| chasm ; and the eye can at a glance restore the

former outline of these rocks, and estimate the amount of. ba-
salt.and gneiss removed by the action of the stream below.

. 4th, A phenomenon hitherto we believe unnoticed in lava cur-
semteativelie age, occurs at the spot just mentioned. Between
the lower terminations of the vertical columns of basalt and the
subjacent gneiss, is an undulating zone or band of black pitch-
stone, at right angles to the axes of the prisms. The position
of this pitchstone is of high interest, in affording an exact paral-
lel to the layers of that mineral described by Professor Sedg-
wick, and one of the authors of this paper, as forming the ex-
ternal portions of basaltic dikes which traverse the lias, and
higher.members of the oolitic series in the Hebrides ; and also
because» similar layers of a black vitreous rock approaching
pitchstone, have been recently observed by the other author of
this memoir, forming the exterior of dikes in the crater of
Somma, or ancient part of Vesuvius. This band at the Geule
@Enfer seldom exceeds one foot in thickness, and it pecu-
liarly resembles in mineral structure that of the dikes.of Car-
saig,.on the south coast of Mull, in its black colour, fracture,
and state of compactness. The ends of the columns terminating
upon it are somewhat scoriaceous and cellular. A bed of sand
and pebbles is, in one part of the gorge, seen to be pataripooned
between the pitchstone and the gneiss +.

The. greater portion of the river beds in fe Sian are
without water in summer, and the white-bleached exterior of the
primary boulders contrasts so strongly with the black. basalt,
that we may easily form some estimate of the relative degrees of
waste / undergone by these rocks. In the bed of the Ardéche,
before it receives from the Alignon the basaltic pebbles of Jau-
jacy the basalt scarcely bears to the gneiss a greater proportion
than.one to fifty. Its channel is blackened for a while by the
influx of the basalt of the Alignon ; but again, in descending the
stream, the primary rocks afustystibete predominate, even. near

* See Plate Il.

+ A bed of pitchstone is described by Mr Scrope in the Ponza Isles to be
interposed between the trachyte and conglomerate. Geol. Trans. vol. ii.
2d Series, p. 228.

30 Messrs Lyell and: Murehison on the

La Begude, a few miles above Aubenas, after contributions
have been received from all the lava-currents of the Vivarais.

At the above locality, the bed of the Ardéche is about 400
yards wide; it is laid open in parts to the depth of fourteen
feet perpendicular, through sand and boulders of unknown
thickness. ‘The upper surface at least of this great mass moves
on annually; and some islands formerly covered with trees and
buildings have been overwhelmed. Here the prisms of hard
basalt have, by trituration, in a few miles, lost all traces of their
original form,—a fact which shews how much the quantity of
matter carried into the sea in the shape of sand, must exceed
that which descends in the form of pebbles.

On regarding the void spaces once occupied by basalt in the
valleys of the Vivarais, the doctrine formerly advocated by Play-
fair is much illustrated and confirmed; and we feel. disposed
with M. Montlosier, Scrope, and other authors who have writ-
ten.on the excavations of valleys in central France, to ascribe al.
most unlimited power to ordinary rivers, when a sufficient lapse
of time is assumed. Nature rarely affords us, as here, an accu-
rate measure of amount of destruction occasioned during pe-
riods of definite extent, or whose limits we can fix with senile si
to other natural events.

But the waste of the gneiss during the same lapse of tensions
been incomparably greater, and the matter which has di
from the innumerable valleys falling into the Ardéche would ex-
cite much more admiration, if it could be raised again from the
bed of the Rhone or the Mediterranean, and submitted in one
mass to our inspection. Yet the mountains and valleys have
preserved the same mutual relations, and the same general form,
since the epoch of the eruptions. The lavas still share with the
rivers the lowest levels, and if the basalt of Aysac could be re-
melted, and again made to flow down from its crater; it would
descend in the same direction, and, after encircling m the same
manner the promontory of gneiss on which Antraigues stands,
would fill up again, to a certain height, the three valleys which
converge and meet below the town; from whence the
lava stream would then wind down as now towards the Ardéche.
In these and similar cases, the lower parts of the valleys have re-

ae

Excavation of Valleys. 31

mained: stationary, because the gneiss has been protected by lava
ffom the ravages of the rivers, which, instead of deepening and
»widening their original chamnels, have, in the first instance, been
compelled to disencumber themselves of volcanic matter.

But the upper parts of the same valleys, to which, as above
Antraigues; the lava did not reach, and the flanks of the hills
above the contact of each lava-current, have remained during
‘the same time unprotected. ‘The eye nevertheless cannot, in
general, recognize any difference between the steep slope of the
gneiss, where it has been exposed, and the part which has been
eneased with lava, so as to discover in the outline any inequality
in the degrees of waste. If, then, the loss of gneiss which we
_can calculate, in certain positions, to have been immense, has
_not affected, in an appreciable degree, the general shape of the
hills or valleys, we may infer that the gradual decay of a conti-
nent can give birth to sedimentary formations of vast import-
ance in the grand receptacles of transported matter, while, in
the mean time, we are unable to perceive any sensible alteration
in the Jand whence the matter is withdrawn.

All the lava-currents in the Vivarais are cut through in some
part of their course, so as to exhibit the subjacent gneiss, with
an intervening bed of ancient alluvium. In Auvergne, the most
modern lavas have not, in general, suffered so much. This,
liowever, cannot be safely attributed to their inferior antiquity,
but to the difference in the form of the valleys, which, in Au-

I ate wider in proportion to the volume and rapidity
of water flowing in them. Where, however, the configuration
ef the eountry happens to have been favourable to waste, as in
the gorges before meittioned of the Sioule at Chaluzet, the
Veyre at St Saturnin, and the Couze de Chambon below Ver-
rieres, lavas flowing from caters nearly as entire as those of the
Vivarais have been destroyed in as great a degree

It may be asked, Whether, if all these lavas. be, ahem
able to the same great epoch, there are not others which must
be classed as intermediate between them and the oldest volcanic
rocks of Mont Dor? That such connecting links in the chain
do exist, we observed what amounted, in our opinion, to conclu-
sive proofs ; and we cannot doubt that more abundant examples

32 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

‘would have occurred to us, had not our attention been chiefly
directed to the relations and characters of the tertiary strata *.
Mr Scrope has mentionedt, that, in following the course of
the lava of Tartaret, ‘the sides of the valley are seen fringed at
higher elevations, by sections of more ancient currents’ which
have flowed in the same direction. We were enabled to con-
firm his inferences from these facts, by finding under one of
these remnants of more ancient basalt a pebble-bed resting on
granite, aud containing granitic sand and gravel, with some few
boulders of basalt, probably referable to one of the ancient ba-
saltic plateaus. This section is seen on descending the hill to
the town of Champhetx; by the road from St Saturnin, on the

* Many authors have cited localities in Central France, ‘where basaltic
plateaus at different, and often very considerable, elevations above the pre-
sent valleys, repose on alluvions. Among these, we may enumerate, in the
order of date of their works, Messieurs Le Grand d’Aussi, Montlosier, Ra-
mond, Scrope, and Bertrand Roux. We examined, in company with the last
mentioned gentleman, several examples near Puy en Velay, and had so many
opportunities of attesting the fidelity of all his geological observations, that
we confidently rely on numerous other cases cited in his work, and we refer
the geologist to them. »

Since the present memoir was penvca) Moss Croizet onl Pte have
published the first part of their great work on the Fossil Bones of the De-
partment of the Puy de Dome, in which they notice some important cases of
alluvions berieath basaltic coulées of different epochs. Of the most ancient
class observed by them, is the alluvion under Puy Solignat, south-west ef Is-
soire, on the right bank of the Couze, and facing Mont Perrier. Here the
gravel bed beneath the old basalt is upwards of 2000 feet above the level of
the sea, and the pebbles consist of the primary rocks of the immediate neigh-
bourhood and of the tertiary formations ; and, as no basalt is found in this de-
tritus, it is inferred, that, when these alluvions were deposited on the tertiary
strata, few or none of the oldest volcanoes had then burst out.—P. 76.

Of the next in age of these pebble-beds, a good example is seen under one
portion of the basaltic plateau of Pardines, where the detritus contains some
portions of old compact basalt, which, it is inferred, has been derived from the
loftier coulées of the same epoch, as that of Solignat. The third period com-
prehends the alluvial beds, containing the bones of many extinct quadrupeds,
at Mont Perrier, Boulade, &c., where they are overlaid by, and alternate
with, mountainous masses of trachytic breccia. A fourth class of gravel beds
are seen under the lava-currents which have issued from the most recent vol-
canic vents, and in these the bones of elephants and other animals ate found.
Lastly, they describe the superficial gravel and sand in the present valleys
and river beds.

+ Geology of Central France, p. 117.

~—\

a

eS hee a

. Excavation of Valleys. 33
Highs hand side. ‘Phe granite beneath this alluvion is worn into
to the depth of about 100 feet. We also remarked, near Besse,
in the valley of the Couze of Issoire, the same river’ which in
a lower part of its course runs at the foot of Mount Perrier, a
still more striking example of two lava currents, of distinct ages,
which had both flowed in the same direction. The most recent
has all the characters of a modern “cheire,” and may be seen’a
short distance above the village of Ourseyre, which is: built
upon it, to be worn into by the river about 50 feet. Above it,
and/on the right bank of the Couze, an older current of colum-
nar‘phonolite is seen, the base of which descends very nearly as.
low as the most elevated points of the uneven ‘‘cheire.” | But
a talus of fallen prisms prevented our ascertaining whether the
phonolite rested on an ancient alluvion.. Although in) such
marked cases we cannot refuse to admit the higher and older of
the two currents to be of an intermediate age, in reference to
the volcanic products of Auvergne ; and although we grant that
the terms “ ancient” or ‘‘ modern” may both be equally misap-
plied in regard to such rocks, we are not prepared to consider
the same test of relative elevation as indicating the age of an-
cient plateaus of basalt, forming the cappings of insulated hills,
or lofty ridges, :and whose position has no visible relation to
existing valleys. In a country where the granite has subse-
quently given vent to so many separate volcanic eruptions, and
where’ there are proofs, as might have been expected, of its
having undergone considerable subsequent convulsions ; where
the tertiary strata, from the uppermost to the lowest member in
the series, are found to dip in almost every direction, and at
every inclination from vertical to horizontal,—and where they

are traversed by fissures, faults, and basaltic dikes (the latter

not only causing disturbance, but continuous, in some instances,
with’ overlying plateaus) ;—-to attempt, in such a district, to-es-
tablish relative elevation as a criterion of age, seems almost as
unsafe as to determine the respective antiquity of overlying
He open in Scotland by the same standard.

Some travellers have considered the ancient plateaus of basalt

_in Auvergne as implying:a discrepancy between the manner of

the ancient and modern volcanic action, for there-was a greater
APRIL=-JUNE_ 1829. “¢

34 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

tendency, it is said, formerly, in the lavas to spread themselves
out in sheets, instead of flowing, as afterwards, in long narrow
stripes. But the discovery of river alluvions under so many
plateaus, helps greatly to explain the phenomenon. We have
remarked in this memoir, that the lava of Montpezat spreads
itself out into a wide sheet, where the breadth of the valley in-
creases greatly, and forms in these situations a columnar basaltic
plateau, the flat surface of which is ‘at a considerable height
above the present river, and the foundation of which is also
seen to be an ancient alluvion. We have also stated, in other
~ cases, that the narrowest parts of several currents have been
completely annihilated by the erosion of a river, whereas the
same are again resumed in great force, where the valley widens,
as in the case of the current of 'Tartaret.

It is obvious that, if these operations were contiansie for a
great period of time, the wide plateaus of lava would alone re-
main, the connecting portions having disappeared; and as the
process of excavation, in every country, diminishes the slope of |
the bottoms of valleys (where subterranean ‘forces do not cause
fresh derangement), the inclined planes of the old plateaus
would be steeper than the present river beds, as seems so often
the case in Auvergne. There is no difficulty in regard to the
appearances now under consideration, so long as it cannot be
pretended that the old plateaus are wider than the flat alluvial
plains occasionally bordering the modern rivers in the same
district. But, so far is this from being the case, that many
rivers (as the Allier, in particular, near Vichy) exhibit large flat
plains, now strewed over with gravel and sand, of greater width
than any of the old plateaus. It is scarcely necessary to recall
the remark of Mr Scrope and others, that the oldest lavas,
however inexplicable their present position, must, when: they,
were in a liquid state, have attained, soon after issuing from
below, the lowest levels of the then surface, and consequently
have occupied the course of a torrent or river.

Mont Perrier, near Issoire. (Montagne de Boulade of MM.
Devezxe and Bouillet.)

As two works have recently been published on the relations

of the alluvial strata of Mont Perrier, we feel called upon to

a A>»

__.. Batavation of Valleys. | 55
explain our reasons for offering any additional remarks on the
subject. In the earliest of these publications, Messrs Deveze
and Bouillet have described the series of strata in which the
bones of extinct quadrupeds have been found, as overlaid by a
mass of ancient basalt, and they have cited Dr Buckland as ¢o-
inciding in opinion with themselves; but they were mistaken
on that point, for the Professor was well known to have come
to an entirely opposite conclusion. We find also that some of
our own views on these extraordinary phenomena are not in ex-
act accordance with those of any of the numerous observers who
have as yet written on the subject.*

The nucleus of Mont Perrier consists of tertiary strata, which
appear to have been once covered by an uniform mass of an-
cient basalt, by which, as represented in Desmarest’s map, the
western portion of the hill is still capped. Towards the east, it

' now descends with a gradual slope into the great alluvial plain

of Issoire, this part of its surface being strewed with blocks of
the same basalt in a state of disintegration. This sloping portion
is deeply cut into by several ravines running from west to east,
in one of which, near the farm-house of Boulade, occurs the
chief deposite of bones, the geological position of which has given
rise to'so much discussion. |

We shall first describe, in an ascending series, the strata met
with between Issoire and the ancient alluvion near Boulade+,
and afterwards other sections on the north-western escarpment
of the hill,—the latter of which can alone elucidate the relations
of the superficial deposites to the older strata. The lowest rock,
in ascending from Issoire, occurs at Les Chapelles. It is a
granitic aggregate, containing occasionally rounded fragments
of quartz, gneiss, and mica-slate; and has been called Granite
by Messrs: Deveze and Bouillet, and also subsequently by
Messrs Jobert and Croizet, from which, in hand specimens, ‘it
may often be undistinguishable. This rock is worked into

* The most recent of the two works alluded to, is entitled, “ Recherches
sur les Ossemens Fossiles du Puy de Dome,” and has already been cited by us,
p- 22, in a manner which shews that we accord with the authors Messrs
Croizet and Jobert in many essential points.

+ See Plate II.

cz

36 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

troughs; and a variety of the same grit, at Mont Peyroux, not
far distant, is employed for mill-stones. Near Nechers, in the
same neighbourhood, it passes into a red and green sandstone,
is of great thickness, and cannot be distinguished in character
from the new red sandstone of many parts of England ; al-
though an examination of the tertiary strata of Auvergne has
satisfied us that it really constitutes one of the inferior members
of those great lacustrine deposites.

As the mineralogical structure of this rock has, under the
denomination of Arkose, been minutely given by M. Brongniart,
when describing it in other parts of this district, we may refer
the reader to his memoir.*

This grit is here covered by alluvium, which extends along a
plateau, stretching upwards from Les Chapelles to the farm of
Boulade. From its component parts, we may conclude this al-
luvion to have been derived from one of more ancient date,
hereafter to be described, and which has been partially de-
stroyed. ’

In ascending the ravine near the farm of Boulade, the fol.
lowing beds are exposed in succession, beginning’ with thie
lowest + :—

lst, Thinly laminated, white and green marls abounding in
cypris, with some bands of siliceous limestone, about twelve —
feet thick. These strata dip at an angle of ten degrees WSW.
and evidently form part of the tertiary lacustrine formation, so
widely developed in this part of Auvergne.

2d, Unconformably upon these rest beds of fine and coarse
sand and gravel, alternating with each other to the thickness of
eighteen feet. The pebbles are chiefly of basalt: and quartz,
the cement sandy, and sometimes ferruginous.

8d, These are surmounted by a bed of sandy gravel, of an
ochreous colour, varying in thickness from nine inches to two
feet, whence the greater part of the fossil bones which have
given so much celebrity to this hill have been extracted. Above
this sand is a bed of black and ferruginous gravel, two feet in
thickness.

* Sciences Naturelles, June 26, sur l’Arkose. + See Plate IIL
4

pate

Excavation of Valleys. 37

— Ath, hese alluvial: deposites are covered by a mass of tufa-
eal or rather breccia *, very irregular in thick-
ness, containing some pebbles of quartz and granite, but differing
from the inferior alluvium by the abundance of angular trachy-

- tic fragments, and a tufaceous cement, uniting the whole into a

solid mass. —

_, We now proceed to the northern and western side of the same
hill, where a steep escarpement faces the river Couze at the vil-
lage of Perrier. . Here the geologist is presented with a magni-
ficent vertical section of alternating beds of alluvion, and tra-
chytic breccias, perhaps without parallel ; the whole forming a
covering more than three hundred feet in thickness to the ter-
tiary marls on which the town of Perrier stands. In the allu-
vial, beds alternating with, and beneath, this enormous mass,
‘Messieurs Jobert and Croizet, have detected animal remains
similar to those found near Boulade+, and in vast quantities. |
» A few hundred yards west of the locality last mentioned, the
hill. bends slightly round, so as to afford a section almost trans-
verse to the preceding, and clearly to exhibit the superposition
of the deposites already described, to the basaltic mass which caps
the tertiary marls. That mass is seen to pass down under beds
of pumice and gravel, which slope in the same direction, but
less rapidly. Some of them thin out before reaching the basalt,
and they are all thinner towards their termination upwards.
‘This is precisely the disposition which these strata may be sup-
posed to have taken, if they filled up a lake, of which the basalt
formed one of the lateral barriers.

At the village of Pardines, a few hundred yards farther to the
N.W., the side of the hill may be seen. still more completely
divested of its alluvial coverings. This exposure is in a great
measure due to the great land-slip of Pardines, which hap-

ue da strnedasichentanensilenieghgagieed ad stempeliechertallog:
lar fragments of trachyte, because conglomerate is so generally applied to
those puddingstones which consist of rounded pebbles cemented together by
a base of sand or other matter; but we should state that our breccias are the
same as the tufaceous conglomerates of many writers on Auvergne, and cor-
respond exactly in character with the trachytic conglomerates described by
Beudant as of such great extent in Hungary.
+ See Plate LI.

38 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

pened in 1733, probably occasioned by the undermining of the
light pumiceous beds, which caused the fall of the more massive
overlying trachytic breccia.» 'The ruins of the latter forma ta-
lus a mile and a half broad at its lower extremity, and. ong of
the fallen masses‘are of colossal size. |

There is a great fissure in the basalt, sealed to the. fina
the hill, perhaps occasioned by failure of support on the removal
of the trachytic breccia, which must formerly have acted asa
buttress in propping up the precipitous basalt. Where the re-
mains of this landfall do not conceal the section, the tertiary
marls may be traced from the valley upwards, to pain a few
feet of the overlying basalt.

Before attempting any explanation of the above dian
we shall mention two other localities of deposites analogous in
their component parts, and geological position, to those of Mont
Perrier. One of these is seen on the summit of a precipitous
cliff overhanging the Allier at St Maurice, near St Romain.
This cliff consists of tertiary grits and marls, from four hun-
dred to five hundred feet in thickness, still undermined by the
river. Upon these strata rests alluvium and trachytic breccia,
occupying a ledge, as it were, on the side of the hill; higher
than which is seen a steep slope, consisting of gypseous marls,
capped with basalt. The bottom bed of the alluvium is filled -
with rounded pebbles of quartz, granite,and porphyritic trachyte,
with numerous fragments of fresh-water marls. The pebbles are
stained by iron of a deep purple colour. This is about seven
feet thick, and supports the trachytie breccia, which is a much
greater mass, and is identical with that of Mont Dor.

The other locality of trachytic breccia, mentioned by Mr
Scrope, is on the southern side of the hill of Monton, at the dis-
tance of about ten miles north of Mont Perrier. It is almost a
mountain mass, very pumiceous, and contains fragments of ba-
salt as well as trachyte, but there are no interposed beds of
rounded alluvial pebbles. In the tufaceous portion of this rock,
as at Perrier, the inhabitants have excavated subterranean
dwellings. Below the breccia, tertiary strata are e to
the depth of many hundred feet. | They consist chiefly of thin-
ly laminated green marls, -filled ‘with cypris, and: some white

2

_ Eacavation of Valleys. 39

marls enclosing lymnei and planorbes. These dip to N.W. ge-
nerally at a considerable angle. On the road from Monton to
Vayres, their inclination is 25 degrees.

If we now compare the localities last described with those al-
luded to in other parts of the present communication, they may
perhaps be found mutually to elucidate each other; and although,
considered singly and without relation to other volcanic pheno-
mena in Central France, the deposites of Mount Perrin may
seem inexplicable, and due to some preternatural causes, yet,
when more closely examined, they will appear the simple results
of some of the most ordinary operations.

-The various sections of Perrier, Monton, St Maurice, and

that of the new valley of the Sioule, above the Etang de Fung,
all concur in testifying that many ancient valleys in Auvergne,
have at certain remote periods been filled up with transported
matter of different kinds, after which they have been re-excavated,
and generally to a depth much below their original level.
_ Now, among the effects of the last series of volanic eruptions
in Auvergne, we observe the frequent damming up of rivers by
currents of lava, whereby ancient valleys have been converted
into lakes, and are at present slowly filling up with alluvial mat-
ter; such as the Lac d’Aidat, and the Lac de Chambon. The
Etang de Fung had a similar origin, but was drained partly by
nature, and in part by man, before the alluvial accumulations
had time to become considerable.

In the Vivarais, also, as we have before stated, a modern lava
current barred the course of the Fontaulier, whereby the valley
above appears to have become filled with alluvium and volcanic
sand, some of which still remains, as at Mont Perrier, at ahigher
elevation than the present river.

. We have stated our reasons for embracing the opinion that
Auvergne has experienced, throughout several successive pe-
riods, the effects of volcanic action. It is reasonable therefore
to conclude, that the lavas of every age gave rise to similar local
accidents, and that many of them dammed up pre-existing val-
leys,, wherein transported matter was gradually deposited, and
which, in the course of ages, was again removed, wholly or in
part, together with the volcanic barriers. And as the ancient
lavas of Auvergne were infinitely more copious than the mo.

40 Messrs: Lyell and Murchison on the

dern, so we may expect to find proofs: that the obstructions of-
fered by them to the course of rivers, were in like Se
more considerable.

It must not be forgotten, that in three of thoes idle:
consideration, we have decisive proofs that not only the refilling,
but even the first formation, of the ancient valleys, took place
long after the commencement of volcanic action in Auvergne.
For the original valleys at St Maurice and Perrier, and that re-
opened by the Sioule, above the Etang de Fung, had been ex-
cavated, in the two first instances, through tertiary strata, and in
the last-mentioned case through gneiss, all capped with pla-
teaus of basalt. Assuming, then, the existence of lakes caused
by currents of lava, it is evident, that the transported materials
therein accumulated, were not all introduced into them at one
time ; for such contiguous beds as consist almost exclusively of
volcanic matter, often differ widely from each other in compo-
sition, nor are their contents arranged according to their speci-
fic gravity. On the contrary, layers of light pumice underlie
others of massive trachytic breccia and conglomerate, or alter-
nate, as above Perrier, several times with alluvium containing
heavy fragments of basalt. Undoubtedly the separation of pu-
mice from all rocks washed down at the same time, may natu-
rally be accounted for, since, from its buoyancy, it would float
for a while upon the lake, just as it is often observed to cover
the sea in the Grecian Archipelago, after submarine eruptions..
But as often as we see strata of pumice covered by heavier mat-
ter, we must suppose an interval during which the former had
time to subside. — ‘ MX
_ But if it appear.that the alternating breccias and alluvions -
were not all formed at one time, so also is it clear that they were
not all produced by the same mode of action. The beds of
rounded pebbles of quartz, granite, and basalt, resemble those
produced by the continued action of the present river. . But
the angular forms of the fragments in the interstratified trachy-
tic breccias bespeak violence in the destroying cause, ‘and in-
sufficient time between their fracture and subsequent»deposition
to have allowed of the triturating effects of running water. » Ass
they cannot by any characters be distinguished from breccias of
similar composition and magnitude entering into the’structure

‘

. . Excavation of Valleys. 41
of Mont Dor and the Cantal, they must be referred to a similar
origin; and we agree with Mr Scrope, that the sudden rush of
large bodies of water down the sides of an elevated volcano, at
its moments of eruption, sweeping away all. the loose materials
surrounding its:crater, might be supposed to give rise to such
breceias ; and that the floods observed by Humboldt and others
to descend from the trachytic volcanoes of America, countenance
the hypothesis *.

The associated strata of alluvium and breccia terminate, in
all the cases described by us, in abrupt escarpments towards
the rivers, and they must once have extended much farther,
but possibly not so far as to the opposite sides of the present
valleys. For we have seen, that where the bottom of a valley,
in Auvergne, or the Vivarais, has been filled with lava, the
rivers have usually hollowed out a new passage through the
granitic schists, as well as in part through the lava. So, if a
valley become a lake, and be filled. up to a great height with
alluvial conglomerates and tufaceous breccias, it is highly im-
probable that the new excavation will coincide precisely in posi-
tion with the original valley, though perhaps of equal width
and depth ; and especially if it happen that the ancient valley
was bounded by tertiary marls, probably much softer than most
of the newly imported matters.

» For the same reason, therefore, that we so often see all that
remains of an ancient basaltic current, exclusively confined to
one and the same bank of a river, we may expect to find the
relics of a lacustrine formation similarly situate.
- To the hypothesis of lakes closed up by volcanic currents, it
will, no doubt, be objected, that we are unable to point out any
remnants of the supposed barriers. But how, we ask, is it pro-
bable, that such barriers could have survived the changes which
this country has subsequently experienced in consequence of
aqueous denudation, assisted, in all probability, by violent earth.
quakes? . The present valleys are much deeper than those sup-
posed to have been formerly converted into lakes. . In. the case
of Mont Perrier, the excavation extends to the depth of be-
tween 50 and 100 feet in the fresh-water strata; and at St

* Geology of Central France, pp. 101—103.

42 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

Maurice, from 400 to 500 feet ‘below the old alluvium and tu-
faceous breccia. At Monton, the depth of the valley below the
tufaceous breccia is probably still greater; but here the high
dip of the tertiary strata, and the proximity of basaltic dikes in
the hill of Vayres, leave us in doubt how far volcanic disturb.
ance may have co-operated with aqueous action. Now, we may
demand, Is it reasonable to expect, that, if the present lakes of
Aidat and Chambon were filled up, and their lacustrine deposites
subsequently removed to as great an extent as those of Perrier
and Monton, or as nearly annihilated as that of St Maurice,—
or, if the valleys of the Couze de Chambon and Vayres had
sunk below their present depth from 100 to 500 feet,—can it
be expected that future geologists would still be able to trace
the former outline of these lakes, or point. out the position of
their barriers? But it should be remembered, that there are
other causes besides lava-streams, which frequently dam up the
course of rivers in regions within the range of volcanic agency.
The last great earthquakes in Sicily and Calabria, in 1783,
gave rise to land-falls, wherein huge masses, more than a mile
in length, bordering the coast or rivers, were suddenly precipi-
tated into the adjoining sea or valley.. In such cases, the bar-
rier may last till the lake is filled up; but it will afterwards be

more destructible, and will more-readily admit of being entirely
obliterated, than a lava-current. ‘Two large lakes were thus
occasioned in Calabria, the course of two rivers having been
obstructed. In the case of Mont Perrier we are aware that
- several geologists consider a barrier wholly unnecessary. They
endeavour to account for the phenomena in the same manner as
Signor Lippi explained the successive alluviums, which certainly
constitute a large portion of the covering under which Hercula-
neum is buried. The matter, it is’ said, washed ‘down from a
neighbouring volcano, is so copious, that rivers cannot: remove
what the floods carry down. To such an hypothesis, founded at
least on plausible grounds, we reply, that so enormous a thick-
ness of transported materials, severally distinct in their charac-
ter, as are seen at Mont Perrier, could never have been lodged
im so narrow a valley, if there had not been a permanent stop-
page; for the alternating beds of rounded pebbles could not
have been brought down by a river or flood, without the hollow-

a LEG SA ICI Cee ne

~

_ Ezacavation of Valleys. 43
ing out or sweeping away of the subjacent pumiceous and other
beds. of lighter ingredients. Further, there would have been
more confusion, and more unconformability, in the deposites, if
they had subsided from turbulent waters rushing through this
narrow-valley, while it remained an open passage for the drain-
age of the higher country. But the waters of a temporary lake,
‘on the contrary, would arrest the progress of the matter intro-

‘duced into it, and allow it to spread over the bottom with some

degree of regularity, the violent erosive force of the current
being deadened, and each deposite being protected from destruc-
tion by the mass of water, while others were superimposed.

A lake, therefore, being regarded as alone capable of explain-
imgiim a satisfactory manner the phenomena of Perrier, it be-
comes an,interesting matter of inquiry to decide at what epoch
the valley was dammed up, and at: what period, in that great
succession of volcanic eruptions of which Auvergne has been
the theatre, the animals, whose remains were buried in the lake,
_ Now, if the recent lava-stream, which has its course down
the same valley, had flowed on as far as the village of Perrier,
it would evidently have assisted us greatly in determining this
relative date ; for we should then have known how far the lacus-
trine formation had been eaten into when the “ cheire” de-
seended, and, consequently, whether the lake had long ceased
to exist, before the more modern class akan in Auvergne
had commenced their activity.

_ We have before stated, that this modern lava-current has ac- .
tually flowed down the valley to a certain- distance, viz. to the
spot where the village of Ourseyre, below Besse, stands; but it
stopped short at Sauriers, some miles before reaching the locality
where the alluviums and breccias attest the former existence of
thelake. ‘This deficiency, however, is in some measure supplied
by the existence, in the next adjoining valley of Nechers, of the
current of Tartaret, one of the most recent in Auvergne, and
which the geologist may look down upon from the summit of
Mont Perrier ; so that it requires no great effort of the imagina-

. tion to suppose the lava transferred from the one valley to the

other, and thereby to judge of the relations which a “ cheire”
of this age would have borne to the ancient alluviums, had it

dh Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

flowed as far down the bed of the Couze d’Issoire, instead of
that of the Couze de Chambon. This evidence, however, is of
a nature best appreciable by those who have visited the district,
and are familiar with the geological phenomena of Auvergne.
To such it will appear clear, that one of the modern lava-streams
of Auvergne, passing by Pardines, Perrier, and the Farm of
Boulade, would merely share with the river the lowest level of
the valley, and would not reach so high as the lowest beds of
alluvium and trachytic breccia, which last would then hold the
same relative position to the recent lava as does the ancient pho-
nolitic current before mentioned, below Besse, to the modern
“‘ cheire ” beneath.

The fossil remains of animals discovered near the Henin of
Boulade, were imbedded in alluvial gravel and sand subjacent toa
great mass of trachytic breccia. Now, the different varieties of
this rock occurring at Mont Perrier are undistinguishable from
those which enter into the composition of Mont Dor and the

Cantal, where they are seen in the ridgy prolongations branch- —

ing off from those mountains, to alternate with ancient voleanic
products of different eruptions; and near the Cascade of Mont
Dor, and at the foot of the Puy Gros, they are traversed by
basaltic dikes. One of the masses of trachytic breccia at Perrier
is no less than 60 feet in thickness, and encloses fragments of
trachyte of enormous magnitude, cemented by a tufaceous base,
as hard as the rock itself. Since these fragments are fully as
angular and large as any of those in similar rocks laid open in
the interior of Mont Dor, there is not a shadow of pretence for
regarding those at Perrier as regenerated, and as having result-
ed from the breaking up of more ancient breccias.

And when we identify these breccias with those of Mont Dor,
it must be recollected that such a conclusion is in perfect har-

mony with their height above the river at Perrier, which corre.

sponds, as we before remarked, to that of lava-currents of. the
intermediate age in Auvergne. From such considerations,
therefore, we must infer, that the alluvium, from whence the
remains of quadrupeds were disinterred, near the Farm, of Bou-
lade, and at Perrier, was of very high antiquity ; nor is this in-
ference at variance with the character of these remains, since the
individuals belonged for the most part, if not entirely, to extinet

is

:
|
.
»
J

f _ Excavation of Valleys. 45
species of the genera Mastodon, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippo-
potamus, Tapir, Bear, Hyzna, Stag, and others.* These qua-
drupeds, therefore, inhabited this district long before the more
recent volcanic cones and lavas of Auvergne were in existence,

_. ere yet the valleys had attained their present depth, and even

before the fires of the ancient volcanoes of Mont Dor had be-
come extinguished. ~ —

- In concluding this article, we may observe, that Auvergne,
Velay, and ‘the Vivarais, throw peculiar light on the theory of
valleys, because the volcanic rocks having been introduced upon
the surface successively, and sometimes at intervals immensely
distant from each other, have preserved portions of the surface
in the state in which it existed at those several periods. Hence
it becomes impossible to confound the effects of erosive action
of one epoch with those of another. But for this circumstance,
events the most remote in point of time,—the waste of floods or
violent torrents of most distinct eras, would have been regarded
as simultaneous. Thus the conglomerates, several hundred feet
thick, on which rests nearly the whole series of alternating beds
of trachyte, basalt, and scoriz of Mont Dor, would havé re-
mained without any distinct line of separation from the latest
alluvions; and the same would, in many cases, have happened
in Cantal, although we have now reason to conceive that the
oldest lava of Etna is not more ancient, as compared with the
latest, than are the several masses of transported materials last
alluded to. If the debris of all these various periods were now
strewed over the country at the various elevations where they’
are at’ present observed, and if we possessed not the means,
which we now’ have, of pointing out their different ages, they
would ‘present the appearance of having been the result of one
sudden and dreadful catastrophe, whereby ‘rocks of different

© About forty species of quadrupeds’ will be described by: MM» Croizet
and Jobert, when their splendid and valuable work is completed, from the al-
luvions of Mont Perrier alone. Similar remains are not wanting, it appears,
near Puy en Velay ; for M. Bertrand Roux has just informed us, that he has
obtained from a locality first pointed out by Dr Hibbert of Edinburgh, fossil
bones and teeth belonging to the genera Rhinoceros, Hyena, Stag and
others, plates of which will shortly be published. Their geological position
is very interesting, since they were found in volcanic scoris, covered by one
of the most modern lava-currents of that district.

46 Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the

ages were violently broken up, and carried, without the least re-
ference to existing levels, to vast distances, often across a
ravines, and spacious intervening valleys,

Are there not, however, some other signs, we shall na uals
upon those older basaltic plateaus of Dor and Cantal, which are
unquestionably more ancient than the great valleys of the same
district (by whatever theory the origin of those valleys be ex-
plained),—are there not some decided proofs of a violent flood,
which transported thither fragments of foreign rocks from dis-
tant regions? We answer there are none. The Coiron has not
sent its quartzose grits and calcareous rocks of Jura limestone
formation to the Vivarais or Velay, nor has the zone of second:

ary rocks encircling Auvergne lent its debris to cover the gra- |

nitic and volcanic regions of Dor, or the Puy de Dome. In a
word, the repeated investigations of the ablest observers have.
been unable to discover a single fragment of any rock inclosing
marine remains, mixed up with the alluvions of the primary,
tertiary, and volcanic districts of Central France.

The succession of events which have taken place in Auvergne
since the tertiary lakes were in existence, indicate an incalculable
period of time; yet it must not be forgotten that even these la-
custrine deposites are modern in geology; and still more modern
is the surface last given to the country by some of the eruptions

of Mont Dor, which, nevertheless, preceded the excavation of

most of the present valleys. We ought not, therefore, to won-

der that Central France presents no mysterious and wholly in-.
explicable phenomena, in the distribution of its superficial debris,

merely because frequent difficulties occur in explaining the older
alluvions, and the waste caused by floods in other parts of Eu-
rope, where the comparative antiquity of the surface may, for
aught we know, be infinitely greater.

Let but the convulsions and changes which have affected
Auvergne and Cantal, since the lacustrine strata were formed,
be multiplied several times over, and the imagination | will be

baffled in all its efforts to restore the successive states of the.

country, the former relative levels of its several parts, and of
the adjoining mountain districts. The solution of every local

problem will then be impossible; and however unphilosophical,
even under such circumstances, may be an appeal to preter-

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_ Excavation of Valleys. 47

natural agency, yet to this alternative will geologists, who under-
take such a task, be compelled to resort.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

Pirate I. fig. 1. represents an ancient river-bed of pebbles, and sand, under
the lava-current of Chaluzet. C is a very ancient mining gallery
_ driven in horizontally beneath the basalt, and shews the pebble-bed to
be continuous between the gneiss and the volcanic rock. The river
Sioule is seen to be now about twenty-three feet below the level
which it occupied when the stream of lava flowed down this valley.

Prate I. fig. 2. exhibits a case of much greater depth of excavation than
Plate I., and the junction between the ends of the prisms of basalt
and the gneiss is marked by a thin band of black pitchstone. This

~ lava-current flowed from the crater of Thueyts, in the Vivarais ; the
river is the Ardéche.

Prate II. is a section from Issoire to Mont Perrier. The trachytic
breccias and conglomerates overlying alluvial beds, containing bones
of extinct quadrupeds, are here seen, and their relations explained,
to the original tertiary lacustrine formations of Auvergne. The lat-

‘ ter are thus shewn to have been excavated to a considerable depth
prior to the operations which gave rise to the former.

PraTe III. is a transverse section of Mont Perrier, exhibiting in detail
the character of all the strata of trachytic conglomerates which over-

. lie and alternate with alluvions containing fossil bones of extinct
.* __ quadrupeds. The tertiary lacustrine formations beneath are seen to
| have a dip unconformable to that of the superimposed masses.

Errata in the preceding sheet.

For Plate I. at page 22, read Plate I. fig. 1,—And for Plate II. at page 29,
read Pilate I. fig. 2.

& ‘

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

‘PLATE I.

Fig. 1. Cave at Les Combres under the lava current of Chaluzel.
: A scoriaceous lava, passing downwards into
P - B columnar basalt.
: C sand and pebble-bed, three feet thick (water gushes out).
. D gneiss, twenty-three feet from the pebble-bed to the level of the
‘ Sioule.
; E path leading to the village.
: _ F cave.
4 Fig. 2. Lava current of Thueyts at the Gueule f Enfer.
: A scoriaceous lava, passing downwards into
B columnar basalt.

48 On the Eacavation of Valleys.
C pitchstone. tad
DDDD gneiss.
E River Ardéche.

PLATE Il. >

Longitudinal Section of the Plain of the Allier at Issoire to Perrier and Pardines.

A oldest tertiary grit (granite of certain French authors.) |

B tertiary lacustrine marls._.

C older alluvium, Boulade bone-bed.

DD trachytie breccia.

E alluvium (bone-bed.)

F newer alluvium.

G land-slip.

H compact basalt.

. PLATE II.
’ Transverse section of the various deposites on the north bank of the Couze at Perrier.

N. B.—All the tufaceous and alluvial beds, viz. from 1 to 9 inclusive,
dip slightly to the east; whilst the inferior or tertiary lacustrine de-
posites dip from 10° to 15° W. 8. W.

1. Trachytic conglomerates, identical in character with those of ae Aaaet Dore,
_ Monton, &c. Total thickness 250 feet.
* Fossil bones in alluvium, according to Messrs Jobert and Croizet.

2. Brecciated tufaceous conglomerate of a light grey colour. 20 feet.

3. Black brecciated tufaceous conglomerate, filled with large blocks of dark
compact basalt. The old castle is built on this.

4. White pumiceous trap.

5. Bed of rounded pebbles.

6. Tufaceous trachytic conglomerate, with scorize and fragments of granite
and amygdaloid.

7. Pumicose grit. «

8. Alluvium in very regular beds, containing much volcanic rock and thin
laminz of filamentous pumice, granite, quartz, &c. sand and gravel of

various colours alternating. Contains some bones, 50 feet.

9. Coarser alluvium than No. 8., resting unconformably on the lacustrine
deposites, boulders of from six to nine inches. Contains fossil bones,
20 feet. .

** Lignite of Messrs Jobert and Croiset.

10. Tertiary lacustrine deposites consisting of thirty laminated shaly a
containing cypris, &c. alternating with compact green and yellow marl,
strong beds of limestone, bluish unctuous marls, thinly laminated
white and green marl, with bands of fetid limestone. 140 feet. - _

+ Village of Perrier.

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Section of the various deposits on the north bank
Sef Com at Perrier.

Trachylie Breccia
and Conglomerates.

Alluvium containing (gasa
Fossil Bones . bd

Breeciated Tufaceous.
Conglomerate, Gray.
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Deposits.

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vllarmoyes

_ow eri}
‘Skeiches of, the Meteorology, Geology, Agriculture, Botany,
and Zoology of the Southern Mahratta Country. By AuEx-
anper Turnsuti Curistiz, M.D. Member of the Wer-
merian Society. (Continued from p. 120 of preceding Vo-
ae .

AGRICULTURE, &c.

Wane I to give any thing like a detailed account of the agri-
culture of the Darwar district, I would have to repeat much
‘that has already been published in the works of Buchanan and
Marshall; and, moreover, such details would possess little in-
“terest for the general reader. I will therefore merely present a
‘slight sketeh’ of the agricultural features of the district, with an
‘account of the different articles of cultivation and their uses, —
and will particularly notice whatever circumstances have hitherto
pro mae the observation of others.

“The peculiarities of climate in the different parts of this dis-
‘trict, necessarily occasion a great diversity in their agricultural
characters. The western parts, towards the Gauts, which are
‘covered with forest, and have a very wet climate, admit of the
‘cultivation of a little rice only in the valleys or on the gentle
slopes of the hills. As we proceed eastward, the climate be-
‘comes gradually drier, the forest diminishes, and the dry crops
become more abundant. Lastly, towards the eastern parts of
‘the district, we meet with nothing but dry crops, except in a
few spots, where rice is cultivated by means of artificial irriga-
tion. These circumstances give rise to a very natural division
of the soils of the district into two distinct kinds, as has long
‘been adopted by the natives, viz. those on which rice can be
cultivated without irrigation from tanks, and those suited only
for dry crops. ‘The former are called Mulnad, the latter Bel-
wul lands. The former are confined to the western parts of
the district, it being there only that there is a sufficient supply
of rain for the cultivation of rice, without artificial irrigation.
Boe on cs ana the eastern, and south-eastern
parts. At the same time, it necessarily happens, that the mul-

APRIL—JUNE 1829. D

_

50 Dr Christie on the Agriculture, &c. of the
nad and belwul lands are in many places intermixed, especially
towards the eastern border of the hilly tract, where the valleys
have still a sufficient natural supply of water for rice-cultiva-
tion, and the adjoining “fp oun ean be = coltivated with
dry io tainoin . L suewe
-o*8 Phe’ belwul Jands ‘are further subdivided into ‘several iffer:
ent kinds, two of which only require particular notice, viz) the
regur or yerree, and mussub or mussaree. The former is the
black cotton ground already described ; the latter includes all
those soils which have originated from the disintegration of the
neighbouring hills. It therefore differs most. materially. in dif-
ferent situations, and is sometimes called red ern fomi its
presale colour.),., -| 7;
_ The cotton. ground, or regur ili paki one of the pie cu-
rious features;in-the physical geography of this part, of India.
It has been already described in the geological part of this pa-
per, where it was shewn ‘that, in all probability, it has origi-
nated from the disintegration of trap-rocks *.; It varies. in
depth from. two. or three to twenty or thirty feet, and even
more, and.is of | prodigious extent, covering all the great plains

in the Decan and Kandeish, some. of those in Hydrabad, and.

perhaps also,in other parts of India. It is as remarkable for its
fertility,as for its very great extent ; and a very curious circum-
stance is, that, it\,és..never allowed to le fallow,.and never. re-
ceives the slightest manure. Even the stems of the cotton
are not allowed to remain on it, being employed.for making
baskets, or used as fire-wood ; and farther, in all those parts.of
the. hanes where the. nottpn.- ground is met with, there is so
Si eal cial
“1 unindebted, for ‘the. following report on the chemical al of the
cotton ground," to Mr Reid, Lecturer on Chemistry, Wr gees aol
examine a portion of it.
cP ised readily before the blowpipe tito a dark black Way i
“In platina foil, it forms a lighter-coloured slag, putes erage
colour...

& Fused into as “solid mass in a large covered crucible plaged in a furnaces
d-crust of oxide of iron gathered on its surface.

® Tt consists of ‘silica ina minute state of division, with Factiihairn, |
alumina, and oxide of iron.» The proportion of vegetable and animal debris
appeared tobe very small. Minute portions of the roots of valaliy were
seen on close inspection with the naked eye.” ee

|

f

_ Southern Mahratta Country. 51

little wood, that the cow-dung is carefully collected (as already
mentioned) and dried for fuel. Cotton, jooaree, wheat and
other grains, are raised from it in succession ; and it has conti-
nued 'to’afford’most abundant crops, without receiving any re-
turn for centuries, nay, perhaps, for two or three thousand
years,=<thus “proving” the inaccuracy: of the opinion held by

that if something be not constantly added to land
equal to what is taken from it, it must gradually deteriorate.
Attention must be paid to the order of cropping, as will be
more particularly mentioned hereafter ; but, with this precau-
tion, the Ryut is always sure of an abundant return, provided
the weather be favourable *.

It is probable that the fertility of this soil is principally ow-
ing to its power of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere,
which is great, even when compared with the best soils of Bri-
tain. Sir Humphry Davy says, “I have compared the ab-
sorbent powers of many soils with respect to atmospheric mois-
ture, and I have always found it greatest in the most fertile
soils; so that it affords one method of judging of the produc-
tiveness of land.” He farther states, that 1000 parts of a ce-
lebrated soil from Ormiston in East Lothian, when dried to
212°, gained in-an hour, by exposure to air saturated with mois-
ture at a temperature of 62°, 18 grains ; and that 1000 parts of a
very fertile soil from the banks of the river Parret in Somerset-
shire, under the same circumstances, gained 16 grains +. The

following are the results of some experiments I made on the
absorbent power of the cotton soil. I thoroughly dried a por-
tion of the soil, by exposing it for a long time to a heat that
was nearly sufficient to char paper. I then exposed 2615.6
grains of this to the atmosphere of a moderately damp apart-
ment, and found, after a few days, that it had gained 147.1
grains. I now exposed it to an atmosphere saturated with
moisture, and found that it daily increased in weight till the
end ofa ew'weeks,-whien its "Weight was found to be 2828.4

* It will be an interesting subject of inquiry for future observers, to as-
certain whether any organic remains occur in this extensive deposite, to throw
light on its origin, which I think will not improbably be found to be diluvial
“+ Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, p- 160.

i D2

52 Dr Christie on the Agriculture, &¢. of the
grains. It had therefore gained 212.8 grains, or _e 8 Pet

cent

In the hot season, the regur or cotton-ground i is sia in
all directions by very deep fissures. In the rainy season it isin
the form of a very tenacious clay. Almost all the crops that
are cultivated upon it are sown towards the end of ‘the rainy
season, and therefore receive, during their growth; compara-
“tively little rain, and often, indeed,- the only moisture which
they receive for a length of time is that of the heavy dews.

he mussub, or mussaree soil, does not form extensive
plains like the cotton ground; but is generally found at the foot
of hills, or in the bottom of small valleys... At the bases of the
sandstone-hills, it consists of little else than loose sand. On the
sides of the hills, that contain beds of quartz, it is very gravel-
ly... The soil which covers the laterite, and which has origi-
nated from the disintegration of that rock, is, in general, not
very productive, and is apt to become extremely hardin dry.
weather; but in the bottom of many of the small/valleys.in the
western parts of the district, large deposites of it, which have
been more perfectly disintegrated and mixed with other sub-
stances, are met with, and form productive soils. The soils, in
the valleys, between the clay-slate hills, are also in ar ieee
very good. '

There are three different seasons of sowing in this net ws
India. The first is in the end of May and beginning of June,
after a few of the first annual showers have fallen. . The second
isin the end of June or beginning of July, after the monsoon.
has fairly commenced. The third is in September and “Octo-,
ber, towards the end of the rainy season. During each of these,
periods, certain crops only are sown ; and, therefore, in giving
an account of the different articles of cultivation, I shall dite
them according to. their seed-times. ,

I. Articles of cultivation *, which are..sown in, the end of
May and beginning of June. These are sown, when the nahi
* In the following part of this paper, I will give the Dukhuny and Eng.

lish names, as well as the botanical names of the different articles of cultiva-_
tion, trees, &c. I thought of adding their Malabar and Canarese names, but

Ee ——-—— =

_ Southern Mahratta Country. 53
teatieded moistened by the showers which fall in May, and are
ready for reaping before the end of the rains.

1.) Sesamum orientale, Lin.; Tul, Duk. Gingilie Seed.—
Only a small quantity of dita ie daalhryated in the Darwar dis-
trict on inferior kinds of mussub land.

_ 2. Phaseolus max, Lin. ; Orood: or Oreed, Duk. Black
iain:

; 8. Eleusiné. coracana, Flor. ‘Indl: Cynosurus coracanus,

Lin. Ragee, Duk. | Nutchanee, Eng.—This is _extensive-
lyeultivated on the poorest mussub soils; and in many parts of
the district it forms the principal part of the food of the lower
classes. —
betiliPniicion Italicum, Lin.; Rala also Kungonee, Duk.
Italian Panicle—This is cultivated on secondary kinds of re-
gur soil in various parts of the district, and forms a very com-
mon article of diet with the natives.
» Be Panicum miliaceum, Lin.; Sawee, Duk.—This 1s not
cultivated very extensively, and isnot much’ esteemed by the
opis ‘It ripens sooner than most of the other articles in this
ntdib +!
IL. Articles cs of cultication which are sown in the end of June
or beginning of July. These are sown when the first heavy
rains are over, and are ready for reaping towards the end of
December, or beginning of January.
/«1. Andropogon Sorghum, Flor. Ind.; Holcus Sorghum,
Lin:; Jooaree, Duk. Red Juwary.—This is very extensive-
ly cultivated in this district, principally on the mussub lands.
«| 22 Panicum spicatum, Flor. Ind.; Holcus spicatus, Lin. ;
Bajera, Duk.—This is.extensively cultivated on the best kinds
of mussub lands.
. 3. Phaseolus aconitifolius, Willd. ; Mut or Moat, Duk.

4. Phaseolus: mungo, Lin. ; Moong, Duk. Ulandoo,—
These two species of Phaseolus and the P. max already men-

find that it would extend this paper to too great a length ; and the Dukhuny
names will generally be found sufficient for identifying the different articles
in India. I have given no name that was not accurately determined by na
self, by means of communications from intelligent natives.

54 Dr Christie.on the Agriculture, &¢. of the
tioned, are cultivated in most parts of the district, and both on
the regur and mussub lands.”

5. Cytisus cajan, Lin. ; T'oour, Duk. Dale. Thi is’ al-
ways sown in rows among different kinds of grain. It is much
esteemed as an article of food by the natives, and is also ‘fre-
quently used by Europeans in soup. There are two varieties
of it, the large and small.

6. Glycine tomentosa, ‘Lin. ; Kooltee, Duk. Madras Gran.
—This is extensively cultivated on. different kinds of soil
throughout the district. It is principally used, (as im other
parts of the Madras territories), as food for horses. _

7. Dolichos Labiab, Lin.—It is not improbable that the dif
ferent varieties of this plant, which are. extensively cultivated
over the peninsula of India, will hereafter be found to constitute
several distinct species. . I will notice two of these, which have
come under my own observation, and which have hitherte been
described by authors simply as varieties. »The first is the Saim
kee pullee, Duk. Thisis biennial or triennial ; attains many feet
in length; legumes racemed, long, scymitar-shaped. Requires
. irrigation during the dry season, and is cultivated in gardens.

There are three varieties of this species, which are distin-

guished from each other by the colour of their flowers and seéds,
viz. the white, red, and green. The green legumes and ripe
seeds of all these varieties are favourite articles of food with the
natives. ‘The white variety is little inferior to French beans,
and is sometimes eaten by Europeans. The second is the Bul-
lur, Duk. This is annual, and much smaller than the former.
Legumes broad, 4-seeded. It is cultivated all over the penin-
_ sula. The beans are generally used as food for cattle; but in
many places they are also a favourite article of food with the
natives *.

8. Dolichos Catiang, Lin.; Suffaid Lobeh, Duk.—The lo-
beh is called Dolichos sinensis by Marshall ;\ but it certainly
agrees much better with the characters of the D. Catiang, as
given by Persoon. Its legumes are erect, linear, in pairs. It
is usually cultivated on the mussub lands, in rows, among dif-
ferent kinds of grain.

* Buchanan confounds together the above two plants. At the same time,
he expresses a doubt whether the plant be the D. Lablab of Linnzus.

|

ee

ae

»\ "Southern Mahratta Country. — 5b

9 Dolichos Tranquebaricus, Lin. ; | Hureea Lobeh ?! Duk.i=:
This:is cultivated, but not very extensively, -on ‘the: mussub:
lands. very elt reeott
40; Linum usttétissimin, Lins Ulsee, Duk: ; Cometis Plas.
This is cultivated on regur soil, in most parts of the district;
on account of its oil. The natives appear to be unacquainted
with the mode of preparing flax; for which purpose, indeed,
theplant which I have seen growing in this district, would be
ill adapted, being much weaker and shorter than in Europe: \>
DL. Crotolaria juncea, Lin.; Sun, Duk. Indian ‘hemp.—
This is cultivated m small quantities, in most parts of the: dis-
trict, for the purpose of making cones Beene

12. Hibiscus cannabinus, Lin. ; Umbarees Duk:iThis’ is
generally cultivated on good sungubrald \isbiitimensh, these
gur soil. Its stalks afford material for cordage, and sack-cloth ;
and an oil is expressed from its seeds, which is‘used a0 an: anti:
cle of food, and also for burning in lamps. —_-

18Orysa. sativa; Lin.¥! Chase: Dek \:Rices-Hicacio
principally cultivated in the mulnad lands, that is in the valleys
in the western parts of the district, where the heavy rains,.and
a constant supply of water from the. neighbouring hills, afford
facilities for the inundation of the ‘fields... It is also cultivated
in a few spots in the central and eastern parts of the district,
where ‘a sufficiency of water can be -obtained from. the: large
tanks. ‘The best mode of culture is reckoned that by transplan:
tation *. In this case the seed is first sown very thick in.a small
piece of ground, about the commencement of the rains. » When

the plants are half grown, they are transplanted: into the fields,
previously covered with water, where they are placed: in rows.
This practice, however, is very frequently abandoned, except by
the most industrious, on account of the great labour it requires.
The gtait is therefore often sown at onee on the ground dn
which it is to come to maturity Another method is to make
the seed vegetate by means of its being ‘covered for several
days with water and cow dung; before sowing it: ~ These three
different methods of cultivation are also followed im other

* Vide Marshall’s Statistical Report.

56 Dr Christie on the Agriculture, &c. of the

parts of India *. The advantage of the first method. is, that: it
affords time for a crop of different kinds of pulse, to. be taken
from the ground before the rice is planted.

14. Eroum lens, Lin; Mussoor, Duk.—This is. i
only in small Pea and principally in, the western’ ie of
the district.

ILL. Articles of cultivation, which are sown towards the end —
_ of the rains in September and October.—These are ready for
reaping at the end of four or five months. . Except at the com-
mencement of this season, the moisture which these crops re-
ceive is principally derived from the dews,. which are rlegingitad:
in considerable abundance during these months.

_ 1. Andropogon Sorghum (variety), Flor. Ind. ;Holeus, ‘Sor-
_ ghum, Lin.; White Suwary. “ It differs,” says Marshall,
‘‘ from the red jooaree in the case of the seed. being white,
which in the other is brownish; in the stalk not growing to half
the height, and containing much more of the saccharine a
ciple.” It is cultivated on the regur soil.

2. Cicer arietinum, Lin.; Chinna, Duk. Bengal Grainy or
Chick Pea. This is cultivated,on good regur land all over'the
district, except in the most westerly parts. It is generally,em-
ployed as food for horses. In many places, also, the natives use
it as a common article of diet. An acid exudes from all parts
of the plant, and is often collected. in the following manner. by
the Ryuts. The dew which is deposited. on the plant over
night, is found in the morning to be strongly impregnated with
the acid. Long pieces of cloth are then dragged over the plants
until they become quite wet with the acid liquor; which,is then
wrung out; and this process is renewed until the whole field
has been gone over in the same manner. ‘The liquor is of’a
brown colour, is slightly acid, contains a large quantity of , sae-
charine matter, which gives it a sweet taste, and when allowed
to evaporate very slowly, the acid is deposited in cubical erys- -
tals. It is sometimes used by the natives in. their, curries, .in-
stead of vinegar; and is also sine by the native eaten.
medicine.

“ Vide Buchanan’s Journey through Mysore, Canara, &c. vol. i. p. 84.

—

Southern Mahratta Country, 57

»'8Gossypium herbaceum, Lin.; Kupas, Duk. Cotton —
India has been celebrated from the earliest times for her fine

‘fabrics of cotton ; and although now excelled in the manufac-

ture of cotton-cloths by western nations, the raw material still
continues to be one of her most important productions. But
even in the quality of the raw material, she has of late years
been excelled in several other countries; and it therefore be-
comies'an object of the first importance that the best methods of
cultivating and preparing the cotton should be ascertained.
These considerations will serve, I hope, as an apology for the
gth of the following observations on the cotton of the Darwar
-’The cotton in this, as well as in other parts of the Decan, is
only cultivated on the regur land ; and I am not aware whether
it is ever cultivated on other kinds of land, in other parts of
India. ‘There is very little produced in Mysore, Malabar, and
the other parts of the Peninsula, which are to the south of this
district ; and in the few places where it is met with in these
countries, it is found to be of an inferior quality.* Is this
owing to the absence of the regur or cotton ground in these
parts? I am indebted for the following account of the mode of
cultivating cotton in the Darwar district to J. R. Stevenson,
Esq. ‘subcollector in the Southern Mahratta country :
~ The black regur land on which cotton is sown is never ma-
nured ; but cotton crops are only raised from it once in three years.
If raised two years in succession, the crop of the second year is
always bad. In the two intervening seasons juwary + is generally

cultivated, and the crops of juwary produced the year after the

cotton are very abundant; so much so, that the Ryuts have a
long story of a farmer, who, when he felt himself dying, only
regretted that he was not spared to reap the crops of the year
succeeding the cotton season; and he bitterly upbraided fate
for its injustice in depriving him of what he had been looking
forward to for three years.

*< The cotton seed is sown with a drill plough, in drills about
ten or twelve inches asunder, in the end of August, or begin-

: * Vide Buchanan’s Journey through Mysore, &c.
+ Andropogon Sorghum, Flor. Ind.

.

58 Dr Christie on the, Agriculture, &c~ of the

ning. of September, or,as soon after the middle of, August.as the.

land is sufficiently saturated to receive, the seed.*.,/ Inj about
eight days the plant makes its appearance; and when. it is nearly,
five or six inches.,high (about _November),, the weeding .com-
mences. ‘The weeding implement is, called, Yedee, . It, is,a
double hoe, the blades being about three| or four inches apart 3, is
drawn by bullocks, and guided by a handle projecting back-|
wards. The. blades of the hoe, which turn.rather, inwards,
cut,-out..the weeds, and at, the same. time. throw. earth; on; the
roots of the plants. ‘This process of weeding is henceforward
repeated once in eight or ten days, or oftener, if required. The
cotton should be ready for gathering in the beginning of ,Janu-

ary. , The first gathering is not considered good. ,,'The second —

and third are the most plentiful ; and the, emieets continues. so
long as the plants continue to bear, which, they, generally cease
to do in the end of March. The labourers employed m gather:
ing are paid in kind. They receive a fourth of ,the first pick~
ing, a sixth or an eighth of. the second and third, and a fourth
or a fifth of the remaining. | When the period of ploughing ar-
rives, the stems are picked up, and are used as lintel or ire
making baskets, &c. —

“¢ When the cotton is poke a euiltieatonte rl aia As,
spread out in the sun, and thrashed with rods to cleanse it.of
the husks. It is then separated from. the seed, either by the
gin +, or by a small iron-roller, which a woman moves with. her
toes on a smooth stone. The latter is on the same principle as
the gin, only she feeds it with her hands, and works the iron-
roller with her feet. The seed is kept for the cultivator’s cattle,
or paid, i in lieu of money, to the labourers employed in, the,se-
paration of the seed. The cotton undergoes no more cleaning
whilst in the hands of the Ryut, but is sent to the moariatin
this state.

‘‘ The Bourbon cotton is not cultivated in this pai ‘The
Ryuts say “ that a bush of this cotton takes up too‘tauch space,

“ The time of sowing necessarily differs in different parts of the eet. ;

for the rains are later as we proceed eastward.

+ This consists of two small wooden rollers, sensing between which the
cotton is drawn, and the seeds are thus left behind. 1t appears to be similar
to the gin used in the West Indies, except that it is turned by the hand.

; Southern Mahratta Country. | 59

—that it wouid not, be so profitable as the common cotton—that,
in» March and April, when the regur land yawns, the roots
would. be .exposed,.and the plants would consequently die—
that. it wouldrequire water in the hot season,” &c. &e. Not-
withstanding these objections of the Ryuts to the cultivation of
the Bourbon'cotton, I have no doubt, that, in many parts of
the district, it;would answer well, and prove valuable. The
above objections apply only to the regur-land, and to the east-
ern parts of the district. In all that part of the country which
is west of the meridian of Darwar, the plants would receive a
sufficient supply of moisture without irrigation ; and, if planted
on good mussub soil, they would not be liable to be injured by
the ‘yawning of the ground in the hot season, for this takes
place only inthe: regur-soil, The plant is perennial, and there-
fore would not require to be renewed like the common cotton ;
and although it does not bear fruit till the third year, yet other
articles can be cultivated between the rows of the cotton-plants
ing the two or three’ first years, while they are still small.
I may only add, that several plants of the Bourbon cotton
thrived remarkably well in red gravelly soil in my own garden
at Darwar,.without receiving any water, and where the climate
is not nearly so moist as that of the country farther to the west.
The quality of the Bourbon cotton is very superior to that of the
common cotton of the district.. >
_ The common cotton of the Darwar district is of good quality,
but is seldom well cleaned. Were a little pains taken to have it
well cleaned, it would prove a very profitable article. A candy of
500 Ib. of clean cotton can generally be bought at Darwar for
62 rupees. Sack-cloth and packing would cost ten rupees ;
and carriage to Sedasheghur, the nearest seaport, would cost
ten rupees more, making altogether 82 rupees for 500 lb.
If we call the rupee one shilling and tenpence, therefore, this
cotton could be put on board ship at Sedasheghur, at the rate
of little more than 3}d. per pound *. At present a good deal
of this cotton is carried to Bombay by Parsee merchants, by
way of Comtah, a place much farther down the coast than Se-

* At present no duties are levied on goods exported from Sedasheghur.

60 Dr Christie on the Agriculture, &c. of the

dasheghur, and therefore occasioning a much longer land as
well as sea-carriage, than were the cotton carried to ‘the latter
place. The only reason that I could discover for these’ mer-
chants preferring Comptah to Sedashegur, was, that the former
place is nearer to the pepper country than the latter, and is there-
fore more convenient for that branch of trade. The latter pos-
sesses the great ‘advantage of being situated at’ the mouth of a
fine river, which is navigable for large boats, as high up as fif-
teen or sixteen miles ; whereas Comptah. is ‘situated ona paltry
stream at some distance from the sea, and cannot be approached
closely, even by the small coasting vessels. Some I me
exported from this district to Mysore® (i
' 4: Ricinus communis, Lin. ; Erind. Duk. Castonioil Plant:
—There are two varieties of ‘this plant, the large and small
seeded. The former is principally cultivated in ‘this ‘district.
It produces an inferior kind of oil, which is: mostly: employed
for burning in lamps. It is cultivated on the regur soi]...
5. Carthamus tinctorius, Willd:; Koosum, Duk: Safflower.
—This is cultivated in most parts of the district on good regur
soil, only on account of the oil which is’ expressed from its
seeds. In many parts of India it is cultivated merely on jac-
eount of the fine red dye prepared from: = age which a are
here allowed to wither. |
6. Nicotiana Tabacum, Lin. ; véanad Duk. . Polini
Is cultivated on the regur soil in several parts of this district ;
but is not considered to be of good quality. The crop is often
very much injured by a parasitical plant, the Orobanche Indica
(Roxb: Hort. Bengal.), which grows from the roots of the to-
bacco plants, and prevents their growth. These parasites
sometimes grow as high as the tobacco plants themselves, and if
they get into a field, the crop is sure to be much injured, if not
ruined. |
%. Triticum e@estivum, Lin. ; Gioon, Duk. _ Wheat.—There
is a good deal of wheat cultivated in this district on the regur
soil. It is chiefly exported to the western coast, and to various
ar of the country:
8. Indigofera Anil; Lin. ; Neel, Duk. tue —It is curious
that, although a large quantity of indigo be used in this district,
and although the plant be indigenous, not the smallest quantity

TT” ae ee

_ Southern Mahratta Country. 61

of dye, until within the last two or three years, was ever pre-

pared by the inhabitants ; the consumption being entirely sup-
plied from the Ceded Districts, and other parts of India. Its
cultivation having been encouraged by the collector of the dis-

_ trict; it»has been found to thrive, and is likely to become'an

eee! article of cultivation.

Garden Pralectons,

«olDifferent kinds of gardens are cultivated by the natives, dich
as kitchen gardens, fruit gardens, or orchards, cocoa-nut gar-
dens, 'betel-nut gardens, &c.; bat it is only the first that we
intend to consider at present. They are inclosed with a fence
of milk hedge (Euphorbia Tirucalei, Lin.), or prickly pear
(Cactus ficus. Indica), and are irrigated either from wells or
tanks. The soil is prepared by digging, and is well manured.
I must remark, however, that some of the following articles are
also occasionally raised in the open rice fields; and a few are
also cultivated by the more nino’ in small plots of ground
close to their cottages.
~ 1s Dolichos fabeformis, Lin: ; Mut ke, Duk-—This is fa
vourite legume with the natives.

2. Zea Mays, Lin.; Muk jooaree, Duk. Indian Corn.—
This is seldom allowed to ripen, but is used as a vegetable when
8. Hibiscus esculentus, Lin.; Baindee, Duk. Bandaky,
Engl.—This vegetable is much used, both by the natives and
Europeans ; and is considered very wholesome and nutritious.
»-4 Saccharum officinarum, Lin.; Shukkur, Duk. Sugar Cane.
—Is cultivated both in gardens and in rice-fields ; and, in the lat-
ter case, two crops of rice are always taken between each crop
of cane *. The land is prepared for the sugar-cane by repeated
ploughing, and a large quantity of manure; and the cuttings
are planted in the end of January or beginning of February.
The cane is ripe in eleven or twelve months after the time of
planting.. The sugar cane of this district is either sold in the
bazaars to be eaten raw, or is used for making jagory, which is
merely the inspissated juice of the cane. Sugar of tolerably
good quality is made at Kolapore.

* Vide Marshall’s Statistical Report-

62 Dr Christie on the Agriculture, &c. of the

5. Convolvulus batatas, Lin.; Shukkur kundoo, Duk. Sweet
Potato. EE NTAIN - Frnace

6. Daucus Carota, Lin. ; Gajoor, Duk. Carrot.—The car-
rot is very extensively cultivated in this district, and attains such
perfection, that the carrot seed of the Southern mrrengjans coun-
try is in great request in other parts of India.

7. Allium Cepa, Lin.; Peeaz, Duk. Onion.

8. Allium sativum, Lin. ; Lussum, Duk. Garlic.

9. Solanum Melongena, Lin.; Byngun, Duk. Brinjal or
Egg Plant.

10. Capsicwm frutescens, Lin. ; Lal mirchee, Duk. Chilly.
—The chilly is very extensively cultivated in fields as well as in
gardens, and is much used by the natives as a condiment. The
Ryut often makes a mixture of chillies, turmeric, and other ve-
getable substances, which he takes with him to the field, and
eats, spread on a juwarry cake. Marshall calls this plant the
Capsicum annuwm in his Statistical Report, which is wy
a mistake.

11. Capsicum grossum, Lin. ; Kaffray mirchee, Duk. Caf.
Sry Chilly.—This is only cultivated, in small : maak es in the
gardens of Europeans at Darwar and Belgaum:

12. Raphanus sativus, Lin.; Moollee, Duk. Radish.

13. Momordica charantia, Lin.; Karaila, Duk. — |

14. Cucumis acutangulus, Lin.; Toraee, Duk. <Acute-
angled Cucumber.—This vegetable is eaten by the natives, both
raw and dressed in various ways, but is not esteemed’ aa Eu-
ropeans *.

15. Cucumis sativus, Lin.; Kunkwraee, Duk. Crieiullinalis
This is cultivated in small quantity in the gardens of Europeans.
Some other cucumbers are also cultivated by the natives, but in
less quantity than the last species.

16. Cucumis Melo, Lin.; Khurbooza, Duk. Meine
tivated in small quantity in some parts of this district, generally
in sandy soil, on the banks of streams.

17. Cucurbita lagenaria, Lin. ; Hurea kuddoo, Duk. White
Pumpkin. ‘

* A diarrhoea, which prevails to a great extent, in certain seasons, among

the native inhabitants at Darwar, I am inclined to attribute to the large
quantity of raw cucumbers they eat.

—— — ——

Southern Mahratta Country. 63
18. Cucurbita Citrullus, Lin.; Turbooxa, Duk. Water Me-
lon.—This is very generally cultivated throughout the district.
19. Trichosanthes anguina, Lin. ; Chikonda, Duk... Snake
Gourd. - :
20. "Prigonella Fann Gracum, Lin, ; Maite, Duk. Fe.

fi. Coriandrum sativum, Lin.; Dhunnia, Duk. Coriander.
—This is cultivated in fields sometimes as well as in gardens,

22. Rumezx vesicarius, Lin. ; Chukka, Duk. Country Sor-
rel. ;
_ 23. Piper Betel, Lin.; Pawn, Duk. Betel-leaf Vine.—The
cultivation. of the betel is almost entirely confined to the western
and southern parts of the district ; and even there, betel-gardens
are not numerous. In Soonda there are some gardens of the
betel-nut palm (Areca catechu, Lin.), in which the betel-leaf
vine: is also cultivated.

24. Arachis hypogea, Lin. ; Velacte moong, Duk. Manil-
la gram.

25. Amaranthus polygamus, Lin. ; Choulace and Rajgheery
kee bajee, Duk.—Is used as greens by the natives.

26. Amomum Zinziber, Lin. ; Zinziber officinale, Flor. Ind: ;
Udruk, Duk. Ginger.—Is cultivated in small quantity in va-
rious parts of the district.

The following are the principal fruit-trees met with in the
Darwar district :

1. Musa sapientum and M. paradisiaca, Flor. Ind.; Mouz,
Duk. Banana and Plantain— Roxburgh considers the banana
and plantain to be varieties of the same species; the original
of which is found in the forests of Chittagong *. I have been’
_ assured that wild plantains are found in the western forests in
the Darwar district, but I have not myself seen them.

_ 2. Tamarindus. indica, Lin.; Umlee, Duk. Tamarind.—
The tamarind is. not very abundant in the eastern parts of the
district; but, towards the west, it is met with both cultivated
_ 8. Mangifera indica, Lin. ; Am. Duk. Mango.—The man-

* Vide Flora Indiea, vol. ii.

64 Dr Christie onthe Agriculture, &c.

go is found, in the wild state, in‘ the western jungles, and is eul-
tivated in various parts of the Darwar district. ‘ It flowers’ in
January and February; fruit ripe in May and June. The
mangoes of this part of India are seldom so good as those of
Goa and Bombay; but a variety, cultivated in the garden of
the nuwab of Savanoor, exceeds in size and in beauty any mango
I have ever seen. Some of these Savanoor mangos that were
sent to me, measured two feet in circumference.

4. Artocarpus integrifolia, Lin.; Fannus, Duk. —
This fruit is not abundant in the Darwar district. _

5. Anacardium occidentale, Lin.; Kajoo, Duk. Cushoo-nut
T'ree.—I have only seen this at Kittoor; but it ape occurs
in gardens in other parts of the district.

6. Spondias mangiféera, Linn. ; Jungle awm, mee ae
Mango. .

7. Eugenia jambos, Linn. ; Jamb and Ghoolabee- bi Duk
—Rose Apple.

8. Psidium pyriferum, Lin.; Jam, Duk. GuavdiThis
fruit is to be met with in almost every village in the district.

9. Citrus medica, Lin., two varieties ; Turanj and es
Duk. . Citron and Lime.

10. Citrus aurantium, Lin.; Naringhe, Duk. Orange.—
A small, sweet, pleasant-tasted orange grows in the gardens at
Misrecottah. It is not common in other parts of the district.

11. Citrus decumana, Lin.; Chukotta, Duk. pido at
or Shaddock.

12. Vitis vinifera, Lin. ; Ungoor, Duk. Grape Vine-—Ex-
cellent grapes are cultivated at Belgaum, Darwar, Dummul,
Gokauk, and some other places. ‘There are two ues one
large, red, and fleshy ; the other small and green.

13. Annona reticulata, Lin. ; Ram phul, Duk. iobmune
Heart.—This is cultivated in some native gardens. ’

14. Annona tripetala, Lin. ; Seeto-phul, Duk. Custard ie.
ple.—This delicious ‘fruit thrives well in most parts of the dis-
trict. It flowers at Darwar, in March and April. I am ‘not’
aware whether it occurs in the wild state in the western jungles ;*
but it grows in such great abundance in the granitic soil of the
Hydrabad country, as to have sometimes afforded food to the

inhabitants, in times of scarcity, in very dry seasons,
3

ai Thirst.in Snow-covered Countries. 65
15. Ficus. carica, Lin.; Unjoor, Duk. Fig.—Excellent
figs grow in various parts of this district.
16. Ziziphus jujuba, Lin. ; Bair, Duk.—This is. found {in
great abundance in the Darwar jungles, and the fruit is sold in
the bazaars. .The Dukhuny name of the fruit has been adopted
by the English in India. |

Uo ateiess (To be continued.)

On Thirst in Snow-covered Countries. By Mr J. F. Stoane.
Communicated by the Author.

Bititieieemice 22:7 hooksof travels, an intelligent reader has

a general idea of those scenes which his author has undertaken
to describe, and he can almost fortel what was the nature of the
toils; and the risks, and the dangers, the traveller had to en-
counter. It is by anticipations of this kind that we are disposed
to draw our chair a little nearer to the fire, the moment we pre-
pare to peruse Parry’s Voyages to the Pole, or Franklin’s and
Richardson’s most interesting Travels to the Shores of the Artic
Sea; and itis thus, too, owing to previously formed associations,
that. the very mention of Africa sets our imagination to work
among scorching sands and pathless forests, and venomous rep-
tiles, and vindictive savages. . Travellers have not deemed the
fact worth mentioning, and, therefore, no one who has not been
there can imagine or believe that, during winter, man is exposed,
on the cold and snow-covered plains of North America, to the
most painful of the many privations connected with African dis-
covery ;—that, even while walking on frozen-water, he is ago-
nized by parched and burning lips,—and that by snow, eaten
under such circumstances, the thirst of the traveller, or hunter,
is proportionally increased.

In the higher latitudes of North America, all the snow falls
at the:commencement of winter. Clear skies, and an intensely
cold atmosphere, characterize the climate, until warmer airs, and
fogs, and flights of birds, intimate the approach of spring. The
sun, however, during winter, and even on the shores of Hud-
son’s: Bay, has power sufficient to melt a small portion of the
surface of the last fallen snow. This is frozen by the cold of
the succeeding night, and then presents a glassy surface, on

66 Mr J. F. Sloane on Thirst in Snow-covered Countries.

which the sledge is drawn rapidly along, and enables the hunter,
on his broad snow-shoes, to travel with an ease very different
from that which he experiences on entering the woods, where
the snow is always soft, and altogether inconceivable by persons
who cannot ‘separate from the idea of. snow those qualities of
moisture, softness, and tenacity, which it exhibits in countries
nearer to the equator. Owing to such causes, the winters on
the shores of the Winipeg are far from disagreeable; and as it
is then that the chief objects of their pursuit are in best condi-
tion, the hunter and the fur-trader make them the seasons of
their wanderings.

When out in either of these capacities, the agony sustained

~

by them from thirst is often very great. It does not by any

means go to that extreme length endured by travellers in the
torrid zone, because a speedy and certain remedy is almost always
at hand. But it is truly painful while it lasts, and, contrary to
his expectation, the sufferer finds that, by eating snow, his
mouth is more and more inflamed—his desire for drink fearfully
augmented—while a lassitude comes over him which water only
can dissipate. More than once, when traversing wide plains,
where the snow, resting on the long rank-grass, stretched out: in
all directions a smooth, white, unbroken surface, till it termi-~
nated in the horizon, I have seen a party of men tearing up
the houses built by musk rats, in swamps formed. during. the
summer rains, in hopes to get at the water which sometimes lies
below them, and: then drinking that foul and stinking water
with the utmost avidity.

It is to be observed, however, that it is only on the: liens
and during winter, that the experienced hunter or traveller is
exposed to such hardships. Every one going to any distance at
that season, carries, as ar essential article in his: equipment, a
small pot or kettle, in which he melts snow, and boils that wa-
ter. To allow the water to boil is a necessary part of the pro-
cess ; for, if the snow is merely melted, the water has a smoked
and bitter taste, and a drink of it is far from refreshing, On
the contrary, when the-water is allowed to boil, and then cooled
by throwing into it plenty of the purest snow, no spring-water is
more delightful to the taste, or more satisfymg to the wants of
the thirsty traveller. u

r=",

Mr J. F. Sloane‘on Thirst in Snow-covered Countries. 67
But ‘it is in the woods and sheltered places only that those
who inhabit the wilds of the northern parts of America, during
winter, have the means and opportunity to boil a kettle. On
the plains, in many places, during that season, no fuel can be
procured; the cold, too, is so exceedingly intense as to ren-
dera delay to look for firewood often most hazardous, and at
all times very inconvenient ; for, should the wind become vio-

lent, as not unfrequently happens, it tears up the surface of the

snow, and bears it along in such clouds as to obscure the sun,
and to hinder even the Indian for days from proceeding on his

journey.

a these snow-storms, and in such situations, the value
the Canadian generally attaches to his dogs, can be most correctly
appreciated. The stranger who sees the voyageur paying L.50
for three small animals, is disposed to laugh at the simplicity of
the purchaser. Larger animals of the same kind would unques-
tionably appear more deserving of the price ; but even the
largest, most men would be disposed to think, were, at that
sum, far too dearly purchased. But suppose this Canadian
overtaken by such a storm, in the middle of an extensive plain ;
ignorant of the direction of his home; the path leading to it
covered, in many parts, with ten or twelve feet deep of snow;
and the atmosphere so filled with drift as to render it impossible
for him to see the foremost of his three little dogs,—this man,
apparently so helpless, so certain of being lost, who prides him-
self in watehing and directing, on other occasions, even the
slightest movements of his canine companions, throws himself -
on his sledge, calls to the animals to advance, leaves it to them
entirely to determine whether they shall go to the north or

_ south, east or west. His anxiety about his safety, if at all ex-

cited, lasts only while they are dragging him, in all directions,
to recover that path which the wisdom of man compelled them
to abandon : for, by the barking of the leader, he quickly learns
that the tract has been regained ; and then sweeping, like the
wind, over the slender crust of snow, through which larger dogs
sink, and flounder, and perish with fatigue, he is carried to his
own fort, or to the nearer tents of some friendly Indians. I
have seen all this; I have experienced it.

Sometimes the traveller finds it safest to’ remain until the

a EE?

68 Mr J. F. Sloane on Thirst in Snow-covered Countries.

storm has passed or subsided’a little. It seldom continues long.
Good weather invariably succeeds ; and, as there may be many
tracks, in opposite directions, and as the sagacity of the dogs
cannot then determine the one which conducts to the post their |
master would arrive at or avoid, he takes off their traces, and
gives them a little food. He changes his mocassins, and puts
dry socks about his feet. He rolls himself in his blanket or
buffalo-skin ; and, with his gun by his side, lies down deep
among the snow. His dogs come and stretch themselves upon
him. ‘The whole party are soon asleep ; and, in such a resting-
place, many besides myself have spent a solitary yet comfort-
able night, in the neighbourhood of wolves, with many miles
between us and any other human being, and risen next morn-
ing, in health and strength, to proceed on our journey, and to
offer thanks to a watchful Providence who had not only protected
us during the night, but who had led us back, in our dreams,
to our distant country and homes, and who had surrounded us,
while thus sleeping on our snowy couch, with the forms of the
friends and companions most deserving of our love.

- Thus, contrary to opinions which might be previously enter-
tained, man may be tormented with thirst even while travelling
among snow; and, although a covering of it, even to many
feet deep, allows a free passage for those minute particles of
matter by which alone the sense of smell can be excited, a hu-
man being, after taking the necessary precautions, may make it
a‘safe, a warm, a comfortable bed, when the thermometer is
many degrees below zero, and when to sleep, even wrapped in
leather, on its surface, would be followed by immediate and
certain death, from the effects of the intensely cold and pee,
tratmg wind.

On Clinkstone or Phonolite *. By C. G. GMELIN.

Goer has published in the Naturwissenschaftliche Abhand-
lungen von einer Gesellschaft in Wurtemberg, ii. 107, &c. the
first memoir of his classical work on volcanic rocks. It con-
tains an account of a series of very interesting chemical experi-

* Vide Jameson’s Manual of Mineralogy, p. 159.

C. G. Gmelin on Clinkstone or Phonolite. 69
ments, illustrative of the nature of the different kinds of clink-
stone. Our limits preclude us from giving more than the fol-
Sete which are concluding inferences and questions.

. It follows, from the preceding investigations, that the

rot of the Hegau, as also those of the Rhongebirge,
are intimate combinations of mesotype and félspar. In the
clinkstone of the Hegau, the mesotype preponderates over the
felspar, whilst in that of the Rhongebirge, the mesotype is al-
most excluded by the felspar, thus rendering it a nearly pure
felspar rock.
2. Although we cannot expect, in a compound of this de-
scription, that the constituent parts should occur in the same
determinate proportions, as in an individual formed by the
power of crystallization, it is worthy of notice that the differ-
‘ences are not considerable. When we view the constituent
parts of mesotype (exclusively of the water, which is always in
less quantity than in crystallized mesotype, owing to its being
intermixed with a foreign matter), we find that the fixed con-
stituent parts agree very nearly with what occurs in crystallized
mesotype. The mesotype mass, in its composition, approaches
sometimes more to natrolite, sometimes more to mesolith, meso-
line, &e. The felspar mass approaches very nearly in chemical
nature to the crystallized felspar: The following formula will
express its constitution.

~ ks +3 AS*.
N

In a chemical view, the felspar bears nearly the same relation
_to orthoclase, as perecline to albite, and hence arises the ques-
tion, whether or not the glassy félspar which occurs in clink-
stone, notwithstanding its agreement in form with orthoclase, be
not distinguished from it by a considerable dose of natron ?

8. We can infer, with considerable certainty, from the speci-
fic gravity of the clinkstone, the proportion of mesotype to fel-
spar, it being a fact that the specific gravity diminishes as the
quantity of mesotype increases. ‘This may indeed apply to all
zeolitic compounds, in so far as these possess a lower specific gra-
vity than felspar.. The clinkstone of Hohenkrahen, in which the
mesotypic mass predominates, has a specific gravity of 2.504;

70 C. G. Gmelin on Clinkstone or Phonolite.

in that of the Pferdekuppe, the specific gravity is 2.605; the

fresh clinkstone of Abstrode equal 2.623; the decayed, from
the same place, which -has parted with nearly “4 its iat
matter, is 2.651.

4. When a clinkstone affords a small quantity of sila and
a larger quantity of alumina, we infer a considerable intermix-
ture of mesotype: if the silica is above 60 per cent., the clink-
stone is nearly a pure felspar. The analysis of Klaproth, Berg-
man, and Dr Struve, point out clinkstones that contain less me-
sotype than the clinkstone of the Hegau, but more than that of
the Rhongebirge. Dr Struve analyzed the white decayed crust,
’ and also the fresh mass under it, of the clinkstone from the Ro-

thenberg near to Brux, from which it results, that, by the pro-

cess of decomposition, the clinkstone is deprived of its mesotype,
and is converted into a pure felspar mass *,

5. This composition of clinkstone excludes the idea of the
formation of the zeolitic crystallization, by a process of infiltra-
tion : it is evident that the very generally distributed natrolite
in the cone of Hohentwiel, has separated itself by a process of
secretion from the mass of the rock in which it is contained.
Natrolite occurs in but small quantity in the cone of Hohen-
krihen, probably because the lava on cooling, split into fewer
rents, and thus afforded fewer opportunities for the secretion of
crystals.

6. Although clinkstone and basalt have been formed in thes
same way, they present a remarkable contrast, which we shall
now notice. In clinkstone, natron, potash, and silica prevail ;
whereas in basalt, oxide of iron, magnesia, and lime, are the
predominating constituent parts, natron and potash being nearly
excluded. We can say, natron and potash characterize elink-
stone, iron, and magnesia basalt. ‘This is remarkably the case
with the clinkstones and basalts of Hegau: The first contain no

* Dr Struve considers, as worthy of notice, the fact ascertained by his re-
searches, viz. that, in the decayed minerals, the proportion of potash was
nearly double that in the undecayed, whereas the quantity of soda diminished.
It may be explained by remarking, that the zeolitic constituent part is re-
moved by the act of weathering, while the felspar remains. In the first,
natron predominates, in the second, potash prevails ; hence, in the decayed mi-
neral the relative quantity of potash will increase, and the absolute quantity
of alkaline matter diminish.

C. G. Gmelin on Clinkstone or Phonolite. 71

magnesia, the latter a considerable proportion. Magnesia and
oxide of iron in general shew a great tendency to enter into
combination with each other.

‘7. It is well known that clinkstone mountains are favourable

to the growth of plants, particularly for the growth of vines. It
from the analysis of the weathered and fresh clinkstone
of Abstrode, 1. That, during the process of weathering, nearly
the greatest part (about three-fourths) of the mesotypic consti-
tuént part of the clinkstone, which can be decomposed by acids, is
removed : 2. That the removal of these constituent parts does not
take place in an uniform manner, but that certain constituents
only are principally removed by the influence of the weather.
Thus we observe, that nearly the whole of the alkali, and the
greater part of the silica and alumina, have disappeared, while
the quantity of oxide of iron and oxide of manganese has much
increased, ‘The tendency of clinkstone to part with its meso-
typic constituent part, through weathering, by which a large
quantity of alkali is carried into the soil, may explain the luxu-
riance of the vegetation on the sides of clinkstone hills, whose
highest summits only are bald.
‘8. May not volcanic rocks, as basalt and clinkstone, answer
well for building under water, and, therefore, take the place of
and trass? May not the hydraulic character these
rocks possess, depend on the loose state in which a part of the
silica exists? At least, all these rocks, however different their
composition may be, have this property in common. It is
worthy, therefore, of inquiry, whether the quality of hardening
under water with lime, increases with the quantity of matter
which gelatinises ? Whether the weathered mass, deprived of
its gelatinising mass, loses this property ? Whether the pure ge-
latinary mass itself, as the natrolite, for example, possesses this
property, and in a marked degree ? The determination of these

questions are important for the theory of hydraulic mortar.

(72)

1. Observations concerning Fossil Organic Remains. By’
J. C. Doornix, M.D. &c.* 2. Werner's Views of the Na-

tural History of Fossil Organic Remains. 3: Werner's
Advice to Students of Geology.

Tue study of fossil remains is, without doubt, one of the prin-

cipal branches of geology, one of the best established means for
explaining the most important phenomena connected »with the

natural history of our earth. It is therefore of the utmost im-;
portance that we should be familiar with the whole series of or-;
ganic remains, before we form our ideas upon the subject in its,

full extent, and before we allow ourselves to undertake an ex-
planation of the apparent labyrinth. tn

Notwithstanding my conviction of the great utility fica thoy ©

rough knowledge of organic remains, as connected with thege-

nera and species to which they belong ; the various localities,

where they are found, and the situations which they occupy. in
the different strata belonging to epochs so remote ; still I cannot
subscribe to the views of M. Cuvier, when he speaks of the wd
importance of organic remains.

* Do we not perceive,” says he, ‘“ that to fossil. remains

alone, is due the origin of the theory of the earth;, and that,
without them, we should possibly have never’ dreamed .that:

there had been in the formation of the globe successive wants
and a series of different operations.”

Such a position, it seems to me, proves too much, - and > a

fore nothing decidedly. r
_After having read and meditated much upon it, I rab die
liberty to ask M. Cuvier, if the knowledge we possess concern-
ing the various rock formations, the manifest differences in their
constituent parts, in the succession, alternation, and regular

occurrence of their strata; that relating also to the obvious or-)

der which reigns in the superposition of rocks, and the striking

instances of conformity, of identity, of equivalence, and paralle-

lism in these superpositions, proved by the researches of the

most able geologists, and found true in countries the most re-

mote from each other. I would ask, if such knowledge is not
* Silliman’s American Journal, vol. xv. for October 1828.

J. C. Doornik on Fossil Organic Remains. 73

sufficient to afford some positive data in a theory of the earth,
and whether we should not add to it whatever may be derived
from the study of fossil remains, so that they may mutually as-
sist each other, and become two inseparable sources from whence
we may derive the materials of a theory of the earth ?

According to the views of M. Cuvier, then, a theory of the
earth should be the result of a knowledge which is partial ;
whilst it ought to be, on the contrary, the result of a knowledge
which is general, and which embraces every thing belonging to
the’science of geology. The discovery of fossil remains; the
observation of differences among their genera and species ; their
diversified appearance when in different strata, and the epochs
to which they may be supposed to belong, are so many mate-
rials for framing a theory of the earth; but they are not the
only materials ; they merely co-operate with other branches of
knowledge to form a complete system.

Therefore I maintain, that the origin of the theory of the
earth cannot be attributed exclusively to organic remains.

The arguments which I have cited prove, if I mistake not,
that we already had collected many materials for the commence-
ment of a theory of the earth, previous to any progress in the
study of fossil remains, and their scientific classification, founded
upon comparative anatomy; for which we are indebted to M.
‘Cuvier as the original author.

I take it for granted that M. Cuvier, in advancing this posi-
tion, forgot for the moment that he was accusing the great
Werner of not having given sufficient attention to the study of
organic remains. Nevertheless, Werner had erected a geologi-
cal system, which has rendered the name of this distinguished
philosopher immortal, although, according to the opinion of M.
Cuvier, he did not sufficiently occupy himself with what he
maintains to have been, and to be, the only foundation for a
theory of the'earth. Every one will maintain with me, I think,
that Werner has laid the foundation of geology. His labours
have brought to light materials which are, and must always re-
main, of the highest value in the formation of a theory of the
earth ; although connected with a class of knowledge different
from that which is derived from the study of organic remains.

Finally, let us suppose, for a moment, that we were ignorant

74 J. C. Doornik on Fossil Organic Remains.

of all that is at present known concerning organic remains, and.

that our geological knowledge was limited to what we know of
those formations called primitive, transition, secondary and. ter-
tiary, gathered from their conformation, structure, position and
mutual relations,—information purely geological; that, our

knowledge was confined to what has been observed concerning —

the summits of mountains, their planes and bases, concerning
valleys and lakes ; and to the removal of immense masses of rock
to great distances ; is it probable that there could be a philoso-
pher found who would maintain, that this amount of knowledge
does not, or could not, contribute to furnish the materials for a
theory of the earth? I cannot believe it, or ever persuade my-
self, that M. Cuvier seriously meant to maintain such a proposi-
tion. His vast erudition in every thing which relates to physi-
cal science, forbids my believing it ; and I choose to think, that
the passages which have been cited are; so to speak, slips of the
lively pen of this justly celebrated author.

A little farther on we read, “* It is only by analogy that we

have extended to primitive formations the conclusion, which or-
ganic remains furnish, directly for the secondary formations;
and if there had only existed formations without fossil remains,
no one could have maintained that these formations had not been
simultaneous.”

Here I must commence with the.4 same nemesis that I ri
just made upon the first position, which is, that M. Cuvier jas-
sumes infinitely more than sound logic will sustain him in do-
ing. I allude more particularly to the latter part of the aboye
quotation, where he says, “‘ and if there had only existed for-
mations without fossil remains,” &c. a

Truly, when this point shall be yielded to M. Cuvier, geolo-

gy will lose very much of its dignity ; for the science must then
acknowledge, that it owes every thing to our knowledge of or-
ganic remains. But how shall we make a position of this sort
agree with what we know concerning the constituent parts of
rocks of different composition—information derived entirely from
chemical analysis? How shall we then dispose of our. disco.
veries relating to the different structure of formations, which are
so geologically distinct, that they have based upon this circum-
stance the characters for distinguishing the formations? Is not

ee

oo

J. CG. Doornik on Fossil Organic Remains. . = 75
all weknow concerning succession in the primitive formations,
directly the result of observations purely geological? Are we
notable to distinguish successive formations in strata, which do
not belong to the primitive ? Should we confound the forma-
tion of chalk with that of the calcaire grossier, if deprived of
the’aid of their imbedded shells, when there exists the formation
of plastic clay, of molasse and conglomerates of various kinds,
intermediate between the strata? In every formation, from
the lowest to that which is uppermost, we perceive a repetition

' of rocks and strata, whose chemical composition is similar; that

is, siliceous, argillaceous, or calcareous. But the difference in
structure is most obvious. The lower formations are crystallized
and firm ; whilst the upper are earthy and loose. The interme-
diate formations differ from these, as well as from each other,
in a manner no less remarkable. A striking character of the
transition formation, and which separates it from the primitive
and secondary, is seen in the alternation of a series of rocks,
in which there is a regular recurrence of similar beds, rendering

perfectly obvious, likewise, the limits of this extensive class of

rocks. Another characteristic of the same formation exists in
the three great formations, which hold nearly the same rank in
different parts of the globe. They are, 1st, Talcose granular
limestone, greywacke with anthracite and micaslate ; 2dly, Sye-
nite and porphyry, with crystals of hornblende, and occasionally
quartz ; 3dly, Clayslate, greywacke and black limestone.

The micaslate, with anthracite and clayslate, serves as the
connecting points of the transition and the primitive; whilst, on
the other hand, the fine-grained greywackes and porphyries,
abounding in the crystals of quartz, cause it to approximate to
the secondary.

The different ages of these formations are likewise indicated
by their position. For example, the porphyries of Guanaxuato
repose upon bituminous clayslate ; those of Hungary upon a tran-
sition micaslate ; whilst those of the Andes of Quito are situated
upon primitive rocks. Large masses of greywacke are to be seen
in the oldest slate rocks of the transition class; whilst extensive
beds of greywacke are met with, whose origin is more recent.
In fine, the transition class of rocks is distinguishable both by
structure and age from the primitive :—the limits of the latter

7

6 J. C. Doornik on Fossil Organic Remains.
are in general simple; while those of the former are more com-
plex.

When we observe the highly uniform and decidedly hipenel-
line structure in the primitive rocks ; when we view this charac-
ter much less distinctly in the transition, still less in the secon-
dary, and not at all in the tertiary, is it probable that a geolo-
gist could be found, who would maintain that they were, never-
theless, all formed at tle same epoch ?

It is well known, that over an extent of some thousand square
leagues (in Thuringia and all the northern part of Germany), ©
nine of the upper formations, viz. the transition limestone, the
greywacke, the red sandstone, the zechstein, with bituminous
shale, the muriatiferous gypsum, the oolitic limestone, the gyp-
sum in clay, the muschelkalk, the white sandstone, and the qua-
dersandstein, have been distinguished from each other nie
the aid of zoological characters.

M. Cuvier, in his theory of the earth, after hen etre: jus-
tice to the high reputation of Werner, observes, “ that neither
M. Werner nor M. de Saussure, the geological historian of the
Alps, have described the species of the organic remains in each
of the strata, with that accuracy which has now become neces-
sary, since the number of animals already known is so great. —

It is true, Werner was not so well versed in comparative ana-
tomy as M. Cuvier, who in this branch surpasses all his prede-
cessors, and probably his contemporaries also; yet I will ven-
ture to say to M. Cuvier, that it appears to me he is. not ac-
quainted with the merits of Werner in contributing to the pro-
motion of the natural history of organic remains. Far from
confining himself to the mere science of mineralogy, in forming
his theory of the earth, Werner, from the first, occupied himself
with the study of the different relations of all the classes of or-
ganic remains. A genius like his must naturally have per-
ceived that a complete knowledge of these relations was abso-
lutely necessary to a geologist, and accordingly, with such a
conviction, he informed himself of all that was known of petri-
factions. During his lectures, he often called the attention of
his auditors to the importance of forming collections, which, be-
sides a complete series of rocks and minerals, to illustrate the

J. C. Doornik on Fossil Organic Remains. 77

formation of our globe, he insisted, ought also to embrace an
extensive collection of organic remains, both of vegetables and ~
animals. Neither did he neglect, at the same time, to make
mention of the numerous researches and discoveries relating
to those caverns which contained large quantities of animal re-
mains.
| Werner also insisted much upon the observation, made, if I
mistake not, by M. Lister, more than one hundred and fifty
years ago, that the different formations were capable of being
tg by means of the fossil remains they contained ;
and also, that these relics were first apparent in the transition-
class, though in a very small proportion; and belonged only to
the class of zoophytes and testaceous animals. Thus he ex-
plained, most decidedly, the antiquity of the marine and terres-
trial animals ; maintaining that the first possessed the most an-
- cient origin.

It was when pursuing these investigations, and engaged in
the study of the genera and species of organic remains, that,
with his customary sagacity, he remarked, how widely those
species differ, which are the products of more ancient rocks,
from such as exist at the present day; and, on the contrary,
how closely those species which occur in the most recent forma-
tions approach to existing animals.

To conclude: Here is another observation of Werner, by
which it is proved, beyond a doubt, that he attached a high im-
portance to these studies. He insisted upon the observation,
that many fossil species are limited to particular rocks, while
others, on the contrary, possess a wider distribution ; these last
appearing to have enjoyed an organization, which enabled them
to live during a variety of changes, which exterminated those
found only in particular rocks.

My profound veneration for the high merits of Werner has
occasioned the foregoing remarks, and which, I trust, have been
made with propriety.

The following observations by Professor Jameson, in the
fourth edition of Cuvier’s Theory of the Earth, led to the

preceding remarks. -

78 Werner on Fossil Organic Remains.

2. Professor Jameson’s notice of Werner's Views of the nines
ral History of Petrifactions.

From the observation in Section 22, Cuvier does not’ appear’
to have known how much Werner has done for the advancement
of the natural: history of fossil organic remains. He did ‘not
rest satisfied with the development of the mere mineralogical
branch of the Theory of the Earth. On the contrary, early in
life he began to'investigate the relations of fossil organie remains,
being well convinced, that, without an accurate and compre~
hensive knowledge of’ these interesting bodies, geological specti”
lations would have excited comparatively little notice.

Many years ago he embodied all that was known of petrifac-
tions into a regular system. He insisted on the necessity of
every geognostical cabinet containing, besides complete series
of rocks, for illustrating the mineralogical relations of the globe,
an extensive collection not only of Shells, but also of the va-
rious productions of the class Zoophyta, and of Plants ; and an
examination of the remains of Quadrupeds, in the great lime-
stone caves and alluvial soils of Germany, and of Fishes and
Amphibia in various rocks, soon pointed out to him the neces-
sity of attaching to the geognostical cabinet also one of com-
parative osteology. As his views in geognosy enlarged, he
saw more and more the value of a close and deep study of petri-
factions. He first made the highly important observation, that
different formations can be discriminated by the petrifactions
they contain.

It was during the course of his geognostical investigations,
that he ascertained the general distribution of organic remains
in the crust of the earth. He found that petrifactions appear
first in transition rocks. 'These are but few in number, and of
animals of the zoophytic or testaceous classes. In the older se-
condary rocks they are of more perfect species, as of fish and
amphibious animals ; in the newest secondary and alluvial rocks,
of birds and quadrupeds, or animals of the most perfect kinds.
He always maintained that no fossil remains of the human
species had been found in secondary rocks, or in any of the
older alluvial formations; but was of opinion, that such re-
mains might be discovered in the newer alluvial depositions.

He was also led to believe, from his numerous observations, that.

.
pre
re

pie

> hee

Werner.on Fossil Organic Remains. 79
sea plants were of more ancient origin than land plants. A
careful study of the genera and species of petrifactions, disclo-
sed'to him another important fact, viz. that the petrifactions
contained in the oldest rocks are very different from any of the
species of the present time; that the newer the formation, the
more do the remains approach in form to the organic beings of
the present creation ; and that, in the very newest formations,
fossil remains of the presently existing species occur. He also
ascertained, that the petrifactions in the oldest rocks are much
more mineralized than those in the newer rocks, and that in the
newest rocks they are merely bleached or calcined. He found
that some species of petrifactions were confined to particular
beds, others were distributed throughout the whole formations,
and others seem to occur in several different formations; the
original species found in these formations appearing to have
been so constituted, as to live through a variety of changes,
which has destroyed hundreds of other species, which we find
confined to particular beds.

3. Werner's Advice to Students of Geology.

"The following observations, addressed to students of geology
by Werner, as given by Daubuisson in his excellent System of
=~: will be read with interest.

I would, in the first place, he says, remind them, thet there
are various branches of physical science with which they must
be acquainted.

In the first rank we would place Mineralogy (Oryctognosy),
the department of natural history which makes us acquainted
with simple minerals, and enables us to distinguish them from
each other. All the observations of the geologist who is unac-
quainted with it are imperfect, and generally of but little value.
‘When he would ascertain the constitution of a formation (¢er-
rain), and such is almost always his object, he must first indi-
cate the mineral substances which enter into its constitution,
and then describe the manner in which they are disposed.
Mineralogy can alone enable him to execute the first; and. it is
only when it has been accomplished that he can properly pass
to the second. How many estimable naturalists have unprofit-
ably wasted their time and their labour, from having engaged

80 Werner’s Advice to Students of Geology.

in geognostical undertakings without a sufficient knowledge of |

mineralogy ! The book of nature, they said, was open to them;
but it was necessary to know the characters in which that book
is written, and these characters are, in this case, the a mi-
nerals.

It is sufficient to bear in mind that natural philosophy: vinileas
known the laws which seem to regulate matter; and especially,
that, having the phenomena of nature, and the causes which
produce them, continually before our eyes, it enables us to
seize and appreciate the relations which may exist between ef-
fects which we see, and the causes to which we are led to attri-
bute them, to show how necessary this science is to geology,
which occupies itself with the revolutions of the terrestrial
globe, and which endeavours to account for the changes whieh
its surface undergoes, or may have undergone.

When this same observer enters into the details of the Riera:
tion of minerals, he sees nothing but precipitations, crystalliza-
tions, and solutions: the forces which have produced minerals,
which have collected and united their elements, are forces of
affinity ; he cannot duly appreciate their effects, without a pro-
found knowledge of general chemistry. But it is necessary for
him to employ much reserve and much discernment when, from
what takes place in our laboratories, he would draw inferences
respecting what takes place in those of nature. Nature acts on
immense masses ; she has time at her disposal, it is nothing to
her; and these two circumstances often suffice to render entire:

ly dissimilar the effects of the same agent and the products of

the same cause. Besides we cannot flatter ourselves with pos-
sessing a knowledge of all the means which nature employs in
her formations,—nor can we conclude that she cannot produce
a particular effect, because we have not yet been able to imitate
it in our laboratories; for example, that a substance is inde-
composable, because we have not yet been able to decompose it.

The other branches of natural history, zoology and botany,
are also of great utility to the geologist. They make known to
him that multiplicity of corals, and shells, those remains of other
animals, and also of vegetables, which he finds so abundantly in
many of the strata of the globe, and which throw so much light
upon the different epochs, and upon many other circumstances,

ahh seamen tn a al

Werner’s Advice to Students of Geology. 81

of formation. A person ignorant of this kind of knowledge
being always obliged to have recourse to other naturalists,
would be interrupted at every step in the study of secondary,
tertiary and alluvial deposites.

Besides the various acquirements which we have already enu-
merated, the geologist ought to possess a mind capable of com-
prehending not only those extensive relations that exist in the
mineral kingdom, but also its minuter details. Placed in some
measure between the astronomer, who carries his observations
into the immensity of space, and rises to the infinitely great,
and the scrupulous naturalist, who, armed with a microscope,
endeavours to discover the secrets of nature in the organs of a
mite, or the laminz of a small crystal; with the grand and ex-
tensive views of the one, he must combine the sagacity and ac-
curacy of the other.

Furnished with the necessary y knowledge, and endowed with
the requisite qualities, he who is desirous of prosecuting the
study of geology, ought to take Nature as his principal conduc-
tor. It is only by examining minerals in their native bed that
he can be led to rational ideas respecting their formation ; it
is only by seeing the beds and veins with his own eyes that he
can acquire an accurate knowledge of their form, structure, and
mutual arrangement ; it is only after he has seen and observed
much for himself, that he will be able to appreciate the obser.
vations of others, submit them to just criticism, and draw infe-
rences from them. It is to him especially that the first lesson
applies, which Wallerius gave to his pupils in mineralogy, when
he recommended to them to go, on foot, and hammer in hand,
to study and interrogate Naturé in her own workshops. “ Ite
filii,” says he, “‘emite calceos; montes accedite ; valles, solitudines,
littora maris, terrae profundos, sinus inquirite; mineralium or-
dines, proprietates, nascendi modus notate: tandem carbones
emite, fornaces construite, et sine tedio coquite; ita enim ad
corporum proprietatumque cognitionem pervenietis ; alias non*.”

It is not so much the number as the accuracy of the observa-
tions that is of importance ; and here unfortunately observers
have too often to struggle against the inclination natural to all

* Systema Mineralogicum, Preefatio.-

APRIL—JUNE 1829. F

82 Werner's Advice to Stidents of Geology.
nidm desirous? of instruction.’ When, on traversing’ a country;
they*have acquired'a general idea’ of its nature, and wish to'go
farter)it'isiwithidifficulty that they can persuade themselves to
retrace their steps, to see and see over again tlie same‘object’ un-
der-all'itsaspeotss and itvall’its details; and-yet these‘are the ob-
servations'thatrare'truly useful!to'seience, those which assure its
progressy:and which iti carefully: preserves in its archives Let
thecgeoldgist! who would make stich observations; undertake, for
exainple;:the complete deseription’ ofa country, interesting’ from
its«mineralogical nature, but of' small extent. Let him*acquite
anfirsvidea‘of the’ ground; by traversing it in’ two orthree dift
ferent directioris,: so’ that he may be enabled’ to’ form’ a right
plan of: the: labotrr ‘to ‘be: executed; and determine the series of
questions 'to*be’ solvedi Let him’ again’ return: to’ the places:
His intelligence, and the habit of observing, will pomt out ‘to
him, whether; from what’ he has already seen of the country, or
from what» he-will'see by multiplymg his researches, whatjare the
points»whither‘he ought to’ betake himself to make his observa
tions, ‘arid abquire’ his: data: for’ the’ solution’ ‘of the questions
which he‘has proposed’ to-himselfi>. He willnot leave the ground
utitibhe bas»solved: them; oruntil he has béen convinced ofthe
inapondibtiinyial. solving? them in whole or inspart. © 6 © 6) 08 4

) oJtomay ‘be: consideredas stiperfluous to sdecemumgellr se the‘obs
ones to\see and'note the:facts such’ as:they really are, divesting
himself: of all: prejudice, and of all desire 'to'make them enter‘in-
tow systematic theory! » Axsystem: is’ frequently nothing ‘but‘a
colouredsglass; which; ' placed ‘before the: eyes: of the naturalist,
alters or even'changes the colour of the objects see-through it:

») Although! we: recommend ‘the rejectiom of ‘all theory not suf-
ficieditly’ foundéd on facts, ‘and maintain» that: actual *observa-
tion’is'theonly true*basis' of! geology; we would notwithstanding
recommend to him: who devotes himself to:its study; not to-con-
fine himself to»the»determination and. collection of facts. . Its
also necessary; aswe’ have already remarked, that: he class ‘them,
inv order to understand their: relations, and: acquire a geriéral
knowledge of their nature:. .He must) combine them, imorder'to
draw inferences:fromthem:. It:is even necessary that:he’should
endeavour to ascend to a knowledge of their causes; but, in his
investigations, he ought always‘ to bear in mind, that all the

ae

See

Mr D. Don on the Characters of Darwinia, &. 83

conelusions which he draws, all the principles which he endea-
vours to establish, can be viewed only as consequences of the
facts observed, and that all hypothesis is interdicted. If some-

times the want of a sufficient number of data prevents him arri-

ving at a rigorous solution, and analogy and induction lead him
to an inference, he must be careful not to exhibit it with a fea-
lity which it does not possess, or to make it one of the founda-
tions of his doctrine. In rearing the edifice of science, the only
means he is permitted to employ are observation, the principles
of-sound physics, and the rules of strict logic.

Observations on the Characters and Affinities of Darwinia,
Brunsfelsia, Browallia, Argylia, Eccremocarpus, and of a

~ Plant improperly referred to the latter genus. By Mr Davin
Down, Librarian of the Linnean Society, Member of the
Imperial Academy Nature Curiosorum, of the Royal Bota-
nical Society of Ratisbon, and of the Wernerian Society of
Edinburgh, &c. Communicated by the Author.

DARWINIA.

Tas genus was-first proposed by Mr Rudge, in the eleventh
volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, where a de-
scription and figure of the then only known species, D. Sascicu-
laris, is given ; but both being probably taken from an imper-
fect specimen, the structure of the ovarium was left undeter-
mined ; which circumstance may sufficiently account for its not
having been referred to its proper place in the Natural System.
Mr Allan Cunningham, probably misled by the analogous re-
semblance in habit of Darwinia to Cryptandra, has referred it to
the Rhamnee, with which it certainly has no affinity whatever.
The examination of a series of specimens, both with flowers and
perfect fruit, has convinced me that its true place in the system
is among the Myrtacee, next to Calythrix, with which it agrees

- in.almost every particular, except in the absence of petals. This

intimate affinity would not have escaped’ so experienced’ an’ ob-

server as M. Decandolle, had he possessed similar facilities.of ex-

amination, while engaged in preparing the third volume of his
F2

84 Mr D. Don on the Characters of Darwinia, &c.

invaluable Prodromus. I shall proceed to give a description of
the genus, and also the characters of the two Bayes re
published.

DARWINIA, Rudge.
Syst. Linn. DODECANDRIA MONOGYNIA-
Ord. Nat. MYRTACE, Brown.

Calyx tubulosus, obtusé pentagonus, coloratus: ‘ubus e medio deorsim ovario
~ arcté adhzerens ; dimidio superiore membranaceo, deciduo ! faux dilatato-cam-
panulata, venosa: limbus 5-lobus: lobis subrotundo-cordatis, obtusissimis,
concavis, pellucido-punctatis, sestivatione imbricatis. Petala nulla. Sta-
mina indefinita (10 v. 15) limbo calycino inserta, seepiis per tria approxi-
mata, medioque sinus laciniarum occupante : filamenta brevissima, angusté
linearia, complanata, glabra : anther subglobose, biloculares, basi inserts =
loculis tumidis, rima longitudinali dehiscentibus. Pollen pulvereum. Ova-
rium inferum, pentagonum, uniloculare : ovulo solitario, erecto. Stylus ca-
pillaris, exsertus, superné attenuatus, apice barbatus. Stigma punctum
pruinosum. Pericarpium capsulare, monospermum, pentagonum, apice
clausum. Semen etiam pentagonum, pericarpio vix dimidio brevius : testa
“ membranacea, spadicea, extis scrobiculata! albumen nullum. Embryo
erectus, cavitatem seminis omniné implens, angulisque ejusdem impressus,
obovatus, lacteus : cotyledones brevissimee, crassze, obtusz : radicula crassa,
truncata, cotyledonibus dupls longior, recta, centripeta.

Frutices (Australasici) decwmbentes, ramosissimi, foliosi. Folia sparsa, angusta,

pellucido-punctata, basi ramis articulata. Flores terminales, fasciculati (verun-

tamen avxillares proprié dicti ), rosei v. albi, nunc paleis (foliis mutatis ) scariosis:
énterstincti.

1, D. fascicularis, foliis acerosis, receptaculo paleaceo, stylo flore ter
longiore.

Darwinia fascicularis. Rudge in Linn. Trans. ii. 299. t. 22. ;
Hab. in Nova Hollandia. White, Paterson, Caley. h (vy. s. sp. in Herb.
Lamb.)

Fruter decumbens, ramosissimus. Folia acerosa, uncialia. Flores or
rosei, paleis scariosis lanceolatis v. setaceis distincti.

2. D. taxifolia, foliis acinaciformibus, stylo flore breviore.
Darwinia taxifolia. Cunningham in Field’s Geogr. Mem. p. 352.
Ay iy jit Hollandia. Caley, Cunningham, h (v. s. sp. in Herb.
am

Frutex decumbens, ramosissimus. Folia sparsa, in apice ramulorum conferta,
faseiculata, falcata, acinaciformia, mucronulata, vix ultra semuncialia-
Flores pauciores, foliis raré mutatis interjecti. Calyz albus. Stamina 10.
Pericarpium capsulare, monospermum, pentagonum. Cefera ut in ea

————————————

Mr D. Don on the Characters of Darwinia,&c. 85

BRUNSFELSIA.

paw comparison of the structure and habit of Brungfélsia and -
Franciscea appears fully to justify the propriety of uniting

them under one generic denomination. The habit alone, inde-
pendent of minuter characters, would seem sufficient to indicate
to the most superficial observer the intimate affinity existing be-
tween these plants. Dr Pohl has referred his genus to the
‘Scrophularine, and compares it with Browallia, without even
adverting to any probable affinity between it and Brunsfelsia ;

but, judging from his descriptions and figures, it seems probable

that Dr Pohl had not seen the perfect fruit; and this circum-

stance may account for his overlooking the real affinities of
Franciscea, of several species of which I have had an opportu-
nity of examining dried samples, and of one species, namely, the
F. Hopeana of the Botanical Magazine, but which does not ap-
pear to differ specifically from Dr Pohl’s F. uniflora, in a living
state ; and I beg to subjoin the following description of the parts
of fructification, taken from a plant of this species in the choice
collection of the Comtesse de Vandes at Bayswater.

BRUNSFELSIA UNIFLORA.
FRANCISCEA UNIFLORA, Poh. Bras. i. p. 2. t. 1.
F. HOPEANA, Hook. in Bot. Mag. t. 2829.

Syst. Linn. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.
Ord. Nat. SOLANEZ, Juss.

Calyx tubulosus, laxus, cartilagineus, 5-dentatus : fauce parim ventricosa :
dentibus ovatis acutis, conniventibus. Corolla hypocrateriformis : twbus in-
ferné pentagonus, calycem longitudine param excedens: faux prominula :

- limbus patens, 5-lobus: Jobis subrotundis, integris, planis, estivatione im-
bricatis, demim flaccidis. Stamina 4, didynama, absque quinti rudimento:

“ filamenta glabra, corolle tubo feré omniné adherentia apicibus tantim so-
lutis: anthere bilobz, lobis apice confluentibus, hinc uniloculares! fissura
unic& dehiscentes. Ovarium biloculare, annulo carnoso basi cinctum :
septo contrario, placentifero : ovuis indefinitis, ovalibus, levibus, curvulis,
hinec embryo (si nobis conjectare licet) verisimilitér curvatus. Fructus

’ maturus nondim vidi. Stylus compressus, glaber, superné latior, clavatus.
Stigma natans, bilabiato-ringens: /obis (styli angulorum continuatio) cras-
sis, obtusis, insequalibus, glandula (stigma verum), magna, carnosa, minu-
tissimé papillos&, madida interjectis ; lobe inferiore minore.

86 > Mr D.Don on the\Character's of Darwinia.; &c.

In Brunsfelsia americana ovarium certé biloculare, bacca septo disrupto unilo-
cularis, polysperma, seminaangulata, testa exteriore crustacea minuté scro-
biculata badia, interiore membranace’ fragili! alba, albumine copioso densé
carnoso lutescente, embryo-curvatus lacteus, cotyledonibus ovalibus plano-
convexis vascularibus ! radicula tereti his parim longiore obtus& umbilico
opposita.
In: the structure of the flower, both Brunsfélsia and Francis-

cea precisely accord. It is true that the tube of the corolla is
very much; lengthened in B. americana; but its being found
to vary considerably in Franciscea, shews that this character
is not constant, and therefore only to be considered as of spe-
cific importance. The structure of the seeds, and the direction
and form of the embryo, shew that the true place in the system
for this genus is among the Solance, and that it is scarcely to be
separated from the normal group of that family. The ovarium
of B. americana is clearly bilocular. There is an interesting
additional species to this genus in the herbarium of Don Hipo-
lito Ruiz, collected by Don Juan 'Tafalla, at Uchiza, in Peru,
in 1798. This new species I have named B. grandiflora *.

BROWALLIA.

From the form and plicate eestivation of the corolla, I am
also disposed to remove this genus from among the Scrophula-
rina, where it has been hitherto placed, to the Solanee, with
which it seems better to accord, even in habit. As the genus
appears to me not to have been described with that accuracy so
essentially necessary in matters of this kind, I beg to subjoin
the following description, which may not prove unacceptable to
my botanical readers.

* B. grandifora, foliis elliptico-oblongis acuminatis, floribus corymbosis,
tubo corollz limbo vix longiore.

Hab, in Peruvia ad Uchiza. Tafalla, h. (v.s.in Herb. Ruiz. nune in Mus.
Lamb.) /

Frutexr ramis virgatis, glabris. Folia sparsa, petiolata, elliptico-oblonga,
acuminata, plana, glabra, leté viridia, 3-6-pollicaria, latitudine sesqui v. bipol-
licaria. Petioli vix semunciales. Flores plures (6-8) terminales, corymbosi,
brevitér pedicellati. Calyx tubulosus, 5-dentatus, unguicularis: dentibus ova-
tis, acutis. Corolle tubus cylindraceus, ultra unciam longus; /imbus amplus,
diametro feré biuncialis. Stamina subzequalia,

4

Ee

Mr D. Bone the Characters vain Sc. 87

BROWALLIA, JZ.
aAs : _ Syst, Linn. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. _
a in | _ Ord. Nate SOLANEE, Juss.
sili tiaddath ites seidcitetintaiette-dhtcnnls wihasbetall tas
__ bo 5-dentatus, basi attenuatus, utroque latere profundiis fissus : laginiis
__ obtusis, carinatis. Corolla hypocrateriformis (ob pedunculi contortionem
- flog resupinatus !): tubo nervis 15 peragrato, supra ad apicem ventricoso :
Timbo obliquo, 5-lobo, sestivatione plicata ! Jobis rotundatis ; superiore (infe-
\ tiore veré propria) majore, trinervio; ceteris uninerviis. Stamina 4, didy-
nama, fertilia ; guinti rudimento nullo: fiamenta complanata, apice barbata
_pilis ramosis copiosis; inferiora ; (superiora vero proprié) duo, longiora,
apice,arcuata, cuneato-dilatata, truncata, colorata, antheras omniné tegen-
tibus, hine corolla faux quasi fornicibus clausa! Anthere. superiores reni-
formes, biloculares, basi emarginate, filamentorum contortione centrifuge,
iisdemque contrariz, loculis zequalibus, tumidis, rima longitudinali dehis-
centibus; inferiores (veré proprié superiores) filamentis parallele, loculo
superiore minimo. Pollen e granulis minutissimis pellucidis compositum.
Ovarium biloculare : ovulis numerosissimis. Stylus compressus, glaber,
angulis septo contrariis. Stigma inélusum, amplum, compressioni styli
parallelum, fissura levitér bilobum, 4-tuberculatum dorso excavationibus
2 depressum, pro receptione antherarum superiorum: Jodis glutinosis, su-
pra depressis. Capsula oblonga, bilocularis, bivalvis, polysperma ; valvis
bipartibilibus. Dissepimentum contrarium, ob discum fronti dorsoque floris
oppositum. Placenta 2, carnose, septo insertw, scrobiculatse, seminifere.
Semina angulata, ad baseos latus superius umbilico prominulo notata, extis
punctis exiguis depressis confertissimis scrobiculata ; ‘esta exterior cellula-
ris, fuscescens, crassiuscula ; inferior tenuissimé membranacea, alba: albu-
men copiosum, carnosum, album. Embryo teres, rectus, obliqué centralis,
niveus: cotyledones brevissimz, rotundate : radicula his duplé longior, ob-
tusa, crassa, centripeta, ad latus inferius ultra umbilicum prona.

ARGYLIA. -
Syst. Linn. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.
Ord. Nat. BIGNONIACE, Brown.

Calyx 5-partitus. Corolla basi tubulosa, fauce ventricosa : Jimbo 5-lobo, sube-
quali, zestivatione imbricata. Stamina 4, didynama, fertilia. Anthere im-
berbes, bipartite: : Jobis obtusis, divaricatis, apice distinctis, rima Jongitu-
dinali dehiscentibus. Ovariwm biloculare. Stylus filiformis, levis. Stigma
bilamelloso-partitum, pruinosum. Capsuda siliquzeformis, bilocularis, bi-
valvis, polysperma, torulosa: vaivis crustaceis, navicularibus. _Semina
transversa, aptera! obreniformia, apice biloba, margine obtusa, hinc con-
cava, striata, indé convexa, tuberculata: testa exterior coriacea, intis sul-
cata; interior membranacea, plicata! albumen nullum. Embryo cavitati

88 Mr D. Don.on the Characters of Darwinia, &c.

seminis conformis: cotyledones foliaceee, undulatee, basi emarginate: : radi-

cula brevissima, obtusa, centrifuga. Plwmula inconspicua.

This very distinct genus was first proposed by me in the
‘* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal* ;” but not having then seen
perfect fruit, the description there given will be found to con-
tain some inaccuracies which are now corrected. We are in-
debted to our indefatigable friend Mr Caldcleugh for samples of
a second species of this genus, collected by him at Coquimbo,
in Chile. This new species may be named and characterised as

follows:

1, A. canescens, cano-pubescens ; foliorum segmentis linearibus canali-
culatis, corolle tubo calycem pariim excedente.

Hab. in Chili ad Coquimbo. . Caldcleugh. . 7/. (v. s. sp. in Herb. Lamb.)
Herba habitu graciliore, pube copiosa brevi canescens. Flores minores.

2. A. radiata, glabra; foliorum segmentis planis apice dilatatis, co-
rollz tubo calyce duplo longiores.
lia radiata, Don in Edinb. Philos. Journ. No. 18. p. 260.
Bignonia radiata, Linn. Sp. Pl. 871. Willd. Sp. Pl. 3. p. 301.
Bignonia flore luteo, foliis radiatis et elegantissimé dissectis. Feuwill
Peruv. 1. p. 731. t. 22. (mediocris.)
Hab. in Peruvia. Feuillée, Ruiz et Pavon. YJ. (v.s. sp. in Herb. Ruiz
et Pavon, nunc in Mus. Lamb.)

ECCREMOCARPUS.
Eccremocarri Sp. Ruiz et Pavon.
Syst. Linn, DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.
Ord. Nat. BIGNONIACEA, Brown. Sect. 2. TOURRETIE.

Calyx amplus, membranaceus, 5-fidus, coloratus. Corolla tubulosa, fauce sequa-
lis, limbo 5-loba: Jobis obtusis, sequalibus. Stamina 4 fertilia, sequalia ;
quinti rudimento subulato. Anthere lineares, biloculares, medio insertz,
versatiles: Joculis parallelis, omninéd connatis! Ovarium placentis inter-
vallo distinctis uniloculare, annulo carnoso basi cinctum. Stigma biparti-
tum: segmentis recurvis. Capsula unilocularis, bivalvis: valvis medio
placentiferis. Placente 2, magnse, carnose. Semina imbricata, horizonta-
lia, complanata, margine membranaceo repando-sinuoso nervoso alata:
umbilico basilari: testa exterior planiuscula, crustacea: albumen nullum,
Embryo luteolus: cotyledones subrotunde, plano-convexe : radicula brevis-
sima, teres, obtusa.

Frutices (Peruviani) seandentes. Folia opposita, tripinnata cirrho composito
spirali terminata : pinnis primariis bijugis : foliolis integerrimis. Flores long?

* No. XVIII. Oct. 1823, p. 260.

<x

Mr D. Don on the Characters of Darwinia, &c. 89

pedunculati, penduli, racemosi. Racemus larus, oppositifolius. Calyx ruber,

apice pallidus. Corolla flava, limbo viridi. Capsula magna, levigata.

This genus is here limited to include the £. viridis of Ruiz
and Pavon, and the E. longiflorus of Humboldt and Bon-
pland, both being natives of Peru; but the EZ. scaber differing
so essentially in the structure of its anthers, and having likewise
a different formed corolla and calyx, is here separated as a distinct
genus. It is probable that Chile contains several species of the
latter genus, as the plant of Ruiz and Pavon appears different
from the one cultivated in the gardens, of which an excellent de-
scription and figure will be found in the Botanical Register ; but
my materials are at present insufficient to decide this point. These
genera, together with Towrretia are clearly referable to the
Bignoniacee, of which they appear to me to constitute an oscu-
lant group, connecting that family with the Cobeacee.

CALAMPELIS.
' Eccremocarpri Sp. Ruiz et Pavon.
; ‘Syst. Linn. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.
Ord. Nat. BIGNONIACEZ, Brown. Sect. 2. TOURRETIE.

Calyx campanulatus, semiquinquefidus. Corolla fauce ventricosa, basi tubu-
losa: ore coarctato, 5-lobo. Stamina 4, didynama, fertilia; quinti rudi-

- mento nullo. Anthere biloculares, bipartite : Jobis obtusis, divaricatis
apice distinctis: ovarium placentis intervallo distinctis uniloculare. Stigma

bipartitum : segmentis obtusis, canaliculatis, apice hispidulis. Capsula unilo-
cularis, bivalvis: valvis medio placentiferis. Placente 2, magn, carnose.
Semina horizontalia, obovata, imbricata, complanata, ala latiuscula repando-
sinuosa, membranace4, argenteo-nitida, subpellucida, pulcherrimé nervosa,

” basi emarginata circumcincta: testa exterior atra, crustacea, rugulosa, pa-
ram scrobiculata: interior tenuissimé membranacea: albumen nullum.
Embryo luteolus: cotyledones orbiculate, plano-convexz, non foliacez :

_ radicula crassa, brevissima, cotyledonibus triplé brevior, infera, centripeta,
‘Dasi obtusissima, funiculo umbilicali partim remanente.

Planta (Chilensis) suffruticosa, scandens, Folia opposita, petiolata, bipinnata,
cirrho composito spirali terminata: pinnis primariis bijugis : foliolis serratis.
Flores racemosi, secundi. Racemus oppositifolius pedunculatus, multiflorus.
Calyx brevis, viridis. Corolla coccinea. Capsula magna, muricata.

A Notice of the Beaver, from Observations made on Two
Living Specimens at present in this Country. —

"Tne arrival of two beavers at: the Garden of ‘the Zoological
Society, (of which I am a member), ‘has afforded mean oppor-
tunity of paying some little attention to the habits and structure
of these interesting animals. |

‘On a visit to the garden during the very hard frost: which: oc-
curred in the latter part of last January, I happened to find the
keeper busily occupied in clearing away a quantity of mud
from the door of the beavers’ house. ‘On inquiry, I discovered,
that the industrious animals, finding themselves inconvenienced
by the cold air forcing its way through the key-hole and chinks
of the door, had employed themselves in stopping up all/the
interstices on the outside, so that it was only after some consi-
derable trouble that the keeper was enabled to turn the key in
the lock. Being on the spot a few days ‘after, I was amused

to perceive that the beavers, nothing discouraged by the demo- ©

lition of their architectural labours in the first instance, had
again set to work, and covered the whole surface of the door
with a thick coating of plaster, which had been hardened by the
frost into a solid cement. Though these outworks were repeat-
edly destroyed, the creatures continued with undiminished per-
severance to fortify their dwelling against the cold,:and so late
as the month of March I found the doors completely blocked
up. Indeed those who had the charge of them, found it an un-
profitable labour to persist in clearing away the accumulated
mud, as no sooner was a portion removed, than the breach was
instantly repaired anew. The habitation allotted to the bea-
vers is a low oven-shaped hut, divided into two apartments, with
a view that the two individuals might live apart. They have,
however, preferred dwelling together, in one of the divisions of
the building, and they seem to have been influenced in their
choice, from finding that two of the entrances to it were sup-
plied with doors, and therefore that less labour would be re-
quired in rendering it fit for their occupation. ‘The other
side, which has two inclosed entrances, is turned by them into a
store-house ; they convey thither the supplies of wood and bark

BAP» ere ae

7 awe ae

rh eal

Oe ie ae

On the Habits of the Beaver. 91

which are given them as food, and preserve them there until
led we

The animals:have covered over the two doors of their dwell-

ing apartment, but have left open the entrance which faces a

small tank or pool of water, contained within the enclosure, in

which they are confined.

ieee Guitidus:'toekniine the: materials of which :the little
plasterers had availed themselves in their operations. I found
that they had procured the mud from the bottom of the tank,
bringing up handfuls at a time. This they had carefully tem-
pered, and intermixed with thin shreds, and splinters of wood,
the remains of the faggots which had been given them as food,
and from which they had gnawed all the bark and nutritious
portions, leaving only the woody fibres, which, however, they
turned also to account. The use of the introduction of these
shreds, was evidently to give stability to the plaster, to make
the mud bind, and in this respect they served the same pur-
pose as the straw which the Egyptians employed as one of the
necessary ingredients in the composition of bricks.

As the object to be gained by the beavers was merely to ren-
der the door weather-tight, no sort of frame-work was required
in this process, and they seem to have used very few large
sticks, but merely this kind of mortar, consisting of the slime
interspersed with woody fibres.

Much has been said of the effects which captivity produces,
in depraving the instinct peculiar to the beaver in its wild state.
1 think, however, that it must be evident from the facts which
have been stated above, that the animals were influenced by a
feeling, that the habitation prepared for them differed from that
to which they had been accustomed in their native country.
The improvements which they introduced into their dwelling,
may serve to correct an error in natural history, which had been
pointed out by Hearne, viz. that the beaver forms more than
one entrance to its house. The proceeding of the animal in
this instance, in closing up two outlets, tends to corroborate the
assertion of the northern traveller.

Independent of these external arrangements, in order to make
_ themselves more comfortable, they have effected what may be
_ stiled the fitting up of the inside of their house. They have

92 On the Habits of the Beaver.

introduced from time to time large quantities of supple twigs,

or any soft substance that happened to fall within their reach,

so as to form a bed, which they have heaped up nearly a foot

from the floor, so that it is on a level with the top of the door-

way; it slopes down, however, gradually towards the entrance. -
An advantage is gained by this contrivance, this elevation places
them in a certain degree out of the influence of the cold air ;

and the declination of the bed towards the water, looks like a

precaution derived from their situation in North America,—a ~
provision to guard against the sudden inroads of water, caused

by the swelling of the stream on whose bank they may have
settled. Though there is no risk of an irruption of the pond

which now lies at their door, the instinct which teaches them to
provide against such an event still remains.

Numerous are the fictitious wonders which swell many of the
relations of the habits and structure of the beaver,—a history
sufficiently curious and interesting without the addition of any
exaggerations. Among other gratuitous assertions, it has been
maintained by some, that the animal makes use of its tail asa
trowel, to work up the materials with which it builds. Were
this the case, the tail, which is covered with scales, by no means
hard, would soon exhibit proofs of the uses to which it was ap-
plied; but in fact these scales are never found rubbed or in-
jured. During the process of building last winter, the beaver
employed its tail in no such hard service. All their materials
were conveyed in their fore-paws; and, though these are small,
yet the animals managed, by holding them together, and close
up against the throat, to transport considerable masses of mud
at once. The tail is, however, by no means an useless member.
In its shape it bears some resemblance to the blade of an oar or
paddle, and, like it, is adapted ¢o take hold of the water. A
great portion of the beaver’s life is spent in that element. On
land it is a clumsy animal, slow in its movements, and easily
overtaken by its enemies. Conscious of this, its first impulse,
when an alarm is given, or an enemy at hand, is to plunge into
the water. There it dives and swims with great facility ; and
it may easily be supposed how advantageous it is to the crea-
ture to possess so powerful a rudder as its broad: flat tail. By
means of this instrument, it is enabled to sink to the bottom, or

PSaae

On the Climate of New South Wales, &¢. 98

pursue its course under water with the greatest celerity, and
with equal quickness to raise itself to the surface, when out of
reach of its enemies. The root also (Nuphar luteum), whieh
composes the principal part of the beast’s food, grows at the
bottom of streams of water, where are also placed the stores of
bark and branches of trees, which the animal collects as part of
the provision for winter.

The beaver appears to be singularly scrupulous in preserving
the inside of its house perfectly clean and dry. I have observed
it, on leaving the water, to enter its hut, pause on the thresh-
hold until it had shaken off all the drops of water from its sides
and tail, after which it betook itself contentedly to its couch.

1. Climate of New South Wales. 2. Climate of Sennar.
1. New South Wales *.

Worn regard to the climate of Sydney, winter sets in with

May, spring with September, summer in November, and au-
tumn in March. Mr Martin observes, that it is only during
the summer months that the hot winds occasionally blow, and
raise the mercury to 120° F., when exposed to the wind. When
these siroccos are about to occur, the sky assumes a lurid ap-
pearance, the sun is hid from view, the wind suddenly shifts to
the NW., and blows with tremendous violence, and can only be
compared to a fiery blast issuing from an immense furnace ; the
dust is whirled with rapidity; distant thunder is heard. At
night the flashes of stream-lightning present a continually illu-
mi nated horizon ; vast forests become a universal blaze of fire,
and the flames, borne along with the blast, readily find fresh
fuel, carrying terror before, and leaving ruin and desolation be-
hind. Not only does the field of corn, ready for the sickle, be-
come a charred stubble, but houses and domestic animals are

_ reduced to a heap of ashes ; and nan himself, while attempting

to save his property, has sometimes fallen a victim to its ra-
vages. Fortunately these winds seldom last long, rarely more

* Ata meeting of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, held in.
Chowringhee, on the 4th October, a sketch of the topography of New South
Wales, by Mr R. M. Martin, was read and discussed, from which the above
is extracted.

94 On the Climate of New South Wales, &c.

than two days at a time. Their termination is marked as deci:
sively as their commencement. The air becomes darkened; a
severe thunder storm comes on, accompanied with rain and hail,

the latter of a very large size ; the wind shifts to the SE., and a
cold southerly squall sets in, which lasts for a few hours, » when
the sun reappears, the sky assumes its usual pale blue, and the
atmosphere acquires its wonted serenity. Collins speaks of
these siroccos as killing birds, beasts, and men, who are exposed
to them; but Mr Martin has ridden through the forest when
the red hot charcoal beneath his horse’s feet, and the falling co-
lumns of fire from trees in his path, made it highly hazardous,
without’ feeling any other effect than excessive fatigue, after
riding forty or fifty miles in such an atmosphere.

Rainy weather is most frequent in the month of March,
sometimes in February or January ; it lasts about twenty days,
and occasionally the rivers are so swollen by the mountain tor-
rents, as to sweep away from the banks stacks of corn, dwelling:
houses, men, and cattle. The month of April, which is the
Australian autumn, is very similar to the same month in Eng-
- land: fires are pleasant in the morning and evening. May is
truly delightful. The winter months, viz. June, July, and
August, have an extremely bracing effect on a debilitated con-
stitution ; the atmosphere being not only cool, but entirely di-
vested of the humidity which characterises an English winter,
the greatest height of the mercury being 63°, and the lowest
27°. The ground is covered with a hoar frost in the morning,
and ice, about the thickness of a Spanish dollar, is found even
some hours after sunrise. On the mountain road to Bathurst,
snow of two feet in depth has remained on the ground for seve-
ral days, and ponds have been frozen over sufficiently thick to
admit of a loaded waggon being driven over them without
breaking.

Mr Martin exemplifies by a fact, that the winters of New
South Wales are delightfully mild. He has placed, at night,
at Paramatta, a vessel of milk under a tree in his garden, and
in the morning, while eating the iced cream, plucked the ripe
and ripening oranges and citrons. Frequently a second crop of
pears and other summer fruits is produced in winter, and trees
blossom again.

On the Climate of New South Wales, &c. 95

‘Mr Martin thinks that neither time, civilization, nor cultiva-

tion, has diminished the claim of New South Wales, since our
earliest knowledge of it, to the appellation of the “ Montpelier
of’ the world,” merited by its moderate temperature, dryness of
atmosphere, and congeniality to the human constitution. Many
of the diseases which afflict mankind are totally unknown there.
Individuals arriving in the colony with constitutions impaired,
are soon restored to health, and attain a robust old age.
' ‘The smallpox has not yet made its appearance among the
colonists. Shortly, however, after the first settlement, in 1788,
it raged among the aborigines in the neighbourhood of Sydney,
and nearly depopulated the country. The caves on the sea-
shore were found filled with dead bodies, and in some places
were observed’ the deceased left to perish without human aid,
those who had strength remaining having fled from the conta-
gion to the interior of the country, leaving the dead to bury the
dead,;—a circumstance not at all usual among that simple race
of men. |

Neither measles, hooping-cough, nor scarlet fever, have yet
been seen in the colony. Hydrophobia is equally unknown.
Cutaneous eruptions are rare ; but among the aborigines a scaly
disease covers their bodies, which they ascribe to a constant use
of fish.

Females seem to be in a great measure exempt from the suf-
fering denounced on our first parents. The aborigine, when
seized with the throes of labour, if on a journey, stops on the
way side, and is attended by her husband, who sprinkles her
with water until parturition is over, when the new-born babe is
wrapped in a soft paper-like bark, and the mother arising, re-
sumes her progress in ‘search of food.

Mr Martin mentions a very curious fact. The circle
population, he says, has been most rapid, and is to be accounted
for by the number of females born, the proportion being, with
regard to males, as three to one! The greatly preponderating
number of females brought forth among domesticated animals,
will account for the countless herds of cattle which overspread
the colony.

Viewed as a place of convalescence for individuals suffering
under the influence of tropical diseases, Mr Martin is of opinion

96 On the Climate of New South Wales, &c.

that New South Wales appears to possess many advantages. «
The voyage is sufficiently long to benefit an invalid, without. his
being exhausted by its duration, if the passage be made through
Bass’s Straits, or to the southward of Van Diemen’s Land... Af-
ter arriving at Sydney, any climate requisite, whether cold or
warm, may be chosen in twenty-four hours. There is an exten-
sive and elegant society, a perfectly English town, and as fine
animal food as is to be had-in the world, together with all the
delightful vegetables and fruits, which are so seldom to be found
good out of England.

2. Climate of Sennar *.

After a long and tiresome sojourn of nearly five months at
Chartum, I set out for Sennar with that sort of hilarity which a
man feels when released from ‘‘ durance vile.”

For nearly eight months of the year, the country napsinck Sen.
nar wears an aspect of the most frightful sterility ; realizing, in
every sense, the ideas we are apt to form of the regions of the
torrid zone. Immense plains, which extend farther than the
eye can reach, present an unvarying expanse of arid sands,
strewn with withered plants; or, should a scanty vestige of ver-
dure occur, it consists of mere thistles and oshar. The forests
wear an equally melancholy appearance. In the months of
April and May, when our own country is clothed: in renovated
verdure, it remains dead and lifeless under the sky of these
climes ; whilst the trees are quite ks and. their branches
quite as leafless, as during the winter season with us, unless, in-
deed, a solitary leaflet may here and there be seen struggling
into existence. No sooner, however, does the rainy season set
in, than the scene undergoes a complete metamorphosis ; and
one or two falls of rain are sufficient to produce it. The sands
of the desert, which, to all appearance, were unsusceptible of
vegetation, smile with their carpets of verdant brillianey, and
are not excelled in beauty by our gayest pastures. The plains
are covered with a variety of grasses, which afford an ample and
acceptable subsistence to the flocks; the soil, from which every
living thing had been banished, is at once instinct with life; the
woods array themselves*in all their splendour, and afford their

* From the manuscript Journal of G. B. Brocchi, as given in the London
Literary Gazette.

On the Climate of Sennar. 97

refreshing shelter to herds of oxen and camels ; the cultivated
fields are clothed with crops of grain in every direction.

The rains of a European summer not only renovate vegeta-
tion, when sinking under the effects of excessive drought, but
impart new life and vigour to the human frame. The fresh
and elastic temperature of the air reanimates our mental and
bodily faculties; the atmosphere, rich with the perfume of the
glade and garden, draws us from our dwellings with its volup-
tuous breath; the heavens become serener, a fine morning
ushers in a more delicious evening, and our whole soul is knit
with greater festivity, and energy, and activity. Never do we
enjoy existence so thoroughly as at such a moment as this. An
effect, the very reverse of this picture, takes place under the
Nubian sky. The first impressions which the novelty of the
scene has excited, are quickly succeeded by indifference and
disgust. A damp oppressive wind blows from the south with-
out cessation, during the rainy season. Our appetite fails us,
our strength succumbs, and our mind is stultified, as if blasted
by its malignant breath. A state of absolute torpor takes pos-
session of our every sense. However heavy may have been the
shower, the heavens never entirely recover their serenity, but
murky clouds flit across their face, threatening a fresh descent.
* * * The great variableness of the temperature destroys the
equilibrium of health ; the broiling sun of the mid-day is the
harbinger of a piercing breeze: the atmosphere, surcharged
with moisture, keeps our clothes and furniture in a state of con-
stant humidity ; and thence proceed stoppage of the circulation
and rheumatic affections. A thick stratum of viscid mud puts
an end to all intercourse with the adjacent parts; and the ca-
mel himself, whom nature seems to have created for the pecu-
liar use of these climates, becomes, for the moment, a useless in-
cumbrance, though he is the only beast of burthen. Innume-
rable swarms of noxious insects,—flies of every form and size,—
gnats and ants of various species, arise, gorged with a green-
coloured liquid, from the slime of this universal marsh, as if
they had been generated by putrescence ; and they cover every
hole and corner of the houses. Add to this, the roofs being
composed of mud, on the appearance of an impending shower,

APRIL—JUNE 1829. G

98 On. the Climate of Sennar.

the whole family is in a state of daily and nightly uproar, in
‘ their anxiety to provide against any forcible entry of the de-
scending enemy. And, with all these miseries, the season af-
fords no set-off, like our autumn, of multifarious fruits, smiling
and diversified pastures, the varied produce of the vegetable
garden, or any of those useful productions which render a
southern autumn so delightfully attractive. .

Being at Sennar at the commencement of the rains, I quitted
it to pass the remainder of the season at Chartum. The rains
of the former place are heavier, of more frequent occurrence,
and of greater duration, and are accompanied by a storm of
wind from the south, which drives the rain with prodigious fury
before it. So soon as the shower approaches the earth, it is dis-
persed and rebounds, whilst the wind tosses up the rain-drops,

grinding them into such minute particles, that the ground ap- :

pears covered with a layer of dense fog. These pluvious storms
are waited upon by thunder, lightning, and sometimes hail ;
the latter, however, is a phenomenon unknown at Chartum.
The clouds frequently descend, and cover the surface of the
ground ; but at Chartum, which is close upon the skirts of the
pluvial zone, the rains are later, nor are they so abundant, or so
continued. The first of them fell this year on the 18th of July ;
and, from that time until this day (the 3lst of August), the
thermometer. remained constantly stationary between the 26th
and 28th degrees of Reaumur; nor did it rise, during that
space, for more than three days to 30°, nor for more than one
single day to 31°. Before the rains came on, and during the pre-
ceding months, it had risen every day to 33° and 34°. It must be
regarded as a rare occurrence, that, when. the rainy season is at
its height, namely, on the 2d of August, the thermometer, as
Bruce relates, should rise to 116° of Fahrenheit, which corres-
ponds with 37° of Reaumur. It is remarkable, that, at sunrise,
and during the rainy season, the thermometer should haye
maintained nearly the same elevation of 21° and 22°, which it
usually maintains in the hottest weather at the same hour. The
cause I should assign for this fact, is the calmness which per-
vades the atmosphere during the night: it was seldom interrupt-
ed by the smallest breath of wind.

Throughout these countries there are not more than three or

a = =

_ On the Climate of Sennar. 99
acd chnnci ple, though the magnificence, brilliancy, and
verdure of the carpets, with which nature temporarily.endows
thems: would lead-the observer to.infer that they were the effect
of a great variety of species,. These are confined to the:J'rian-
thema pentandra; the Boerhavia repens, and the dwarf Convol-
vulus, bearing a little white flower.

ers

Analysis of the Water of a Spring on the Estate of Fordel near

” Inverkeithing, 1829. By the Rev. W. Rosertson junior,
of Inverkeithing. (Communicated by the Author.)

Tass spring flows from rocks of that coal formation, which, in
this county, rests upon the new transition or mountain limestone.
The strata are sandstone, slate-clay, and bituminous shale, clay
ironstone, and coal. Iron-pyrites occurs disseminated through
the strata. In the neighbourhood greenstone and basalt rocks,
of the secondary trap'series, are intermingled with the regular
coal formation.

. The water running from the spring would apparently fill a
pipe of an inch in diameter, and it deposites an ochreous sediment
in its channel.

- Bubbles of gas were deserved ascending through the water at
intervals, and a portion of these was collected by means of a
phial and funnel inverted, and submitted to the following trials:
Ina graduated glass-tube, it did not render lime-water turbid,
nor did it sustain any diminution by agitation with, or standing
over, either that fluid or solution of ee It therefore did
not contain carbonic acid.

Upon introducing a stick of phosphorus into another por-
tion, slight fumes appeared, and, after standing for two days, an
ultimate diminution in volume of six per cent. took place, which,
on adding the correction of two and a half per cent. for the aug-
mentation in bulk of the residual nitrogen by the vapour of
phosphorus, gives of oxygen .085.

Ina detonating tube, it could not be made to explode with
hydrogen gas by the electric spark, though atmospheric air,
treated in - same manner, exploded with facility.

G2

100 Rev. Mr Robertson’s Analysis of the

It did not explode by the electric spark, when mixed with at-
mospheric air.

The oxygen gas which it contained being previously removed
by phosphorus, it was mixed with chlorine gas, and exposed to
the light for some hours. The chlorine was then removed by
agitation with lime-water, and the oxygen, which the action of
the light might have extricated, by phosphorus. The diminu-
tion amounted to one and a half per cent., which might have
been carburetted hydrogen, or may have arisen from absorption,
by the water confining the gas, during so many agitations with
it. ;

The residual gas, which was probably nitrogen, after the pro-
per allowances were made, amounted to . .900

The Oxygen... . 085
The carburetted Tigihingi or Line 015

1.000

A large flask, fitted with a bent tube, and containing eighteen
and a half ounces of the water, yielded, by a slight boiling, half
a cubic inch of gas, which, from the want of a mercurial trough,
was collected over water. This isin the proportion of about
42 of a cubic inch from an English pint.

Four and a half per cent. of this gas were absorbed by lime-
water ; the lime-water, at the same time, becoming milky. This
gives of carbonic acid .02 of a cubic inch from the pint.

By phosphorus there was a farther loss of seven per cent., to
which the correction for augmentation in volume of the residual

nitrogen being applied, gives of

Oxygen, .. °. amb 4.086
Carbonic Acid Gas, . . .045
Nitrogen, . . . . . .860

1.000

A large flask, with a bent tube, containing twenty-seven oun-
ces of the water, was strongly boiled for a very considerable
time, until bubbles of gas ceased to come over. The quantity
collected was two and a half cubic inches. Of this, when treated

as before, .75 of a cubic itich were found to be carbonic acid,

$17 of a cubic inch oxygen, and 1.49 cubic inches nitrogen,

a

Oe ie eb

Water of a Spring on the Estate of Fordel,&c. 01
which, exclusive of the carbonic acid, is nearly .18 of oxygen to

82 of nitrogen.
At the above rate, the volumes of the gases contained in an

English pint of the water, are, of

Carbonic Acid, -420 of a cubic inch.

Oxygen, - 179

Nitrogen, . 810
1.409 cubic inches.
Which is in the proportion of ’

Oxygen, -. + + 127 _

Nitrogen, . + .* 573

1.000

Preliminary trials of the Water by Tests.

Even when recent, it did not perceptibly redden tincture of
litmus, though the tint was compared with the colour of the
tincture diluted to a similar extent.

It did not affect the colour of Brazil wood or turmeric test-
paper. With tincture of galls it gave a slight tinge of purple,
and ultimately a scanty purplish brown flocculent precipitate,
shewing the presence of iron, and by the purplish tinge also the
presence of earthy or alkaline salts.

The water, next day, gave no tinge with the tincture, shew-
ing the iron to be principally in the state of a carbonate.

When the water was evaporated by a gentle heat, flocculi of
oxide of iron were deposited.

The water, upon being boiled, gave a considerable yellowish-
white precipitate, indicating carbonates. This precipitate was
soluble, with considerable effervescence, in nitric acid.

The water decanted off from this precipitate, gave no tinge
with tincture of galls, but, on boiling it with a few drops of ni-
tric acid, to peroxidise the iron which it might contain, the ex-
cess of acid being afterwards neutralized by ammonia, it gave
unequivocal traces of iron, by a darkish tinge with the tincture.
From this it was inferred that the iron in it was in the state of
protoxide. A portion of this water, after being thus treated,
also gave a red tinge, with sulpho-cyanate of potash.

With ferro-cyanate of potash, and a drop of muriatic acid,

102 =» Rev. Mr Robertson's Analysis of the

the water, when recent,’ gave® a whitish : precipitate, “becoming
blue by exposure to the air, indicating iron in the'state of —,
oxide.

With lime-water, the recent water gave a copious’ festa
precipitate, the lime uniting with the excess of the carbonic acid,
and the whole of the carbonates falling down together. This
precipitate was redissolved, on adding more of the mineral water,
which shewed a’considerable excess of carbonic acid, and it was
also soluble with effervescence in dilute acetic acid.

With the bi-carbonate of potash there was no precipitate, the
whole being kept dissolved by the excess of carbonic acid.

With ammonia, and also with potash, ‘a flocculent white pre-
cipitate took place, partly owing to the abstraction of free car-
bonic acid. With the carbonates of potash, soda, and ammonia,
there were similar precipitates, but more pensar were a9
soluble in a:dilute acetic: acid. vl

‘With a solution of soap in alcohol,.a great rtlNpenea

With acetate of lead, a considerable milkiness, and a precipi-
tate insoluble in acetic acid. .

With oxalate of ammonia, a considerable precipitate, indicat-
ing lime.

With carbonate of ammonia and phosphate of soda, amimme-
diate milkiness, and a precipitate, after standing, indicating mag-
nesia ; the precipitate soluble in acetic acid. With carbonate of
ammonia or phosphate of soda, separately, no milkiness, ‘after
standing for the same length of time.

With muriate of baryta, a slight precipitate —, in mu-
riatic acid, indicating sulphuric acid.

With nitrate of silver; a copious precipitate, white, while se-
cluded from the light, becoming rapidly purple on exposure to
light, indicating muriatic acid.

Two ounces of the water, evaporated to dryness, gave, with
nitro-muriate of platinum, slight traces of potash.

The water, very much concentrated by evaporation, gave;
with starch and sulphuric acid, no trace of iodine.

From the above indications, it was concluded, that the water
contained sulphuric, muriatic, and carbonic acids, together with
protoxide of iron, lime, magnesia, and a little potash. ‘The

-— se ee |

a

Water of a Spring on the Estate of Fordel, §c. 108
‘presence of alumina was inferred to be incompatible with that of
oomaefeneeonamte neither could any be a
tected.

In this analysis, the evaporation was perform in a glass
flask, soas to exclude dust ; the precipitates were collected, with-
out the use of a filter, by decantation ; and repeated affusions of
distilled water, and, for the most part, transferred at last into‘a
small glass flask, of the size of a pigeon’s egg (not exceeding in
weight from ten to fifteen grains), the weight of which, being
previously accurately marked, was afterwards subtracted from
the gross weight, and in it they were dried, heated, and weighed.

| Analysis.

1. An English pint of the water was evaporated to dryness.
‘The remaining saline matter being heated to redness, afterwards
weighed one grain and thirteen-twentieths. It was blackened
by the heating, which indicated the presence of a little vegetable
matter.

_ 2 An English pint of this water was concentrated by evapo-
ration to about an ounce and a-half (a few drops of nitric acid
being previously added to prevent any precipitation), and the
sulphuric acid contained ip it was precipitated by nitrate of ba-
rytes... The sulphate of bwrytes thrown down, after being heated
to redness, weighed three-tenths of a grain, equivalent to .10 of
a grain of sulphuric acid. This twice repeated gave the same
result.

From the residual liquid the muriatic acid was precipitated
by nitrate of silver. The chloride of silver, after fusion, weigh-
ed six-tenths of a grain, equivalent to .15 of a grain of muriatic
acid. :

This gave the same result, both in regard to the sulphuric
and muriatic acids, when repeated without any previous acidu-
lation of the water by nitric acid. This was done, as there was
room for suspicion that a portion of the muriatic might have
been expelled by the excess of that acid during the evaporation.

$. An English pint of the water, acidulated and concentrated
as above, had the excess of nitric acid exactly saturated by am-
monia. The lime being now precipitated by oxalate of ammo-
nia, was converted into a sulphate, which, after being heated to

104 Rev. Mr Robertson’s Analysis of the Water

redness, weighed one grain and three-tenths, equivalent to .535
of a grain of lime.

The iron was thrown down by ammonia, and dried : it 4
ed about .04 of a grain.

From the residual liquid, which contained an excess of am-
monia, the magnesia was thrown down by the addition of phos-
phate of soda ; the precipitate, dried by a red heat, weighed ex-
actly the same on three separate results, being seventeen-twen-
tieths of a grain, equivalent to .309 of a grain of magnesia.

4. Tincture of galls was added to a pint of the recent water.
The precipitate, after being calcined in a red heat, weighed
three-twentieths of a grain. Being suspected not to be wholly
iron, it was redissolved in an acid, and precipitated as in the
following process. It then weighed about .05 of a grain. The
residual liquid was found to contain a little lime.

5. The iron in another pint was peroxidised by boiling with
nitric acid, the water being considerably concentrated by evapo-
ration, and then precipitated by adding to the acidulated solu-
tion an excess of carbonate of soda. It weighed about we of a
grain.

The residual liquid being boiled, the lime and magnesia also
precipitated in the form of carbonates. Dried by a red heat,
they weighed one grain and three-tesths, which, assuming the
result in No. 3. to be correct, is three-tenths of a grain less than
they should have weighed according to the rules of atomic pro-
portion ; but a little of this precipitate was lost in transferring i it
into the small flask.

6. Another pint of the water was concentrated by evaporation,
the iron peroxidized, and precipitated by ferro-cyanate of potash.
As ferro-cyanate of iron it weighed about one-fourth of a grain,
equivalent to about .05 of a grain of oxide of iron.

The iron of another pint was precipitated by a polished piece
of zinc, the precipitate redissolved in an acid, and again precipi-
tated by a large excess of ammonia, that any zinc present might
be retained in solution ; but the precipitate still contained oxide
of zinc.

The precipitation of the peroxide of iron from antithiet ieny
by a crystal of carbonate of lime, was only partial after a lapse
of three weeks.

- ed oe

a

- of a Spring on the Estate of Fordel, &e. 105
. The precipitate from another by benzoate of ammonia, weigh-
ed only one-twentieth of a grain, being so very indistinct that it
could not be wholly collected.

7. Four pints of the water were evaporated to about three
ounces, the carbonates which the boiling had precipitated were
separated, and then the remaining liquid evaporated to dryness.
The dry matter weighed one grain seven-tenths.

Upon it alcohol was poured and digested. The alcoholic so-
lution was poured off and evaporated to dryness. The residu-
um heated became black, and being redissolved in water yielded
some black flakes.

_ What the alcohol had not dissolved was now boiled in a little
distilled water; some earthy matter remained, weighing, after
being heated to redness, three-twentieths of a grain.

This watery solution contained the salts of potash and soda,
with perhaps a little sulphate of magnesia. To try this, a drop
of it was added to a solution of carbonate of ammonia and phos-
phate of soda, upon which a slight cloudiness appeared. Car-
bonate of ammonia was now added to the solution, a little white
precipitate which fell down was separated, and the solution be-
ing evaporated to dryness, the residuum, after being heated to
redness, weighed three-fourths of a grain.

This substance was also blackened by the heating, and when
it was redissolved, a few black flakes separated. Nitromuriate
of platinum was now added, the solution evaporated to dryness,
and again redissolved. The yellow crystalline substance left,
after the liquid was decanted off, being dried, weighed .23 of a
grain, equivalent to .046 of a grain of potash, or .011 of a grain
in the pint.

. The liquid poured off had the excess of platinum precipitated
by ammonia, and being evaporated to dryness, the matter left,
after being heated to redness to expel the ammoniacal salts,
weighed eleven-twentieths of a grain.

On this being redissolved, a few black flakes separated, weigh-
ing one-twentieth of a grain. The solution crystallized shewed
minute prismatic crystals of sulphate of magnesia. The mag-
nesia separated as ammoniaco-phosphate, weighed in that state
one-tenth of a grain, equivalent to .08 of a grain of sulphate of
magnesia, which, together with the one-twentieth of a grain of

106 Rev. Mr Robertson’s Analysis of the Water

black matter, being subtracted from the eleven-twentieths of a
grain, gives .42 of a grain of chloride of sodium, equivalent to
.22 of a grain of soda, or .105 of a grain of chloride of odie,
and .055 of a grain of soda in the pint.

That it was chloride of sodium, was shewn by a portion of it
obtained from another quantity of the water, burning, when put
on platinum-wire before the blowpipe, with a rich yellow flame,
exactly like that afforded by pure common salt.

The carbonate separated, after being heated to redness,
weighed four grains and seven-tenths, which, added to the one
grain and seven-tenths formerly obtained, give for the whole

saline contents six grains and four tenths, or one grain and six

tenths per pint, almost the same result as that in No. 1.

The small flask containing these carbonates, another small
flask with diluted nitric acid, and a capillary syphon, were then
placed in the scale of a delicate balance, and accurately counter-
poised ; and the syphon being put into the acid, so as to transfer
it upon the carbonates, the loss of weight, arising from the escape
of carbonic acid, amounted to one grain and six-tenths, or .40
of a grain per pint.

The iron contained in the solution thus made, being peroxi-
dized by boiling with nitric acid, was precipitated as in No. 5.
In the state of hydrated peroxide, it weighed seven-twentieths
of a grain, equivalent to one quarter of a grain of protoxide of
iron, or rather more than .06 of a grain per pint.

8. To ascertain the quantity of free carbonic acid, four pints
of the recent water were mixed with lime-water, and the preci-
pitate allowed to subside in close vessels. It was collected,
and the carbonic acid was expelled from it as above. The loss
of weight amounted to four grains and nineteen-twentieths, or
1.24 grains per pint, from which the carbonic acid in union with
the lime, magnesia, and iron, being deducted, there remains .8
of a grain for the quantity of free carbonic acid; but this must’
surely be incorrect, as it amounts to nearly four times the quan-
tity of that which was obtained by boiling the water. ‘The
whole of the carbonic acid, however, thus obtained, is nearly in
the proportion of two atoms of the acid to one atom of gach of
the bases with which it is combined ; so that the lime, magnesia,

of a Spring'on the Estate of Fordel, &¢. 107
er he ieatetalatsteel bincasbonkenir At ety extn
pounds be possible.

This experiment was repeated with a pint of wk which
had remained in a bottle for several days. The loss of weight

amounted to .95 of a grain, from which the quantity in combin-

ation in the carbonates being subtracted, leaves .51 of a grain,
more than double the quantity procured by boiling.

In these experiments, it was observed that the precipitate
was frequently buoyed up to the top of the liquid by bubbles
of gas. This of course arose from the atmospheric air contained
in the water; and it was the more remarkable, as very few of
these air bubbles escaped from the water, so long as it was un-
mixed. Qu. Could this be owing to an rehetie exerted by the
carbonic acid ?

“9. ‘The experiment in No. 7. respecting the loss of weight,
arising from the expulsion of carbonic acid from the carbonates,
was repeated upon the carbonates, precipitated by boiling from
two pints of the water. The result was nearly similar, the
loss being three-fourths of a grain, or .37 of a grain per pint.

10. To ascertain the state in which the salts existed, the fol-
lowing experiments were made.

It was found that the excess of carbonic acid did not affect
the colour of litmus, and that it could be expelled only by long
and violent ebullition.

‘When the water has been boiled down to two-thirds of its
bulk, a large portion of the magnesia, together with almost the
whole of the lime and iron are precipitated.

This precipitate was redissolved in nitric acid with great ef-
fervescence. To some of the solution nitrate of baryta was
added, but it gave no trace of sulphuric acid. It became quite
black with tincture of galls, and very turbid on the addition of
oxalate of ammonia.

The water from which this precipitate had been deposited,
gave, with nitrate of barytes, most decided marks of containing
sulphuric acid, and with oxalate of ammonia a very slight trace
of lime. It shewed no marks of containing iron, but after be-
ing boiled with a few drops of nitric acid to peroxidise any iron
which it might contain, it gave unequivocal, though slight,
traces of that substance with sulpho-cyanate of potash, and

108 Rev. Mr Robertson’s Analysis of the Water

also when the solution was previously neutralised by ammonia,
with tincture of galls, thus shewing that the small portion which
it still held, was in the state of a sulphate or muriate of the pro-
toxide.

To ascertain the precise quantities, a pint of the water was con-
centrated by evaporation, and the precipitated carbonates being
carefully separated, were re-dissolved in nitric acid.

To this solution, somewhat diluted, and exactly neutralised
by ammonia, oxalate of ammonia was added. ‘The precipitate,
when converted into a sulphate as before, weighed one grain
and two-tenths, equivalent to .494 of a grain of lime.

The liquid decanted off from the oxalate being now super-
saturated with ammonia, the iron subsided : it weighed about
.05 of a grain.

The magnesia was thrown down by adding to the solution,
already supersaturated with ammonia, phosphate of soda... The
precipitate, after being heated to redness, weighed eleven
twentieths of a grain, equivalent to .20 of a grain of magnesia.

To the liquid, from which the carbonates had been thrown
down by the boiling, a little oxalate of ammonia was added.
The oxalate of lime precipitated weighed about one-fortieth i a
grain, equivalent to .011 of a grain of lime.

The magnesia was then precipitated by aqua-ammoniz and
phosphate of soda. The precipitate, after being heated to redness,
weighed eleven-fortieths of a grain, equivalent to .10 of a grain
of magnesia.

STATEMENT OF THE PRECEDING ANALYSES,

Gas ascending through the water.

Nitrogen, “ . . ‘ A -900
Oxygen, : ° -085
Carburetted Hy avogee (assed : 015

1.000

of Spring on the Estate of Forddl, $e. 109
eee aren es artes Soo Oe meler by tating.

i a Catbonte ch gua . -" -420 of a cubic inch.
Oxygen, r ° r ° 179
Nitrogen, ; . d : “ 810
| 1.409 cubic inches.

. ra ie ree ook Ard ret
- Sulphurie acid, : - : 10 of a grain.

Muriatic acid, : i a ; 15
Carbonic acid, ’ 40
Lime, 535
Magnesia, . 309
Protoxide of iron, 06
Potash, 011
Soda, 055

_ A little vegetable matter soluble in alcohol, and a
little soluble only in water, estimated about .03

1.65 grains.

Of the bases there were ascertained to be in combination with

i 494
Carbonic acid, | .20
Protoxide of iron, 06
Lime, . O11
| aoe, 05

Muriatic acid, 4 Protoxide of iron, a trace,
Potash, . 011
Soda, ‘ -055
Sulphuric acid, . Magnesia, 05

-931 of a grain.

Megmamte thenshen inxs Hing. eho the water,

Carbonate of lime, ; 882
of magnesia, -420

of protoxide of iron, .096

Muriate of lime, 025
of magnesia, 142

of potash, 019

of soda, . 118

_ of protoxide of iron, a trace.

Sulphate of magnesia, 150

110 Rev. Mr Robertson’s Analysis of the Water

There is here an increase of weight, partly owing to the salts
of the muriatic acid being calculated as in the state of muriates,
though actually obtained and weighed as chlorides, and partly
to a portion of the carbonic acid being driven off by heat, or
detained in the diluted acid used to extricate it from the carbo-
nates. The ascertained weight was .4 of a grain, while the
quantity, by calculation, necessary to saturate the quantity of
bases found to be in combination with that acid, is .644 of a
grain.

The ochreous sediment, deposited in the channel of the spring,
is owing to the iron passing, by absorption of oxygen from the
atmosphere, from the state of protowide into that of perowide,
and so becoming insoluble ; for, in the state of perowide, it is in-
capable of remaining in combination with that carbonic. acid,
through the medium of which it was dissolved while a pro-
toxide.

The difficulties in the results of this analysis are as follows :

The discrepancy between the quantity of nitrogen stated in
chemical works to be capable of being absorbed by water, and
the quantity here obtained, which is nearly double of that state-
ment. Both the flask and tube were completely filled with the
water, so that not one particle of air from the atmosphere was
admitted; therefore, supposing the result to be correct, it can
be accounted for only from the great compression, to which the
water is evidently subjected under ground, causing it to take
up a larger proportion of the gas.

The quantity of carbonic acid, obtained in Nos. 7 and 9, is
also about one-third less than it should have been according to
the rules of atomic proportion, but this may partly be accounted
for from a portion of it being retained by the diluted acid used
to expel it from its state of combination.

But the greatest difficulty arises from the. discrepancy be-
tween the quantities of the carbonic acid, obtained from the
water by boiling, and by the method in No. 8. In the mode
adopted in No, 8., there seems to be no source from which the
carbonic acid could be derived, but from the water ; and though
the gas got by boiling was collected only over water, yet, as
that water was warm, and the tube in which the gas was col-

of a Spring on the Estate of Fordel, &c. 1

lected very long and narrow, the absorption could not be such
as to account for the enormous deficiency.
_ The remaining difficulty arises from the magnesia, not in re-
spect.to the accuracy of the results obtained in Nos. 3, and 10.,
but with regard to the calculations to be made from these re-
sults. In Dr Turner’s work, page 684, it is stated that 100
parts of ammoniaco-phosphate contain 40 of magnesia; and in
page 486, that 76 of the same salt contain 20 of magnesia. Which
of these statements is the correct one? 1 have made my calcula-
tions according to the result of my own experiments on that salt,
which give 20 of magnesia from 55 of the precipitate.

As connected with the water of this spring, it may be noticed
that there is a considerable efflorescence on the sides of the
quarry at Sunnybank, about half a mile to the westward, and
towards the rise of the strata. A solution of this efflorescence
gave with oxalate of ammonia no precipitate, but with nitrate of
barytes a most copious precipitate, the solution remaining scarce-
ly affecting nitrate of silver. With ammonia and phosphate: of
soda, there was a most copious precipitate, and with tincture of
galls a considerable blackness. The solution of it deposited an
ochreous sediment on standing, and crystallized by evaporation
to the last particle in four sided prisms, terminated by short four
sided pyramids, the crystals often crossing one another. On ex-
posure to the air they became ochreous on the surface. With
ammonia and phosphate of soda, they yielded the same quan-
tity of ammoniaco-phosphate of magnesia, as an equal weight of
sulphate of magnesia did. They were, therefore, sulphate of
magnesia contaminated with a little iron.

On the Cavities containing Fluids in Rock-Salt. By Wi.t1am
Nrcot, Esq. Lecturer on Natural Philosophy. Communi-
cated by the Author.

~ "Tae rock-salt of England is in general of a reddish colour,
and more or less opaque ; but portions of it are often to be met
with, not only snow-white, but perfectly transparent. On in-
specting a specimen of the latter kind, which I lately received

112 Mr William Nicol, on the

from Cheshire, a considerable number of very small irregular ca-
vities were observed dispersed through certain parts of it.
These were all filled with a fluid, and some of them had also a
minute globule of air. Such of the cavities as had no globule,
constantly acquired one on the application of a moderate degree
of heat ; but the globule never appeared until after the heat be-
gan to diminish.

On heating a piece of salt containing a globule of air, the
globule diminishes in bulk as the heat increases, and in general
entirely disappears, even before the heat becomes so great as to
be painful to the touch. As the heat diminishes, the globule
re-appears, and increases in bulk until the temperature be redu-
ced to that of the atmosphere.

On the application of a heated wire to that side of a neti
which was opposite to the place of a globule of air, the globule
in no instance had the slightest tendency to move from its
place; and when a rent was made to extend from the surface
into a cavity, the globule sustained a very slight enlargement,
but was unable to expel any part of the fluid through the rent
to the surface. In respect of elasticity, the globule of air in the
fluid cavities of rock-salt, is therefore greatly inferior to that of
the globule of air in the fluid cavities of fluor-spar and anightn
of barytes.

When a direct opening is formed into a cavity of the salt, the
fluid remains in the cavity, but shews no tendency to erystal-
lise, even in those states of the atmosphere when a saturated so-
lution of muriate of soda is rapidly crystallising. If heated,
however, the fluid submits to the laws of crystallization, and as-
sumes the form of extremely slender acicular crystals 5 but these
rapidly deliquesce even in the driest states of the air.

From this circumstance it evidently appears, that the fluid is
not a solution of common salt, and although the application of a
very few chemical agents enables us to indicate the materials of
which the fluid is composed; yet, on account of jthe smallness of
all the cavities I have had an opportunity of operating on, I am
unable to determine their relative proportion.

When a solution of nitrate of silver is applied to the fluid, a
copious precipitate ensues, which indicates the presence of mu-
riatic acid. As muriate of barytes gives no precipitation, it is

ee oe

Cavities containing Fluids in Rock-Salt. 113

evident that the fluid contains no sulphuric acid. | Oxalate of
ammonia gives a slight precipitate, which shews the presence of
a small portion of lime ; and as carbonate of potash throws down
a dense precipitate, magnesia is clearly the principal ingredient
with which the muriatic acid is combined. The fluid in the ca-
vities of rock-salt may therefore be considered as a saturated so-
lution of muriate of magnesia, mixed with a little muriate of
lime; and as the salt itself, when free from cavities, gives no
indication of either of these, or of any other foreign matter, it
may be considered as pure chloride of sodium.

so

List of Geological and Mineralogical Collections in Great Bri-
tain and Ireland.
3 sane I. ENGLAND. ‘
BuckrnecHamsuire.—Duke of Buckingham’s, (contains the mineral
cabinet of Haiiy). Stow.
CampriveesHire.—At Cambridge, the Woodwardian Collection, be-
_ longing to the University, angmented by Professor Sedgwick, &c.
Cornwau.—Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Penzance, (a ge-
neral collection of Cornish rocks and minerals). Williams, Esq.
Scorrier House ; and Rashly, Esq. of Menabilly, (superb collec-
_ tions of Cornish minerals); Mudge, mineral-dealer, Falmouth.
CumBerLanp.—Hutton’ s and Crossthwaite’s collection, | (mi-
nerals and rocks of the county).
Dersysnire.—White Watson at Bakewell, mineral-dealer ; Brown
and Mawe at Derby, and at Castleton (collections for sale).
Devonsurne.—Jobnson, Esq. Exeter (Devonshire minerals). Philoso-
" phical Institution, Bxeter. Reverend Mr M. Every, Torquay, (in-
teresting collection of fossil bones from that neighbourhood).
Dorsetsuire.—Miss Phillpotts, Zyme Regis, (lias fossils); Miss
Anning, Ditto, (specimens for sale) Colonel Gordon, Shaftesbury,
- (fossils).
Duram.—Marquis of Cleveland, Raby Castle, (splendid collection
of fluors and cale spars from the lead-mines of Alston and neigh-

bourhood).
Essex.—Philosophical lustitution, Colchester. Mr aan collection of
‘crag fossils, Harwich.
GrovucestrEeRsHIRE.—At Bristol, the Philosophical Institution in Parlia-
ment Street contains a good collection of specimens, illustrating the
APRIL—JUNE 1829. H

114 List of the Geological and. Mineralogical

neighbouring country, including the collection of encrinites, &c.—

belonging to Mr Miller, the curator. Private collections at Bristol,
rich in the fossils of the adjacent country ; Mr Johnson's; Cum-

berland’s and Blackenridge’ s. Other collections there belonging to |

the Reverend Dr Beelie, and to R. Bright, Esq. Ham Green. At
Tritworth, Reverend Dr Cooke’s. "
Hampsutre.—Philosophical Institution, Portsmouth. Vine, Esq.
Isle of Wight. Mrs Murchison, Nurstead House, near Peters-
field, (chalk and green-sand fossils). Miss Beaminster, Ohrist-
church (sells collections of tertiary fossils). Mr Griffith, near
Christchurch. Mrs Newby of Newlands, near Lymington (Lon-
don clay, plastic clay, and fresh-water shells of Herdwell).
Kentr.—Philosophical Institution of cnet Mr Crow of Mar-
gate (Sheppy fossils).
LancasHIrE.—Philosophical Institution of arene Dr Traill (mi-

nerals). sine 5
LEICESTERSHIRE.—At Queenby Hail, an interesting suite of lias fos-
sils. %

Mipp.EsEx.—In London, the best collections of winerals are at the
British Museum; at Mr Heulands’, mineral-dealer, King’s Street,
St James’s; at Sir A. Hume’s, &c. Best collections of rocks at ‘the
Geological Society, Somerset House; Royal Institution in Albe-
marle Street; London Institution in the City; Mr Greenough’s,
Regent’s Park. Mr Stokes, Grey’s Inn, (fossil shells and plants,
&e. &e. |

NorFOLK .—Philosophical Lnstitution, Norwich ; Mr Woodward, Ditto;
(crag and chalk fossils) ; Mr Henley of Landringham, North Lynn,
(lias fossils); Reverend Mr Leith, (Shropham Hall.) .

NortTHUMBERLAND.—Duchess of Northumberland, Alnwick ; Messrs
Winch and Hutton at Newcastle, (coal fossils); Philosophi
Institution at ditto; Sir J. Trevelyan, Wallington ; Mr Bigg of
Lindon, near Morpeth.

Oxrorpsuire.—At Ozford, public geological collection, (extensive _

series of British rocks and organic remains, together with a consi-
derable assemblage of foreign ones; private collections of rock spe-
cimens, particularly voleanic, belonging to Dr Daubeny.)
SomERSETSHIRE.—Philosophical Institution, Bath; private collec-
tions at ditto; Mr Lamb; Mr Pratt’s; Dr Davies; and Reverend
Mr Richardson’s (illustrative of the adjoining country), near Bath ;

Mr Meade’s, (fossil remains, minerals, &c.); Reverend Mr Skin-

ner of Camerton, (coal fossils).
2

Li! ee Slo

ae ee

Collections in Great Britain and Ireland. 115

a Edgar, Red House, near Jpswich; Mr Leather,
1) ditto. — ‘" |
bereiern--Me Decuen of Rook's Nest, (minerals).
Sussex—Mr Mantell of Lewis, and Reverend Mr Hoper of Portslade
near Brighton, (chalk fossils).
Warwicksair£.—Philosophical Institution, Birmingham; Mr Russel,
ditto. (minerals).

Wesrwonsiann—At Kendall, Todbunter’s collection, containing fos-

-_sils and minerals for sale.
Wirrsurre.—At Warminster, Miss Benett, (fossils from the chalk and
ie green sand) ; at Salisbury, Mr Shorte, (chalk fossils, especially
“aleyonia from flint).
en Institutions with Museums, at York,
Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Wakefield, Whitby, and Scarborough.
Collections for sale at Mr Calvért’s, Leeds, Mr ee Scar-

_ borough, Mr Meynell, Yarm.
Sourn Waxrs.—Mr Dellwyn’s at Pentlegarve, near Swansea.

Il. SCOTLAND.

Mi-Loruian.—At Edinburgh, the mineralogical and geological col-
lection in the College Museum ; collection at the Royal Society;
the private collection of Professor Jameson; Dr Hope; Mr Allan,
banker; H. Witham, Esq. of Lartington, Yorkshire ; Mr T. Jameson
Torrie; Mr William Copland; Mr Nicol. Rose, mineral dealer.

At Leith—Near to Edinburgh, Dr Charles Anderson.

Freesuine.—At Raith, Robert Ferguson, Esq. of Raith.

Aserpgensuire.—At Aberdeen, Dr Knight ; Dr Davidson.

ReENFREWsHIRE.—At Glasgow, the mineralogical collection in the
College Museum; the private collections of Dr Thomas Brown,
Dr Cowper, Dr Thomas Thomson, Mr Edington, &c.

INvERNESSHIRE.—At Jnverness, the collection of the Northern Insti-
tution, and that of the Secretary, Mr Anderson.

Ill, IRELAND.

Dusiin.—The collection of minerals and rocks of the Dublin Society,
in Leinster House, in Dublin; the private collections of Sir Charles.
Giesecké ; Mr Joy.

Corx.—The collection of minerals and rocks belonging to the Cork In-
stitution.

Betrast.—The collection of minerals and rocks belonging to Dr Mac-

donald.
un 2

(116 )

Observations on the Geology of the Meywar District. By
James Harpe, Esq. Member of the Medical and’ Physi-
cal Society of Calcutta. Concluded from page po! of pre-
ceding volume.

1 suaxx now proceed to give a description of the northern por- -

tion of Meywar. The plains in the north of Meywar are ex-
ceedingly fertile.. Many large tracts of land, however, are left
uncultivated; but, from the luxuriance of the jungles, with
which, in many situations, they are covered, we can judge of
the richness of the soil. This portion of the country is supplied
with abundance of excellent water. Besides the various rivu-
lets with which it is intersected, there are numerous artificial
lakes, some of large extent. The principal of these is = Dha-
bar tank, well known all over India *.

Although the northern portion differs so much in its exter-
nal aspect from the southern, it is nevertheless, like it, composed
of primitive rocks. About eighty miles due east of the city of
Oudeypore, is the northern termination of the table land of
Malwah. ‘This table land is succeeded, towards the north, by
flinty slate, and sandstone of a slaty structure. These rocks
also skirt the trap formation of Malwah to the west, in the form
of a narrow belt, which runs southward betwixt it and the
southern portion of Meywar, described above. To the north
of this formation we find a compact limestone of a bluish-grey
colour, slightly translucent on the edges, with a splintery inclin-
ing to conchoidal fracture. It is distinctly stratified, has a
slight dip, and easily splits into flags of considerable magnitude.
It forms a favourite building stone with the natives, and seems
admirably adapted for this purpose. It contains nothing like
fossil organic remains, and appears to rest immediately on the
clay-slate formation. The flinty slate strata, mentioned above,
are arranged exactly in a similar manner with these, and might,
at first sight, be mistaken for them. These formations extend

* The Dhabar tank, and also the Oudeypore tank, are formed by magni-
ficent dams thrown across the beds of the rivers Bedus and Gometee. These
dams are faced with white marble, and are adorned with small temples, sculp-
tured elephants, &c. Vide Malcom’s Central India.

|

Tre

Mr Hardie on the Geology of the Meywar District. 117

thirty miles north of the table land of Malwah, where they ter-
minate in a primitive district.. They are bounded on the east
by the Cheetore range, and extend westward to a distance of
about fourteen miles, when we again meet with primitive rocks.

Over this portion of the country are scattered several de-
tached groups of low hills. One of these it may be worth while
to describe. It is situated about fourteen miles north of the
cantonment of Neemuch, near a village called Sawah. I found .
that the lowest strata of this hill consisted of clay-slate of a

bluish colour, approaching to roofing slate, but of a more friable

nature. Immediately above these, strata of flinty slate occur,
‘which are succeeded by another earthy slate of a light colour,
sectile, adhering to the tongue, and with a distinct slaty struc-
ture. On exposure to the air, this variety acquires a white
erust, apparently of an aluminous nature. Above this is strati-
fied. quartz rock, which gradually passes into a conglomerate,
containing rounded masses of Lydian-stone, quartz, &c. Above
this, again, there is another bed of the last-mentioned earthy
rock. The hill was here so completely covered with jungles,
that I could proceed no farther. I was, however, very near
the summit, and as it was covered with debris, composed of
a very beautiful conglomerate, I have no doubt that it was
formed of this. This conglomerate was composed of rounded
grains of quartz, about the size of a pea; the centre of which
sometimes contained minute quartz crystals. These were ce-
mented together by a base of a very pretty agate-jasper ; which
is capable of receiving a high polish. It was associated with a
red clay ironstone, in which were found specimens of botryoidal
hematite. Except the clay-slate, which forms the base of the
hill, and the flinty-slate, I did not her eualag any of the rocks
which are seen in the plains.

We shall now make a few observations upon the valley of
Qudeypore. This valley is about thirty miles in circumfe-
rence. The primitive range of mountains which extends from
the district of Ajmere to the south, splits here into several colla-:
teral ranges, betwixt two of which the valley in question is situ-
ated. It is completely surrounded on every side by hills, the
only passages through which are by narrow gauts or ravines.
It is not a valley, properly so called, but consists of a number

us .. Mr Hardie’s Observations on the

of very low hills or. wather swells, surrounded .as above de-
scribed. On, a, ledge ,of .rock, at the south of the valley, the
city is situated, in.which are several houses and temples of
large extent... The palace itself is of immense extent, and in
the distance has.a very imposing appearance, The city is sur-
rounded. on three sides by a wall.and wet ditch, but of no great
strength ;,.and on the fourth side itis skirted by a lake about
_ twelve, miles in circumference. This lake presents one of the
most picturesque, objects which I have ever seen. It. is com- \
pletely closed in by hills of a broken and rugged aspect, which
are seen rising one above another in the perspective, and. which
are covered to the very top, by a thick jungle, giving to the
scene a.rich and luxuriant appearance. Scattered over it are se-
veral islands, on. two of ,which .are erected hot-weather residen-
ces.of the Ranah. The buildings completely surround. the
islands, presenting to the view colonnades, virandahs, and
domes of a pure white colour, from the central courts.of which
are seen rising above the edifices cocoa nut trees, palmiras and
cypresses; and .in. these islands, also are produced the finest
oranges of India. Altogether the scene is truly oriental, and
although the buildings on close inspection appear rather heavy,
in »the, distance they look light and airy. They are built of a
coarse white marble; out of which, also, is carved a kind of light
frame-work, which nearly surrounds the islands as well as the
roofs of the different apartments. Besides the lake just,de-
seribed, there,is another of equal extent in the north-east part
of the valley, on: which are. also observed several small islands,
but without buildings upon them.

.. The rocks, composing that portion of the range of hills which
passes Oudeypore, are quartz-rock and clay-slate, similar in ap-
pearance to those described as occurring in the southern portion
of the district. The quartz-rock is distinctly stratified, and the
strata ave nearly vertical, In its structure this rock. is exactly
similar to the variety mentioned as forming the singular»bed
near Bando.

In the range of hills skirting the Dhabar Lake, which tee
about.thirty miles to the south-east of Oudeypore, the quartz-
rock appears to passinto gneiss ; and here the gneiss presents
itself in a very beautiful form. I visited this well-known: lake

Sw Te Se

;

Geology of the Meywar District. 119
during the hot winds; and although the season was unfavour-

‘able for viewing it in perfection, the strata forming the range

‘were more distinctly seen, being completely destitute of all ve-
getation. ‘The gneiss is composed of the usual ingredients. The
hills‘are ridge-shaped, and terminate in a sharp angle ; and the
bare and nearly vertical strata seem to the faney like
the huge ribs of some enormous skeleton. The gneiss passes
into quartz-rock. ‘To the north of Oudeypore chlorite’ slates and
elay-slates are found, which occur'for a considerable distance, as-
sociated with quartz-rock, until we reach the Ajmere: district,
‘where the predominating rocks are gneiss, mica-slate, and gra-
nite, with subordinate formations of marble and serpentine. I
this district several metals are found.
“In the valley of Oudeypore there is yet another formation to
be mentioned. It is generally seen in low situations. Sometimes,
however, it occurs on the top of low hills, which we have men-
tioned as occupying what is called the Valley. These hills
themselves are composed of quartz-rock or clay-slate. The for-
‘mation in question is carbonate of lime, which rests immediately
on the primitive rocks. The surface, which is exposed to the
action of the atmosphere, has a loose, friable and earthy appear-
ance. The fresh fracture, however, exhibits more of a crystal-
line structure, and has a brownish red, and in some instances a
dirty white colour. This rock, which the natives call Kunkur,
is burnt for lime, and is well adapted for this purpose. It is
not only found in the valley, but is extensively distributed
throughout the country. Rounded masses of the different pri-
mitive rocks, together with Lydian stone and flinty slate, ‘are
contained in it; and its whole substance is traversed by nume-
rous veins of quartz. I have seen a formation of a similar na-
ture to this on the top of a granite hill near the Fort of
Buneerah, about nine miles from Oudeypore, in a north-easter-
ly direction. It was of a blackish brown colour, exhibited an
earthy appearance externally, and was of a crystalline structure
internally. Mica, which, viewed in the mass, exhibited a brass
yellow colour, and between the eye and the light’a greenish
yellow, or rather straw colour, was plentifilly ‘distributed
through it; and numerous agates and agate-jaspers were found
inibedded in it. It becomes of a deeper black colour on expo-

120 Mr Hardie’s Observations on the

sure to the air, like the pearl-spar; of which mineral, indeed, it
_ seemed to form a variety. By a rough analysis, it appeared to
contain about 50 parts in 100 of carbonate of lime, 20 of silica,
and the rest of carbonate of iron with traces of manganese... It
exhibited numerous drusy cavities, in some of which quartz~
crystals were seen, in others calcareous spar, either crystallized
or ina botryoidal or stalactitic form; while all were incrusted
with a substance resembling brown iron ochre (carbonate ‘of
iron).

Between the Cheetore: range and the range which passes |

Oudeypore, we have, as I have already stated, plains of large
extent, from the surface of which are seen rising several de-
tached hills and mountain groups. For about forty miles north
of Oudeypore, the country between these two ranges presents
the usual quartz-rock, with clay-slate and chlorite slate formations.
The detached hills are principally composed of the quartz, and
present the same appearances of precipices, &c. which we have
described as occurring in the Bheel district. _North of this we
find granite, gneiss, mica-slate, primitive greenstone and horn-
blende-slate, with the universally distributed quartz-rock. The
strata frequently appear at the surface of the plain; and I had
in many situations an opportunity of examining their various
alternations, more especially in the more northern parts of
Meywar. These consisted of different granitic rocks, in which
the garnet is a very abundant mineral ; indeed, the whole sur-
face of the plains is covered with it, giving to the sand a red
appearance. Both the precious and common garnets are found.
The former are small, and seldom in perfect crystals. The
latter are large, often of the size of a hen’s egg, opaque or
translucent on the edges, and regularly crystallized in the usual
forms, I also observed a rock in this portion of the district,
which was almost entirely composed of quartz and felspar. The
felspar was of a milky-white colour; and longitudinal filament-.
ous stripes pass through its substance, of a more opaque white-
ness than the rest. This mineral, with the quartz, is arranged
in irregular portions of pretty considerable size, and which are
intimately connected together. . Felspar also occurs in this for-
mation, in thin seams, which run parallel to the strata. It is
nearly transparent, of a greenish coloyr, and exhibiting slightly

a

—L——————
:

Geology of the Meywar District. 121
the play of colours: so remarkable in the Labrador felspar.
Besides these, another rock, composed of quartz, red felspar,
and steatite, with occasional scales of mica, is found; and also’
hornblende slate, through the substance of which quartz is dis-
seminated. . Schorl frequently occurs in these rocks.

At a village called Bheelwarrah, I observed, at the surface of
the plain, an extensive series of alternations of strata of green-.
stone approaching to hornblende-slate and quartz. The quartz
in; some situations was nearly pure; in others hornblende was
disseminated through it, while in others mica made its appear-
ance, but in small quantity. In the greenstone strata, numerous
veins of quartz were observed ; and both sets of strata were tra->
versed by numerous veins of calcareous spar, obviously of pos-.
terior formation, and which could be traced to a bed of lime-.
stone resting upon the alternating beds, similar to the kunkur
before mentioned. This series I traced along the dried up
course of a rivulet, for a considerable distance.

About forty miles north-west of Cheetore, stands the fortified -
town of Buneerah, situated at the termination of a range of
hills, which extends from this town to a considerable distance,
in a south-westerly direction. I examined one of the hills of
this range. The base was formed of different granitic rocks,
distinctly stratified, and alternating with one another. One set
of strata consisted of a very fine granular grey granite, easily
affected by the atmosphere, and, in its partially decomposed state,
exactly resembling a sandstone. Another was granite, in which
the quartz and felspar occurred in large angular concretions ;
and. the mica, though more plentiful than in the former, was
still in small quantity ; and the whole mass was traversed by
veins of felspar, or rather adularia, with a beautiful pearly lustre..
Another variety of granite also occurred, in which the mica, of
a dark grey colour, was distinctly crystallized, as were also the
quartz and felspar. On the very summit of the hill was the
limestone or kunkur formation already described. The shape
of the hills in the neighbourhood was round, approaching to
conical, and the rocks composing them were distinctly stratified.
I sent my servants to collect specimens, from, various other si-
tuations, which I pointed out, and I found them of a similar na-
ture to those mentioned above. In this neighbourhood I found

122 Mr Hardie’s Observations on the

traces of copper; and I believe that copper-mines are’worked,
but with no great activity, near Mandul, situated in this

_ About twenty-four miles south of Buneerah is the fort of
Humeerghur, situated on a hill, which forms one of a’small
group. On examining one of the hills, the first set of "strata
which presented themselves consisted of mica-slate, of an earthy
appearance, and approaching to the nature of clay-slate, with
veins of quartz traversing its substance. Immediately above
this was a quartz rock, of a granular texture, and, in some si-
tuations, highly crystalline. Above this was mica-slate as:be-
fore, and, superior to all, was a quartz rock, of a more opaque
compact nature than the former,.and having a greyish, and
sometimes a brownish colour. ‘These different strata were ar-
ranged in a highly inclined position. Both varieties of quartz
rock were distinctly stratified, but the higher one inclined more
to the slaty structure, and split easily into thin plates;

From Humeerghur, southward to the Cheetore range, and
close to the city of that name, we have a succession of hills, com-
posed of quartz rock, resting upon clay-slate. The line of
march between these two places is hedged in with a thick, and
almost impenetrable, jungle, so that a person can scarcely see a
yard in any direction, except where an occasional gap presents
to the view the white precipices of quartz with which this por-
tion of country abounds, rising above the trees. The outgoings
of the clay-slate strata, which appear at the base of the quartz
precipices, approach in some situations to writing-chalk, and in
others they had a silky appearance, owing to the occurrence of
very minute scales of mica, which were disseminated through
the substance of the rock. The latter variety was sectile, and
adhered to the tongue.

On approaching the city of Cheetore, about twenty-four
miles from Humeerghur, the country becomes less covered with
jungle; and, as the line of march runs along the slope of ‘the
hills, we have an excellent view from the heights of the plains
below. On descending and leaving the quartz strata, the first
rock that presents itself is clay-slate. Next appears the com-
pact limestone formation described above ; which forms gentle
swells and elevations, giving to the country something of a
waved outline. We have now a splendid view of the city of

a a

a aes

Geology of the Meywar District. 128
‘\Cheetore ; a city which the natives believe to be impregnable ;
ind into which no stranger is permitted to enter without per-
mission from the Ranah. It is situated on a tabular shaped
hill, about 500 feet high, detached from the great chain, and
surrounded bya plain where clay-slate is seen in the ravines
and: low situations, with the limestone resting upon it. The
plain on the summit of the hill, and on which the city is situ-
ated, is said to be fourteen miles in circumference; its breadth
varying from a quarter of a mile to halfa mile. It runs ina
direction nearly parallel to the chain, that is, from north to south.
It is surrounded by a perpendicular escarpment, which rises
from the slope of the hill in the same manner as Salisbury
Craigs does near Edinburgh. This escarpment forms a natural

" fortification, which surrounds it on every side, except towards

the south, where its place is supplied by a strong wall, with
buttresses, &c. Besides this natural fortification, there is an ar-
tificial wall skirting the summit, where the crags are low ; and up-
onthe whole, this place must have merited the appellation of im-
pregnable, at the time it was in its glory, and when native armies
alone were opposed to it. The slope of the hill consists of clay-
slate of an earthy friable appearance ; and which splits into very
thin slates. From its easily disintegrating nature, it affords a
soil; on which grow a profusion of trees; among which the ta-
marind is:conspicuous. Ths summit of the hill is composed of
waved strata of quartz rock, which rest immediately on the clay-
slate, and the exposed ends of which form the escarpment or crags
described above *. The following are the varieties which were
observed in the quartz rock,—a pure white, fine granular variety ;
a coarser grained reddish and brownish variety ; and a third,
containing minute grains of reddish felspar.

~The only other formation which I observed in this neighbour-

© "The whole ofthis paragraph of Mr Hardie’s paper has been necessarily
much abridged. It is not very evident from his manuscript, whether or mot
the strata of quartz rock are conformable to the strata of the subjacent clay-
slate. _ It is not improbable that this rock is exactly the same as some of the
varieties of the old red sandstone, described by Dr Turnbull Christie as oc-
curring in the Southern Mahratta Country, for it agrees with them very
closely in its mineral characters and geognostical position ; and moreover, we
are informed that the same sandstone formation occurs in the Vindhya
range, which is close upon Meywar. _ Vide Dr ‘Turnbull Christie’s paper in
the last number of this Journal.

124 Mr Hardie’s Observations on the

hood is a chalky rock, which occurs about a mile: and a half_
west of Cheetore.. It forms gently rising swells in the plain.» It
is not stratified, and appears to be of a newer formation than
any of those which occur near it. It is friable, sectile, adheres
to the tongue, and soils the fingers. It effervesces strongly with
acids, and is used for cleaning the leather belts of the sepoys.
It contains no organic remains, nor do any nodules of flints oc-
cur in it. Immediately above it, rests a thin bed of a quartzose
rock, also unstratified, of a brownish colour, and containing im-—
bedded masses of different rocks. This layer varies in thick-
ness, from a foot to a foot and a half, and is extremely irregular
on its surface. The chalk-bed is several feet in thickness.
Numerous veins of quartz traverse its substance, and canbe
traced to the bed resting upon it. These veins are so numerous
in many situations, that they render it perfectly unfit for. the
purposes to which it is applied. The above formation: appears
to be of trifling extent ; and I should be inclined to refer it to
the limestone formation, which I have described under the name
of Kunkur.

In situations where marshes had existed during the wet sea-
son, and also in the dried up beds of rivulets, an. efflores-
cence, consisting of muriate of soda, and sometimes carbonate
of soda (called by the natives Preh), is very frequently met
with in this and the neighbouring districts; and in many situa-
tions it is collected for domestic purposes, the latter being used
in the manufacture of soap. Muriate of soda is not common in
the lakes of Meywar ; but in the wells of the Nusserabad, and
in the Sambur lake, lying between the Ajmeer and Jeypore dis-
tricts, it is very abundant. From the latter, immense quantities
are yearly procured for the purpose of commerce. Many of
the wells of Nusserabad, though bored through the rock to the
depth of eighty feet, are so salt that they are unfit for —

purposes *.

Mr Hardie mentions, oe postscript to his paper, that, since
writing the above, he had an opportunity of hearing some par-—

* ‘It is also mentioned by Rennel that extensive salt mines exist in this
quarter of India, which makes it probable that the whole of that tract of coun-
try which lies to the west of Meywar, Ajmeer, and Jeypore, is occupied by

an extensive formation of new red sandstone.

- Geology of the Meywar District. 125
" tieulars concerning metals found in the range of hills described _
-as passing Gudeypore, and running into Ajmeer. They were
found in the hills surrounding the ancient city of Ajmeer. - He
continues : The specimens which I have seen were ores of lead
and copper; and silver, in small quantity, as I am told by the
_late’ superintendant of Ajmeer, is associated with the lead.
’ Mines of this last metal are worked to a considerable extent,
some of them being seventy yards deep. The ores which I saw
-were galena and phosphate of lead. Sulphate of lead also occurs
there. |
_ The native method of reducing the metal is at once simple
and economical. The ore is pounded very small. It is then
-mixed with wet cow-dung, and rolled into balls ; and these, af-
‘ter having been dried in the sun, are, with the addition of a
small quantity of charcoal, set on fire. The heat produced by
this process, with the assistance of the bellows, is sufficient to se-
parate the metal, which is then collected for commerce.
- Copper is not extensively worked. To private individuals,
the expense and risk attending the operation are too great; but
“were government to hold out sufficient encouragement, I have
no doubt that, from the specimens which I have seen, mines of
this metal might be worked to great advantage. The ore was
the green carbonate of copper. The rocks in which these me-
tals occur are primitive ; and I have seen specimens of granite
‘from the hills in which the veins of lead and copper are ob-
served. The veins are described as being very numerous, and
rich. The mica of the granite was olive-green, apparently
tinged with copper. The felspar and quartz were in large con-
cretions. Steatite was also found associated with these.

On a Submarine Forest on the Coast of Tiree, one of the Wes-
tern Isles. By the Rev. Corin Smitu of Inverary. (Com-
municated by the Author.)

'Tuere are few subjects in which the mind may not lose itself.
A master spirit may grasp great and important truths, and rove
over the face of existence, with a freedom that may seem to. be-
speak an all-illuminating power ; but when he confines his ener-
gies to a point, and strives to scan the mysteries of any minute

126 Rev. Mr Smith on'a Submarine Forest

portion of being, the distinctness of his comprehension is found
to be vagueness, and. the clearness of his u ee
rance.

It has. been well remarked, that a blade of pesos
sufficient to confound him, who considers himself “ a genius
equal to the majesty of nature ;” and when we examine the plans
of unerring wisdom as they are exhibited to us in the objects of
creation, we constantly find our progress impeded by difficulties
which surpass the bounds of our comprehension. It is not dif-
ficult, indeed, to speak generally, and out_of chaos to arrange'a
more or less consistent system of things, as if it were a very
simple matter to forma world; but when the materials of which
it is made are considered in their existing relations, the opposi-
tion of talent to talent, and of theory to theory, have already
demonstrated, that the book of nature must be taken asit stands,
and, like the book of Revelation, be made its own interpreter:

I was powerfully impressed. with these views in the summer of
1826, when, being on a visit to the Island of Tiree, I was told by
some of the natives, that hazel-nuts were found in the sand-banks
along the shore, though the hazel was no longer indigenous to
the island. With the view of ascertaining the truth of this re-
port, I examined a bay on the north-west side of the Island,
where the nuts were said to be most numerous. This bay is
open to the full lash of the Atlantic wave, its general exposure
being NNW.., and having no land seaward to break the force of
the tides, which flow here with great rapidity. It is close to
the well-known quarry of Bally-pheadrais, on the SE., and is
bounded on the west by a low ridge of gneiss rocks, and around,
by an alluvial deposite, from twelve to sixteen feet im thick-
ness, composed principally of gravel, which the sea has rol-

led in, from age to age. The bank thus formed is covered by

a thin coating of soil, fertile in such plants as commonly grow
in other similar situations, and it seems frequently subjected to
the capricious workings of its parent element, as the high tides
easily destroy a barrier composed of such rude materials. Not,
however, that the sea is making general encroachments onthe
island ; on the contrary, a plain of 1500 acres, of which this
bank is the termination on the NE., and a great part of which
is scarcely elevated above the level of the sea, manifests a ma.

~~

onthe Coast of Tiree, Se. 127
vine and a late formation. Along the centre of the Island, and

bounding this extensive plain upon the east, there is a tract of

moss-land, containing the remains of oak, birch, and other trees,
which.no longer grow in this exposed situation, and existing
here as if to give their testimony to the supposed kindliness of
Mature to the ages that are past. It is not wonderful to hear
the native hum with enthusiasm a song of the times of old, as
in passing through this tract he finds the majestic remains of ex-
tensive forests, while he is obliged to launch his skiff, and steer
for the continent, in order to procure’a few sticks for support-
ing the roof of his thatched cottage.

This moss-land does not now stretch to the NW., so far as

a aE Nenudihunteatiensldiauldnemaicl which

runs along the whole of the western side of the island lies be-
tween it and the sea; but there are symptoms of its having
stretched, at some earlier period, to a considerable distance be-
yond its present limits, and having formed one continuous sheet
with that which is now found constituting part of the bed of
the ocean.

_ It was about half tide when I Lettie to visit the bay, and
Lcould not but remark that the gentle acclivity along which the
breakers rolled majestically, was of a darker colour than the
gneiss of the district would have led me to suppose; and, on
examination, I found that a thin stratum of moss was extended
along the western side of the bay, and seaward, as far as the rol-
ling of the breakers, and the depth of the water, would allow me
to discern it. The waves seemed to roll easily over the smooth.
ed surface of this bed, and although they had rendered it
broken and incontinuous in many places, and torn it almost en-
tirely away in the immediate vicinity of the bank, where heavy
stones and sand were frequently tossed about ; still they had not
even here done their work so effectually, that small portions
might not be found in situ, while they had produced little or
no effect, thirty or forty yards seaward from the high water-
mark. It could not be traced under the alluvial depositions of
the bank, though the nearness of the moss-land of the island
renders it more than probable that they were at some time
_The general depth of the moss-land is several feet, but the

128 Rev. Mt Smith Gmia@ubmarine Forest

stratum which extends into the sea, is only four- or five inches.
The general consistency of the latter was firm, and it adhered
so closely to the bed of sandy clay, on which it rested, that I
found it necessary to use the shaft of my hammer in separating
them,—and I succeeded, by poising the moss upwards in thin
lamina, like those of slate-clay. The colour was brownish-black.
The remains of trees were very obviously seen in it, and I could
distinguish the birch by its bark, which presented its decisive
characteristics ; but I could not be equally satisfied in regard: to
the more decomposed portions of trees which were crowded to-
gether, without any such obviously distinguishing property.
The whole appeared as if merely undergoing the putrefactive
process, while its fibrous texture and woody appearance seemed
to denote that fallen trees had contetinnet more to its eriaremen
than decayed musci-

That other and smaller plants entered into its composition,
was also rendered obvious, since, on breaking the moss into small
pieces, it abounded with seeds, appearing as fresh as if the hand
of the gardener had sown them the day before. Upon drying,
they became darker in the colour, and split longitudinally, pro-
bably owing to their long immersion. In this state they were
submitted to Dr Hooker, who writes, “ The seeds have the ap-
pearance of belonging to some plant of the natural order Legu-
minosee, and Mr Drummond suggests that they way probably
be those of Genista Anglica.”

The existence of one such fact proves much. Marine depo-
sitions and organic remains being found in situations elevated
far above the present level of the ocean, have led all to con-
clude what the frequency of such facts fully demonstrates, that
the relative position of the sea and land has changed, and that
many portions of the earth which are now fertile in the higher
orders of plants, were once covered by the waters of the ocean.
If our knowledge were confined to a single observation of this
nature, we might not be entitled to call for such mighty agency
as the moving of the whole earth or seas to account for the
nomenon, and the heavings of an internal volcano, would be
deemed a probable, because a more partially operating cause.

And when depositions and remains evidently non-marine, exist —

in the bed of the ocean, though we must allow that an indivi-
1

~ ——

- on the-Coast of Tiree, &c. 129

dual fact of this kind should not lead us to the ascription of a
cause more powerful than is sufficient to account for its occar-
rence ; still the existence of marine depositions above the pre-
sent level of the sea, can be accounted no surer a proof, that
what is now dry land was once the bed of the ocean, than the
existence of such non-marine and vegetable remains under the
waters of the sea, is a proof that what is now the bed of the
ocean was once dry land.
- The number of observations made in demonstration of the
latter truth, have been necessarily fewer than those by which
the former is supported ; yet great as the difficulties obviously
are, in obtaining knowledge of .situations which are compara-
tively inaccessible, the facts ascertained even on the coast of
Britain are by no means unimportant.
* Proceeding northward of Tiree and Coll, we find at Loch-
alsh, near the manse of the Reverend H. Maclean, a bed of
submarine moss extending into the sea considerably below low
water-mark *; and still further north, to the Orkney Islands,
Mr Skaill has related + a fact very similar to that which occurs
at Tiree: “ The sand in the Bay of Skaill being removed by a
storm, sap a great moss, containing fir-trees, &c. in a very
decayed state ;” and what renders the connection of the two cir-
cumstances complete, ‘‘ there were numerous small seeds inter-
mixed (with the decayed leaves) about the size of a turnip-seed,
of a reddish colour.”. Turning to the south-east, Dr Fleming
has observed a submarine forest in the Frith ef Tay near
Flisk ¢, which, along with decayed trees, contained the shells of
nuts whole, but having no kernel. J. Correa de Serra has de-
scribed || such another submarine moss, but of great extent,
and traceable in one unbroken bed to a considerable distance
into the interior of Lincolnshire. At Mounts Bay in Cornwall
mossy ground is found stretching into the sea 300 yards beyond
high water-mark §; and in the neighbouring islands of Scilly,
stone-fences and ruins, the remains of ancient architecture, are

"© Stated on the authority of the Reverend H: Maclean.
+ Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. iii. p. 100.
~ Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, vol. ix.
| Ibid. 1789, p. 145. § Ibid. 1757.
APRIL—JUNE 1829. I

130 Rev. Mr Smith-on.a.Submarine Forest

frequently exposed by the shifting of the sand; and upon the
supposition that they were originally built nearly on a level
with the sea, it is calculated * that they must now be depressed
at least sixteen feet. Neither are the tin-mines described. by
Diodorus Siculus as frequent -in these islands, any longet to be
found; and the number of the islands is no more the same, as
Strabo states them to have been ten, and these ten have now
multiplied themselves into 140 or more, thus proving such .a
general change of position in regard to the sea, as would lead
us to suppose that the tin-mines are now covered by the ocean,
and that the traditionary. tale which connects . the whole of
them with the neighbouring continent of Cornwall, is true +. -
Returning northwards, in Pembrokeshire, Giraldus Cambren-
sis says, that, in Henry the Second’s days, by the force of extra-
ordinary storms, the sands were driven off the. shore, so that a
great number of the roots and trunks of trees were discovered
in their natural position, with the marks of the axe quite fresh
upon them. In Neugal in the same county, and _also in Cardi-
ganshire t, similar discoveries have been made. Atnd still ajp-
proaching our starting-post, Mr Stevenson has given us an ac-
count || of a submarine forest on the coast of Cheshire, between
the Mersey and the Dee. The Liverpool Courier of December
1827 stated, that, to the north of the Mersey, after a severe
storm also, trunks and roots of trees were found buried under
the sand below high water-mark, bearing evident proof that they
had.a living existence on the spot where they are now seen. In
the Harbour of Oban in Argyllshire, the flukes of anchors have
taken up pieces of moss from a depth of twenty fathoms § ; and

on the coast of the island of Coll I found submarine moss by ~

no means unfrequent. f
Similar observations have been made on the coasts of Same:

den, Belgium and France, and perhaps every portion. of the
world may yet make its contributions; but, independent of

these, the cursory view now taken of the coast of Britain, de-

monstrates that the existence of non-marine remains in the bed

* Edinburgh Phil. Trans. 1753. + See Camben, p. 11. and Carew’s Survey.

t Edin. Phil. Trans. passim. || Phil. Journ. April 1828.
§ Anderson on Peat-moss. é ‘i eS

i

— om the Coast of Tiree, &c. 131

Bie ccieeiiita tides Yescinigplar ‘nce = rive Seats and that it is
qganected with some.extensively operating cause.

~ Different naturalists having their attention vince painililly
Reched:sniinds: coe class of events, or towards another, have
accounted for these appearances accordingly. It sometimes
happenis that one bed of earth or:rock slides or passes over ano-
ther, thus changing their relative position, while their structure
remains unaltered: An>event of this kind was: observed * at
Solutre near Macon, where a mass of earth, loosened by heavy
rains, slid along the mountain of Solutre, for several hundred
yards, to the great hazard of the village, which it had nearly
reached; and also a part of the mountain Goina, in the Vene-
tian ‘States, on which several houses were built, glided along
to the valley beneath, to. the after-astonishment of the inhabi-
tants, whose sleep was not disturbed by the motion. At Folk:
stone in Norfolk +, some of the inhabitants attested, that they
considered that the land was-yearly sliding or pressing forwards
into the sea; and the Reverend L. Lyon, who observed a‘slip-
ping of the earth in that country in‘1785, tells'us ¢, that water
ruaning through a substratum of sand, had formed an arch of
the surface, and that some of the earth being loosened at the top
of the inclined plane, on which it was situated, pushed before it
= surface stratum, thus arched, to a considerable dis-
tance.

There are excavations of this kind frequently made in the
ground by the united ageney of frost and water, which, after de-
priving the surface of its support, cause it to sink down or sub-
side. The waters of the Glommen in Norway, on their en-
trance into the North Sea, formed a cascade, which caused. an
eddy below, that gradually wore away the bank, and formed a
subterranean lake, in which the castle of Borge, situated above,
was engulfed in 1702, and nothing but’a lake’ left. - Malte
‘Brun |{«mentions. several. facts illustrative of such subsidence,
and thus accounts for the existence of submarine forests.

But though- Malte Brun founds his theory on antecedents
which PrvONnS posseaaey OFX truth, vate aaron

* Malte Siren’ Geol. ag i. p. 434. t Phil Trans.
+ Ditto, 1785. \| Ibid. 429.
12

132 Rev. Mr Smith on a Submarine Forest

perhaps be proved, that what happened in one situation might
not also happen in another, we cannot conceive that the above
explanation extends to such submarine forests as those of Lin-
coln and Tiree, where the submarine depositions form a conti-
nuous, or nearly continuous stratum, with the interior and un-
subsided country. ‘To render the explanation satisfactory, it
would be necessary to shew that there was a sinking of the strata
supposed to have subsided from their original level; and while
appearances do not permit us to suppose such a sinking, they
also forbid us to acknowledge the truth of this theory of subsi-
dence. Dr Fleming of Flisk has obviated this difficulty. He
found that decayed vegetable formations generally lay upon
what he calls Lacustrine silt; and knowing that lakes suffer a
gradual diminution of their depth, owing to earthy, saline, and
metallic’ substances which their waters hold in solution, as well
as to particles of detritus supplied by the influx of rivers, and
‘the disintegration of the neighbouring rocks, all of which being
deposited, eventually fill up the whole basin of the lake ; he sup-
poses that, when a lake situated upon a level with the sea had
‘been thus filled up, and when the earth thus deposited passed
into soil fit for the support of trees, that the seaward barrier may
‘have been broken down, that damage by the tide may have ta-
ken place, followed by subsidence, and thus that the soil may
be daily covered at flood, which was formerly beyond its reach,
and above its level *.

While I admit the ease with which this accurate observer of
nature calls facts to his aid, and explains modes of existence, I
would suppose that his theory, encumbered with so many
supposed facts, cannot bear with it the force of conviction. It
is difficult to establish negative evidence, or to say that all
these causes might not have combined in producing the above
results. Nothing is supposed which might not possibly have hap-
pened ; but it must be acknowledged, that, when a number of
fortuitous events is necessary for the explanation of any parti-

cular natural occurrence, it is at least a presumptive evidence -

against the frequency of such occurrences. If the fact to be
explained were unique in its nature, we might perhaps, in our

* Edin. Phil. Journ. vol. xii. p. 120.

ee

om the Coast of Tiree, &c. 133

love for explanation, be allowed to suppose rivers, and lakes,
and detritus, the filling up of a basin, the lake on a level with
the sea, the formation of land in its place, the growth of trees,
the destruction of the seaward barrier, the drainage, the subsi-
dence, and the consequent overflowing, even perhaps in such a
place as Tiree, where none of these at present exist ; but when
the facts are so numerous, and found under such a variety of
circumstances, sometimes in friths, sometimes in bays into which
no Stream now flows, and always where other symptoms of lakes
are deficient ; when they are so frequent, that, by the above sup-
position, we must consider a variety of particular and fortui-
tous causes in general operation, before we can admit its truth,
it appears to me that some strong foundation should be found
in fact before the theory can be deemed legitimate. The exist-
ence of lacustrine silt under the submarine moss, may be a foun-
dation of this nature. But might it not be requisite to show,
that it is always found under submarine forests ; that it is not
to be found except in situations where lakes have undoubtedly
existed ; that its characters are universal and decided, and that
its existence and properties are incompatible with any other sup-
_ position or illustration, before it can justify us in making’ any
decided statement ? I am not aware that this has been done or
attempted.

Other explanations have been given. The effects of earth-
quakes in destroying whole districts, and otherwise changing the
relative levels of different portions of the earth, have been but
too frequently marked. Accordingly, Dr Borlase, in his re-
marks upon the present state of the Scilly Islands, and the
appearance at Mount’s Bay*, has attributed these to the agency
of central heat excavating, agitating, and finally depressing this
portion of country. Correa de Serra is of the same opinion F.
Calculating upon the force with which the level of soft grounds —
is borne down by the operation of the ordinary laws of gravity,
he considered that this natural force of subsidence, called into
sudden and violent action by the instrumentality of an earth-
quake, was the most easy mode of accounting for the appear-
ances at Lincoln. Wherever earthquakes have exerted a local

* Phil. Trans. 1757. + Ibid. 1789.

134 Rev. Mr Smith on a@ Submarine Forest

and destructive influence, operating violently upon any,portion
of ground, the connection of that portion with the contiguous
district has been more or less broken, and the effects of. the
earthquake so operating have remained to be traced in, manifest
disruption and shifting of strata. But, as in Lincoln, the strata
are unbroken, it is to be presumed that no partially operating
cause has affected them. It is indeed the destruction of connec-
tion in corresponding strata, that enables the observer to ascribe
locality to an earthquake by. its effects, or to set limits to any
cause operating on the surface of the earth; and in finding the
bed of moss extending unbroken into the interior, it is wonder-
ful that this acute observer did not: think of ascertaining his
reasons for prescribing extent to acause which man affeot, a - Spots
or convilse the universe. it gi
The frequency of) any particule eal of leat is.a a
measure of the cause to which they are referable; and the
greater the number. of circumstances are by which these facts
are assimilated,’ the stronger is. the evidence afforded, that they
have arisen as a general consequence. ..'To refer theni to one or.
to more precedents, to unite them, together as the result of a ge-
neral state of things, or to ascribe them to a greater numberof
precedents, operating at different times according to a variety
of contingent circumstances, is a second point, the determina-
tion. of which does not.depend upon, the frequency of the facts,
but upon the circumstances by which they are connected, and.
the traits of simultaneous formation by which they are assimi-
lated. The number of submarine forests already discovered.in
such various circumstances, affords a presumptive evidence that

they. do not owe their present station to any number of fortui-

tous events, acting locally, but to some cause whicli operated
widely over nature, neither destroying the relative position:of
strata, nor tearing one part of the, soil from another. Whether
the immersion of \all these places happened at, the same time, or
whether it was the result of the same general-cause exerted at!
various times, might be questionable, if these forests exhibited
no assimilating character to enable us to. connect two or more of
them with any particular season; but I should suppose: that a.
resemblance of this nature exists, which gives us as fair a foun-
dation for reasoning upon, as could possibly be expected in a

|)

= ov le +

-om the Coast of Tiree, &c. 135

matter which is removed from our immediate Staervation rc
the mist of years.

In the submarine moss of ‘Tiree, the ripe seeds of a sgthasies
plant are abundantly interspersed : in that at Skaill, there are ripe
seeds resembling those of the turnip, but of a reddish colour; and
in that atFlisk, the shells of nuts containing no kernels. In these
three stations, the appearances presented, direct us to the same
season of the year, viz. that in which the seeds of plants are
ripe, as the time in which all suffered a change of position in
regard to the sea. This would lead us to infer, that the same
cause had induced not only the same changes in these three
stations; but had induced them also at the same time, operating

upon the whole extent of coast from Tiree to Flisk.

"There are no facts stated by which we can trace a connection
of time between the appearances in these three places, and those
in Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, and Oban; yet it is
not improbable, that, if the moss in these latter stations were
carefully examined, sufficient'evidence might be obtained of a
simultaneotis change of position ; and’such a strong relationship
established’ between the whole, that the identity of their remov-
ing cause could not be doubted. Even in the absence of all
time-marking circumstance, it is not unreasonable to suppose,
nor even to conclude, that a'‘cause operating so extensively as
from ‘Tiree to Skaill, must have affected the whole of Great
Britain, and changed the whole of its’maritime outline.
» Independent of the evidence given by submarine forests, that
the island is not now on the same level in regard to the sea as it
once was, there is another circumstance which renders this more
than probable, and which, taken in connection with the frequent
occurrence of submarine forests, amounts to a proof that a change
has,/at’some'era, taken place along a great portion of the Bri-
tish coast, but especially’ on’ the west and north-west, where
large'trees are found ‘lying in situations in which no trees can
now be made io grow, on account of the close proximity of the
sea. I would speak with deference, but I should conceive that
this fact cannot be accounted for otherwise, than by supposing
that the sea wasaf one time more distant from the stations in
which they grew and are found, than it now is.

For though it has been supposed that large forests would pro-

136 Rev. Mr Smith on a Submarine. Forest

tect themselves, when suffered to grow over a whole country,
and thus enable trees to attain to a great size even on the'shore,
this only forces us to inquire how forests could ever become
large in the present circumstances ? or how, in the’ islands. of
Tiree and Coll, and other smaller islands on the west. coast,
where trees of an immense size are found in the moss lands,
and where the present breadth of the islands is not such that the
spray, arising on one side might not be driven to the other, any
forest could exert a self-protecting power ?

To account for the existence of such forests where trees do
not now grow, by considering them the produce of another soil,
transported by the agency of some strong current, seems un-
satisfactory ; and, when it is remembered that these trees are not
spread generally through diluvial depositions, but occur partially
in patches, and principally in mossy ground, and that they are
disposed in such a manner as would lead us to believe that they
are lying where they grew, to maintain that they have suffered
transportation seems rather an arbitrary judgment. Considering
the remains of forests which are so abundantly found along our
coasts, as now decaying where they once vegetated,’ and finding
that the spray, as well as the unbroken blast from the sea, stint
and destroy the growth of trees now planted even at a greater
distance from their influence than are those mighty remains, of
past times, we must conclude that there is a change, and that all
things are not now as they then were. _ Obliged to consider the
nature of the vegetable fibre and growth, as well as the influence
of the spray and the breeze, the same now as formerly ; consid-
ering that the absorbing vessels of plants were then as liable to
have their healthy action interrupted and destroyed as now, and
that the sea-breeze would also have had as little deference for
their constitution, we must believe that such forests of trees as
are found buried under the soil on many parts of our coast,
could not, all things being the same, have existed in countries
where the desolating sea blast now destroys every shrub that
raises its head above the artificial protection which the cultivat-
ing hand of man gives it ; and so we must conclude, that all things
are not the same, and that all those lands contiguous to the
ocean, upon the W. and NW. coasts especially, in which remains
of large trees are found, where none can at present be grown, do

on. the Coast of Tiree, &e. 187

not,occupy the same station in regard to the sea, which they
once did, but have been brought near it, by some cause suffi-
cient to raise the level of the waters of the ocean, or to depress
that of the land.

__ If this be admitted, the whole difficulty of accounting for these

as well as for submarine forests, vanishes; and if
we should be inclined to reason from consequences, the admis-
sion of such a fact, so far from being discordant with the obser-
vations made upon the conformity of strata in Norway, and the
North of Scotland, or militating against the conclusions which
geologists have founded on this and other circumstances regard-
ing the former connection of these countries, is beautifully illus-
trative of these opinions, and, as far as I verte incom-
patible with no ascertained fact.

_ Whether the waters of the ocean have been acted upon, and the
level of their superficies raised in regard to the bounding lands ;
or whether the crust of the earth has been affected, and a gene-
ral depression of the level of its surface induced along the whole
extent of this island, may not be easily determined : Our pre-
sentknowledge of the changes which take place at the bottom of
the sea, does not entitle us to expect any considerable rise of
_ its level in a given time. The subject is not one of recent in-
terest. The changes in the relative position of the sea and land
have been observed and speculated upon for ages ; and there is
little doubt that the discovery of submarine forests would, at one
time, have been hailed as a trophy of victory by warm and zeal-
ous disputants, and received with some perplexity by the sup-
porters of a theory which was as wild as the facts it proceeded
upon were assumptive.

_ When water was supposed to form the creating elements of
nature; when the mountains of the earth, from the highest
of the Andes and the Himalayan range, down to the lowest
sandhill, was supposed to mark the different productions of the
same parent at different periods, generating, according to a rule
which M. Maillet, in his famous work entitled Telliamed, fixed
at three feet four inches in the hundred years, thus supposing»
675,000 years to be the age of our highest mountains, then
Celsius, and many other eminent men, considered that the waters
of the ocean, as well as the level of their superficies, were dimi-

138 Rev. Mr Smith on a Submarine Forest

nishing as a necessary consequence of the waste of their sub-
stances in the formation of land ; whilst Browallius and others’
maintained, on the contrary, that the level of the ocean ‘was'in’
progress of being gradually elevated, and supported their theory’.
by contrary facets. So blinding: is’ the influence of theory,
and se plausibly does it warp facts to suit itself, that the rocks in’
the neighbourhood of Geffle were adduced both by Celsius and
Browallius as proofs of the truth of their respective systems.”
Celsius supposed that the rocks at Loffgrand to the west of
Geffle, entitled him to infer that the level of the sea lowered at.
the rate of 45 geometrical inches (pouces geometriques) inthe’
hundred years ; while Browallius, from other rocks inthe same’
neighbourhood, endeavoured to prove that the level of the’sea was’
rising ; and M. Gadolin again concluded, from his observations;
on the rocks on which the Chateau d’Abo was built 500 years
before, and which, by either of the former suppositions, ought to”
have been considerably elevated. or depressed, as well as from’
the existence of a tree which-was ascertained to have been in®
the: same? station in’ regard»to' the sea: for: 364: years, that»
there could bé no considerable change of level on the waters of”
the ocean. Facts, indeed, have been adduced by Manfredi rex’
garding the foundations of the Cathedral of Ravenna, which’seem '
to prove a rise in the level of the Mediterranean. But, on the
other hand, Tournefort has shewn that the relative positions of
many ofthe islands in the Archipelago, is the same as when they
were described by Pliny and. Strabo; and») M.: Ferner’ having
travelled over a great part of Europe to ascertain this question)”
found that Ravenna was built in a marsh, which, notwithstand2"
ing the use of stakes, might sensibly yield to the weight of ‘the’
buildings raised on it, even as many of the houses in other’ cities
of Italy were much sunk in the earth; and as the wall of Severusj"'
which still extended from sea to sea; as well as that of: Adrian,”
were covered by a mould of several feet ;.and so concluded that’
the facts assumed annihilated their own evidence, and that no-
thing could be determined regarding the surweee or. a
of the superficies of the ocean *.

* See Introduction aux Observations sur la Physique, par M, l’Abbé Rozier,
for the preceding and additional facts.

va omthe Coast of Tiree, &c. 139

‘It is reasonable, however, to suppose, that there must be a

change induced on the level of the ocean, in consequence of ‘de-

tritus carried | into it by rivers, as well as from the pyr 08
y rocks and coasts.

| M. Hartsoecker endeavoured, at an qaty pated, to prove
fisinsahe: analysis of the waters of the Rhine, that they con-
tained; }5 parts of earth ; and, generalizmg on this, concluded’
that the bed of the ocean must be elevated by the detritus of
mountains conveyed into it by rivers over the globe, at the rate’
of one foot-in 100 years. . Mr Stevenson, without attempting to
fix the rate at which this elevation proceeds, has reasoned * ju-
diciously and clearly on the subject, and the observations lately
made/on the coast‘of Africa by gentlemen sent from France for’
that purpose, have led them also to conclude that'the level of
the waters of the ocean is elevated by the above cause.

» Itis obvious, however, that, with whatever certainty this ele-
vation’ may be carrying on, it must’ be very slowly. and’ that
wé cannot refer the depression of’ submarine forests to ‘the
agency ‘of \a ‘cause: operating so gradually that the same par-
ticles of moss would be for centuries exposed ‘to the lash of the
wave, and carried away by as sure a process as ¢an be con-
ducted under the laws of filtration and combination ; and there-
fore it is that I should be disposed to consider that the ocean
has not been ‘elevated so as to inundate these lands, especially
at ‘Tiree, where the sea, so far from making encroachments, is
daily receding, and.consequently adding to the size of the island.
Indeed; as the displacement of many feet of water over the
whole depth and level of the ocean, could not fail to be rendered’
as obvious on every coast in the universe as on one, so as to be
observable, ‘especially ‘in eities-and forts, it'is not to be supposed’
that there would not be surer and more‘ frequent proofs of the
agency of a cause, which operated so rapidly as to give moss no
time to combine with the wave, or to be carried wway «/ be
tide, which regularly rolls over it.

The depression of the land, by some cause operating“upon
the crust of the earth, and suffering these islands to subside at

* Philosophical Journal, April 1828.

140° Rev. Mr Smith on a Submarine Forest.

once into the ocean to a certain extent, seems more consistent
with the present appearances ; and we may conceive, that thus’
suddenly conveyed into the bed of the ocean, its waters would
prove much less destructive to the moss-lands in rolling smooth-
ly over them, than they would do, if they lashed against a bank
composed of such a perishable material. Whether or not this
depression was owing to the agency of central heat, producing a
general system of elevation and depression over the whole globe,
as formerly advocated by Lazoro Moro, Hutton, and his elo-
quent illustrator, and now revived and supported with many
important facts by M. L. Cordier, it might be presumption in
me to say ; but I should certainly conceive, from a long and mi-
nute investigation of the subject, that this is the supposition with
which the facts are most consistent.

In concluding this paper, which has already been too much
extended, I may be allowed to remark, that, as to the era in
which such a depression may have happened, nothing can pro-
bably be determined. In a conversation which I had in 1825
with Mr Webster of the Geological Society of London, he told.
me that he had found a hazel-tree, with ripe nuts attached to it,
sunk in diluvial soil, and exposed by the action of the waves on
the shore of the Isle of Man; and that he considered this cir-
cumstance as a proof of the correctness of the Mosaic account.
of the season in which the deluge recorded in the Bible oc-
curred. But the seeds and nuts found in these submarine fo-
rests, though they speak to us of autumn, do not carry us back
to an era so remote—nor does the Biblical account require their
aid. The sceptic has seized upon many strong posts, and been.
regularly forced to abandon them. He has tried to extend the
world into a past eternity, but the cypherings of time derided
him ;—he has endeavoured to build unto himself a fortress in
metaphysical inquiry and purely abstract speculation, but, in,
the abandonment of reality, his baseless fabrics have fallen and
perished ;—he has struggled to secure to himself a place in the
bowels-of the earth, but they have ejected him, even the caves,
the rocks, and the mountains, have refused to cover him; and,
therefore, the believer may walk into the fields, knowing that
the Book of Nature, with its grandeur and its beauty, 5 ee to

Ascent to the Summit of the Jung frau. 141

him concerning the same Spirit that dictated the Book of Reve-
lation ; and he may return to his dwelling, and lay his head up-
on his pillow, in confidence that the hand of the infidel can nei-
ther shake the foundations of the earth, nor roll the waves of
the ocean over him, far less destroy the fabric of the heavens, or
chain his soul in its flight to eternity.

oth

seers

Ascent to the summit of the Jung frau, in the Canton of Berne.

Txt two colossal chains of Mont Blanc in Savoy, and Mont
Rosa in Valais, although they include the highest summits of
the Alps, are more accessible to the hunters than that of the
Alps of the Bernese Oberland. The latter is rather a group
than a chain. In a space of a few leagues are crowded together
a number of peaks, little inferior to those of the two other chains.
The following are the principal :

' Feet,

Finsteraarhorn, - - - 14091
Jungfrau, - . - - 13746
Ménch, _- - - - 13498
Schreckhorn, - . 13383
Grand Eiger, : : : 13071
Wetterhorn, . 5 - 12201
Blumlis-alp, 5 . -. 12143

The sides of these gigantic peaks, covered with eternal snows,
present on all hands frightful precipices, and their bases are se-
parated by vast glaciers, which seem to render them for ever in-
accessible. Very few of them, accordingly, have ever been
scaled. The perilous attempts made to scale the highest have
ulways been unsuccessful. We now learn that, on the 10th
September 1828, the summit of the Jungfrau was reached by
seven hunters or shepherds of the village of Grindelwald, named
Peter and Christian Roth, Peter and Christian Baumann, _
rich Widmer, Peter Moser, and Hidbrand Biirgner.

On the 8th, furnished with pikes, ropes, ladders, and a red
and white flag, they began to ascend the glacier, which is situ-
ated between the Grand Eiger and Mettenberg; then turning
to the right, they rested all night under an arch of rocks, on the
southern side of the Grand Eiger.

142 Mr Conybeare on the former Temperature of

On the 9th, they crossed the summits of the Viescherhorn,
then descended again upon the glacier of Aletsch, and slept be-
hind some rocks which have fallen from the mo
having the Ménch to the right.

- On the 10th, still turning to the right, they ended diab fol
lowed the ridge which descends from the Jungfrau towards the
Breithorn. ‘There they found several wide crevices, which they
crossed with the assistance of a ladder. ‘The ice was so steep in
this place that they were obliged to cut steps in it for two hours.
At length, about four o’clock, they arrived on the plane of the
highest summit, and in half an hour more had ascended..the small
conical rock which crowns it. There they planted their flag, to
the depth of two feet, in the ice, where it was sane seen eaverel
days after from the village of Interlaken,

The same evening they returned to. sleep at the rocks of, “a
Finsteraarhorn, on the glacier of Aletsch, and on the 11th,.at
noon, returned to Grindelwald. te; Pink’ @

The temperature of the summit was pretty wif ‘The view
from the suthmit was very extensive, as the Jungfrau is only
overtopped by the Finsteraarhorn near it, and by some of the
summits of the Alps of the Vallais and of Savoy. .

It is to Mr Rohrdorf of Zurich, who has resided for several
years at Berne, that we owe the execution of this project, which
had often been undertaken, and as often abandoned, on account
of the extreme difficulties which it »presented., A detailed ‘ac-
count of the enterprize ought to be transmitted to 7 Gee,
ment *, 1 Hever

ee

Answer to Dr Fleming's View of the Evidence from the Animal
| Kingdom, as to the former temperature of the Northern Re-
gions. By W. D. Coxystanr, Esq. F.R.S,; M. G. S.
&e. (Copmmumniented by Ae Author.) oa) bee ee

W ica every Aelng of respest for your correspondent Dr Fie.
ming, as a diligent and meritorious compiler 1 in natural history,
I trust I may be well excused in exercising the same liberty of
dissent from his opinions which he himself so liberally assumes

* Bibliotheque Universelle, October 1828.

in differing from the greatest original discoverer, and first philo-
sophical authority i in his own favourite science, as well as from all
the.most eminent, names in geological research,—a subject on
which his own information is evidently extremely limited; and
yet, one, without an intimate acquaintance with which, it is im-
possible to conduct, to a satisfactory conclusion, the discussions
upon which he has chosen to enter.
_ T regret, then, that I feel obliged, by what appear to myself
the interests of scientific truth, to object to his estimate of the
yalue of the evidence derived from the animal kingdom, as. to
the former temperature of the northern regions (published in
your last Number), as altogether insufficient and superficial. ..
These characters appear to me to attach to his remarks,.be-
cause he has allowed no due weight to that which, in fact, con-
stitutes by far the most important feature of that evidence,—its
cumulative character. In his introductory statement, he has in-
deed made a brief enumeration of the classes of organic remains
which involves it; but he has altogether overlooked it in the ar-
gumentative part of his memoir... He may perhaps be himself
of opinion that his reasonings are so conclusive against every par-
ticular inference, that they are equally valid against the collec-
tive sum of all those inferences: but I shall endeavour to shew,
that the great proposition which his argument involves, namely,
that it is impossible to. reason from generic affinities as to the
geographical distribution of particular ‘species, is altogether un-
sound, being in direct contradiction to all that we know of the
actual laws of nature in this respect; and these laws are ob-
viously the only basis on which philosophical reasoning can be

_ First, then, allow me to-remind your readers of the cumula-
tive nature of the evidence on which the geologists opposed to
Dr Fleming rely. They do not, like himself, reason from a few
detached, cases, but from an induction of the whole phenomena
presented by the distribution of organic remains,—from a collec-
tive view of all the analogies. Each of these analogies, taken
separately, must surely, unless it can be neutralized by some
countervailing argument, be allowed to constitute a probability.
he united force arising from the constant repetition of these ana-
logies, without the occurrence of one solitary analogy of a con-

‘144 Mr Conybeare on the former Temperature of

trary tendency, must, to ordinary understandings, multiply that
probability till it assumes the highest rank of which probable
reasoning admits. How will Dr Fleming account for the re-
markable fact, that, in every extensive family of organie re-
mains,—every, secondary formation *, which has ‘been exa-
mined,—all the analogies invariably lean one way,—all point to
the products of warmer climates, as the only beings with which
the tenants of our strata hold affinity ?. How, on the supposition
that this coincidence is only accidental, will he account for the
absence of even a solitary example on the opposite side? I con-
fidently challenge him to preduce one. Dr Fleming’s views of
the doctrine of chances must be as remote from those of the re-
puted masters of that science, as his geological notions from the
speculations of Professor Buckland, if he does not feel the force
of this mass of collective argument. However often, in this
game, we throw the dice, they always fall on the same face.
“ Ne faut il donc conviendre que les dis de la Nature sont pipées;”
or shall we say, nearly in the words of Milton, that this capri-
cious dame has purposely thrown deceptive indications as stum-_
bling blocks in our way, in wanton mockery of the serutiny of

geologists.
“ Her fabric she
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
Her laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to model earth,
And calculate its beds,—how they will wield
The mighty frame,—how build, unbuild, contrive
To save appearances.”

Let us inquire, however, farther, What are actually the laws
observed by nature, in the geological distribution of her organic
creatures? Does she impose any limitations? If she does, Are
those limitations regulated only by the consideration of species,
or do they extend to genera also? To prepose these a
to any naturalist, is in effect to answer them.

* I may except, perhaps, the lacustrine deposites of most recent origin, and
of merely local occurrence, which these circumstances exclude from weight in
the general question which regards the former temperature of the earth du-
ring the period of this formation of the regular strata, and the so-called dilu-
vial gravel.

vof the Northern Regions... 145
»» The botanist will smile at an interrogatory implying doubt
whether palms are limited to warm, and pines to cold climates.
‘Unless Dr Fleming had exhibited in himself an instance to the
contrary, I should have supposed every geologist would have
given a similar reception to the querist. The imperfect treatises
on the subject, which I have been in the habit of perusing, ha-
ving betrayed me into the idea that it was universally admitted
that most of the genera of lamelliferous polyparia* ; that very
‘many genera of testacea; that most of the large reptile tribes,
crocodiles, turtles, and many others, were so limited ; and, with
regard to the particular races on which Dr Fleming dwells in
his memoir, elephants, rhinoceroses, and hyenas, I had hitherto
been led by the same blind guides to conceive that the law of
climate, affecting their distribution, was, in point of fact, as far
as we know any thing of it, from the actual state of things, a
law affecting genera as well as species.

_ Tome Dr Fleming's argument appears to resolve itself into
this, “* Because some genera are not limited, therefore no genera
are so limited.” Or, to put it in another form, ‘* Because, in
certain widely diffused genera, you cannot argue from the habits
of some of the congenerous species to the rest, therefore you
cannot argue thus in any genera whatsoever +. The narrow

© Of the known recent lamelliferous polyparia, the genera, with two
straggling exceptions, are stated, by the best authors, to be inhabitants of
warm climates. Lamarck, speaking of Sarcinula organum (sarcinula being
the second genus of the first section of the lamelliferous division), says, “ Ha-
bite dans la Mer Rouge. On la trouve fossile sur les cotes de la Mer Baltique.”
—Animaux sans vertebres, tom. ii. p. 223.

¢ I cannot pass, without notice, one of Dr Fleming's illustrations, where
he taxes Cuvier with inaccuracy (assuredly using sufficient philosophical bold-
ness), because that writer has said you might infer from the bisulcous hoof the
ruminating habits of the animal possessing it. Dr Fleming adduces the pig as
an instance to the contrary. Living in the country, I myself am in the habit
of keeping some of these “‘ residuary legatees of all other animals,” as a friend
of mine calls them: Now, my pigs are not bisulcous, but wear four distinct
toes on their feet, although the middle ones, being most elongated, and armed
with large hoofs, certainly produce an external resemblance to cloven footed
animals, which has occasioned their being classed, in the Levitical law, (which
purports not to be a philosophical arrangement), as dividing the hoof though
chewing not the cud. The impression of their feet in walking may, if care-
fully examined (as Cuvier says), be distinguished from the genuine bisulca.
I take it for granted, however, that Dr Fleming possesses bisulcous pigs.

APRIL—JUNE 1829. K

146 Mr Conybeare on the former Temperature

system of Oxford logie in which I have unfortunately _—

trained, renders me less sensible to all the merit of such ‘modes
of ratiocination. At present I fear I must rest contentedly in
my old belief, that nature bas limited, by the laws of climate,
not only species, but genera; not only genera, but families in
the organic kingdoms ; that, in many instances, this limitation’ is
absolute; and that, in many more, genera and families require
particular circumstances of temperature for their full and vigo-
rous developement ; so that although some stray species may be
found beyond the general limits, yet these are rare, and always
attest, by their dwarf size, how uncongenial is their habitation.

If, therefore, I find fossil remains attesting the former exist-
ence of genera and families actually thus limited in geographical
seats, where none of the races are now found, although they
must formerly have flourished there in all the rich variety of the
most luxuriant developement, I shall persist in believing it pro-
bable that the circumstances which I know to be necessary to
‘the actual existence of the congenerous tribes were originally
_ present in these localities, and that a change of circumstances in
this respect, affords the most plausible solution of the problem
presented by the local extinction of so many classes of organic
beings in districts where they onee so much abounded.

To proceed from generals to particulars, the surest test of
truth, I will not now dwell on the evidence afforded by the or-
ganic remains of the vegetable kingdom, because the admirable
exposition of that evidence by M. Brongniart appears in the same
number of your Journal with Dr Fleming’s memoir ; and I gladly
notice the expression of the entire accordance of your own views

Neither can I refrain from adverting to the observation, that, although we
may agree with Cuvier in supposing, that the mastodon had a proboscis: like
the elephant, from the general resemblance in structure of the two animals,
yet that this conjecture is only a probability, and not a remarkably strong
one,—because the giraffe can provide food from the ground without a pro-
boscis, and because the hippopotamus can swim. The last quoted observation
I leave without comment; but the former is one of the most extraordinary
I have met with in the writings of any naturalist. The provision ofa trunk
to the elephant is, on account of the shortness of the neck, requisite to enable
it to reach the ground, as well as the branches of trees. ‘The length of the
giraffe’s neck gives it the means of reaching the ground, as well as branches of
trees, without such an appendage. I abstain from farther ee ay this
extraordinary passage in Dr Fleming’s paper.

ee

- Of the Northern Regions. 147

* ‘with ‘the principles there developed ; but I must remind Dr Fle-
‘ming, that this forms an essential part of the argument of the
_ geologists he opposes, and must not be overlooked by him, if he

‘seriously buckles himself to the task of overthrowing their theo-

‘ries. But, for the present, I will confine myself, as he has
done, to the evidence from the animal kingdom. —
Twill begin with the simplest forms of these, briefly noticing
‘a few of the most important families in ascending the scale. A
complete survey must, of course, be precluded by the limit of a
periodical journal.

“Ist, The most remarkable remains of the zoophytes are those
of the Lamelliferous Polyparia (Madrepores of Linnzeus).
‘This family is actually found in its fullest developement, only in
the tropical seas of Polynesia and the East and West Indies.*
The Mediterranean also contains a considerable assortment of
species, though inferior in size, abundance and variety.’ Beyond
these’ latitudes I can only find one single species, and that a
small one, in Lamarck’s catalogue, though he divides this section
into 19 genera, some of them containing more than 30 species ;
his solitary exception, is Oculina polifera, which inhabits the seas
of Norway*+. Not to overstate the argument, however, I must
deduct about a fifth of the species included in this list, as being
only found in a fossil state ; but there will still be left hundreds
of species inhabiting warm latitudes, against the solitary tenant
of colder seas.

Now, the fossil deposites of these zoophytal structures, are in
the older strata completely parallel to those of the tropical regions,
in the abundance, variety and size of the species included. They
have given name to one of our English formations (the Coral
Rag) some of its beds being almost entirely constituted by the la-
bours: of these active polypi. We here find an accumulation quite
resembling the coral banks of the East or West Indies, and
searcely differing more widely in species from either of these,

* Captain King observed that no coral reefs occur south of 25° 30’/ on the
East of New Holland. ,

t In the Zoological Journal vol. iii. p- 486, Mr Brcderip has described an
English Caryopbyllea (C. Smithii), in an appendix to the notes of De la Beche
on the habits of this zoophyte, which he found in Tor Bay, and fed with pieces
of crustacea, &c. for some time. A plate (pl. 13.) in which the animal and
polyparium are figured, accompanies the memoir.

k 2

148 Mr Conybeare on the former Temperature

than they are actually found to do from each other ; several of
the fossil species are indeed marked. i in Lamarck’s catalogue as
identical with recent

In the chalk, species of this family are more rare, though many
small caryophylle are still found, in the tertiary beds. Even
these are of unfrequent occurrence. Thus in ascending the geolo-
gical series, we always find a nearer approximation to the actual
distribution of organic beings, in advancing to the most recent
formations.

How will Dr Fleming account for the gradual disappearance -

of this family in our latitudes? why does a page of our natural
history once so rich, now present a total blank? If I remember
rightly, he ascribes the extinction of the elephant, rhinoceros, &c.
to the successful prowess of our hunting ancestors. Will he say
that they were equally diligent and expert in their coral fishery?
_ 2. Crinoidea.—The only recent species of any size isa native
of the West Indian seas, and appears very closely allied to one
of the fossils of the lias. The species still inhabiting our seas is

so minute, that it cannot be ascertained to belong to the family ©

at all, without a powerful lens; yet, in the fossil state, there are
near 20 genera, at least twice as many species, all large.

. This family is divisible into two great sections (from the con-
sideration of their structure), and their geological distribution
exactly tallies with this division; the former section belonging to
the formations inferior to the new red sandstone, the latter to
those of more recent origin,—the existing species belong to the
latter.

I shall pass over the bivalve and unchambered univalve shells

for the present, as their detailed examination would prove a task
of too great length and labour for the limits to which I must
confine myself. I shall only observe, that the analogies presented

are always with the natives of warm latitudes, and challenge Dr

Fleming to point out an exception.
4. The Nautilide.—The few existing species of this class
are confined to warm latitudes. One of them, the Nautilus

pompilius, is considered by Lamarck as identical with a fossil of ©

the tertiary formations. I need not dwell on the amazing
variety and number of the species of this and the allied genera
of ammonite, belemnite, &c. &c. all at present extinct. Surely

44

of the Northern Regions. 149

nothing short of some general change in the physical condition
of the earth’s surface can account for such a discrepance in the
ancient and actual races of its inhabitants; and as we find that
temperature limits the species which still exist, the analogy is
surely favourable to the supposition that a change of tempera-
ture has been the cause of this difference.
6. The Crocodilide.—This family actually includes many
species, and is exclusively limited to warm latitudes. I have
been enabled to ascertain ten distinct fossil species, six occurring
in this island. They are all of the division Leptorrhyncus. One
of these in the tertiary strata approaches very nearly to the ex-
isting species. Of these I hope shortly to lay a detailed account
before the Geological Society.

I will pause here to consider for a moment the nature of the
resulting argument. If the actual limitation can be predicated
only of species, and not of genera, how comes it that not one of
the many species included has wandered into colder regions ?
I here find a genus having numerous fossil and numerous recent
species ; and I know all the recent species to be confined within
warm latitudes. Does not every law of analogy warrant me
in considering it at least probable that the fossil species were
similary confined? I find that these animals must once have
swarmed in localities where they are now extinct. It is impossi-
ble to contemplate so extraordinary a fact, without being led to
the inquiry, whether any probable cause can be assigned for it ;
and analogy again presents a diminution of temperature as a
sufficient cause, seeing that the genus is now limited by tem-
perature. Has Dr Fleming any more probable solution of the
problem to offer? or can he prove that this is in itself so im-
probable that the presumptions in its favour cannot be ascer-
tained ?

‘The other fossil Saurians may be objected to} an tno sieanpte
from any existing types to admit any argument from analogy ;
but without pressing the subject, I will observe that all the
larger living tribes are confined to warm latitudes.

6. Testudinata.—The existing Chelonians, with a few minute
exceptions, are also confined to warm latitudes, in the actual
order of things; yet their occurrence in a fossil state is very
common in our strata, especially in the limestone of Purbeck,

150 Mr Conybeare on the former Temperature

and the weald of Sussex, and in the plastic clay and. the London
clay.

7. Mammalia.—1 do not know how I can exhibit ri
ment more comprehensively than by a list of the animal genera
actually limited exclusively to warm latitudes, but occurring
fossil in this country or the north of France.

1. Elephant.—2. Rhinoceros.—3. Hippopotamus.—4 Tapir.
5. Large Feles.—6. Hyzenas. With these are certainly inter-
mingled animals of genera still found in our climates, as the ox,
hog, horse, stag, &c; but it must be remembered that these
genera are commonly diffused, and not actually limited to any
particular latitude.

We have here, then, a positive analogy deduced from. six ge-
nera, exclusively belonging to warm climates; and how does
Dr Fleming combat it ? Does he produce any negative analogy ?
No such thing; he alleges.certain genera which afford.no indi-
cations as to temperature whatever, but are indifferent. in. this
respect, and common to all latitudes,.and therefore have no in-
fluence any way on the question. He boasts, indeed, that his
elephants repose under the shade of the genealogical tree of our
existing quadrupeds ; but a metaphor is not an argument. .He
may have calculated too hastily on a repose likely to be disturbed,
and the roots of his tree may. be less securely planted than
he imagines ; for he has not offered the shadow of an argument
to prove that the fossil horses of England resemble more nearly
our actual varieties than they do those now inhabiting the tor-
rid. zone. And how does he account for the extinction of these
last genera, and the present position of their-remains? . He be-
lieves them to have been, exterminated by man before the period
to which our earliest historical notices. ascend, while. yet the
island was nine-tenths overshadowed with trackless forests, afford-
ing the securest coverts to the.animal tribes ; while the woods
of Arden occupied all the midland counties, and the Sylva Ande-
rida filled the greater portion of the southern (which yet. were
the most civilized, and therefore likely to be most cleared); and
this by a people of whom we are informed that their habits were
pastoral, 'and not those of hunters. ..We are further.requested
to believe that the animals thus exterminated were buried ten or
twenty feet deep in gravel, by the action of, certain imaginary

es

of the Northern Regions. 151

lakes, though the slightest local knowledge of the general confi-
guration of the ground in the vicinity of these fossil deposites
must convince any one, that, in nine instances out of ten, there is
no probability of the former existence of any such lakes in these
districts. What, I would ask, does Dr Fleming suppose. to
have been the boundaries confining the waters of any lake which.
could account for the gravel of the plains of Warwickshire and
central England ?

Lwill conclude by proposing one more question as an illustra-
tion. of my argument.

Of the Arctic Seas but little is kaeues of the Abtarctic still less,
We may anticipate, then, that future Parrys and Franklins will
illustrate the age of other Barrows by pushing still further the
career of discovery in these untravelled fields of ocean. How, I
would ask, does Dr Fleming consider it probable that, among
the interesting novelties to be detected. by their researches, they
will astonish the naturalists of those days by accounts of new
islands discovered in those frigid seas, surrounded by coral reefs,
amidst which turtles are desporting themselves in such quantities
that aldermen might long to colonize the happy shores, the in-
terior overshadowed with forests of arborescent ferns and palms ;
the breezes fragrant with spices, as those of Ceylon ; lions, tigers,
and hyzenas roaming the jungle; elephants and rhinoceroses
stalking over the plains ; the rivers teeming with crocodiles, and
haunted. by hippopotamuses? I feel certain that any other na-
turalist’s. answer will be in the immediate and vehement nega-
tive...He will think it improbable that any one of these races
should be so found ;_ still more so that any two of them should
occur. The improbability will go on augmenting at every fresh
step, and it will mount so high against the combination of all
these circumstances, as to hold the next rank toa physical i im-
possibility.

Yet. Dr Fleming’s arguments, if they prove any thing, prove
that this\supposition inyolves no improbability at all.

P, S.—Lest Dr, Fleming should cite the supposed. musk ox of
Pallas, found in Siberia, as an instance of an animal exclusively
belonging to high latitudes found i ina fossil state, I ta ob.

152 On the former Temperature of the Northern Regions.

serve that Cuvier found the head in the engravings’ given’ by
Pallas to differ very greatly from that of the musk ox; and, Qdly,

supposing this to havé arisen only from errors of the designer,
and the head to have been really that of the musk ox, it may
have been (as Pallas himself supposed) drifted thither by cur-
rents in the Arctic Sea at a period comparatively recent. |
I will add also, that the bones of cetacea, which might; at
first sight, seem to indicate a cold ocean, either belong to spe-
cies resembling those of the Mediterranean, (the Raiqual) ; or to
extinct genera, the ziphius ; or are considered by Cuvier as doubt-
ful.

Of the Continuity of the Animal Kingdom by: means of Ge-

neration, from the first Ages of the World to the ony

- Times.

On the relations of organic structure and parentage that may ex-
_ist between the animals of the historic ages and those at pre-
sent living, and the antediluvian and extinct species.

Arne the animals whose remains occur buried in the earth, and
which almost all belong to species or genera which are not ob-
served in the living state, to be considered as having beén the
ancestors of those which now people the earth, and as having
been modified by the influence of time, and of the changes that
have supervened in the state of the globe? Or is the contrary
opinion to be adopted? Are we to believe, that, after the oc-
currence of great cataclysms, new beings were produced by a
new exertion of creative power,—in short, to make use of M.
Geoffroy St Hilaire’s expression, that the sia days work was re-
sumed. ‘The solution of this great question is to form the sub-
ject of a series of memoirs to be laid before:the French Aca-
demy of Sciences, of which the first only has been read.

The author of this memoir, M. Geoffroy St Hilaire, com-
menced with remarking, that science is not yet possessed of all
the documents that might appear necessary for treating the

‘Of the Continuity of the Animal Kingdom, &c. 158

question ina satisfactory manner. He even felt that he was not
altogether excusable in meddling with it, at a period when the
discussion which it involves might be considered premature ;
but a particular circumstance induced him to enter upon it. “I
had ‘been reading,” said he, “ some important observations
communicated to the Academy by Dr Roulin*. My mind be-
ing pre-occupied with old ideas respecting the antediluvian ani-
mals, there escaped me, in drawing up my report, a reflection
which, to be rightly apprehended, would have required a
greater developement. This has been remarked, and I have
been enjoined to do justice to the subject.”
- M. Geoffroy St Hilaire believes in an uninterrupted succes-
sion of the animal kingdom, effected by means of generation,
from the earliest ages of the world up to the present day. The
ancient animals, indeed, whose remains have been preserved in
the fossil state, are all, or at least almost all, different from those
which now exist at the surface of the globe. But this is not a
reason for thinking that they could not have been the ancestors
of these latter. In the first place, the extinct species are united
with the living species by the closest analogy. All have with-
out difficulty entered into the prescribed limits of our great
classifications ; all, as being formed of analogous organs, seem to
be nothing but modifications of the same being, of what is now
called the vertebrate animal.

Viewing the animal creation in its aggregate from the com-
mencement up to the present epoch, the author even thinks he
can recognise in it a progressive series like the following: —Ichthy-
osaurus, Plesiosaurus, Pterodactylus, Mesosaurus, Teleosaurus,
Megalonyx, Megatherium, Anoplotherium, Paleotherium, &c.;
all animals that have been transformed in such a manner, that
none of the genera which they form subsists at the present day.
Through the medium of the mastodons, the author connects
with these more ancient inhabitants of the globe the animals that
succeeded them, and which are composed of species of the same
genera, some extinct and antediluvian, and others still living.
These latter are those which have been able to accommodate
themselves without transformation, or at least by only undergo-

* Vide account of Dr Roulin’s observations in vol. vi. pages 190-193 of
this Journal.

154 Of the Continuity of the Animal Kingdom, &c.

ing very slight transformations, to the circumstances of the pre-
sent world. These animals, some of which occur in the fossil,
and others in the living state, are the elephants, rhinoceroses,
some didelphides, hyenas, bears, Sc.

M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire cited, as the resin of an au-
thor who. outstripped the age in which he lived, the work in
which M. de Lamarck treats. Of the influence of circumstances
upon the actions and habitudes of living bodies, and reciprocally
on the influence of the actions and habitudes of living bodies —
upon the modification of their parts.

The particular facts on which M. de Lamarck rests hin grand
idea, are far from being perfectly correct. Perhaps. there is not
even one of them that is not blemished by some inaccuracy ;
and yet the conclusion which he draws from them is true—such
is the power of genius in foreseeing the great truths of nature. It
was thus that Buffon perceived, by an inspiration of his genius,
that the animals of the equatorial.regions inhabit one of the con-
tinents to the exclusion of the other, although none of the proofs
adduced by that celebrated man in support of his opinion would
perhaps be admitted at the present day; and yet this proposi-
tion has become a law which has. received entire confirmation
from time. ' tk UR
_ On the subject of M. de, Lamarck’s opinion, the author
quoted a remarkable passage from Pascal: ‘ Animated beings,”
says that author, ‘* were in their commencement nothing, but form-
less. and, ambiguous individuals, whose, constitution was origi-—
nally decided by the permanent circumstances in sam a of
which they lived.”

To establish M. Geoffroy’s opinion in a solid manner, the
important point is to demonstrate that the differences of atmo-
spheric constitutions may have been sufficiently great and power-
ful to bring the different. species and, genera, from the. types
which they originally presented, to what. we now see them to
be... Now, of. this the author thinks no doubt. éan be, enter-
tained. Let attention be paid to the ,modifications which the
species may still undergo, in consequence of a mere ,transporta-
tion. from. one latitude to another,—modifications,which have
been determined by Dr Roulin with respect to the animals
transported from Europe to America. Let the important facts,

Of the Continuity of the Animal Kingdom, &¢. 155
in particular, which the study of monstrosity presents, be at-
tended to, and there will appear nothing surprising in the mo-
difications produced in the animal species, by the succession of
ages, any more than in modifications induced in the agents un-
der the influence of which animals are developed.

To determine the power of external causes in modifying the
developement of living beings, was the real object of the experi-
ments made by the author in the establishment of Anteuil,
where chickens are reared that have been hatched under the in-
fluence of artificial heat.

The philosophical object of these inquiries the author now
avows for the first time; he was obliged to conceal them at a
‘period when science was under persecution. ‘The experiments
here alluded to are conclusive. M. Geoffroy St Hilaire, by.
varying the phenomena of heat, dryness, and motion, not only
produced monstrosities at pleasure, but even produced a given
species of monstrosity by means of a particular precaution.
And let it not be objected that the monstrous species thus pro-
duced in an artificial manner, were incapable of being reproduced
and perpetuated. Nature, aided by time, which he had not
at his disposal, acting by more numerous and gentler modifica-
tions, could have done what will always be impossible in the
most judiciously conducted experiments.

M. Geoffroy also spoke of the long debated question of the
pre-existence of germs, and opposed to that theory the whole of
our knowledge respecting monstrosities, and in particular the
experiments above alluded to, in which he made the organiza-
tion deviate at pleasure, and. in a determinate direction from its
natural course.

,

On anew Species of Tapir, discovered in the Andes, with Re-
marks on Antediluvian Animals.

M_ G. Covier lately made a report to the Academy of Sciences

of France, on the memoir of Dr Roulin, having for its object

the natural history of the Tapir, and particularly that Of anew
species of that genus which the author has discovered in the high

regions of the Cordillera of the Andes.

“The reporter commenced with giving a long analysis of M.

156 On a New Species of Tapir.

Roulin’s memoir. He pointed out especially the anatomical
characters which ’ distinguish the new species of tapir from the
old American species, as well as that of Sumatra ; and insisted
particularly upon the remark, that the new tapir has a much
greater resemblance to the paleotherium than to any of the’ two
species formerly known.

The head of the tapir of the Andes, as well as that of the
Indian tapir, are more like that of the palsotherium than the
head of the common tapir is.

The palzotherium, in its general conformation, principally
differs from the tapirs in having a more elongated skull, and in
its jaws being shorter in that part destitute of teeth, which is
named the bar, and which exists in these two genera as well as
in horses. The paleotheriums, lophiodons, tapirs, and horses,
form in this respect, as in many others, four closely allied ge-
nera, and in some measure a small family, in the order of pa-
chydermata.

“ Let it not, however, be thought,” continued M. Cuvier,
that there is the smallest reason for supposing a metamorphosis
of this antediluvian genus of palzotheria into the tapirs of our
present world. The grinders of these genera do not resemble
each other, and their differences are even very great. In many
other details of their osteology, they equally differ, and the ta-
pirs have on the fore foot a toe more than the palwotheriums.
Now, in the whole history of animals, there is no fact disco-
vered from which it might be inferred that any changes of
food, air, or temperature, could have produced sensible varia-
tions in the forms of the teeth, the deepest mark perhaps witch
Nature has impressed upon her works.

Without doubt, by transporting one’s self to times and spaces,
respecting which we can have no positive knowledge, he may,
from vague and arbitrary premises, draw conclusions which are
not less so; but to emerge from these general considerations on
which reasoning has no hold, to say distinctly and directly such
an animal of the present world has descended in a right line
from such an antediluvian animal, and to prove it by Jegitimate
facts and indications, this is what it would be necessary to do,
and what, in the present state of our knowledge, no one would
even dare to attempt. M. Roulin does not propose the hypo-

On a New Species of Tapir. 157

theses of which we speak, and it is only from the analogy of the
subject that we have been led to say a few words respecting it.
But he throws light upon a fact which relates to the history of
the antediluvian animals, and which had even been advanced by
some authors, that a genus of these animals, the mastodons, pro-
bably still exists in the higher valleys of the Cordilleras. In fact,
there prevails an opinion among some of the American tribes,
that the forests of these countries produce a large animal known
by the name of pinchaque, which they dread much, and which

some equal to a horse, while others make it much larger. It is
even asserted that vestiges of it have been seen near Bogota,
and some of its dung, together with measurements of its foot-
marks, have been brought from that place, to which are added
hairs that remained attached to the bushes. But M. Roulin,
after the strictest examination, shews that in all this there is
nothing that may not relate either to the new species of ta-
pir, or to the bear of the Cordilleras. It is thus, he says,
that a great number of facts, all true in themselves, coming
to arrange themselves around the first fact magnified by
fear, would. necessarily have confirmed the Indians in their
belief in an animal such as the pinchaque. They might
even have given to this animal a prodigious form, or related
very extraordinary things of it, without deviating in any thing
from the truth. The tapir of the plains itself is so vigorous,
that it breaks, at the first effort, the nooses with which the Spa-
nish hunters arrest the most furious wild cattle. Nor is the
pinchaque the only fabulous animal that has derived its origin
from exaggerated accounts respecting animals of the tapir fa-
mily.

The Chinese have in their books a quadruped which they call
Me, and whose figure is evidently that of a tapir with the
livery of early age, and only with the trunk or proboscis a lit-
tle exaggerated as to length; and they have attributed marvel-
lous properties to it. For example, its bones resist iron and
fire, it devours serpents, and gnaws copper and iron. All this
may still have some foundation in the history of the animal.
The real tapir breaks and swallows wood, and im its somewhat
savage nature it seizes with its teeth all kinds of bodies. No-
thing more was necessary to make it be said that the me gnaws

158 On a New Species of Tapir.

iron. But, according to M. Roulin, it is to the tapir also that
much older and more celebrated fables refer. Ignorant persons
seeing the me or oriental tapir at a distance, and in a state of
rest, when its short proboscis had its extremity inflected ‘before
the mouth, might have imagined that animals furnished with a
hooked beak resembling that of an eagle ; while its feet, divided
into rounded toes, would have presented some resemblance to
those of the lion, when his claws are retracted ; whence, accord-
ing to our author, would have arisen the fable of the griffon. In
fact, when the tapir is sitting or lying, it bears a considerable re-
semblance to the figures which are given of griffons, the wings
excepted; but these wings. appear to be a posterior addition;
and, as our author remarks, Herodotus makes no mention of
them in his description of that mythological animal. These
ideas are ingenious, and will be estimated by antiquarians ; and
as to the naturalists, M. Roulin furnishes them with enough of
new and well ascertained facts to deserve their gratitude. .

He makes known all that has been observed as to the man-
ners and habits of this animal. He enters into curious details
respecting the nomenclature of the tapirs in general, in the diffe-
rent countries of America which they inhabit, and the errors to
which it has given rise among naturalists. . He shews that the
name Anta or Danta, which is given it in many works, is a
Spanish word, which signifies generally all the animals whose
skin can be prepared like that of the buffalo, and furnish eloth-
ing of a certain. thickness ; and, on this subject, he gives us
very interesting statements respecting the manner in which the
Spaniards and Portuguese, at their first settlement in the Con-
tinent of South America, applied the names of European ani-
mals, to species quite new to them, without much troubling
themselves about the real affinities of these animals to those with
which a superficial resemblance had led them to compare them.
Naturalists might. derive information from this. part.of his me-
moir with respect to several other animals besides the tapir,

In a word, there is everywhere evinced in the production of
this learned. traveller, a. mind: equally active and. enlightened.
We are of opinion that this memoir, which has the very rare ad:

vantage of having: added to the catalogue of animals:a large:

quadruped belonging to a genus which for a long time contains:
1

= —

On Fossit Antediluvian Animals. 159
ed but a single species, and which, moreover, dissipates the ob-
security in which ill observed facts had involved an important
point-of geology, deserves the full approbation of the academy,
and is worthy of being printed among those of foreign mem-
bers. ;
These conclusions were adopted by the Academy.

Fossil. Antediluvian Animals mingled with human remains in
the Caves of Bize.

TN the caves of Bize in France, there has been found not only

remains of antediluvian animals, but also human bones and

remains of works of art. MM. Tournal and Marcel de Serres

found the mud of the caves to contain abundant fragments of
, which must be referred to the Etruscan era,

M. Tournal intends to publish, conjointly with M. Marcel
de Serres, a description of the Bize caves. In the mean time
the authors present separately the conclusions to which they
think the observations that have hitherto been made might
lead.

M. Tournal’s Conelusions.

_ 1, The two caves of Bize have been entirely choked up with
a black mud containing a prodigious quantity of fossil bones.
Sometimes these bones are in a complete state of alteration ; but
it is seldom that they are found connected. _

2. The bones are not gnawed.

3. There has only as yet been observed a single tooth of a
carnivorous animal.

4. The black mud does not contain excrements of carnivorous
animals.

5. The population buried in the mud of the Bize Caves dif-
fers entirely from that which has been observed in the caves of
France, Germany, and England.

6. The same black mud which contains. the fossil bones, of
which several, as will be seen in our work, belong to extinet
species, also contains human bones, which have, in a great mea-

160 On Fossil Antediluvian Remains.

sure, lost their animal matter ; ; land shells, of which some specigs
no longer live in the neighbourhood ; modern mariné shells ;
numerous fragments. of pottery ; pebbles of green sandstone,
and grey and white, secondary limestone. Lastly, there | are
also observed in it fragments of wood charcoal.

7. The roof and walls of the cave are in several plantas:
vered with an osseous breccia, which is nothing else than the
black mud cemented by stalagmitic infiltrations.

8. This breccia contains the same objects as the black mud.

From the above considerations, says M. Tournal, I think I
am authorised to conclude,—

1. That all the objects contained in the mud and breccia are
of the same date. .
2. Ata certain epoch, the first cave was entirely choked up,
which is sufficiently shewn by the breccia that invests the roof.
In the second cave, the roof being much higher, the mud did
not reach it ; but every thing indicates that the mud attained a

greater height than that of its present level.

3. The caves were filled during the period intervening be-
tween the times of geological formations and the historical times.

4. The mud which has filled them, and the fossil bones which
it contains, are much more modern than those found in the caves
of Lunel Viel, and in the principal caves yet known.

5. During the time that elapsed between the deposition of
the mud of the caves of Lunel Viel, and the deposition of that
which has filled the caves of Bize, the animals which inhabited
France had undergone great changes.

6. Some species of animals have disappeared from the sitefiads
of the globe since the commencement of historical times.

7. Man existed at the period when the caves of Bize were
filled.

Conclusions of M. Mareel de Serres.

The existence in the same mud and breccia of human bones,
and remains of land mammifera, belonging to extinct species,
proves, in an incontestible manner, that, since the appearance of
man upon the earth, species have been completely destroyed,
or at least have ceased to exist in the different parts of the
globe which have been explored by geologists.

On Fossil Antediluvian Remains. 161

‘The simultaneous occurrence of these remains also proves,
that the antediluvian deposites, at least those which have been
deposited after the separation of the seas, cannot be distinguished
by any certain and positive character, from the postdiluvian
deposites, especially when the former belong to displaced forma-
tions, since the effects have been the same in the two periods,
these effects having depended upon the same causes; and that
henceforth the fossil organised bodies of the most recent depo-
sites cannot be discriminated from those which have been buried
in the transported formations produced in the present epoch.

This association, joined to the other phenomena which the
tertiary deposites present, further announces,

1st, That geological periods are connected, in some measure,
and without interruption, with the historical periods.

2d, That the tertiary deposites produced after the retreat of
the seas into their respective basins, have taken place at an
epoch not very remote from the present, since they contain so
great anumber of species, similar, or at least analogous, to those
which still occur in a living state.

On the Structure and Mechanism of the Tongue of the Chame-
leon. By Joun Houston, Esq., Member of the Royal Col-

lege of Surgeons in Ireland, Conservator of the Museum, and
Demonstrator of Anatomy in the School of Surgery, &c.
With a Plate *.

Tar the 0 ad apn a ty a power of ah aie
out its tongue in a remarkable manner, for the purpose of seiz-
ing the insects on which it feeds, is a fact which has been long
admitted; but notwithstanding that so singular a phenomenon
has attracted the attention of the most distinguished anatomists,
it appears to me that neither the cause nor mode of elongation
in the organ, has ever yet been satisfactorily explained.

Two of these animals having been lately presented to me, in
.* This interesting memoir was communicated to the Royal Irish Academy,
by Dr Brinkly, the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, and will appear in the Transac-
tions of the Academy. Through the attention of the intelligent author, we

have been favoured with a copy of the memoir, and also of the beautiful plate
illustrative of its details.

APRIL—JUNE 1829. L

168) Mr Houstomolithes@elieae’ sndiMedhonism

sufficient health to take food in their natural way, an opportu-
nity, such as rately occurs, was afforded me, both of observing’:
their tongues in the act of elongation during life, and of making »
a most satisfactory examination of their structure immediately
after death. I therefore entertain a hope that the facts which.
I have collected, under such favourable circumstances, may, be
caleulated to remove much of the obscurity 1 in which the mae
has been hitherto mvolved.

The animals were brought from Dichueiil in the month, af Oc-
tober 1826. They corresponded in characters to the Lacerta
Chameleon of Linnzeus. One measured twelve inches in length,
the tail included, the other ten. Both were females, and:con-
tained numerous ova, which could be felt through the: thin pa-
rietes of the abdomen. One of them while in my possession dis-
charged, apparently with much labour, two eggs which were'of
an oval form, about the size of a wren’s, and covered with ~~
yellowish coriaceous shells. ,

The external surface of their skin was thickly: set sinh soft
tubercles, like the heads of small nails, some of a whitish,
others of a bright yellow colour: the white tubercles were most
numerous, and existed every where over the body; the yellow —
ones were so arranged as to form along each. side of the back)
two rows of lozenge-shaped spots, and round the legs and. tail
annular bands. When examined in the morning, or during”
sleep, the whole surface presented a greyish cast, with the exeep-
tion of the yellow marks; but when the animal was excited in
any way, as by pricking, or transferring it from a cold to a
warm temperature, an’ evident change of colour took place,
sometimes all over the surface, sometimes only partially, ac
cording as the excitement affected the entire or only a part of
its body. A brownish tinge gradually overspread it, engaging
equally the tubercles and the intermediate skin ; while the spots,
which were previously yellow, acquired a slight admixture of’
green. The shades, however, were few, and confined to those
intermediate between a light grey and a deep brown, with a
little yellow or green interspersed through them, but never, that
I could observe, bore any relation to the colour of the surface
on which the animal happened to be placed. . In dissecting the
skin after death, its exceeding thinness and. vascularity attrac

of the Tongue of the Chameleon: — 168

ted my attention. In every part, but more especially between
the tubercles, it was so thin as to be almost transparent: and
its internal surface, when examined through a magnifying glass,
presented a complete net-work of fine vessels, rendered visible
by the dark blood which they contained. A portion of skin re-
moved from about the eyes, where in death it became dark,
even to blackness, displayed most satisfactorily the great abun-
dance of its vessels.
These observations on the skin I have deemed it right to
make, as they appear to confirm the opinion entertained by
some physiologists, that its changes in colour are produced by
vascular turgescence, just as the increased redness in blushing is
caused by a rush of blood to the cheeks. The colour of the
blood appearing through the semitransparent skin, and modified
by the various permanent colours of that structure, is sufficient
to account for every diversity of tint which the chameleon ex-
hibits. I have been induced more particularly to offer these re-
marks in this place, because, from the facts which I have no-
ticed regarding its tongue, I have been led to infer, that the pe-
culiarities of that organ are all referrible to the same general
cause, viz. vascular turgescence.
_ By keeping my chameleons in an equable temperature of
about ‘summer heat, I succeeded in preserving them both alive
for upwards of two months, during which I had ample oppor-
tunities of observing the action of their tongues in the prehen-
sion of the insects on which they fed almost daily.

When a fly so maimed as not to be able to escape, but still
sufficiently vigorous to move its legs or wings, was so placed
that its fluttering might attract the chameleon’s attention, the
animal advanced slowly until within tongue’s reach of it, then
steadying itself like a pointer, sometimes stretching out its tail,
sometimes fixing it against an adjacent body, and directing both
eyes steadfastly on the prey, it slowly opened its mouth, and
suddenly darted forth its tongue, which advancing in a straight
line, seldom failed of striking with its glutinous cupped ex-
tremity the object aimed at. But even when the point hap-
pened to err, the prey did not always escape, ‘being, neverthe-
less, sometimes secured by a similar adhesive matter which
coated the sides. “The tongue then retired, thus laden, into

LQ

164 Mr Houston on the Structure and Mechanism

the mouth, though somewhat more tardily than in its advance ;
and whenever the ‘elongation had been considerable, its. ex-
tremity was bent a little downwards, giving to the organ a
slightly curved appearance. When projected, the tongue ac-
quired a thickness equal to the largest swan’s quill, and a
length not less sometimes than six or seven inches. Its consis-
tence I attempted, on one occasion, to ascertain, by catching
it between my fingers, when ‘it imparted the feel of an elastic
body, yielding slightly when pressed on, and springing back
instantly to its former state as soon as the pressure was re-
moved. The experiment caused only a short delay to its
progress, but neither altered its form or course, nor unfastened
the prey from its extremity. Its colour along the centre was a
dark livid; and each side, to within about an inch of the ex-
tremity, presented a whitish band, which, during the act of
elongation, was straight and uniform, but in the retraction of
the organ became evidently tortuous and wrinkled ; while the
whole surface, both centre and sides, was irregularly streaked
with innumerable very minute blood-vessels. Near the ex-
tremity, a few veins much larger than the others, and having
a longitudinal course, were in the highest state of turgescence.

It seems probable that the tongue is the sole agent assigned
to the chameleon for obtaining its sustenance. Flies have of-
ten rested on every part of its body, and though it has looked
wistfully at them, it had no means of apprehending its annoyers.
I have frequently observed them for a considerable time on its
very lips without any attempt being made at their seizure.
Even when placed before it, if not sufficiently distant to afford.
room for the necessary evolution of its tongue, the chameleon
was under the necessity of retiring, or raising back its head for
the purpose.

It would appear to possess the power of regulating the fa.
of propulsion of its tongue according to the distance of the
prey ; for when the latter lay near to the mouth, the organ ad-
vanced on it slowly; when farther off its velocity was more
marked ; and whether nearer or more remote it invariably
darted with greatest quickness as its point approached the ob-
ject.

The chameleon, when vigorous in its natural climate, is said

wh

of the Tongue" of the Chameleon. 165
to shoot forth its tongue with a velocity equalling that of an
“aifow shot from a bow*; but mine, weakened by long con-
finement and want of food, had become incapable of such. ac-
tivity—a circumstance favourable to my purposes—as by the
prolonged exposure of the tongue, which occupied about five
or six seconds, an opportunity was gained for making observa-
tions on its condition while protruded. I have several times
mechanically detained it in view, by placing the fly to be aimed
at in such a position on a flat surface, that the tongue might
strike it in a direction perpendicular to that surface, under
which circumstances its glutinous cupped extremity adhered
like a sucker, and held the organ exposed for nearly double
the ordinary period. Attempts at seizing insects similarly
placed on the side of the animal’s case, which was made of
paper, gave it particular embarrassment, not so much from the
delay caused by the adhesion, as from the annoyance which the
down of the paper sticking to the mucus on the extremity of
its tongue seemed to produce. Indeed it appeared to dread
the inconvenience which resulted from striking at objects un-
der these circumstances, as it always endeavoured to take aim
in such a direction that the end of its tongue might escape a
little beyond them without danger of interruption. On one oc-
easion, when both animals attempted at the same moment to
catch a fly placed nearly midway between them, their tongues
struck against each other, and held them connected for a short
time.

It has been observed by naturalists, that the chameleon re-
quires hours to accomplish the eating of a fly, but from having
seen each of those in my possession swallow six or eight within
the space of one hour, I can so far testify that the observation
is incorrect.

To understand the motions of the chameleon’s tongue, it is
necessary to possess a clear knowledge of all its parts; I shall
therefore give, first, the anatomy of the os hyoides and muscles,
and, secondly, that of the moveable portion of the organ.

The os hyoides is unconnected with the larynx. It consists of a body and
four cornua, two of which are anterior, and two posterior (Plate IV. fig. 1.)
The body is prolonged towards into a process named the style (A), which is

* See Belon—Observations, &c. liv. 2. ch. 34.

166 Mr Houston on ¢he Structure and Mechanism

rounded and smooth, and about an inch and a half in length, and whose jpoint,
when the mouth is closed, rests against the back part of the chin. . The ante-
rior curnua (BB) are about three quarters of an inch long; their outer extre-
mities, which are cartilaginous and pointed, are directed obliquely forwards.
Their inner extremities are articulated with the body of the bone, and a small
plate of cartilage stands out from each, which serves as a pully for one of the
muscles of the tongue, the hyoglossus. The posterior cornua (CC) are about
the same length, and slightly curved upwards. One end of each is attached
to the body bya moveable joint, the other sary sence towards the back of
the occiput. ) VILA Ier
eaamaadiasape sili aceuohelveemalaas’ rhiinaatlge il silighs.
des to the thorax, the sterno-hyoid, the sterno-ceratoid, and the omo-hyoid.
Five extend from the os hyoides to the lower jaw, viz. the mylo-hyoid, ge-
nio-hyoid, together with three which may be called cerato-hyoid, and distin-
pe ag aR alte aS and internal. hiner hg oA
able muscle, the hyo-glossus. 0

Ast, The sterno-hyoid, (Fig. 2..a).a strong anyyaglei is pte by its steatertor
extremity to the lower and back part of the sternum, and by its anteriar. ge
to the body of the os hyoides.

2d, The sterno-ceratoid (b), at its origin from the sternum, is pathy eoaoblten
by that of the sterno-hyoid. It runs forwards and outwards, and is inserted
into the outer extremity of the posterior cornu of the 0s hyoides., _ af

3d, The omo-hyoid (c) is long and slender, and interrupted about its centre
by a short tendon. It proceeds from the scapula to the middle of the os-
hyoides, passing in its course along the inner side of the sterno-ceratoid.
These three muscles serve the office of drawing back the os pera and
tongue.

4th, The mylo-hyoid® is a superficial muscle. It arises from the whole length
of the ramus of the lower jaw, and from the skin along side of the neck, and
running thence inwards, joins its fellow of the other side, underneath the os
hyoides. Tt supports the parts contained in the mouth and throat, while at
rest, and while performing the complicated actions of prehension and er eed
tion of insects.

Sth, The genio-hyoid consists of two parts; one internal, deena (d), ariaee, a
little to one side of the symphysis of the lower jaw, and is inserted into the
posterior part of the body of the os hyoides. The other (e) somewhat more
external, is larger and stronger, and inserted into the whole length of the pos-
terior cornu. A part of its external border bends inwards to be mt to
the anterior cornu.

6th, ‘The external cerato-mazillary (f) arises from the posterior part of the
ramus of the lower jaw, and becoming broader, is inserted into the antettor
cornu of the os hyoides.

7th, The middle cerato-mazillary (g) is narrow, and in pit coikenaleditiie
external. It extends from near the centre of the ramus of the lower jaw
straight backwards, to be attached to the outer extremity gn. cor-
nu of the os hyoides.

* This muscle I have deemed it unnecessary to delineate. 1 have retained the name previous-

ly given to it, though I could not discover any attachment between it andthe os hyoides. It might,
{ think, be better named platisma myoides.

of the Tongue of the Chameleon. — 167
'» 8th, The internal cerato-mazillary is long and slender (Fig. 1, 2, 6, h), and si-
‘tuated deep in the mucous membrane of the mouth. It arises from the ante-
tior part af the side of the lower jaw, and passing thence backwards on the
‘upper surface of the style and muscles, ends in a tendon, which, after uniting
with its fellow of the other side, about two lines before the articulation of the
cornu with the body of the os hyoides (Fig. 1. h), becomes broad, and is in-
serted into the roots of the posterior cornua. The last four muscles, by con-
‘tracting, will draw forwards the os hyoides, and protrude the end mid
‘@ short distance out of the mouth.
9th, The hyo-glossus (Fig. 4) /Sayy ait Men th tate -ctztreateycoF ithe
posterior cornu of the os hyoides. At first it accompanies the cornu inwards
to near the body, then leaves it, winds round the cartilaginous pully on the
anterior cornu, runs forwards along the sides of the style and erectile portion
of the tongue, and is inserted into the anterior prehensile portion. This mus-
cle admits of remarkable elongation, as its extremities, which are not more
than an inch apart while the tongue rests in the mouth, become separated du-
‘ting its complete protrusion to a distance of five or six inches. It can only
exert an action on the prehensile portion of the organ, which it retracts into
the mouth after having been protruded in the search for insects, and which it
' The moveable portion of the tongue consists of two parts, which are dis-
tinct from each other both in their structure and functions. One of them I
propose to name prehensile, the other erectile.
The first, or prehensile portion, is anterior (Figs. 2, 3, 2,7, E.) It is some-
what cylindrical, about an inch and a quarter in length, and an inch in cir-
cumference. Its bulk undergoes no change during the elongation or retrac-
tion of the tongue, in consequence of its being surrounded by a dense fibrous
sheath, which prevents any such alteration. Its anterior extremity is hol-
lowed into a pouch lined with mucous membrane (Figs. 3, 4, 5), which is
rugose, and smeared with a viscid adhesive matter for entangling the insects
it strikes against. During the projection of the tongue the lips of this pouch
are everted so as to expand considerably its surface. Its posterior extremity
is smaller than the anterior, and continuous with the erectile portion. The
anterior half of its superior surface is occupied by an oblong glandular body
(G), from which perhaps is secreted the glutinous coating of its extremity.
The openings of this gland are on its lower surface, next the pouch, on which
it rests. (Fig. 5,m.) On the posterior half of this surface the ramifications
of large blood-vessels are observable. Along its sides, pusteriorly, the inser-
tions of the hyo-glossi muscle present themselves. Its inferior surface is
smooth and rounded. A tube (Fig. 5, p,p.) about the thickness of a small
crow’s quill runs through its centre. This tube is prolonged into it from the
erectile portion, and serves as a resting place for the style of the os hyoides,
which it surrounds like a sheath, when the tongue is drawn into the mouth.
It is encircled by an annular muscle (Fig. 5, 0, 0), the fibres of which are
very numerous and strong, and have but a loose connection with the tube.
This musele may, by contracting round the tube when jt rests on the style,
prevent its revolving on that bone, and thereby make steady the prehensile
portion, and adapt it for the ordinary uses of the tongue in mastication. Two

168 Mr Houston on the Structure and Mechanism

retractor muscles (Fig. 5, 1, 1.) arise, one from either side of the back part of
the annular muscle, and thence pass to its upper surface, where they meet
under the mucous gland, to be inserted into the bottom of the pouch. . They
may contribute to the more effectual security of the prey, by deepening and
closing the pouch upon it, a rissa AaaIR
the organ is retiring into the mouth. "

To the second portion of the tongue I have given the name erectile, on ac-
count of the resemblance which I conceive it bears to the other erectile
structures of animals. It is placed between the prehensile portion and the
os hyoides, and exhibits remarkable changes.in bulk under different cireum-
stances. When drawn from the mouth afler death, which it may to the
length of five or six inches (Fig. 4, H), it presents itself asa slender chord,
so flexible and soft as scarcely to be felt when caught between the fingers,
and to appear little adapted for the purposes to which it is applied. During
life, while the tongue rests in the mouth, this portion occupies an exeeed-
ingly small space (Figs. 2, 7, H); but when projected in the pursuit .of in-
sects, it becomes greatly increased in dimensions (Fig. 3, H), and appears to
be wholly the seat of that change which the organ undergoes in its elonga-
tion. Its structure) is complex and peculiar. A fine transparent mucous
membrane, which is continuous posteriorly with that which lines the mouth
and throat, and anteriorly passes over the prehensile portion, encircles it on
all sides. The hyo-glossi muscles occupy its lateral surfaces. They are
round and thick posteriorly at their origin from the os hyoides, and become
thin and flat as they advance forwards to their insertion into the prehensile
portion. Their pale fibres are rendered evident by a dark vascular net-work
which is placed underneath them. Through the centre of the erectile portion
runs a tube (Fig. 5, p, p), which is attached behind to the style, and in front
is continuous with a similar structure already described in the prehensile
portion. It is soft, whitish, and homogeneous, of uniform size throughout,
and remarkably extensible. When the tongue is quiet in the mouth, the
tube lies folded on the style; when advanced, it is drawn off and elongated.
It follows all the motions of the organ, gliding with it alternately off and on
the style, which is rounded and smooth for the purpose; but it cannot, as
some have supposed, take any part in causing the propulsion or retraction of
the tongue. A highly vascular structure exists between this tube and the
mucous membrane, (Figs. 3, 4, 5, n,n). It extends from the root

of the style to the very end of the tongue, surrounding the tube equally on
all sides. Its vessels, which are rendered visible even to the naked eye by
their dark blood, appear, when examined with a magnifying glass, like a
beautiful trellis-work, the branches crossing and anastomosing with each
other to incalculable minuteness. A coloured spot, which resembles a mere
stain, exhibits through a glass a congeries of versels. This vascular appear-
ance has been described by the anatomists of the French Academy in the fol-
lowing words: “ La membrane estait couvert de taches tout du long comme

si elle avoit esté imbué en dedans d’un sang noirastre, extravasé et inegale-
ment amassé en plusieurs endroits.” In another passage: “La langue
estoit semée de quantité de vaisseaux apparens @ cause du sang qui y estoit
en grand abondance, ainsi que dans tout le reste du corps.” But the circum-

— as

. of the Tongue of the Chameleon. 169

‘stance is noticed by them only to excite our astonishment, “ que Aristote ait
dit que la chameleon n’a du sang q’autour du coeur, et des yeux, et que la
See onremn ge as aetetety ee rang (ey catenin qui ont peu de
re

- ‘The lingual-arteries, which are derived from the carotids, are of considerable
magnitude (Fig. 2, 6, z.) They run before the posterior cornua of the os-
hyoides as single trunks, and are soon subdivided into numerous small
branches, which ramify through the erectile portion. Coagula of blood, toge-
ther with the tortuosity of the vessels, prevented the ingress of injection to
their minute terminations, though it passed sufficiently far to show their ge-
neral course and distribution.

\ ‘Two large veins (Fig. 5, 6, x.), which take their origin round about the
prehensile and erectile portions of the tongue, run along its lower surface,
and having arrived at the os hyoides, where they are very conspicuous, one
passes on either side of the root of the style, between it and the hyo-glossus
muscle ; then it escapes between the anterior and posterior cornua, and ap-
plies itself on the side of the trachea (L). It next courses along the trachea,
first overlapped by the thyroid gland (r), then by the carotid artery (y), and
aorta (u), and at length opens into a large sinus (v), connecting with the cor-
responding auricle of the heart (t), by an orifice which is distinct from that of
the jugular vein, and a little to its inner side. I have succeeded in injecting
the lingual veins with quicksilver through a pipe introduced where they lie
on the trachea, and, when distended with this fluid, they acquired a size fully
equal to that given them in the plate. The quicksilver ran into the tongue,
and filling many of the larger branches, produced an evident turgescence in
the most dependent part of the organ; but the delicate vessels being unable
to support the increasing weight of fluid, it soon becomes extravasated: suf-
ficient, however, remained to show in a preparation the extremely vascular
nature of the organ.. I am happy in being also able to adduce, in evidence of
the fact, the names of Professors Jacob and Harrison, who witnessef‘\~ ~,re-
cent injection of the vessels, and who can bear testimony to their magnitude
and numbers.

The exact mode of termination of the ultimate vessels in the tongue may
not be easily ascertained ; but, from the extremely fine ramifications which are
perceptible in it, I am inclined to think that it is by a congeries of vessels, the
termination of arteries and commencement of veins, without the intervention
of a spongy or cavernous texture +. And, if this were established, it would,
in my opinion, afford a still farther confirmation of the analogy between the
erectile portion of the chameleon’s tongue and the corpus cavernosum, for that
the latter is purely a vascular body, without any intermediate cells between
its arteries and veins, many experiments and observations have satisfied me.

The heart in the chameleon consists of one ventricle (Fig. 6, s.) and two
auricles (t, t), with each of which is connected a large sinus (v), for receiving

* See Mem. de l‘Academie Royale des Sciences, T. 3me, Ire partie, p. 46.

t The minuteness of the globules of the blood in this animal, which renders it highly dif-
fusible, appears particularly favourable for making observations on the magnitude of its ultimate
vessels; for, with a glass, one could discover vessels tinged with the coloured parts of the blood,
which were not visible to the naked eye.

170 = =Mr Houston on the Structure and Mechanism

the blood of the body and tongue. This remarkable cavity between the veins.
and auricles has never, that I am aware of, been before noticed in this animal.
The French Academicians have described the auricles as being lange, and the
left in the chameleon which they dissected was the more capacious; but they
have made no allusion to distinct sinuses apart from the auricles. In both,those
which I examined, these sinuses were well marked ; the right, however, ex-
ceeded by one half in magnitude the left, and formed a larger cavity than
both the auricles taken together. It extended the whole length of the chest
(Fig. 6, v-), from the superior aperture to the liver, and was not less when
distended than two lines in diameter. Both were filled with coagulated
blood ; and the texture of their coats appeared the same as that of the veins
which emptied into them. Their use may probably be connected with the
varying condition of the circulation in the skin, and the erectile portion of the
tongue, on which I conceive depend all the phenomena for which these two
parts have gained such notoriety, They may serve as reservoirs for the
blood, when suddenly abehractedk from either of thom pnovtionst re its re-
admission into the heart. sine} ivenct

After this detailed description of the structure of the chame-

leon’s tongue, we may be enabled to estimate the applicability
of the several theories, which have from time to time been ad-
vanced, to account for its peculiar powers of motion, _ ’
_ It was denied by Marmol, who examined many chameleons
for the purpose of clearing up this point, that their tongue had
any such powers at all. He assures us that it is never exercised
as a trap for insects, and that any thing which he had observed
of the animal, would not induce him to change his anna dat
ai «the sun’s rays are its only nutriment*.

M. Perrault attributed the elongation to an expiratory efor
of the animal, which darted its tongue from its mouth, “ com-
me si il la crachoit avec violence” +. The great. size of the
lung he supposed was for the purpose of effecting this move-
ment. But there is no circumstance connected with the anato-
my of the organ, or its mode of advancement, to countenance
this explanation. Besides, the chest during the act, in place of
evincing the motions attendant on an effort of expiration, re-
mains dilated and immoveable : respiration for the moment ap-
pears to be suspended. 3

M. De la Hire suggested that perhaps the state of the rest of
the tongue is that in which it exists when elongated, and in

* See Mem. de l’Acad. Roy. des Science. t. 3. lre. partie, p. 47.
+ Ibid. T. 9, p. 156.

of the- Tongue of the Chameleon. 171
which it is kept by some tendons so attached on a zig-zag form
to the outside of the tongue (Fig. 8, B, A) as to aet after the
‘manner of a spring; and that its retraction into the mouth
might be effected by the action of a longitudinal muscle (C, C,).
M. Dela Hire offers a sufhcient apology for so absurd a sup-
position, in acknowledging that he had never an opportunity of
' ‘€xamining the structure of the organ.

_ The central tube was described by the anatomists of the
French Academy as being a nerve which had the power of
throwing forth the tongue (meaning the prehensile portion)
‘which was attached to it by elongation itself, and of drawing it
back again by contracting. It is a sufficient reply to this ex-
planation, that the part alluded to is not a nerve; and even
granting it were so, that nervous structure is no where possessed
of powers of elongation and contraction.

There is a common supposition, that the tongue is extended
by inflation with air, and) drawn back again by the supposed
nerve in its middle, which after having been elongated by the
effort, returns it again suddenly to its former state. But this
explanation is as untenable as the others, for no opening of com-
munication can be discovered between the mouth or trachea
and the tongue, through which air could find admission into the
en

- The Baron Cuvier, who has contributed so much to the ad-
vancement of natural science, supposes that the propulsion of
the organ from the mouth, and its subsequent retraction, are
effected in part by the alternate elongation and shortening of
that portion which I have named prehensile, and in part by the
advancement and retreat of the os hyoides. The entire process,
according to his explanation, is the result of muscular action.
With regard to the elongation or shortening of its prehensile
portion, which he conceives may be produced by the annular
and retractor muscles *, a reference to my account of its struc-
ture will shew that no such change in its form can take place.
A dense, fibrous, inelastic sheath which surrounds it must effec-
tually prevent an alteration being made either in its length or —
thickness, by any muscular force which it possesses. Even
when removed from the body, attempts to stretch it with the

* Legons d’Anatomie Comparée, T. 3. p. 273, 274.

172 ~=Mr Houston on the Structure and Mechanism

fingers are unavailing. Its cupped extremity admits of being
spread out a little, but neither before nor after death can its
form or bulk undergo any greater change. The protrusion of
the style of the os hyoides from the mouth will be found, on
studying its form and connections, an equally inefficient cause.
The Baron compares this part of the process to that accom-
plished by the tongue of the woodpecker. He says*, * Il
peut s’alonger considérablement par un méchanisme analogue a
celui qui a lieu dans les pics.” But the difference in the form
and arrangement of the os hyoides and its muscles in the two
animals, will not sanction a comparison of their actions to an ex-
tent which would account for the phenomenon. In the wood-
pecker, the cornua of the os hyoides are remarkably long and
curved ; they at first descend in the neck for some way; then
turn up in a loose sheath over the occiput, and pass as far for-
wards as the upper mandible, into a groove of which they en-
ter. Muscles which arise from the chin, and follow the course
of these cornua to their very points, have the power of retract-
ing them, and in the same proportion of propelling the tongue,
which is a solid continuation of them, out of the mouth.
Whereas in the chameleon, whose tongue can be projected even
farther than that of the woodpecker, the cornua of the os hyoi-
des are not so much as an inch long, and the space they have
to move in is so limited, that the muscles extending from them
to the lower jaw could not, by pulling them forwards, advance
the tongue out of the mouth more than half an inch. Since
then, the structure of the prehensile portion of the tongue will
not admit of its elongation ; and since also the point of the style
cannot be advanced from the mouth more than half an inch, to
which two circumstances alone the Baron attributes the protru-
sion of the organ, it is evident that his explanation is incom-
plete, inasmuch as it does not account for its usual propulsion
to the distance of five, six, or seven inches.

Having thus passed under review the several theories ad-
vanced in explanation of this remarkable process, and shown
their respective insufficiency to that end, I venture to offer one
which to me appears not only unobjectionable, but adequate to

« Ibid. T. 2 p. 681.

of the Tongue of the Chameleon. 173

account for all the phenomena: namely, that the projection of
the chameleon’s tongue is caused, partly by the advancement of
the os hyoides, but chiefly by blood rushing into the number-
_ less vessels of the organ distending and elongating its erectile
ion: and that its subsequent replacement in the mouth is
effected by the retreat of the os hyoides and subsiding of the
turgescence, aided by the contraction of the hyoglossi muscles.

“7. The appearance of the tongue when protruded during life,
its rigidity, its dark colour, and the turgid condition of its ves-
sels, first suggested the idea of its being an erectile organ. The
peculiarities of its organization discovered after death, its high
vascularity, the remarkable size, course, and termination of its
yeins, and above all, the unique and beautiful provision near
the heart to receive the sudden reflux of blood, gave it addi-
tional confirmation. And the experiment of imitating the na-
tural process by filling the vessels with quicksilver, though ne-
cessarily not as conclusive as might be desired, was neverthe-
less sufficiently so, in my opinion, to place the matter beyond a
doubt.

An additional argument in favour of the supposition, that the
chameleon’s tongue undergoes, in being protruded, an erectile
action, may be found in the influence which the state of warmth
and vigour of the animals had on their projectile powers; for
except about noon-day, and during the sunshine, or while the
animals were near the fire, they could seldom be excited to at-
tack a fly; any attempt, except under such circumstances, rarely
being successful. I have several times seen one of them, when
cold and sickly, make the effort. It opened its mouth, and ad-
vanced its tongue a short distance, about as far as the muscles
going from the chin to the os hyoides might effect it, but could
succeed little farther: the prehensile part either did not leave
the style at all, or bent towards the ground, and fell short of its
object. In this state of the animal, the power of changing the
colour of its skin was as imperfect as that of protruding its
tongue; both failures perhaps alike resulting from the same
cause, the languid state of the circulation.

If, by any cause, the chameleon were provoked to anger, of
which it appeared very susceptible, its tongue, as well as its
skin, gave evidence of the same excitement : it swelled out pro-

174 Mr Houston on the Structure and Mechanism

digiously in the throat, so that had the style, which pressed for=
cibly against the integuments under the chin, been elevated, I
have little doubt the organ would -have undergone a’ ened
elongation,

The effect on the animal of frequently protruding its tongue,
might also be advanced in support of the same theory. An in-
terval of rest was always taken between the acts, which I have
never seen repeated above six or eight times in succession ; and
even this was evidently followed by fatigue. Mere muscular
action would not so soon produce exhaustion ; the tongue of the
woodpecker, which is protruded solely by this cause, can be shot
out many times in quick succession, without the-animal’s evin-
cing any subsequent, fatigue.

When the mouth is shut, and the tongue at rest, both its
erectile and prehensile portions are drawn on the style, the point
of which rests against the symphysis of the chin, close behind
the front teeth. In this state the prehensile part surrounds the
two anterior thirds of the style, and the erectile portion is fold-
ed in plaits on its posterior third (Fig. 7. E and H). When
the tongue is about to be darted forth, the mouth opens just
enough to give it passage, and the style, carrying with it both
portions of the tongue, is protruded from the mouth for about
half an inch, by the actions of the genio-hyoid, and three cerato-
maxillary muscles. The progress of the os hyoides under the
skin is visible, and so far it can advance the tongue, but no far-
ther. The prehensile portion, unchanged in bulk, now flies off
the style in the direction given it by that bone, and propelled
by the erectile portion, which, from being so small and pliable
as to lie folded on the root of the style, acquires a length equal
to the entire body of the animal, a thickness nearly as great as
that of the prehensile portion, and a rigidity which enables it to
advance in a straight line, carrying the latter before it. _.The
stretching of the mucous membrane on the sides everts the edges
of the pouch on its extremity, which is thereby expanded to
cover the prey with more certainty.

The object of the propulsion of the tongue being. attained,
the mouth opens wider, partly to give more ready admission to
the prey, and partly, perhaps, for the purpose of relaxing the
muscles, and favouring the return of the accumulated blood);

a

of the Tongue of the Chameleon 175
the os hyoides is drawn back by the sterno-hyoid, sterno-cera-
toid, and omo-hyoid muscles; the turgescence of the erectile
part subsides ; the pouch on the end is again deepened by the
action of the retractor muscles, and the relaxation of the mu-
cous membrane on the sides; and the hyo-glossi draw in the
tongue, folding up the erectile portion and replacing the pre-
hensile on the style. The parts thus arranged, the organ is
made fit'for the ordinary purposes of mastication by the annular
muscle fixing the prehensile portion, and preventing its rotation
on the slippery style, and by the hyo-glossi drawing it in the di-
rection of the cornua of the os hyoides, so as to obviate any dis-

forwards.

» The chief objection urged against this theory is the difficulty
of conceiving how vascular congestion could affect the elongation
with the rapidity ascribed to it during health. This objection,
however, does not apply to the act as observed in those animals
from which I have drawn my conclusions, for the motion of their
tongues was by no means so rapid as to’be irreconcileable with
such a cause. It was not more rapid than the instantaneous
blush on the cheek of youth; nor more rapid than several other
phenomena which are universally allowed to be the result of.
vascular turgescence. How far in a state of nature the rapidity
of projection exceeds what was observed in those weakened by
confinement, I cannot determine; but perhaps the difference
may not, be so great as is usually believed. Few of our ac-
counts on the subject have been given by naturalists on the tes-
timony of their own observation ; and it is not going too far to
suppose, that it may have been with their descriptions of the
chameleon’s tongue, as with those given by them of its skin, in
which fancy contributed so largely to the colouring: for we
must admit, that much of imagination has mingled with their
accounts of the organ, when we find it described, and even
figured, as in the act of ‘turning backwards and seizing objects
placed on its tail, a range of motion by no means compatible
with its structure or cause of action.

I have already observed—and it may partly account for the
reputed quickness of the tongue—that at one period of the elon-
gation the rapidity, even im my chameleons, was such as might
- justly be compared with that of an arrow, but then it was only

176 Mr Houston on the Structure and Mechanism

momentary, and observed during a very short stage of the pro-
cess. The progress of the tongue on leaving the mouth was at
first slow, and became gradually accelerated as it
near the prey, when it shot forwards with remarkable quickness, —
—a mode of proceeding much more likely to ensure success than
if it had advanced with uniform rapidity from the commence-
ment. This quickness perhaps equalled that which is attri-
buted to the organ when in vigour; but it was only manifested
after its gradual repletion with blood, and when a itl impulse
was sufficient to produce it. ) |
Should the explanation which I have given of the mechanism
of the chameleon’s tongue, founded on its structure and appear-
ance during life, be admitted as applicable to the animals on
which I have made my observations, it may be likewise to all,
however vigorous, for the same cause must equally produce the
3 elongation whether the act be rapid or slow—whether it take
place during a state of activity or weakness.

Several individuals who have witnessed the change of colour
and mode of feeding of my chameleons, can corroborate the ac-
curacy of the above statements ; but I shall particularly refer
for evidence of it to my friend Mr Tagert, who took a particu-
lar interest in observing their habits; and who, even while the
animals were alive, agreed with me in the opinion, which I hope
my after dissections have sufficiently established, regarding the
cause of elongation of the tongue.

Most of the preparations from which the drawings were taken
I have preserved, and placed in the Museum of the Royal Col-

lege of Surgeons.
31. Yor Srreer.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE.
Fig. Ist.— The Os Hyoides.

A The Style. BB The anterior cornua and cartilaginous pully.. CC The
posterior cornua. hhh The internal cerato-maxillary muscle.

Fig. 2d.—The Muscles.
C The posterior cornua of the 03 hyoides. D Lower jaw. a Sterno-hyoid.
3

eee

=.

of the Tongue of the Chameleon. 177

b Sterno-ceratoid. c. Omo-hyoid. d Internal genio-hyoid. e External genio-
hyoid. f External cerato-maxillary. g Middle cerato-maxillary. h Inter-
nal cerato-maxillary. w Internal jugular vein. y Carotid artery. z Lin-
gual artery. E Prehensile portion of the tongue appearing in the mouth.
H Pilaited condition of the erectile portion.

Fig. 3d—Superior surface of the Tongue as seen when protruded at the will of the
animal.

E Prehensile portion. F The pouch. G Mucous gland. H Erectile por-

tion. K Upper jaw. nn Vessels of the tongue.

Fig. 4th.— View of the Tongue as it appears when drawn from the Mouth after
_ Death. .

A The style. BB Anterior cornua. CC Posterior cornua. E Prehensile

portion. F The pouch. G Mucousgland. H Erectile portion. iii Hyo-

glossi muscles. nn Vessels as seen in the erectile portion without injection.

Fig. 5th.—Dissection of the Prehensile and Erectile portions.
kkk Investing membrane and vascular tissue laid open. F The pouch.
ll Retractor muscles of pouch. m Under surface of mucous gland. nn Ves-

sels of the erectile portion, some containing quicksilver. oo The annular
muscle which surrounds the tube, laid open on one sidetoshew pp The tube.

Fig. 6.— Dissection of the Heart and Vessels.

A The style. ii Hyo-glossi muscles. h Internal cerato-maxillary muscle.
L The trachea. r Thyroid gland. »M Membranous bag at top of larynx.
N Lungs. O Liver. s Ventricle of heart. tt Right and left auricles.
uu Aorta. v Great venous dilatation. w Internal jugular vein. x Lin-
gual vein of right side. y Carotid arte?y. z Lingual artery.

_ Fig. 7th.—This figure is intended to explain the manner in which I conceive the
prehensile and erectile portions are fitted on the style when in the mouth.

E The prehensile portion. H The erectile portion thrown into plaits,
some of which lie round the style, others overlap the back part of the prehen-
sile portion.

Fig. 8th.—M. de la Hire’s Drawing of the Elastic Tendons, §c.

BABA The tendons by which the tongue is kept in a state of constant
elongation. CC The longitudinal muscle by which it is retracted.

APRIL—JUNE 1829. M

($178)

Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lowered

in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chicflyin the Royal
Botanic Garden, during the last three months, |

10th June 1829.

Acacia verniciflua.

A. vernicifilua; phyllodiis lineari-lanceolatis, 2-nervis, falcatis, basi atte-
nuatis, margine superiore ad basin uniglandulosis, ramisque juniori-
bus viscidis; capitulis globosis, axillaribus, geminatis.

Acacia verniciflua, Cunningham, in Field’s, Memoirs on New 8S. Wales,

p. 344.
Description.—Shrub erect, branching. Branches slender, spreading, green
viscid and when young, when older red and scabrous. Phyl-

lodia (3 inches long, 44 lines broad.) falcate upwards, 2-nerved, and slight-
ly veined, one of the nerves epee | nearly in the middle, the other to-
wards the upper edge, scabrous and shining, when old dull green, when
young bright green and viscid, uniglandular on the upper edge at the
base. Capitufa globular axillary, geminate, pedicelled, paths pe-
duncles (3 lines long) articulated at the base, filiform, tomentous; when
a branch pushes from between the capitula, these sometimes take their
origin from it, a little way above its base, and are opposite. Flowers
ellow, numerous in each capitulum, sessile, crowded, each
from the axil of a minute, brown, spathulate, ciliated bractea. Ca-
lye sub-adpressed, minute, 5-cleft, as tong as the bractez,.
blunt, slightly tomentous. Corolla (th of an inch long) twice as long
as the calyx, 5-cleft, segments linear, acute, spreading, and concave at
_ the apex, smooth. Stamens very numerous, arising from the base of the
corolla, of deeper yellow than it or the calyx; Aamente half as
- again as the corolla; anthers small, bilobular, orange coloured. Sti
minute, style projecting a little beyond the stamens, lateral. °
small, green, Spica, - Ovule numerous. Ly
‘This species was raised from seeds received at the Botanic Garden from
Mr Frazer, colonial botanist, New South Wales, in 1825, under the
name of A. vernosa, and has received the ordinary treatment in the green-
house, It flowers freely in March and April. Judging from the cha-
racter given by Mr Cunningham in the work above quoted, I do not see
any reason to doubt that it is his 4. verniciflua, which he says is a native
of Rocky Hills, near Cox’s River, &c. and was first collected in 1817 by
_. him during Mr Oxley’s expedition.
Andromeda hypnoides.
A. hypnoides ; pedunculis solitariis unifloris, terminalibus; corolla cam-
panulata, 5-fida, laciniis obtusis, conniventibus ; stylo ovato, acumi-
nato; foliis imbricatis, plure seriatis, erectis, subulatis.
Andromeda foliis aciformibus confertis, Linn. Fl. Lappon. 165. t..1. £ 3.
Andromeda hypnoides, Linn. Fl. Suecic. 355. ; Sp. PL i. 563.— Willd. ii.
608.—F'I. Danica, t. 10.—Persoon, i. 480.— Wi ‘9, F 1. Suecic. 450.
—Sprengel, Syst. Veget. ii. 289.—Hort. Kew. iii. 51.
Description.—Stem procumbent, much branched, every where covered
with leaves. Leaves imbricated, erect, minutely vemegon ciliated, subu-
late, flat above, rounded below. Peduneles (3 lines long) terminal, so-
litary, 1-flowered, red. Flowers drooping. Calyx 5-parted, red, sub-
acute. Corolla pure white, when, as in the specimens here described,
raised under glass, but said to be reddish in native specimens, omen
late, 5-cleft, segments rounded, but having a minute mucro, and slightly
5

4.
n

Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 179

-) eonnix Ree ceteret ity ander itis, Ulloa, aesesieni tae, sd
Auer pacers hn Stamens 10, connivent ; filaments glandular, A an
yn below, owish above and below, colourless in the
valt bilobuilar, lobes blunt and rdundedat the terinina-
‘rounded, each with two reflexed awns, much longer than
ake Gee: Pistil rather longer than the stameris; ger-
a acrcly lobed rates —— by brownish
=e e ulated on le top the germen, suddenly
Eeiiirenpee tts ask, a4 grata ee rey ae stigma blunt.
ph! etter ae pretty — t was in ced from Canada by Mr
the extensiv interesting collection of Mr Cunningham
; Bank, near Edinburgh, in'1826 ; and this enterprising culti-
the satisfaction of seeing the plant come into flower in his
May last ; the first time it had been seen in Scotland, and af-
lost in England.
American station of this t to the north-
but this Mr Blair did not visit. It is more dif-
in the northern parts of America, and as it isa most abundant
rn age i Die et 7 wear a opvantweg d ly probable that it
one day in the north of Scotland reward the labour of some British
for, unless when it is in flower, it may be very easily overlooked.

a

af

te
cE

seapo hirsuto.
“ Plants of the Rocky Mountains,” in An-
_ nals of Lyceum of Nat. History of New York, vol. i. p. 33. t.3. £ 1.
a OTT Zips —— Siem short, red, branched, somewhat hairy, hairs
Leaves lanceolate, acute, somewhat succulent, without veins,
and roughish, towards the apex often pubescent on both
star-like. Pedunele (jths of an inch long) terminal,

red, especially towards the base, mais hairs numerous, spread-
Umbel "oat owered. Involucrum of 5 or 6 Sanaa aon

Pitkin, sepucste’constivent zt the « subacute. - Corolla ty oath
the colour deepening towards the faux and in the tube: tube inflated.
rate etptical a Fm ii el limb 5-parted, segments ob-

7 much resembles that species maja be
an ptr ode
a y the flowers being almost
- top of the uncle, while in them the pedicels ow tag
the involucrum. leaves, too, seem longer in the present *.
and lanceolate rather than ovate. Its identity with Terry's |
oe ee Tt

an
ey frame in April, and is of course perfectly hardy.

And li
A. linearis; czespitosa, scapo umbellato, umbella sub-sexflora, radiis elon-
m 2

180 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants.

gatis, erectis, corolla calycem acutum excedente, laciniis linearibus,
poo, foliis supra sub-pubescentibus, linearibus, acutis, apice sub-
enta

Description.—Plant aps py Leaves all radical, linear or spathulato-

* linear, acute, generally with a few teeth near the apex, somewhat fleshy,
veinless, concave above, middle rib somewhat prominent below. Scape
(74 lines long) erect.. Umbel about 6-flowered. Involuere ents
ovate-acute. Pedicels (1 inch long) longer than the scape, and, like it,
filiform, erect. C 5-cleft, segments ovate, acute, spreading a little,
resembling the involucre, and equal to it in size, reddish, as well as the
pedicels scape and upper part of the leaves minutely and indistinctly
pubescent : pubescence most distinct on the leaves, and decreasing up-
wards. Corolla longer than the calyx, 5-cleft, red when opening from
the bud, but soon becoming white, yellow in the throat, ts linear,
retuse ; tube ovate, greenish 5-nerved. Stamens included ; anthers

- yellow, cordate, notched at the apex; filaments equal in length to the
anthers. Stigma capitate, reaching to the base of the anther. Siyle fili-
form. Germen top-shaped, green, 5-valved. Ovules about 10.

This species was raised in the Royal Botanic Garden from seeds ted
by Mr Drummond, It flowered freely in April, May and, June, and
is chiefly interesting as extending a genus which has been hitherto be-
lieved to be of rare occurrence in America. Nuttall and Pursh describe
only one, A. occidentalis ; but we have alive in the Edinburgh Garden

. three other species, from the kindness of our enterprising countrymen
who have within these few years visited the Arctic shores of America.

These are the two now described, and A. septentrionalis, which differs only

from European specimens in being smoother, and more entire in the

leaves. ,

Begonia semperflorens.

B. semperfiorens ; caule herbaceo erecto glabro flexuoso, foliis subzequa-
liter ovato-cordatis, subacutis, cucullatis, glabris, serratis, setaceis ; sti-
pulis ovatis ciliatis ; capsula alis inzequalibus, duabus acutis, tertia
obtusa.

Begonia semperflorens, Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 1439. t

_ Descriprion.—Stem herbaceous, succulent, erect, branched, flexuvse,

reddish or green, slightly marked with oblong red spots. Leaves 3

inches long, by 24 broad) petioled, subequally cordato-ovate, subacute,

cucullate, green, glabrous and shining on both sides, dotted above, paler
below, serrated, and serratures acute and crowded at the base, more

sparse and blunter above, each terminated with a bristle. Petiole (2

inches long in the lower leaves, generally much shorter in the upper,)

channelled above, often stained bright red at its origin, and at its
termination inthe leaf, the stain at its origin generally passing round
the stem at the insertion of the stipule. Stipule geminate, ovate,
large, ciliated, erect and applied to the stem, submarcescent. . Peduncles
axillary and terminal, longer than the petiols, slightly compressed, erect,
labrous, shining, dichotomous. Flowers moncecious. Corolla spread-
ing, white: male, large, gine. Wig we two of the petals subrotund (74
lines broad), two others rather shorter, narrow, and spathulate, as
long as the pedicel ; stamens scarcely monadelphous: female smaller,
with three small marcescent bractese at the base, tetrapetalous, petals
subeqnal ; stigmas three, each cleft to its base, and segments screw-like,
yellow. Germen unequally winged, the largest and one of the other
wings acute, the third rounded. Biparted receptacle of the seeds in
each of the three loculaments of the germen of bright green.. Ovules

“ yery small, very numerous, and white. ‘
Seeds of this species were received from M. Otto at Berlin under the name
of B. setaria. It has reached this country under other names, and with
one of these, B. semperflorens, it has been published in the Botanical Ca-

Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 181
on this account, than because I think it the most appli-

binet. Rather
I it. The handsome in the stove,
Ra redme Slny

Willd. Sp. Pl. iv. 43.—Persoon, Synop. Pl. ii. 506.—Lodd. Bot.
Cab, t. 284.—Sprengel, Syst. Veget. iii. 694.

Orchis Thunb. Prodr.'p. 4.—Linn. Suppl. 401.—Swarts, Act.
_ Holm. 1800, p. 206.

_ Descnrrrion.—* Roots fascicled.” Whole plant (14 foot high) erect. Stem

the apex, coriaceous, smooth and deep green above, lighter and
y nies mbes collected ates. ey upper
( ospyet er ugh ige wana yanmar ges Pracy,nipyiene <p fa

|

ME
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Roll
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pon are two white, shorter segments, of similar structure
to copetmettcsrse aise Sverre ede ac nt nodal
parallel, nearly straight cylinders, distilling honey from their extremi-
ties, and j downwards upon the surface of the central lobe,

of any, and is cleft into three long, green, linear,
flexuose segments, and from its base, in the centre of the flower, rises a

rs womens connecting
to each other the bases of the convolute ts. two lower seg-
connate at base with the inner. Be-

¢
i
&
F
Z
Ba
d
g
a
F
z
E
J

low, ular, on elastic pedicels, which enlarge at their u ex-

: ee wut thee owe died a Wale, Caieae es id r Or-

chidee, itself cre Bed am Aree ethan, © into contact

with it, causes the pollen-mass to be readily drawn from the flower ; seg-

ments of the pollen-mass somewhat concave on their inner side, ules

Seedumaaiiants tase ties, vecnee Green ts.
project forwards

middle of the flower, ly cov by the reflected edge of a white,
ciliated, cucullus, which rises in front of the anther-case, and is much
pork Ars acing This investing fold of its edge passes backwards, and
on each side in the fleshy scale, between the base of the first
and second ts of the labellum. Germen (about 2 inches leng)
longer than spur, green, twisted, unilocular. Ovule minute, very

182 = Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants.

awmnazone whites naked, ae ni two waved lines nearly the whole

length of the germen, on parietal recep tad

This rare t, the solitary of a iting a very compli-
cated nage, flower, is a native of the Pane of Good Hee. 7. and
I suspect in other cases among the Orchidew, the sudden abstraction of
the pollen. mass by the adhesion of the scale at the base of its pedicel tu
the finger of the examiner, has given rise to the belief that it starts
out from an elastic power.. The pedicel, when forcibly extended, con-
tracts from) elasticity, but never forces the pollen-mass from its case,
otherwise than by dragging it after a substance to which the scale at its
base had

‘The: specimen described was kindly communicated to the Royal Botanic
rden, Edinburgh, by Mr Ayton, from the rich collection at Kew, in

1826. It has been always paar in the Pca sf in soil a

proportion of peat, and flowered very y both last year and this in

Merch. and April. The flowers remain expanded for a consi time.
Dillwynia juniperina, _ . a

D. juniperina; foliis sub-filiformibus, levibus, mucrone pungentibus, ~

tentibus, rectis, pluri serratis ; capitulis terminalibus; pedicellis
bracteatis, ramulis virgatis, patentibus, pubescentibus. ite een:
Descarption.— Shrub erect; bark brown. Branches long, slender,
spreading, rough, from the persisting callous bases of former leaves,
pubescent towards their extremities. _ Leaves crowded, sprea at
right angles, straight, smooth, filiform, but channelled above, termi-
nated with a rigid straight mucro, and arising from a short sub-
erect petiole with a tumid persisting callous base. Flowers termi-
nal, capitate, on short pedicels, each.of which has two minute lateral
and opposite brown bracteze near the top, and each springs from
the of a bractea, which is somewhat r and acuminate, but
otherwise similar. Calyx bilabiate, and, as: well as the pedicel and
younger branches, clothed with adpressed pubescence ; upper lip some-
_what compressed laterally, 2-toothed, teeth broad, short, blunt, and
slightly divaricated; lower lip shorter, more deeply divided. into three
narrower pointed teeth. Corolla ©: -yellow, vexillum very broad,
much reflected, slightly notehed, and having connivent, radiated red
streaks, proceeding from near the faux, Ne the centre a cordate
spot of the same colour as the rest of the limb, claw slender; alee as long
as the vexillum, connivent along their upper edge, at the
lower, divaricated at their apices, and sanding forwars from the centre
of the flower, red in their lower half; carina the length of the als,
yellow, blunt, gibbous below, upper edges connivent. Stamens free, in-
cluded in the keel, inserted with the corolla into the tube of the calyx ;
filaments subulate, reddish ; anthers yellow, obovate, bilobular,and each
lobe furrowed along its outer side, where it subsequently bursts. Stigma
capitate, green, reaching as far as the anthers ; style green, hooked; ger-
men ages shorter than the style, covered with white wool; ovules two,
round and compressed. :
This is a very pretty species, first introduced by Messrs Loddiges, was
subsequently imported by F. Henchman, Esq., and raised in the n
of Mr Mackay at Clapton, from whence we had a specimen in 1828. It
flowered freely in the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, in the ing of
March following, and, like others of the family, remained long in flower.
Its identity with the plant of the Botanical Cabinet I have ascertained
by a specimen obligingly sent to me by Mr G. Loddiges.. —

Draba crassifolia.
D, crassifolia ; coespitosa, perennis ; foliis confertissimis lanceolatis, sub-
carnosis, glabris, subdenticulatis, pilis simplicibus ¢iliatis ; pedunculis

yellow. Corolla yellow ; emarginate, rather lo than the cal
"(Stamens and mers wee wa ome peor . Siliele smooth, ob-
+ Tong, ined to linear in the wild, broader and more ovate in the cul-

\ tains, N. America, presented by Mr Drummond in February 1828. It
| flowers most va tie been constantly kept in the open air, produces

Seeeateies 200s Tones epeipiesnenanetins pin ue elongato
_ stellato pabescentibus; calycibus villosis; siliculi a wae stylo
Draba glacialis, Adams. Mem. Soc. Nat. Mosq. 5. 106. fide DC.—De
‘Cand. Syst. Veg. ii. 338.; Ib. Prodrom. i. 167.

Description.—Plant (2 inches high) ceespitose. Stems procumbent and
rooting at the base, erect above, leafy, hairy, hairs reflected and gene-
rally branched. Leaves (10 lines long) scattered, linear-lanceolate, blunt,
thickly set with branching hairs on both sides, suberect and

connivent at the apices. Peduncle (2 inches i rising from
near the bottom of the stem, opposite to a 1 Ce ge. See. ope
y provided with hairs, which are Pedicels about

as as the flowers, ing with the silicle, nearly smooth,
the lower one occasionally having a leaf. Calyx turgid, slightly pubes-
cent, blunt, cer Corolla yellow, longer than yx, pe-
emarginate, veined, claws short. Stigma capitate, yellow.

very short,

Plant raised at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden from seeds communicated
by Mr Drummond, having been collected by him on the Rocky Moun-
tains. The native specimens, which are abundant in the excellent her-
barium of Mr Drummond, are covered with a profusion of flowers, so”
that the plant will probably be found worthy of cultivation as an orna-

species.

mental
. t petala. .
streptopetala ; foliis lineari-lanceolatis nervosis, scapis simplicibus, se-
exterioribus is obtusis: interioribus duplo majoribus co-
:

ti Dateien edits insdie ntentcemaanele calcare
: .
Eulophia streptopetala, Bot. Reg. t- 1002. :
DescrirTion.—Buib (3 inches long, 1 broad) ovate and somewhat elon-
Bee tak nell, iain selinistet
9 broad green, equitant, articu
above their dilated bases, by oi toe ensheath the bulb, strongly

-

184 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants.

nerved, plicate. linear-lanceolate, about 7 perfect, and 2 or on the
outside, having the dilated bases only. Scape (3 feet high), risi
from the base of the bulb, erect, jointed, alternate esate a Fon.
sheaths rising from the joints. Spike many-flowered, evolved before
the leaves on the bulb which produced it decayed, and after the leaves
Sling’ dladadahéel ss, ovatoy polntedy-equal in. longih‘be-abe gee
db eaths, ‘ovate; equal in to. -
hater Flowers single, inodorous, handsome. Ezternal perianth of ree
segments, reflected, ovate, acuminate, contracted at the base, ob-
scurely nerved, gee and os ee spotted with brown within ; in-
ternal perianth of two segments, similar in form to the external, but
rather broader, and blunt with a smaller point, projecting forwards,
nearly horizontal, bright yellow on the outside, thin. La-
bellum articulated at the base of the column, of ry 2a the
two lateral the smallest, erect, broad and blunt, reflected in the 4
pale yellow on the outside, brownish within, with afew dark 8
at the base, crenate where it joins the central lobe, which is subro-
tund, reflected at the sides, crisped, but entire at the edge, except-
ing at the apex, where it is subcrenate, on the outside having nearly
the same colour with the outside of the inner perianth, but darker
and somewhat orange within, thicker than any other part of the _
rianth, all of which is somewhat fleshy, the ro outer segments the
least so. Spur very short, straight, conical, but gibbous on both sides
towards the apex. Column projecting horizontally into the centre of
the flower, nearly white, clavato-vblong, thick and fleshy, rounded above,
flat below. Anther-case terminal, pear-sh emarginate, having two
cysts for the pollen-masses, and in the middle of each an im -
gitudinal septum. Pollen masses 2, waxy, orange, pear-sha furrowed
‘on the side next the anther-case for the reception of the si sep-
tum, simple, arisi ing by a common, thin, colourless, oblong
than themselves, from a scale of similar appearance, oval, and gluti-
nous. Germen (1 inch long) rather slender, green, twisted, furrowed,
flat on one side, rounded on the other.
In one of the flowers on our specimen, there is a remarkable monstrosity.
One of bee hes en ap of the inner perianth is reflected, and assumes the
abet te of the outer perianth, and on each side of the perfect anther
there is an abortive but distinct appearance of two others, making
the whole number five. Mr Brown remarks, that the ap ce of one
abortive stamen on each side of the perfect one in many Orchidew, brings
them within the ternary arrangement so common in ne ame.
plants; and Dr Hooker shews, that in Zpidendrum fuscatum,’ Mag.
2844, the three anthers are all ected; but the singular monstrosity
which T have noticed, would shew that a tendency exists to carry our
lant forward to the quinary arrangement of Dicotyledones.
We received our plant in 1828 from the garden at Kew, where so much
has been done lately to extend the high reputation of that noble collec-
tion. It has been kept in the stove, and flowered in April, growing in
a pot among chips of bark.

Lantana mollis.

L. mollis ; inermis ; foliis oppositis, cordato-ovatis, acuminatis, crenato-
serratis, utrinque pubescentibus, pedunculo longioribus; bracteis cor-
dato ovatis, acutis.

Descnription.—Shrub erect, unarmed ; branches long and Jax, reo an.

nous, when young grooved on two sides. Leaves (3 inches long an

broad) opposite and decussating, cordato-ovate, acuminate, rugose, pu-
bescent on both sides. the pubescence being rather more harsh above
than below, crenato-serrate, decurrent along a short petiole, middle rib
and veins prominent behind. Capituda flat, axillary, on peduncles which
are as long as the petioles (4 inch), and like them pubescent. Bractee
ovate, acuminate. imbricate, pubescent, especially onthe outside. Flowers

=)
ir

Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 185

:
i
F
fi
:
F
f
E

surface. Calyx minute, nearly colourless, pesca Mr pubes-
pubescent, ex-
cept on the upper e of the limb ; tube (about 3 lines long) reddish,

Senee Aen Aarne perro paling wr se gy He
longest foli en eve eta ar aclinap ay. spt ea! acts arg
erect, rachis pubescent, especially towards the top. Bractee su -

twice as as the pedicels, which, however, are
elongated after the bracte fall. les none. gi epee mi
eee mci ga Vezillum ovate, strongly keeled on the -
middle, and in the centre having a few oblong

Ale rather longer than the vexillum, ha 5 bl
every where in contact except towards the base both above
i Lm, ter hsm aac ar aya" gir ce dag ad
alze. Stamens al y long and short, the former
we wony, shumhantyef deep soenge, cole:
> t, our.
oat ew than (uwnpusoe rine fa
slowly tapering upwards, curved. Germen

been
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1] inches long, and. nearly as much in the ‘breadth,) all
, cordate, concave, sli lobed,

ni

186 Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants.

lower, early marked all round with a yellowish border, from commen-
cing decay, 5-ribbed, the outermost bs branched from the base, finel

Scape (1 foot high) erect, round, hairs smaller than on the leaves.
Spike (3 inches long) secund, as the flowers fade. Flowers
nearly sessile ; of the flowers spreading, of the fruit more ro-
bust, and erect. Calyx campanulate, persisting, 5-cleft ; segments re-

flex. ing, acute, mucronulate, reddish-white ; tube green, angled.
Corolla 5. riage prec scarens erage tee wee Y= at the
bottom of the incisions, 3-cleft, segments acute, fan-shaped. Stamens 5,
alternating with the petals, opposite to the segments of the calyx,
and rising from its base, but adhering to the inside of its tube; fi-
lament free for a little way, where the calyx becomes coloured. An-
thers rather large, cordate, attached by the back near the base to the fila-
ments, connivent ; lobes furrowed on the outside, at first yellowish-white,
afterwards leaden coloured ; stigmata 2, sessile, blunt. Ger-
men half inferior, green, ovate, unilocular, in the mee bivalvular,
mecrene. ast early after the pollen is shed, and ibiting the ovules
long before they are ripe, or have even attained their full size, the lower
eres capsule remaining as a cup, filled with ovules, and surrounded
y another cup, somewhat shorter than itself, formed by the persisting
eal Ovules obovate, smooth, shining, green, crowded upon two parie-
tal receptacles. {

We have raised this plant in the open ground at the Botanic Garden,
Edinburgh, from seeds presented by Mr Drummond after the return of
ae overland journey to the arctic coast of America. It flowered
in May. .

Pimelia clavata ; foem.

P. clavata ; erecta, ramosa, floribus dioicis; foliis oppositis, erectis, lan-
ceolato-oblongis, apice callosis, subtus pubescentibus, demum coriaceis,
capitulo masculo nudo terminali superantibus; perianthiis, peduncu-
lis, ramulisque pubescentibus, tubo perianthii ovato persistente, limbo
dimidium tubum zequante, stylo exserto.

Pimelia clavata, La Billard. Nov. Holl. i. 11.—Brown, Prodr. 361.

DescriptTion.—Shrub erect ; branches spreading, when bo or ap red.
Leaves crowded, erect on short petioles, leneoebstnaablaiel right m
smooth and shining above, paler and pubescent below, channelled over
their whole length above, and towards their apex below, when young
soft, and callous at the apex, afterwards stiff and thick, middle rib dis-
tinct, and slightly prominent behind only towards the petiole, veins ob-
lique, and little branched. Flowers dicecious.s Femate: Capitulum
terminal, peduncled, flat, consisting of several small yellow flowers,
without involucrum., Peduncle pubescent, hairs subappressed, white.
Perianth pubescent without, hypocrateriform ; tube ovate, persisting,
green ; limb 4-parted, imbricated, spreading horizontally, yellow, seg-
ments with reflected sides, smooth above. Stamens abortive, minute,
inserted into the throat. Pistil single ; sti hairy; style lateral, ex-
serted ; germen ovate, green, smooth; ovule single, pendulous.

This species was introduced from New Holland by Mr Henchman, and
raised by Mr Mackay at the Clapton Nursery. The specimen in the
Botanic Garden, which is female, was obligingly sent from that collection
under the name of P. incana in 1828, and flowered freely in the green-
house under the usual treatment in April. I have Mr Brown’s autho-
rity for stating that it is the P. clavata of La Billardiere and of his Pro-
dromus. The plant is handsome, but the flowers insignificant. —

Polemonium moschatum.
P. moschatum ; foliis pinnatis, multijugis, foliolis cordato-rotundis sub-
labris; calycibus hirsutis; laciniis corolla obtusis; caulibus diffusis.
Polemonium moschatum, Wormskiold, MSS. fide Hooker.

Dr Graham's Deseription of New or Rare Plants. 187
Po ich ong seeding fibrous, crown sng, red out stems. Stems (3

ae Tee oy ae Se

Site, on a eeeerta aerris about ten
oF tap both drat and fre Petioles more | y pubescent than

b blue, with obscure darker veins; segments blunt, indis-
erenate ; faux yellow, with a white border ; tube yellow, darker

‘upwards angular, smooth without, hairy on the inner side. Stamens
than the corolla; valves sublinear, hairy; filaments smooth,

; style filiform, equal in to the stamens; stigma
3-cleft, revolute, subacute, as well as the style white. _
This pretty little species, in its characters to P, Mexicanum,

_ were liberally distributed to other establishments, and I have seen the
Tele very Garden of Glasgow, and in the garden of Mr Neill.
is very deserving of cultivation among alpine plants. The perfume
is only considerable, if ever it be, in certain states of the atmosphere.
Suen examinadait., Lnnipiend:-thet,ite-walue was.netiimisiaied by
pepe emer era
name rests u hen pear rng a ay Sepemarhoe ie eal-chasenl
to Dr Hooker, whose extensive herbarium is rendered doubly va-
fuable by the coker, whose extensive hi information to be derived
Oe aperemenem be rw upon this, it would only be
because the acknowledgment w ‘ord a personal gratification to my-
self, for it is known to every botanist. ,

ie dt ar pesaietian caulinis sub-

p- 265.
Descarretion.—Root fibrous. Whole plant somewhat hairy, particularl
the peduncles and calyx. Stems (6-8 inches high deett:Amasched, flet-
leaves dark

green above, paler below, pedated, ur more frequently (and both kinds
occur on the same ) rotundato-kidne pigirsisetaaabe’, and

of Stamens shorter than pistils. Achenia nearly
round, filled by ovule, dotted, compressed, collected into an oblong,
or, in some cases, even on the same ae Style

188 Dr Graham's Description of New or ‘Rare Plants.

Ranunculus affinis, 6. ——-
This plant precisely resembles the last, but is nearly apetalous. It should
scarcely be considered even a distinct variety, for in some of our plants
both kinds of flowers ap on the same stem. ‘The plants flowered

in May. having been from seeds collected on the Rocky Moun-

tains by Mr Drummond, and presented to the Botanic Garden, Edin-

burgh, by Dr Richardson.
Ranunculus ovalis.

R. ovalis ; foliis radicalibus petiolatis, ovatis, crenatis, pilosis, caulinis
sessilibus, digitatis, laciniis linearibus pilosis ; caulibus patulis, ramo-
sis, pilosis ; fructibus globosis, acheniis turgidis, obovatis, nudis, vix
rostratis. :

Ranunculus ovalis, Rafinesque-Schmaltz, in Journ. Bot. 1814, ii. 268. fide
DC.—De Cand. Syst. Veget. i. 302.—Ibid. Prodr. i. 43.

Description.—Root fibrous. Whole plant covered with long, soft downy
hairs. Stems (6 or 8 inches high) spreading, slightly angled, somewhat
q angular at the base, branched, hollow. Radical leaves petioled
(above 1} inch long, 1} inch broad), ovate, crenate, entire, and occasion-
ally somewhat wedge-shaped at their base, nerved ; nerves branched,
and nearly equal; petioles (14 inch long) —— particularly at their
upper and lower parts. Cauline leaves few, subsessile, digitate, seg-
ments from 3 to 5, entire, linear, with a slight lateral curvature, and a
distinct but not prominent middle rib; hairs most numerous on the
back. Pedunele (lengthening when in fruit to 3 inches) terminal, subte-
tragonous, striated, swelling a little upwards, hollow, less hairy than the
other parts of the plant. Calyw# hairy, yellowish, marked with green
veins on its outer surface, phylla ovate, concave, internally, reflected,
falling off with the corolla. Petals yellow, shining, smooth, slightly
emarginate. Scale of the nectary slightly reflexed and curved at its su-
perior margin. Achenia obscurely dotted, smooth and shining, obovate,
turgid, obliquely tipped by the small recurved marcescent style, col.
lected into a rounded capitulum.

This plant (which is auch by De Candolle both in the Systema and Pro-
dromus among the species a ane known) was raised at the Botanic
Garden from seeds collected on the Rocky Mountains by Mr Drum-
mond. It flowered in May.

Ranunculus Schlechtendalii.

R. Schlechtendalii ; foliis radicalibus petiolatis, 3-partitis, incisis, pilosis,
laciniis cuneatis, ciliatis, apicibus mucronulato-callosis ; caulinis pe-
tiolatis, laciniis ovato-lanceolatis, integris, pilosis: caule erecto, ra-
moso, piloso: fructibus globularibus, acheniis nudis, rostro suberecto.

Ranunculus Schlechten Hooker, MS. }

Ranunculus fascicularis, Schlechtendal, Animadversiones Botanice in
Ranunculeas Candollii, Sectio posterior, 30. t. 2.—non Muhl.

Descript1on.—Root of many strong fibres. Whole plant hairy. Stems (8-9
inches high) oblique, flattened, branched, hollow. Radical leaves petioled,
veined, and veins channelled on both sides, yo a on the upper, tri-
partite, the central, lobe trifid, the lateral deeply divided into two se-
condary lobes, each of which is again cut into two or three minor lobes;
petioles (14 inch long) channelled above, round below. Lower cauline
leaves very much resembling the radicle, but segments longer and more
entire. Upper cauline leaves few, always less divided, and. lobes of-
ten entire, more and more departing from the form of the radical leaves
as they ascend, and those nearest the flower nearly sessile, lanceolate or
linear-lanceolate. Pedunele (sometimes elongated to 4 inches) occasion-
ally rising almost from the root, and then very much resembling the
stem in shape and pubescence, when terminal more smooth and rounder.

Calyx hairy, at first green, and afterwards yellow, falling off with the

corolla; phylla elliptical, folded backwards upon themselves and the

a

Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to Oct. 1. 1829.

cultivation.

ooker, and have thus ascertained

Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to October 1. 1829, calcu-
lated for the Meridian of Edinburgh, Mean Time. By

Mr Georce Innes, Aberdeen.

‘The times are inserted according to the Civil reckoning, the day beginning at midnight.
—The Conjunctions of the Moon with the Stars are given in Right Ascension.

; JULY.

D. ‘ “ D. i. 4 #4
1. 43558 @ New Moon 16. 14 35 21
lL 6wse- 6S YY 16. 15 52 54
2 352% 6)2 17. 3.34.27
2 6215 6 9e0 17. 8 54 22
2 11444 )¢s 19. 3 5 53
3. 55450 d)h 19. 1314 0
3. 222435 Im. III.sat.Y% |22 21 42 46
4 10237 gyEN 23. 4 54 32
4 6 617) S)0eQ 23. 6 741
5. 05136 g)rQ 2%. 1739 1
6. 1520 - Inf 6 Os 25. 18 58 32
6 2583 S$) 25. 19 29 16
8. 14 26 58 Q near 3 26. ered sth
9. 5 62le- gD 26. 0 42 40
9. 623 4” ) First Quarter. | 97. 19 24 -
lo 13915 S)« 28. 20,37 21
12. 43836 d)xy= 29. 029 -
12 «6 12 52S YO S 29. 040 -
12 221833 Em. 1. sat. 7/ 30. 17 32 55
3 4hi9 gypy 31. 4 54 16
13. 5 310 ¢Q2ya 31... HS, -
13. 52544 ) ¢ Oph. 31. =. 17. 29-36
13. 16342 69h 31. 21 36 5
14. 02537 6 2%a5 31. 210 0
16. 75228 4Q9lags

PSB O10.9- 5S OO GSPO
> COU RRS ctege ee
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ng
ae
4

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em

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nN
&

Fs
E

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2

190° Celestial Phenomena from July’. to Sept. 1. 1829.

He 4 ow
7 53 40
12 28 29
630 =
5 54 58
17 59 51
9 24 52
22 35 0
12 17 31
15 36 49
20 46 16
22 5 15
13 3 15
20 54 44
21 31 31
12 51 41
1429 3
bl. 19 50 -
13. 13 51 24
13. 1717 9
14. 2217 1
15. 12.39 35
15. 20 30 32
16. 16 7 48
17. 14 21 26
19. 3.36, -

SS RS KINI FSR EY De oD

D gen
] 1 35 21
1 18 35 33
3 3 16 22
3. 61417
4. 3 Se a
4. 20 917
5 4 48 16
5 19 10 21
5. 221217
23 48 50
ll 47 20
ois ss
10. 0 17 25
10. 3 55 54
10. 11 12 43
ll. 23 39 39
12. 23 54 26
13. 6 12 39
15. 13 42.52
18. 6 16 45

PP oe ORs

OWAAKAAKAHOVAAAKAOAAAO0

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SO gDSH5H

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yr 8

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AUGUST.

oon.

uarter.

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7

_D.
19.

19.
20.
20.
21.
21.
21.
21.
22.
22.
22.

22.
23.

20 ¥ 24
20 10 53
18 29 55
18 31 27
20 59 29
6 23 32
1 40 50
0 32 45
640 -
9 7.418

AXHWAAWQMSOAAAA.Ga AdAAaAaB

% bes

OOK
+XHO Ww
2x

gOVSUS EOF E
oon + ~ aoe
as co g
| oan

20, ° eS

WOyVVYVY
— od

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O. 0 OW @ O. O- HOO WOW

vvwv

Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to Sept. 1.1829. 191

Times of the Planets passing the Meridian.

JULY.

Mercury, Venus. Mars, Jupiter. Saturn. Georgian.

D. br. yp El] ee Y meri; Hiiy Bey mr 4

1 2 29 12 53 13 10 21 42 13. 49 1 56
~y 12 58 13 6 21 25 13 35 1 40

10), Th 13.4 13 0 21 4 13 19 119
15] 11 2 13 11 12 53 20 42 13 2 1 0
lool 1047. | 1326 | 1247 | 2021 12 45 0 39
25| 10 42 13 20 12 40 20 1 12 27 019

: AUGUST.
| Mercury. Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Georgian.
pv. iH. ‘ H. ‘ H. ‘ H. ‘ H. ‘ u. ‘

1) 10 49 13 26 12 30 19 34 12 3 23 46
5} 113 13 29 12 26 19 19 11 50 23 30

ib 22 13 32 12 18 18 59 ll 32 23 9
15) Li 43 13 35 12 10 18 40 11 15 22 48
20} 12 21 13 39 12 3 18 22 10 58 22 28
25) 12.18 13 41 1] 54 18 3 10 41 227

, SEPTEMBER.

Mercury. Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Georgian.
rn i: ‘ He , H. v7 H. ‘ H. ‘ H. ’
A gt 13 44 ll 45 17 38 10 17 21 39
5| 1249 | 13 46 11 39 17 21 10 3 21 22
10| 12 56 13 49 | J1 32 17 7 9°47 21 3

13.5 13 51 ll 24 16 51 9 30 20 43

13 11 13 53 1l 16 16 32 9 12 20 22

13 17 13 57 ll 8 16 16 8 55 20 4

On the 22d of August there will be an Occultation of Aldebaran by the Moon:
D. _ °
Immersion, 22. 5 29 25 at me toa ,
Emersion; . . 645 1 at 105 tothe Right J the )’s vertex.

On the 13th September, there will be an Eclipse of the Moon, which will
be partly visible :

The Eclipse begins, . . . Sept. 1% 5 7 S81
’Moon’s upper limb sets, . . . . .°. 5 18 21
Eeliptic opposition, . . . . . . . «. 61231
Stl Nii hse mtn 620 1
Endofthe Eclipse, . ....... 73211

Digits eclipsed 6 dig. 5’ on the south part of the Moon’s disc.

(..192 .)

Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society. (Con-
tinued from former Volume, p. 391.)

1829, March 28,— H exry Wirnam, Esq. V. P. in the Chair.
The Secretary read a paper by Dr Fleming of Flisk, on the
insufhciency of the evidence of a milder climate having formerly
prevailed in the Arctic Regions. (This interesting paper is
printed in the preceding Number of this Journal, p. 277. et seq.)
The Rev. Dr Scot of Corstorphine then read an essay, entitled
The Natural History of the Bee illustrated from the Sacred
Writings. The Secretary next read a notice contained in a let-
ter from Mr Stuart Menteath, younger of Closeburn, to. Pro-
fessor Jameson, regarding the breeding of the Emu of New
Holland, at North Cray near London.. Professor Jameson read
extracts of a letter from Lieut. Alexander of Chatham to Pro-
fessor Wallace, giving an account of a deposite of bones of the
ancient ox and deer, found in a chalk cave. At this meeting a
fine skeleton of a recent elk from Lapland was exhibited ; and
the President pointed out. the difference between the existing
elk and the fossil species found in Ireland and the Isle of Man.

April 11.—Dr Wa ter Apa, V. P. in the Chair. Mr
Henry Witham read a paper on the Red Sandstone of Scotland,
illustrating his remarks by specimens of the New and of the Old
Red Sandstone, and shewing that coal may be found under the
former, but cannot be expected under the latter. The Rev.
Dr Scot then read an essay on the Honey of. the land of Ca-
naan. Mr Mark Watt exhibited and described his instrument
for measuring the different degrees of solar magnetic intensity.
'The Secretary read a report by Mr Robert Spittal and Mr
Robert Stevenson jun. relative to the nature of the impression
left on soft clay by the feet of the common pig, both on a hori-
zontal surface and on an inclined plane, proving in general that
the impression is multungulated, not bisulcated.

April 25.—Dr Avam, V. P. in the Chair. The Secretary
read ‘part of Dr Murray’s account of the Botany of the Upper
District of Aberdeenshire. The President then gave an inte-
resting view of the most important observations or discoveries
in natural history recently made in different parts of Europe.
The Socicty adjourned till November.

1

‘ ee. ¢ 198 ) ‘

SCIENTIFIC: INTRLLIGENCE:
<J1 ay lsvave@ ..Dashocd i eins
2 .ditwe of) ‘oto ASTRONOMY.» bo “aslars 9 adel
1. Comet of Short: Period.—M. Humboldt priuibrry

sestenlpeny ‘of Sciences of Paris the results obtained:by’M.
Eneke, relative to the progress of the Comet of Short»Period.
M. Eneke ‘first made:'the ‘calculations; om the ‘supposition: that
the:comet performed its revolution in vacuo’; ‘and again on the
supposition, that the ether opposed:a certain resistance to it.
The latter hypothesis has led toa much nearer approximation
than: the first.. In-fact, in adopting it, the mean error is only
18", while on the supposition that the comet moves in a perfect
vacuum, the mean error is 7/38’. These’ results are therefore
of a nature to’ confirm the hypothesis, which for other reasons

is probable enough, of a resistance opposed ve Tener athe
an. Sout AN REINS hon

outs so) boMBTBOROLOGY.

a iafalibdalalddie dete sitting of theseddésny fd edieina in
Paris, M. Villernie read a paper on the influence of marshes.
upon “human life; from which he drew the following conclu-
sions :—In the salubrious: portions of our climates, the winter
and spring months are those which give the greatest number of
deaths, and the winter is more’ favourable in the north than in
the south. In marshy countries, the greatest number of deaths
is in the months of July, August, September and October ; and:
the evaporation of the marshes is most fatal to persons from one
to six years of age. ‘The complaint which ‘generally’ attacks
children, owing to the malaria of marshes, is stated to be‘an
acute gastro-intestinal affection. _ .

3.. Influence of the Aurora Borealis on the; Magnetle
Needle—M. Arago made a communication to the Academy of
Sciences on the influence which the aurora borealis exercises on
the magnetic needle. We have already had occasion to speak
of the discussion raised between M. Arago and’several English
philosophers, relative to the limits of the extent within which the
aurora exercises a perceptible action upon the magnetic needle.
M: Arago, from a great number of observations made by him-
APRIL—JUNE 1829. N

194 Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology.

self, maintained that the action of the aurora is exercised in a
sensible manner, even in places where it is not seen. This as-
sertion was keenly contradicted in England. Several very re-
markable examples of auroras observed toward the north, at
periods marked beforehand by M. Arago, have, however,
continued to render his assertion more and more probable.
The: observations very recently sent by the Professor of Ca-

san, confirm in the most satisfactory manner the truth for which

science is indebted to M. Arago. ‘These observations present,
in fact, a perfect comcidence between the motions observed at

Paris in the magnetic needle and the auroras seen at Casan.

M. Arrago remarked, that the influence exercised by the au-

roras* seen at Casan upon the needle, which was very remark-

able on account of the distance between the two places, is ren-
dered still more so when it is considered, that there is every

reason to think that Casan is not subjected to the influence of

the same magnetic pole as Paris. A great number of magnetic
phenomena, in fact, appear incapable of being explained by the
admission of a single magnetic pole, and there is every reason
to believe, that, in Siberia, there exists a particular pole, which
exercises its influence upon all the neighbouring regions.

4. Rain at Bombay.—During a late monsoon at Bombay,

we are informed there fell from 113 to 116 inches of rain. -

GEOGRAPHY.

5. M. Kupfer’s Journey to Siberia—M. Arago Lacidly. ain,
nounced to the Academy of Sciences, that M. Kupfer, the na-

tural philosopher and mineralogist, has been directed by his go-
vernment to undertake a journey to Siberia. He will be accom-

panied by several distinguished philosophers. A corps of troops,
is to accompany the travellers, who will have to traverse regions.

where this precaution. will be necessary for their safety.

- HYDROGRAPHY.

6. Level of the Caspian.—Mr William Monteith lately made

a series of observations with Fahrenheit’s thermometer in boil-_

ing-water, at different. heights on the shores of the Black Sea
and the Caspian Sea. At the level of the Caspian Sea, water
boiled at 212°'75’: the barometer stood at 28.7’”.1,; hence the
surface of the Caspian is $75 feet below the level of the sea.

44

Scientific ianheptiaptelaraae 195

ZOOLOGY.
oe aa of the Patagonians.— An officer of Captain wiki
ebathcon communicated to us the following interesting notice.
ovina of the largest os ia a in a Tribe of about 150 in.

nu
a il

Feet. Inches. ©
Height, - - - - - 6 2
_» » Cireumference of the chest, - e 3 ll
. Do. of the loins, = - - - S. 5
Do. of the pelvis, : - : : 3 10

__ The limbs im this man were finely formed ; but the muscles
were not so strongly marked, and did not exhibit those eleva-
tions, when thrown into action, so much as in stout sailors, or
other athletic Europeans, who have been accustomed to muscu-
lar exertion. ‘There was seemingly, in the whole of them, of
both sexes, a thickish layer of adipose substance under the
common integuments, covering the whole of the body, which
seemed to fill up the hollows of the muscles, seen so distinct-
ly i in most hard-working persons. The shortest man in their
party was five feet ten inches and a half high; the generality
of them appeared to be about six feet, with large bodies. The
women, I thought, were larger in proportion to the men than is
observed i in civilised society.

8. Hint to Practical Anatomists—A dead child was brought
to the dissecting-room, and had already been some time in
the amphitheatre, when the anatomist set about dissecting it.
But at the moment of operating, he fortunately thought of in-
flating the lungs for afew moments. At the end of two or three
minutes heat returned, the circulation began to be established,
the heart beat, and presently the child revived, and was sent back
to its parents. A similar event happened to an anatomist of
Lyons, who communicated it to the French Academy. In re-
porting these cases to the Academy of Sciences, M. Julia de
Fontanelle remarked how conclusive they are in favour of the
advantage that might be derived from insufflation, particularly
in new-born children, provided always the air be introduced in-
to the lungs with precaution, From the accounts published
of the monstrous, fearful, and hitherto unimagined murders
lately perpetrated at Edipburgh, it would almost seem, that, if
some of the bodies had been treated with the view of resusci-

196 Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology:
tation, there was a chance—it is true a feeble one—of the
younger and healthier individuals. being restored to life. At
all. events, the sickening, revolting, | and heart-rending scenes
disclosed in the late investigations—scenes which would haye
struck with horror the most debased in the darkest times of
unchristian Europe—ought to sharpen the attention of those
connected with the business of practical anatomy. Our national
jee oon must not be stained, nor public: feeling outraged, by
the irregularities of any profession, however useful and im-

portant it may be..

9, The. Giraffe and Unicorn. —M. Eduard Riippell, who
has resided during six successive years in the north-eastern re-
gions of Africa, has lately published several numbers of a ‘work
illustrative of the natural history of these regions. To our
knowledge of the, Camelo-pardalis Giraffa he has added consi-
derably. He obtained, in’ Nubia and Kordofan five specimens,
two of which were males and three females. He tegards the
horns as constituting the principal generic character, they being
formed by distinct bones, united to the frontal and parietal
bones by a very obvious suture, and having throughout the
same structure with the other bones. In both sexes one of thesé
abnormal bones is situated on each branch of the coronal’ suture,
and the male possesses, an additional one placed more anteriorly,
and occupying the middle of the frontal suture. ‘The anoma-
lous position of this appendage furnishes a complete refutation
of the theory of Camper with regard to the unicorn, that: such
an occurrence was contrary to nature, and proves at least the
possibility of the existence of such an animal. M. Riippell
also obtained some information in Kordofan respecting this
much debated animal. It was stated to be of the’size of a small
horse, of the slender make of the gazelle, and furnished with
a long straight slender horn in the male, which was wanting ‘in
the female. _ According to the statements made by various per-
sons, it inhabits the deserts to the south of Kordofan, is un-
commonly fleet, and comes only occasionally to the Koldagi
Heive Mountain, on the borders of Kordofan.

10. Female Child with Two Heads.—M. Geoffroy St Hilaire
presented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on 25th May
1829, a drawing of a monster, which was living at Turin in the

Re

beginning of last March, and was two months and a half. old.
This drawing, and the news of the event, were communicated
to him by Professor Rolando and M. Jules Arthaud, a French
physician. The individual represented is a girl with two heads.
The. lower parts alone are common to the two individuals: the
rest is,separated, and presents the conformation proper to the
normal state. The priest, seeing in this creature two distinet
individuals, baptized each of them separately: one received the
name of Ritta, the other that of Christina. They were born at
Sassari in Sardinia, in the beginning of March 1829. Their
common size is that of a child at the full term. Ritta appeared
to be suffering. The father has the intention of carrying them
to Milan, whence he is to go to Geneva. There have been ex-
amples of such monsters living to a pretty advanced age. In
the reign of James VI. of Scotland, and at his court, there lived
aman who was double from the navel upwards. The king had
him carefully brought up. He made rapid progress in music.
The two heads acquired several languages: they disputed to-
gether, and the two upper halves sometimes even beat each
other. In. general, however, they lived on good terms. When
the lower part of the body was tickled or pricked, the two indi-
viduals felt at the same time. When, on the contrary, one of
the upper individuals was irritated, it alone experienced the ef-
fects. . This monster lived to the age of twenty-eight. One of
the bodies died several days before the other.—( Rerum Scot.
Hist. auct. G. Buchanan). In 1723, M. Martinez observed at
Madrid a bicephalous man, who was shewn there for money.
Sigebert also says that he saw a child double above and single
below. The one ate, the other did not. They often fought toge-
ther. One of them dying, the other scarcely survived four hours.

1. Observations on a Human Monster belonging to a new ge-
nus.—M. Geoffroy St Hilaire, in May 1829, read to the French
Academyof Sciences a memoir on a new production of the human
species, struck with monstrosity in the fourth month of intra-ute-
rine life, and on the concurrence of circumstances which, pro-
duced the monstrosity, by disturbing a formation, which, until
that period, was regular. On the 26th April last, was born, in
the Rue du Fauxbourg St Martin, of a woman aged 24 years,
who had no children previously, a child of regular period, and

198 _ Scientific Intelligence — Zoology.

of large size. On measuring it, from the projection of its eyes,
its length was found to be twenty inches. The upper region of
the cranium was wanting. ‘The woman had been attended by
Madame Fremaux, midwife, and Dr Brion, both residing in
the same street. The latter has drawn up a notice, in which’ he
has described the defects of the conformation which the child
presented. ‘“M. St Hilaire remarked, that it is to him, therefore,
that the observation in question belongs. At a meeting of ana-
tomists called by Dr Brion, one of the medical men present
made the most singular assertions as to the causes of the mon-
strosity. ‘ The monster has large eyes,” said he, “ which is
because the mother had her view constantly fixed on large eyes
_which she singularly loved. It has long and pointed ears, be-
cause the imprudent mother had her caressing hands continual-
ly upon the long ears of her dog.” M. Geoffroy St Hilaire
mentioned this fact, for the purpose of ridiculing the explana-
tions which some medical men still give of cases of monstrosity.
After enumerating the different kinds to which the monster in
question may be referred, he shewed that it comes »nearest to
the T'hlipsencephali. Now, in this monstrosity, the foetus go-
ing on in a regular manner until about the fourth month, only
deviates at a later period, and under the influence of some’ vio-
lent cause, from the normal organisation. Confiding in his pre-
vious researches, he did not hesitate to declare, that the mother
of the new and very singular thlipsencephalus which was before
him, had been rudely struck about the third or fourth month of
gestation, and even added that it was probably by a violent
kick. This explanation was utterly rejected by the medical
man who had proposed the singular one mentioned above. On
questioning the woman, it was in fact discovered, that, at the
period of four months’ gestation, she had actually been struck
and severely wounded by a violent kick, which hit upon. the
right side of the uterine region. Dr Brion’s inquiries led) him
to the following results :

Conception took place on the 19th June 1828 ;

Lesion produced by wound, 17th November 128 ;

Birth accomplished on the 26th April 1829 ;

Total duration of gestation, 282 days.
Until the period when she was struck, that is to say, ie the
first four months of gestation (112 days), the mother enjoyed

Scientific Intelligence — Botany. 199
excellent health ; ‘but from the 17th November to the period of
delivery (during the next five months) she did not cease to ex-
perience in the lower abdomen, and in the whole pelvic re-
gion, pains more or less acute, which she attributed to the
brutality of which she was the victim. It was also a kick
on the lower belly that had produced the organic deviations
of the second species of thlipsencephalus observed by M.
Geoffroy; but this species, as well as the first, presented
smaller dimensions, the individuals to which they belong, ha-
ving been only sixteen inches in length. On examining with
more attention, and with the aid of dissection, the new thlipsen-
cephalus which was submitted to him, he found that it differed
from the first two by characters so important, that he was led
to consider it as a new genus, to which he gives the name of
Nosocephalus. Like the thlipsencephalus, it is the natural and
almost necessary result of a violence exerted upon the organ
which contains the product of conception, only at a more ad-
vaneed period than that at which the deviation would lead to
the production of a thlipsencephalus. The author concluded
with some considerations respecting the theory of monsters.
Recurring to the observation which formed the subject of his
memoir, he remarked, that the manner it which it was possible
to guess, from the inspection of a monstrous production, the
cause to which the monstrosity should be referred, and the dif-
ferences of deviation observed in the nosocephalus, which accord
so well with the more advanced period at which the perturbing
accident took place, leave no doubt respecting the theory of the
formation of these kinds of monsters ; so that at least in well de-
fined cases, science possesses facts which may be considered as
attaching themselves to principles sufficiently demonstrated to be
capable of being applied to use in the practice of medicine. The
theory is so perfect in this respect, that, on the inspection of
certain monstrosities, it is possible to assign the month, the
week, and almost the day, on which the Petre accident has
interrupted the regular order.

BOTANY.

12. On the calcareous crystals which occur in the tissues of
living vegetables.—M. Raspail, in a late memoir, shews that the
erystals of the pandani, orchides, scille, &c. in short, all those

200 Scientific Intelligence:— botany.

which are-about 4'5th of a millimetre in length, and, }gdthoin
breadth, are hexahedral crystals.of phasphate of lime ; and that
the crystals-of the tubercles of the iris, which are }d:of amilli-
metre in length, and» ?,th in breadth, are rectangulamerystals
of oxalate of lime. It: was by means of a magnifying power of
from 1000 .to»2000 diameters that these new researches were
established.» These crystals, it will be remembered, were taken
for microscopic hairs, and very recently an author imagined /he
saw them perforated in the middle of their mane and figured
them a as such. .

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

I. Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed. By Grorce Jounston, M.D.
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, &e. Vol. I. _Phe-
_ nogamous Plants.

Although botanists have made ovtnhiine sidllealineneali the
plants of Great Britain, and Floras of different kinds have made
their appearance, we are still without a connected and philoso-
phical view of the vegetation of this interesting portion of Eu-
rope. The Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, by Dr Johnston;
aman of superior intellect, is in the usual form. It is, not-
withstanding, interesting and amusing, and cannot fail to prove
acceptable, not only to collectors of plants, but also to the gene-.
ral reader, who will find in it curious and useful informatiomin
regard to the history and uses of the plants enumerated and: de-
ecribed by our author. D:

Il. Plante Asiatice Rariores ; or, Descriptions and Figures of a
Select Number of Unpublished East Indian Plants. —
Wauuicn, M.D.

‘The work will consist of three volumes in folio, each containing
one hundred plates, engraved and colouréd in the best style,
from the Honourable Company’s drawings, made by native ar-
tists under the direction of the author, accompanied by full de-
scriptions in Latin, with the addition of such observations in
English, as may appear necessary and interesting. _ It will be
published in twelve numbers, each containing twenty-five en-

New Publications. 201

gravings, with the appropriate letter-press ; to appear every
“three months. This work will at once bear evidence to the
‘splendid patronage of the Honourable the Court of Directors of
the East India Company, and to the unwearied perseverance
and profound botanical knowledge of Dr Wallich ; it will also
shew the splendour of vegetation in our eastern dominions, and
‘how very much remains to be done before botanists acquire, or
can communicate, a knowledge of the almost endless riches of
the vegetable kingdom in the eastern world. The efforts made
by the Court of Directors, in exciting and supporting an in-
quiry into Indian botany, ought to be generally known, not
only as most creditable to themselves, but as directing the ex-
pectations of the public in regard of the forthcoming work.
Not only has a botanic garden of about 300 acres been long
established, and liberally endowed near Calcutta—not only have
the Court of Directors, with great judgment and liberality, ap-
pointed Dr Wallich for its superintendant—not only have they
enabled him to perform various extensive journeys in Hindus-
tan, Nipal, the Straits of Malacca, and in the Burman em-
pire, defraying all his expences, and enabling him ‘to procure
' drawings upon the spot, where, surrounded by a profusion of
living native specimens, he was able to guard against the er-
rors which, in other circumstances, necessarily have their origin
in casual deviations from characteristic structure—not only
have they done all this, but they have brought Dr Wallich to
Europe, with a vast collection of dried specimens, and living
plants, that his observations may be again checked by com-
parison with authoritative herbaria, and that a work may be
given to the world equally creditable to them and to him, and
eminently conducive to the interests of science. Lastly, to ena-
ble'the publishers to do every justice to the execution of the
plates, the Court of Directors have taken copies to the value of
L. 1200, and Dr Wallich is to have no pecuniary interest what-
ever in the publication. Most certainly no botanical work ever
was edited under circumstances better calculated to promote just
expectations of splendid execution, and great scientific exactness.
The herbarium brought home by Dr Wallich contains at the
least 8000 species, and the Court of Directors, with a disinte-
rested liberality which has no parallel, have same the
APRIL—JUNE 1829. 0

202 List of Patents, 1829.

many duplicates of this noble collection to be distributed te the

prineipal public and private herbaria in this country, on the

continent of Europe, and in “America. The collection of
living plants and seeds, unique both as to extent and rarity, has

been divided between the Royal establishment at Kew, and the

garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick. Every con-

siderable garden in Britain bears evidence to the success attend-”
ing the exertions of the East India Company in behalf of bo-

tanical science, for there is not one of them which does not con-

tain plants recently introduced into Britain through the garden

at Calcutta. It is believed that in Chiswick garden alone, there

is at this moment from one to two hundred new East Indian

plants introduced in this way.

IIL. The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and. Cure of Chronic
Diseases, §c. By James Crark, M.D. Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians of London, &c. 1 vol. 8vo..

To the physician, natural historian, and also to the invalid
labouring under diseases likely to be cured or alleviated by a
change of climate, we recommend the perusal of this valuable
work, ‘The facts it contains are accurate and well arranged—the
inferences from them judicious—and the practical rules stated
with great clearness and precision. It is divided into two parts.
The first Part contains an interesting account of the mild climates
of the south of Europe and of England ; points out the manner
in which the climate of different places resorted to by invalids
is modified by local circumstances, and compares these places
relatively to their influence on disease. This portion of the
work shews the importance of a knowledge of natural history to
the physician. Some medical communities, however, maintain
that all natural history, with exception of a little medical and
technical botany—the least interesting department of the beauti-
ful science of plants—may be safely dispensed with by the stu:
dent of medicine! The second part gives an account of the
principal diseases which are benefited by a mild elimate., Dr
Clark remarks,

“ As I anticipated that the following work would be perused by many
persons not of the profession, but who are yet deeply interested in the subject

of climate, in relation to its effects on disease, I have endeavoured to express
myself in as plain language as possible ; and I trust I have succeeded in

List of English Patents. 208
making myself. intelligible to the generality of readers, without at all dimi-
nishing the utility of the beok to the members of my own profession. It has
been my wish to lay before the public such a work as might serve at once as
a manual to the physician in selecting a proper climate for his patient, and
a guide to the latter, while no longer under the direction of his medical ad-
viser. It is only those who have resided abroad, and have mixed much with
that numerous class of our countrymen who travel for health, that can know
how very much such a publication is wanted. I may perhaps be permitted
to add, at the same time, that it is only those who have attempted such a
tt ee cee.

Dai ip Papel cited in England from 23d January to 28th

March 1829.
1829,
Jan. 23. To J. H. Caxey of Aylesbury Street, Clerkenwell, for “ improve-
~~ ments in umbrellas and parasols.”

27. To J. Frasex of Limehouse, for “ an improved arrangement of flues
to communicate with the various parts of culinary apparatus, such
as steam-boilers, ovens, hot plates, or closets, and stewing stoves.”

- ‘To J. Buarruwarre and J. Entcsson of the New Road, Fitzroy
- Square, for their “ method of converting liquids into steam.”

_ To Lieut. R. Parker, R. N. of Hackney, for “an improved drag or
apparatus applicable to stage-coaches and other wheel-carriages, and

___ whereby the motion may be retarded or stopped when required.

Feb. 5. To J. Rayner of King’s Square, Old Street, for his “ improvements
©" Gn apparatus for conducting heat and applying it in washing, scour-
ing, dressing, dyeing, and finishing woollen cloths, and in callen-
dering, straining, &c.”
_ To J. Pumpurey of Tally Hill, Worcestershire, for “ improvements
7 jin steam-engines and machinery for propelling steam-boats.”
‘To A. Dawwios of Leman Street, Goodman's Fields, for “ an inven-
- tion, communicated from abroad, for the manufacture of improved
hats and bonnets in imitation of Leghorn straw hats and bonnets.”
__ToJ. Bunreis of Maiden Lane, Coyent Sarde, for “ a method of
gilding woven fabrics in burnished and dead or matted gold or sil-
ver, and which fabrics may be used as gold or silver and laced bor-
_ derings, &c.”

To R. Gree of Blackwall, for “ improvements in the construction

of masts.”

7. To W. H. Krrcuen of High Street, St Giles’s, Bloomsbury, and

A. Sarru of York Terrace, Westminster, for “ improvements in

the construction of window frames, sashes or casements, shutters
and doors, designed to afford security against ‘burglars, as well as to
exclude the weather.”
12. To FE. Heap of Devonshire Street, Vauxhall Road, for “ improve.
ments in illumination, or producing artificial light.”

Sy

204 List of’ Scottish Patents.

20. ‘To S. Watxenr of Beeston, Leeds, cloth-manufacturer, for “ an im-
proved apparatus, which he denominates ‘ an operameter,’ appli-
cable to machinery for dressing woollen or other cloths.”

Mar. 26. To W. Cuuncn, Esq. of Bordesley Green, parish of Ashton, War-
wickshire, for “‘ improvements in buttons, and in the mr eeu
for manufacturing the same.”

28. To W. Mave ey of Yardley, Worcestershire, Sita for “ an ap-
paratus for catching, detecting, and detaining depredators and tres-
passers, or any animal, which he denominates the Humane Snare.”

List of Patents granted in Scotland, from 10th March to 5th
June 1829.

1829,

Mar. 26. To Joun Upyy of Arbour Terrace, Commercial Road, in the county
of Middlesex, for “‘ certain improvements on the Steam-engine.”

30. To Poitier Dersysurre of Ely Place, Holborn, in the county of
Middlesex, Esq. for an invention of “ a certain medicine or em-
brocation, to prevent or alleviate 'sea-sickness, which may be use-

fully applied to other maladies.”

May 20. To Henny Bocx of Ludgate Hill, in the city of London, Esq. for
an invention, in consequence of a communication made to him by
a certain foreigner residing abroad, “ of improvements on ma-
chinery and apparatus for embroidery or ornamenting cloths,
stuffs, and other fabrics.”’

To Ricnarp Green of Blackwall, in the county of Middlesex,
shipbuilder, for a “ certain improvement in the construction of made .
masts.”’

To Jostas Lamsert of Liverpool Street, in the city of London, Esq.
for “ an improvement in the process of making iron, applicable at
the smelting of the ore, and at various subsequent stages of the
process, up to the completion of the rods or bars; and for the im-
provement of the quality of inferior iron.”

To Joun Dicken Wuitenean of Oakview Mills, in the county of
York, woollen manufacturer, for “ certain improvements in ma-
king, constructing, or manufacturing cartridges for sporting, and
other purposes.”

To Tuomas Tynvatt of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick,
gentleman, for an invention, in consequence of a communication
made to him by a certain foreigner residing abroad, for “ certain
improvements in the machinery to be employed in making nails,
brads, and screws.”

June 5. To Wir11am Goprrey Kyexuer of Pearl Street, Spitalfields, in
the county of Middlesex, chemist, for “ improvements in evapo-
rating sugar; which improvements are also applicable to other
purposes.”

inh eumhs, asteasall shite THE
= EDINBURGH NEW
‘PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

Biographical Memoir of M. Puutrre Pinev. By Baron
Cuvier *.

Diatepsiens <Brones, havinky. chives Sedenuebildienced designed Joy
his father for the medical profession, prepared himself for it by
the early study of mathematics and natural history, and the
labours of his whole life tended to introduce into the science of
medicine procedures similar to those of geometry, to bring its
language to the exactness of that of naturalists, and to subject
diseases to accurate divisions and subdivisions, like those under,
which the productions of nature are arranged,—a very bold
attempt, for the mathematics treat only of simple ideas, and
natural history only of beings of a determinate form, while the
alterations of organized bodies, the subjects of medical science,
are among the most complicated, the most changeable, and the
most fugitive in nature. |

But M. Pinel did not shew, in the world, this daking mind :
there his reserve and bashfulness were extreme, and delayed,
beyond the usual term, the period when he obtained the success
and ascendancy to which he was entitled. His depressed situa-
tion in early life was perhaps the cause of this diffidence. L A

He was born on the 20th April 1745, in the small town of St.
André d’Alaysac, near Castres, where his father, being a prac-
titioner of surgery, he received, at home, his first instruction :

* Read at the Royal Institute of France, on the 11th June 1827.
JULY—OcTOBER 1829. ' P

206 Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel.

and, till he had attained the age of seventeen, he could not be
sent to Toulouse to prosecute his studies. Even then, as his
parents were not rich, he found himself obliged to support him-
self by giving lessons in mathematics, and composing theses for
students in more easy circumstances, and less diligent than him-
self. In the thesis which he himself at that time defended in
philosophy, and which treats of the aceuracy which the study of
the mathematics communicates to the judgment in its application
to the sciences, is seen the first germ of the ideas which directed
him in the rest of his labours. However, as the fees of gradua-
tion were pretty high, it was not until 1773, when he was nearly
twenty-nine years of age, that he was able to obtain the title of
Doctor. He then went to Montpellier, and settled there, hop-
ing that he might find some practice in a city whose medical
reputation drew so great a concourse of invalids from all parts
of Europe. But two causes opposed his success: his timidity
and want of assurance, on the one hand ; and, on the other, the
reputation which he had acquired as a geometrician. Being
without patients, he continued to teach pupils, and at the same
time made himself master of the higher parts of mathema-
tics, with the intention of applying them to physiology. The
celebrated work of Borelli, on animal mechanics, formed the
chief object of his meditations. He sought to throw on it the
light of modern analysis, of which he possessed all the resources.
This was publicly known; and the public thought it impossible
that a man so entirely engaged with abstract sciences could ever
have skill in curing.

M. Pinel imagined that, in Paris, where the sciences shine
with so much splendour, these prejudices would not be enter-
tained, and removed to that city in 1777. Cousin, an able
geometrician, and a member of the Academy, to whom he was
recommended, tried to induce him to confine himself to mathe-
matics, in which he thought he would be more fortunate; but
M. Pinel persisted in his plan, though his first attempts in the
capital were not more encouraging. He had translated Cullen’s
Practice of Medicine, and expected thus to form a beginning to
his reputation *. An established physician was, precisely at

* In 1785, 2 vols. 8vo.

Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel. 207
thé’same ‘time, engaged in the same work, and knew so well how
to get the start among the journalists, that M. Pinel’s translation
was not even mentioned. Various detached papers *, an edition
of Baglivi+, and translations of foreign works, made for book-
sellers; were hardly more advantageous to him. Three times
successively he presented himself at the competitions for a gra-
tuitous admission into the Faculty; three times he failed ; and,
‘to crown these severe trials, he had the mortification to be van-
quished by a man so much his inferior, that he himself had
written his doctrinal thesis; but this booby had been physician
of a regiment, and had acquired boldness. He spoke with ease ;
while the excellent Pinel, though abounding in all kinds of
science, expressed himself with difficulty, and almost stammered.
M. Lemounier, first physician to the king, had arrived, on the
recommendation of his friend M. Desfontaines, to make him
physician to the household of Mesdames the aunts of Louis
XVI; but, when he presented himself, his bashfulness made
him dumb; the princesses formed an erroneous opinion of him,
and from this gleam of fortune too, he was obliged to with-
draw. His only resource was to place himself as physician in
an establishment which an individual kept for the insane ; where,
though the experience he acquired was afterwards the chief
means of his success, the pecuniary reward he received at the
time hardly kept him from want. So many attempts frustrated,
ended in reducing him to a kind of melancholy ; he shunned
society, and perhaps would have fallen into despair, if his
friend Savary, so well known from his Letters on Egypt and
Greece, had not in a manner taken possession of him, and in
various ways endeavoured to inspire him with some courage.
At length, in 1791, a prospect less gloomy began to open :
the Royal Society of Medicine had offered a prize for an essay
on the most effectual means of treating patients whose under-
standing has become deranged. M. Pinel, whom his situation
had enabled closely to observe insanity, and who had observed

* In 1780, he gave several medical articles to the Journal de Paris. At
a later period, he took a principal part in the editing of the Gazette de Santé;
he translated the medical and physiological part of the Abridgment of the
Philosophical Transactions.
t Baglivi opera omnia medico-practica, novam editionem innumeris
purgatam, notis illustravit et prefectus est Ph. Pinel. Paris, 1788.
Pp 2

208 Bugraphical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel.’

it not less as a philosopher than as a physician, wrote on the
subject. This time his work spoke for him, and he obtained:
the prize *. The physician Thouret, who had been one of his:
judges, and was also one of the administrators of hospitals, 're-
presented him to his colleagues as worthy of being called to put
in practice, in a public establishment, the sound and novel views
which he had disclosed in his essay, and, at the beginning of
1792, procured for him the office of physician to the Bicétre. In
1794, he had him transferred to La Salpétriére, and the follow-
ing year, when Thouret was commissioned, along with Foureroy,

to organize the school of medicine, Pinel was one of the: =
sors whom he nominated.

Henceforward the progress of M. Pinel was as sane as his
former endeavours had been vain+. Applying, on a great
scale, his talent for observation and analysis, and giving in his
lectures, with an unusual degree of method, the results of the
observations which he had made in the hospitals, he soon: drew
a crowded audience. His numerous ~pupils did for him’ what
his bashfulness had hindered him from doing for himself; and
now having, with singular rapidity, from beig a man of science
who had been left to the seclusion of his chamber, become one
of the most esteemed physicians of the capital, he might have
remarked, that, if it may be said, with the proverb, the value of
a situation is that of the man who fills it, it is not less true,
that, in a thousand instances, the situation is necessary to shew
the value of the man by whom it is obtained.

The popularity of M. Pinel among young men arose from
the same cause as that of all the most celebrated pathologists ;
from the hope he had conceived of the simplification of ‘the
theory of the most difficult of all the arts; of seeing it even
assume the forms of a regular science, by being reduced to fixed
principles, logically drawn from more elementary sciences, or
from the approximation of the facts that are peculiarly its own.

The project of assimilating medicine to natural history, was

* It was not published, but he introduced its principles into his treatises
on Mania and Mental Alienation. : ‘

t+ He was at first conjoined in the chair of Hygiéne, of which M. Hallé
was chief professor. On the death of Doublet, he obtained his removal to
the chair of Pathology.

Biographical Memoir of M Philippe Pinel. 209
what the new professor especially announced, and with this
view he first endeavoured to form a precise language for the
descriptions of diseases, modelled on that which Linnzeus had
introduced into botany. He even carried his imitation so far as
to:suppress the verbs in his French sentences, as they are in the
characteristic Latin phrases used in natural history. He sup-
posed that each disease, like each plant or animal, forms a cha-
racterized species ; and, in fact, adopting, in this respect, the
doctrines of the ancients, M. Pinel saw in each of our maladies
an attack, a development, periods, and a regular termination,
aseach organized being has its birth, its growth, fixed periods for
each of the functions which it has to perform, and an inevitable
end: He imagined that, if the ordinary succession of symptoms
be often changed, it is not owing to the disease changing. either
its species or its nature ; but to its being variously complicated
with diseases of other species, which may themselves be super-
complicated or become predominant, and thus, as it were, make
the original disease» disappear. But so long as the complica-
tions remain secondary, they form in nosology what varieties
are in natural history. It is to this progress of each disease,
to the whole of the phenomena in succession, that the physician
ought to attend, and not to the momentary symptoms, which in
general give only fallacious indications. He ought, above all, to
use every endeavour to distinguish the complications, to ascertain
the effect of each of them, and thus, in some measure, to de-
compose the disease into. its elements. ‘This decomposition is
what M. Pinel named the application of analysis to medicine ;
and at a period when the doctrines of Condillac were not less
predominant in philosophy than those of Linneus in natural
history, this announcement was alone sufficient to ensure to his
book a favourable reception *.

All further explanation, and even the most of inquiries i into
proximate causes, seemed to him vain in the present state of
physiology. He rejected especially those alterations in the
blood and humours, and all those other suppositions which have
varied in each succeeding age with the ideas that have been formed

* Nosographie Philosophique, ou Methode de l’Analyze appliqué a la Me-

dicine. Paris, 1798. 2vols. The fifth edition was published in 1813,
3 vols. 8vo.

210 Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel.

of the physical and chemical properties of inanimate: matter,
but which have never, in any age, added to the history, and still
less to the pathology, of living bodies, any thing but chimerical
applications. It is to M. Pinel that we are chiefly indebted for
having driven them from our schools; and, had he no other
merit, science would be under the greatest obligations to: hiny
for this service alone. 'The physician, in a word, according to
him, ought, without forming systems about: causes, to observe
and describe a disease, as a naturalist describes a plant or an in-
sect, who does not lose himself in researches into the mecha-
nism of its functions, too much beyond what we yet know of
organisation. It was for this reason that he preferred ‘the title
of Nosography, or Description of Diseases, to that of Nosology,
which, before his time, was employed for works of the same
kind, and which indicates a theory of diseases, and a more inti-
mate knowledge of their nature.

But the naturalist distributes plants and animals in a certain
order. He arranges their species under certain genera, as the
only means of recognising them amid so great a multitude
of different beings. In this, also, according to M. — the
physician may imitate him.

The principle once admitted, that each disease has its eran
course, it is the series of its phenomena that constitutes: its
species, and the phenomena common .to several diseases form
the links by which they may be united into groups, ranged un-
der each other. Different ways even may be taken, as in natu-
ral history; either the most evident phenomena may be at«
tended to; and thus, what is called an artificial method, may
be formed; or the intimate nature of diseases may be more
closely investigated, attention being also paid to their situation,
and to the particular kind of alterations which they produce in
the tissues, or in the functions of the organised body, and thus
their distribution would be assimilated to what in botany and
zoology are called natural methods. But, at the time when M;
Pinel began his researches, the differences of these two methods
in natural history, and the advantages or inconveniences pecu-
liar to each, were not yet fully appreciated, and he could not
avail himself of the results on this subject, which the great na-
turalists of our day have since obtained. Linnzus was the only

Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel. 211
model whom he could follow; and it may be said, that, like
him, he created a mixed method, in which some divisions have
a natural basis, while the greater number are founded only on
those relations which are named artificial, that is to say, on phe-
nomena selected by preference among the most evident, and not
among the most essential.

Thus, of his five giant dlithditeg alidevatyithe:Sestislin
which he names essential fevers, depends only on the symptoms.
The author even supposes that these fevers do not spring from
a source which is incapable of being made apparent. The
second division, or that of the phlegmasia, is, on the other
hand, characterized, whether as a class or in its subdivisions,
from the inflammation, which is the original cause of the fever,
and from the part where it shews itself. The same variation is
observed, if not in the characters, at least in the denominations
of the orders and genera of his first division, that of essential
fevers. Some, as the adynamic, or putrid fevers, and the ataxic,
or malignant, are named according to their symptoms ; others,
as the meningo-gastric, or bilious fevers, and the adeno-menin-
geal, or mucous fevers, according to the organs which they
chiefly affect. His fifth class of diseases, which is that of or-
ganic lesions, includes several infirmities, such as syphilis and
seurvy, in which, at least, mipebigguabiaien betanehpaty
means, been demonstrated.

Still it must be allowed, thatif M. Pinel did not attain a. per-
fect method, which in medicine, still more than in natural his-
tory, properly so called, would seem to be the philosopher’s
stone, he had yet the merit of introducing into his distribu-
tion a much greater degree of order than any of those before
him, who had engaged in a similar attempt. He had even
ideas which have produced useful results, whether in his own
hands, or in those of his pupils; thus, in the arrangement of
fevers, he assigned only a secondary rank to the phenomena of
intermittence, remittence, or continuity, which Sauvages, and
other nosologists, had placed first, and had thus been induced
to separate from each other affections similar in their nature.

‘The finest part of his classification is that of inflammations,
according to the tissues which they affect, and especially the
distinction which he established, more firmly than any of his

212 Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel.
predecessors, between inflammation of the membranes called
mucous, which line those of our cavities that communicate with
the surface, as the inner coat of the intestines, and that of the
trachea and bronchia, and the inflammations of the transparent
or serous membranes which line the closed cavities, such as the
pericardium, which envelopes the heart, the pleura, which covers
the interior of the chest, and the peritoneum, which wrerwirns
earn and embraces the intestines in its folds.

- Bichat informs us, that it was this distinction that ‘exdebill
sia to engage in the beautiful researches which compose: his
‘Treatise on the Membranes, the first work of that celebrated
physiologist, and that of which his General Anatomy is in some
measure only a development. Amidst these testimonies which
we bear to the services rendered by M. Pinel, it would be a
great omission to forget that. of previa excited he _—
such a pupil.

‘These were the voli bases of the :esagnaiiia of. Pinel
The author did not, as has been supposed, admit occult cases or
metaphysical affections, if we may so speak; he by no means
contended that diseases have not a marked situation and an in-
ternal cause ; but he kept out of view that cause, and often even
the seat of the disease, because he thought the determination of
them beyond our reach, and he limited himself to the history of
the disorders which diseases produce, and to the kind of order
to which these very disorders themselves, in their succession, are
still subjected.

From this manner of regarding dich it - caay whens
stand what was his method of treatment *. It was, in general,
that named the Expectant Method, consisting in the observa-
tion of the progress of a disease, and in aiding the internal, move-
ment by which those conservative powers, that are indispensable
to the continuance of organization, seem to desire to oppose-it,
but in refraining from any imprudent interposition in this~kind
of struggle, in which, too often, the physician does not: know
whether he be helping nature, or whether, in his. ee

“ La Medicine Clinique, &c. Clinical Medicine rendered more | and
aceurate by the application of Analysis; or a Collection of O vations on
Acute Diseases, made at the Salpétriére. 1 vol. 8vo. 1802. Toes Mitten
was published in 1815.

Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel. — 218
‘be seconding the disease. Without doubt, on these principles,
the object of a physician is less to administer salutary remedies
‘than to prevent the taking of those that are hurtful; and the
vulgar commonly expect from him more. It seems to them, that
studies carried on for so many ages, under so many circum-
“stances, by so many persons, and which end in only teaching us
‘coolly to view the progress of a disease, and to class its species in
‘our systems, are efforts of mind to which their results are by no
‘means proportionate. We can hardly find fault with those com-
‘plaints, or refrain from hoping that, should we be able to ascend
‘to the origin of causes, it might be possible to oppose at once to
each disease some obstacle of a contrary nature.. We can hardly,
therefore, avoid the fear, that, by thus attending to these noso-
‘graphical descriptions, we shall always remain at a great dis-
tance from the true end of the medical art, which, after all, is to
‘give relief. But, on the other hand, are we not obliged to con-
fess, that, even to the present day, all theories have been over-
‘turned by each other ? The coctions and the humours, the stric-
tum and the laxum, the fermentations of the acids and alkalies ;
the’action of the rational soul, which seeks to preserve the body
without being perceived by it, and which is so often thwarted in
its anxiety ; the vital principle, that other kind of soul, which is
neither material nor spiritual, and on which is laid all that can-
not otherwise be explained, have successively moved off to the
region of chimeras. Will those ingenious systems be more for-
tunate that have been invented by some physicians of our own
day, the results of a new physiology, founded on a single prin-
ciple, and combined with so much ingenuity ? Time will soon
shew, but what it will teach us it is not in our power to foresee.
~ “It had long been proposed to determine the efficacy of each
method, by tables, establishing, in numbers, the degree of pro-
bability of success, whether by the various treatments, or by ha-
‘ving no treatment at all. This idea would naturally be seized
by a geometer, who had become a physician; and, in fact, it
‘strongly engaged M. Pinel’s attention. In particular, he made
a happy application of it to the diseases of the mind, the class
of infirmities that had attracted his earliest notice, and which,
more strongly than any others, attest the wretchedness of man.
The two hospitals in which he was successively employed, exhi-

214 Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel.

bited to him those maladies, in all their varieties, and in all
their changes. He framed tables in which their predominant
and occasional causes, the series of their phenomena, according
to age and sex, and their various terminations, were carefully
stated ; and from these tables he derived the most valuable re-
sults. The chief was the certainty that, in many cases, mania
is a transitory disease, which cures itself like fever, if it be not
disturbed in its progress ; whence it was easy to perceive the ne-
cessity of instantly reforming the barbarous methods which, till
that time, had been employed against it. It seemed, in fact,
that, on this point, medicine had continued stationary since the
twelfth century. In many hospitals, the physicians had dis-
dained the treatment of maniacs, and had left it to monks, cha-
ritable no doubt, but uninformed, and obstinately attached, like
all men of their class, to what their society had formerly prac-
tised. From the first attack, the unfortunate patients were tor-
mented by cruel modes of treatment, which aggravated the evil.
If the mental alienation was prolonged, chains, dungeons, and
the most frightful usage, ended in rendering it incurable. One
might have said that so many criminals were delivered over be-
forehand to the punishments of hell, and yet this darkened and
enfeebled reason is scarcely ever altogether extinguished ; the
insane have not always lost the sense of justice, nor that of kind-
ness. These cruelties, which they have not deserved, exaspe-
rate them: they see in them only an unwarrantable abuse of
power, and too often the mistrust and hatred with which they
are inspired are the greatest obstacles to their cure. Wherever
M. Pinel had any influence, he abolished these violent measures ;
patients enjoyed all the liberty compatible with the safety of
those about them. Endeavours were made to learn the moral
cause of the disease, and to oppose it by means of the same
nature. More frequent cures were soon obtained, and when the
disease could not be overcome, the barbarity at least was discon-
tinued of treating harmless men like ferocious beasts. The dif-
ferent kinds of alienation were separated, cleanliness and order
every where prevailed; in many cells quietness succeeded) to
fury ; the unhappy victims found rest, and even moments of en-
joyment. It has often happened that strangers have gone
through almost the whole apartments of La Salpétriere reserved

Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel. 215
for cases of mental alienation, and still asked if they were soon
to be taken there, so tranquil are the patients, so much engaged
in their ordinary occupations, walking about singly or together ;
eens Miedinrecomnablo that-of taties,
al creatures. —

eeitiadidipadiich iM: Pood) tas given of so many unfortu-
nate beings *, is not only an important medical book, but a first
rate work in philosophy, and evenin morals. Nowhere can the
irresistible influence of the organs on the faculties be better
learnt ; but a still more useful knowledge that may be derived
from it, is that of the influence of the passions on the organs.
In his treatise, we see that more than half of the cases of alie-
nation take their rise in passions, which an enlightened reason
has not kept within just bounds; that madness is but the pas-
sions themselves carried to a monstrous excess, and that even in
most of the alienations which are supposed to be attributable to
physical causes, it is not certain whether these causes had not
merely developed a disposition generated by former passions
and feelings. 4

In the Academy, M. Pinel belonged not to the medical section,
but to that of anatomy and zoology. Too desirous of having him,
to wait till a place should become vacant in the first of these sec-
tions, the society found him sufficiently entitled to the second,
as the writer of his essays on the Mechanism of Animals, and
elected him as a zoologist, when, in 1783, one of the members
of that section was raised to the situation of perpetual secretary.
His publications on these subjects, though not numerous, evi-
dently shew that he would have taken great interest in zoolo-
gical investigations, had he not been obliged to relinquish them,
when he devoted himself entirely to the teaching of medicine.
In a memoir on the Zygomatic Arch +, he shewed that its cur-
vature upwards is so much the stronger the firmer the support
it has to afford to the muscles that close the jaws. This is what
takes place in carnivorous animals. The herbivora have it
nearly straight, and sometimes in the glires it is bent downwards,

* Traité Medicale, &c. Medical and Philosophical Treatise on Mental Alie-
nation or Mania, one vol. 8vo. 1800. The second edition was published in 1809.

+ Journal de Physique, t. xli. p. 401.
2

216 Biographical Memoir of M. Philippe Pinel.

Another memoir explains the mechanism, by which lions and
other animals of the cat tribe, without fatigue, keep,their claws
raised, when they do not need to use them. In a third me-
moir *, he endeavours to account for the extraordinary form of
the head of the elephant, and especially for the double con-
vexity of its occiput, the object of which is to furnish more ex-
tensive attachments to the muscles destined to support the head,
clumsy enough of itself, and made still more so by the proboscis

and tusks peculiar to that animal. He also wrote several ae

on the mechanism of the different luxations +. . ;

It would seem that these are the only remains of his first la-
bours, and that he did not even preserve in» manuseript any
sketch of the plan, which, without doubt, he had formed... His
capacious and geometrical head did not need this resource. .'The
whole of science was there strongly imprinted, and he detached
at will these kinds of fragments, as if to shew the extent of his
powers. a ma

Who would have thought that an understanding so enlarged,
and faculties so perfect, were themselves destined to furnish an
example of the weakness of our nature? It is but too true,
that towards the end of his life, M. Pinel felt the gradual ap-
proach of a state which he had often found to be incurable. He
saw that his duty was thenceforth to live in repose, and await
with resignation the moment when his physical existence would
share the fate of his intellect. His life, though from that time
less valuable to himself and. to. the public, was still dear
to those by whom he had been beloved. It was now.only a
recollection, but it was the recollection of a fine genius and a
worthy man. ‘Their tender and respectful cares smoothed, as
much as it was possible, his mournful transition. He quietly
fell asleep on the 25th October 1826, at the age of eighty-one

ears.
: His place in the Faculty had been disposed of on the néw.or-
ganisation which took place in 1823. That which he occupied
in the Academy was given to M. Frederick Cuvier.

* Journel de Physique, t. xliii. p. 47.
+ Journal de Physique, t. xxxiii. p. 12; t. xxxiv. p. 350; t. xxxv. p. 457.

217)

eter oni ¢
On the Ergot in Maize, and its Effects on Man and Animals.
seelinitad By M. Rovttn *.

hw ere

Tr has long been known that rye, affected with the ergot, when
taken as food, gives rise to convulsive and gangrenous diseases.
It is also known, that, when properly administered, it exercises

a particular action upon the uterus; and its efficacy, as a medi-
cine, seems now sufficiently proved. It was supposed from ana-
logy, that the ergot developed similar properties in all the gra-
mines which it attacks, but hitherto the accuracy of this sup-
position has not been proved by any direct experiment...

‘During a residence in America, M. Roulin had occasion to
observe the ergot upon a cereal plant which has never been at-
tacked by it in Europe, the Maize, which, in all the warm parts
of Columbia, forms a principal article of food to the lower
classes. The symptoms much resembled, in some respects,
those produced by rye in the same state, but in others differed
materially.

- In Columbia, maize, thus altered, is called Mais peladero,
that is, maize which causes the hair to fall off. In fact, it pro-.
duces this effect, which is so much the more remarkable in a
country where baldness is almost unknown even in old persons.
Sometimes, also, but more rarely, it causes looseness and falling
out of the teeth ; but the author never saw it produce gangrene
of the limbs, or convulsive diseases.

The accidents produced by maize affected with the ergot, ap-
pear, therefore, in Columbia less terrible, than those which, in
our climates, result from: rye in the same state. May this dif-
ference depend upon the circumstance that the American pea-
sants, who, in many cases, use the banana in place of bread,
make’but a very limited use of maize? Should the cause be
sought for in the difference of composition of the two kinds of
grain, maize not containing gluten, a substance highly putres-
cible ? This.the author does not decide.

In hogs, which make use of the spoiled maize, the hair is

* M. E. Roulin’s Memoir was lately read to the French Academy of
Sciences, but is not yet published.

218 M. Roulin on the Ergot in Maize,

seen in a few days to fall off; and, at a later period, the hind
legs of the animal waste, and are hardly able to support it. M.
Roulin had no opportunity of observing the further effects that
might result in this animal, from the prolonged use of maize in
this state, for the moment it began to waste, it was killed for
the sake of its flesh. He never heard that the use of this food
was followed by accidents.

Mules make no difficulty in eating maize affected with the
ergot, the use of which, however, produces in them depilation,
swelling of the feet, and sometimes the casting of the hoofs.

Poultry which eat of it pretty frequently lay eggs without
shell. According to M. Roulin, this circumstance, which’ at
first appears so singular, is to be explained, by conceiving that
the ergot excites contractions in the organs destined for the ex-
pulsion of the egg, which drive it from the oviduct, before it
has had time to be invested with its earthy envelope. +

On this subject M. Roulin announced his opinion’ respecting
the possibility of abortions being produced in women, by the
use of rye affected with the ergot. Without doubt, the dose
necessary for determining the expulsion of the fetus, would re-
quire to be greater when the woman was not near her term ; but
it would seem that the criminal abuse which might be made of
this substance cannot be denied. “ If it had not been observed,”
said he, “ that the use of infected rye, mixed with the food,
produced premature delivery, one does not see what could have
led people to administer it, for the purpose of hastening labour
at the full term.” T

It is known that infected rye never acts more powerfully than
when newly gathered. This is also the case with infected
maize, only with this difference, that the poison seems more
active before the seed has acquired its full maturity.

Maize, from the period when it begins to enter into the ear,
to the time when it is cut down, is surrounded by numerous
enemies. Beasts and birds are equally fond of its and it is only
the most active watching that can keep them off. When the
crop is spoiled by the ergot, there is commonly a relaxation in
this fatiguing guardianship. The animals then gorge them-
selves day and night with this bad grain, which acts upon them
with frightful rapidity. It is not rare to see monkeys and par-

and its Effects on Man and Animals. - 29

rots fall'as if inebriated in the midst of the field, without the
power of ever rising again. Wild-dogs and deer, which are
equally fond of maize, but which only come to feed upon it in

the night, sometimes experience the same fate : in the morning
they are found in the thickets about the plantation, and the
flight of the gamurros points out the place where they have
crept to die.

After what has been said above, could it be believed that a
substance capable of causing death so suddenly could in a short
time lose its deleterious qualities, and become susceptible of be-
ing/used as food? Yet this is what seems to be proved by a
concurrence of disinterested testimonies. Many credible per-
sons have assured the author, that when the Mais peladero
has passed the Paramos, high mountains covered with perpetual
snow, it is found destitute of all noxious quality. This at least
is certain, that it is frequently carried to the villages of the Cor-
dillera, situated on the opposite declivity, and is there purchased
by men who are ignorant of the danger which it would have
caused them in the place where it grew.

‘Might not this fact account, in a certain degree, for the diffe-
rences which are observed in the action of infected rye, when it
is employed as a medicine? It would be interesting to deter-
mine, whether the grain, which is found to be without efficacy,
may not have been exposed in some magazines not well secured
against the colds of winter; while that which still acts with
energy may have been kept in a place the temperature of which
is subject to little variation, in a cellar, or in an apartment con-
stantly heated.

On Hibernation, and the Action of Cold upon Animals.

Ox the 15th June 1828, M. Flourens read to the French
Academy of Sciences, a Memoir On some Effects of the Action
of Cold upon Animais*. The author commenced with general
remarks on the influence of the unequal distribution of heat up-
on the economy of the world. It is it that determines the dif-

* The Memoir, of which the above is a condensed view, is not yet pub-
lis hed.

220, M. Flourens on Hibernation,

ferences of climate, upon it the seasons depend, and from it the.

climates and seasons derive the infinite variety of vegetable and
animal productions, by which they are characterized and distin-
guished. It is not only in determining the general, distribution

of beings upon the surface of the globe that cold acts; it also
acts upon each organ, and upon each function; it has even a-
special or proper effect upon each of these organs and venti

tions. | :

One of the most singular effects of cold.is hibernation, This
name is given in natural history, to the state of torpidity and
lethargy in which some mammifera of our climates, the mar-
mots, for example, pass nearly the whole of the, cold. season.
Let one figure to himself animals, cold, insensible, incapable of
motion, rolled up in the form of a ball, passing three or four
months. together. without. eating, drinking, or breathing, .and

with their circulation almost stopped... Let, it then be remarked.

that these animals, subject to hibernation, differ in scaieely any
thing from other animals very nearly allied to them, which are

not subject to it ; that beside the dormouse, the lerot, the mus-,

. cardine, &c. for example, which hibernate, we find the rat, the
mouse, the squirrel, and twenty other animals of the same fa-
mily, which do not hibernate; that, on the other hand, the hi-
bernating animals are, as it were, dispersed, and vaguely distri-
buted among families the most unlike each other ; in those of
the insectivora, as the hedgehog, the bat, &c.; in that of the
glires, as the dormouse, the hamster, the marmot, &c.. Lastly,
Let it be remembered that, if in our climates jt.is during winter
that all these animals experience their lethargy, under the tor-
rid zone, which also has its sleeping animal, the tawrec, it is,
on the contrary, during the period of the greatest heats, that
this animal becomes torpid ;. and, after all this, one would still
have but a very feeble idea of all the curious details, and unusual
effects, and almost inexplicable difficulties, which: this astonish-
ing phenomenon presents. . {> Ahasts acl

The author then gave an idea of the i inquiries i with, re-
spect to hibernation, whether with the view of determining the
phenomena connected with it, or with that of explaining them.
The ancients scarcely did any thing with reference to it. Pallas
and Spallanzani were the first who applied the method of obser-

oe

and the Action of Cold upon Animals. 221
vation and experiment to the examination of hibernation; but
it was especially towards the commencement of the present cen-
tury, that important researches were made into this phenome-
non, in consequence of the recommendation of the Academy of
Sciences. M.+Flourens cited in Germany the works of MM.
Herold and Raffin; in Italy, that of M. Mangili; in France,
those of MM. Saissy, Prunelle, &c. M. Flourens’ own experi-
ments form a supplement to those of these able observers.

.» They were made in France, and on the Lerot, a small animal
re family. The author began with briefly describ-
ing the entire state of the torpid animal, and the conditions of
its resuscitation, two circumstances respecting which the ob-
servers who preceded him left little to be desired. During the
lethargy, the animal has an orbicular and regularly bent posi-
tion, the muzzle applied against the belly, the hind-feet carried
forwards, the fore-feet placed against the breast, the ears lying
upon the sides of the head, the eyes firmly closed, the whole
body drawn together in a lump, and the tail rolled all round
the body. A slight excitement does not waken the animal, but
a powerful one does. The phenomenon of hibernation presents
two distinct degrees of lethargy. In the one, the imperfect
lethargy, the respiration is suspended, and renewed by turns,
every three, four or five minutes, for example. In the other,
the perfect lethargy, respiration entirely ceases. M. Flourens
has often seen this cessation last for whole hours.

After the example of Spallanzani, he submitted several torpid
animals to the action of various mephitic gases, and the results
at which he arrived agree with those of his illustrious predeces-
sor, inasmuch as they place beyond doubt the total suspension
of respiration in the perfect lethargy. In this kind of lethargy
the circulation is suspended as well as the respiration. At first
there is no beating in the arteries of the limbs. If a vein or an
artery is opened, either no blood at all issues, or it comes slowly,
of a dark colour, and in drops. If the heart be touched, it is
only found to offer some obscure and rare motions.

The temperature of hibernating animals, which, like that of
others, is in their ordinary state at 38 centigrade degrees (100°
Fahr.), descends in the lethargic state to 5, 4, and even 3 de-
grees.

JULY—ocToBER 1829. Q

222 M. Flourens on Hibernation,

The author then spoke of the external circumstances whieh
induce torpidity. Cold, at least in our climates, is the first ¢on-
dition, to which is to be joined the deficiency of excitement on
the part of the external agents. It has been said that light pre:
vents torpidity, and the same has been said of food. 'The ex-
periments made by M. Flourens have demonstrated to him that
the influence of these two causes (at least i in the wipes is —
null, or very limited.

T come now, continued the author, to the internal or organic
conditions. It will be perceived of how much importance it is
first to determine upon what organ or what organic modification
lethargy depends, and, in the second place, what is the mechanism
of this phenomenon. Now, on these two points, science possesses
as yet nothing but conjectures; and, with respect to the first,
there is scarcely any organ to which these conjectures have not
been directed. But the two organs which have figured most in
this respect, are the brain and the thymus gland: the brain, to
which physiologists have long been in the habit of referring all
that they could not otherwise explain ; and the thymus, a glan-
dular body, situated on the fore part of the body, penetrating
into the thorax, and on which the mode of its development
seemed to confer peculiar rights to perform the chief part in
torpidity. In fact, this organ is in the highest degree of de-
velopment at the moment when the animal becomes lethargic,
it shrivels at the period of its awakéning ; and, in the other
mammifera, it disappears almost entirely in adult age, and is
only developed in the foetus, whose state in the uterus approaches
in many respects to that of the lethargic animal.’

These two conjectures required to be subjected to experiment,
especially at the present day, when the experimental method
has already localized so many other phenomena, and when, to
speak here only of my own experiments on the brain, it has
succeeded in determining in it a distinct organ for the sensa-
tions, an organ for the locomotory motions, and an’ organ for
the motion of preservation ; and when it has even found a point
in it, scarcely a few lines in extent, to which it is sufficient”
any given part be attached to enable it to live, from which if it
be detached it dies, and which thus constitutes the central and
vital point of the economy.

and the Action of Cold upon Animals. 223

The carotids having been laid bare in a lethargic lerot, and
by an operation which might have been supposed to be painful,
but which the animal scarcely felt, I found that they did not
beat, even after the operation, more than nine or ten times in a
minute. Some time after, the animal tending more and more to
awake, and the respiration to recommence, they beat twenty,
then:thirty, then forty-five, then a hundred, and lastly a hun-
dred and ten pulsations in the minute, when the respiration was
perfectly re-established.

Having then subjected this lerot to the aetion of cold, I saw
its respiration gradually weaken, and its carotids beat at first
only a hundred, then sixty-five, then fifty, then forty-seven,
then thirty, then twenty, and, lastly, eight or nine pulsations
still'in the minute, when the respiration again cia ag Hi
and the animal became perfectly torpid.

«It was thought curious to see if the artificial suspension of re-
spiration might not induce a result similar to that which lethargy
had just produced. Respiration was therefore artificially sus-
pended in a lerot, in its ordinary state. The blood of the caro-
tids presently became black, and the pulsations diminished in
number. In four minutes they were only thirty-two. - Half an
hour later they ceased ; the heart alone beat eight or nine times
in the minute, which was precisely the number I found it to
beat in the former animal when in perfect torpidity. By sus-
pending the respiration, in this experiment, I had reproduced
the state of the circulation in the lethargic condition itself ; for,
with the state of the circulation, that of the rest of the economy
always corresponds.

Respiration was then successively suspended in different le-
rots, more and more intensely torpified, and I observed the fol-
lowing results. In all of them, the circulation survived the re-'
spitation a certain time; in all of them, this time was so much
the longer the deeper the torpidity was, and the temperature
fitted for the lethargic state. At length I succeeded, by alter-
nately interrupting and continuing the suspension of the respi-
ration, in rendering the animal lethargic, under degrees of cold
less than those which would have been requisite to produce that
effect were the respiration free. Every thing, therefore, shews

az adh

224 M. Flourens on Hibernation, &c.

that it is by the respiration, and by means of modifications
which it impresses upon the function, that cold acts in lethargy.

I now pass, continued M. Flourens, to another order of ex-
periments ; and to the curious results which have just been seen,
I hasten to add some results more immediately useful... Here
the author made reference to his experiments on the ,influence
which cold exercises upon some animals, particularly on birds.
It is well known that M. Flourens has drawn from these ex-
periments this inference, that the exposure to a prolonged cold
as the most powerful of the causes which may induce pulmonary
consumption, and that, on the contrary, living in a warm place
is so powerful a remedy against that disease, that it is of itself
sufficient to cure it in all cases where the evil has not reached
its highest degree. The author, in mentioning this important
result, obtained by his experiments on animals, insisted on: the
advantage that might be derived, with reference to human pa-
thology, from the observation of the diseases of animals. In ani-
mals, the various diseases observed in man might be excited and
developed, and in them might be studied, in all their phases,
and in all their forms, under the action of the most diversified
medicines. -

Buffon has said, that, if no animals existed, the nature of
man would be still more incomprehensible. This is especially
true of the nature of his diseases; and it would be worthy of a
nation which has given the first example of so many other use-
ful institutions, to give also that of a truly experimental study
of the evils which afflict humanity, and realize the view of the
great Baglivi, who, so early as the seventeenth century, demand-
ed establishments, in which the diseases of animals might be
studied, with the view of throwing light upon, and improving,
the study of human diseases. Baglivi added, that from such
establishments alone a rapid and continued progress could be en-
sured to science.

To form an idea of all that medicine nine one day.oy owe to
experiments on animals, we have only to consider what, physio-
logy already owes to it. Is it not from the experiments of
Harvey, Hunter, Haller, Reaumur, Spallanzani and Bichat,
that there have resulted the not less wonderful than unexpected
discoveries of the circulation of the blood, the course of the

Mr-€. Collier on Univalves. 225
lymph, the property which the nerves possess of transmitting
sensibility, the property which the muscles have of contracting,
the action of the gastric juice in digestion, the opposite qualities
of the red and black blood, &c. ? “ I speak not of the twenty
discoveries made in our own day ; it is well known that a dis-
covery, before it can be admitted, must be of old date, and, as
father Malebranche said, must have a venerable beard.”

There is every reason to hope, said M. Flourens in conclud-
ing, that the ideas which I have just thrown out with respect
to the improvement which human medicine may expect from
experiments made on animals, will not be despised in our days ;
for no person is now ignorant that every thing is connected in
the animal economy, the diseases, the functions and the organs,
that we can only act upon the diseases by the functions, on the
functions only by the organs, and that thus therapeutics is
founded upon physiology, and physiology upon the economy.

General Observations on Univalves. By Cuartes Co.ier,

Esq. Staff-Surgeon at Ceylon. Communicated by Sir James
“Macertcor, Director-General of the Army Medical Board,
F.R.S., &c. &e.

Ir was my intention, at one time, to propose an arrangement
and a nomenclature of shells, founded rather on the features
and structure of the inclosed mollusca, than on the shells them-
selves. The difficulties to be encountered in the execution of
such a design are, however, too many and too great to render it
conducive to any useful result, or availing for the furtherance
of general knowledge. Many mollusca, alike in form and struc-
ture, inhabit shells so essentially different in character, as to
render the union of the two modes of distinction impossible.
Besides, it deserves consideration, even if this union could be ef-
fected, that Conchology will always be studied by many who
take no interest in the comparative structure of animals, and
who could derive little advantage from the knowledge of shells,
were it necessary to be acquired with the anatomy of the inhabi-
tant.

Subjoined are a few facts derived from my own fesearch,

296 Mr C. Collier on Univalves.

which seem to authorise the separation of the shell as’ an object
of Natural History, from its occupant. It may be observed,
in limine, that all the animals, excepting the tubiform, are
fixed by muscular attachment, and cannot of course quit’ the
shell. What has been reported of the cowrie and others, in
opposition to this, is fabulous *.

The mantle has been represented by some authors as display-
ing the designs and colours of the shell ; but a much greater're-
semblance has been attributed than is warranted by facts. It
does, indeed, occasionally represent the exterior, but in a faint de-
gree ; and not unfrequently it has no resemblance at all. In ge-
neral, it is pale, excepting at the edge, or fringe, which is some-
times spotted, sometimes uniformly coloured. The Cypraa mau-
ritania, and C. exanthema, are instances of the first of these cases.
In the former shell, the edge of the mantle is of a dark hue,
the latter has scattered yellowish spots; ‘and such, it may be
worth noting, is sometimes the case with the Argus +, and some-
times not. The Bulla Ooum, and Cyprea Talpa, are instances
of the second case. In the former shell, it is black, with white
points of a granular appearance 5 in the latter greyish, and
raised here and there, as in the spotted shells. All the oreo
present instances of this latter case.

The operculum is affixed to the foot. It varies in cvenpth,
form, and point of attachment ; being thick, firm, leathery, py-
riform, affixed to the summit, and ‘closing’ more or ‘less ‘com-
pletely the aperture, in the species of Strombus, Mure } (except-
ing the fusiform), and in Buccinum spiratum and patible;
thin, flexible, horny, circular, plane or concave, in the species of
Trochus, the fusiform shells of all genera, in Turbo le shethir

* This remark is applicable to the Bulla ampulla, although its connexion,
like that of the operculum i in the Aplysia, is by a duplication of the skin'em-
bracing the pillar. It may be observed here, that’ this animal is; by its
structure, a species of the Aplysia, and consequently differs from all other
mollusca with testaceous coverings. tee

+ A circumstance caused perhtps by difference of age or season,

t It may be observed here, before proceeding further with the features,
that the Bulla Terebellum, aud a species of. Conus (the Figulinus, I ier)
are inhabited by mollusca the same in form and structure as ‘those within
the shells which belong strictly to the genus Strombus. It will be utitie-
cessary, therefore, when alluding to this family, to repeat, thdt sueh appear-

ances belong also to these species.

44

Mr C. Collier on Univalves. 227
and many of the Helices and Nerite ; thin and flexible, but
narrow, short, and attached to the posterior parts, in the spe-
cies of Conus, and some species of Buccinum (as B. vibex, B.
Cassis) ; rocky and convex in some T'urbines ; irregular in Ser-

The operculum is not found in the genera Cyprea, Voluta
Haliotis, Patella, nor in certain species of other genera such
as Bulla Ooum, B. ampulia, B. Ficus ; Buccinum Harpa, and
its varieties, B. Doliwm ; nor in Serpula aquaria *.

» That muscular mass which serves for the support and pro-
tection of the more important organs of the animal, for motion,
and for changing the possition of the shell, is denominated by
naturalists, without reference to the literal signification, the
[ee

. It contains the mouth, brain, cesophagus, and auxiliary
glands, and.is the part by which the animal attaches itself, as
with a sucker, to other objects, or creeps along by its muscular
contractions. In the Strombus, the extremity of the operculum
is.a point dappui, from whence the shell is jerked forward on
the smaller foot, or thrown over upon its aperture. In the
Murex, the shell is whirled round upon its back, as upon a
pivot, with the aid of the operculum; or when its aperture is
placed downwards, the animal creeps slowly forwards, by means
of the sucker only.

It is of a circular or oval form, and exterior to the opercu-
lum in the genera Murex, Turbo, Helix, Nerita ; mm some
Buceina (as B. patulum and spiratum;) and all fusiform
shells, including T'rochi. It is double, by a process, serving
for adhesion, coming off from that which bears the operculum,
in Strombus ; oblong or oval, in Conus, and in Buccinum Vibex

* The assertion extends only so far, of course, as my 6pportunity of know-
ing. I have never seen one species of the Argonauta, Nautilus or Dentalium,
with the animal in it, nor several of the other genera, as Bulla Zebra and
Volva; Voluta Glans, Papalis, and Auris-mide ; Turbo anguis and Scalaris ;
Trochus zizyphinus and dolabratus ; Helix columna ; nor many Nerite. It may
also be observed here, that most fusiform species of all families, (for example,
Buceinum strigilatum ; Strombus palustris, Trochus Turritus, Turbo terebra and
exoletus ), are connected by structure, and therefore often differ from those
with which they are associated by the form of the shell, Buccinum maculatum,
however, is somewhat like B. Vibex.

228 Mr C. Collier.on Univalves. -

In the genus Cypraa and in Bulla Ovum, the foot islike that
of the Coni ; in Bulla Ficus and Buccinum Dolium, more cireu-
lar; in Bulla ampulla, the genus Voluta, and .in» Buccinum
Harpa and its varieties, it is extended anteriorly and posteriorly
beyond the shell ; in Haliotis and Patella flat, and of the: di+
mensions of the disk ; in Serpula aquaria, a thick white mass,
against the summit of the shell. ;

The colour of this part also varies; blackish red in ye Son
rices generally, green in Strombus, and some species of T'rochus,
black in Bulla Ovum, deep red with faint designs, like those of
the shell, in Conus T'ulipa, Marmoreus, and its varieties ; spot-
ted in Buccinum Harpa, bright yellow in B. Cassis, mottledim
Oliva, and deep brown from spots in some species of Voluta.

The tentacula *, on which the eyes are borne, cannot be.
designated by any general term employed for those processes
or the palpi in entomology. The most common form is. taper-
ing, from a quarter to half an inch in length, with the eye in
the middle, and disproportionately thicker on the lower portion.
In the Strombi the eyes are on the summits of tentacula from
one to two inches long, of the same thickness, and which branch
off from the smaller foot, like the process containing the mouth,
They are short, thick, and bear the eyes on the’ outer side,
near the summit, in the Murices generally ; double, placed
above the mouth, with eyes at the base of the exterior, in T'ro-
chus niloticus, and Turbo delphinus ; short and slender, with
eyes close to the apices, and placed at the sides, or extremities
of the covering of the tube, in Conus, some species of Buecinum,
in Bulla Ficus and Serpula lumbricalis ; in S. 7 I could
not detect them.

The mouth is fleshy , or tubular and fleshy, or stiles only.
In the first case, it is composed of strong red muscular fibres,
uniting cartilaginous mandibles, in form not unlike narrow
blades of scissars. The next kind is a fleshy mouth within the
summit of the tube. The last is the tube opening directly into
the cesophagus, without triturating power, or tongue.

* These processes in Voluta are like those of Cyprea, but, in sume species,
as V. oliva, and a brown specimen, I could not discern eyes; these organs are
situated at the base of the lower tentacula, in Bulla ampulla, as in Aplysia.

Mr C.-€ollier on Univalves. 229
Phe tube is muscular, cylindrical, varied in colour, capable of
elongation from, and retraction within itself, like many tentacula
of*mollusca and insects. The elongation is produced by the
successive contractions of the circular fibres, and the retraction
by the agency of the longitudinal fibres, which arise from the
inner surface, and are attached to the foot. ‘The length and
thickness vary. In most species of Murex, Conus, and Bucci-
num, it has been compared to the proboscis of the elephant ; in
others, as in certain species of Voluta and Conus, and in Bulla
Ovum, it is shorter and less rigid. In the former description of
tubey the cesophagus passes along, to be affixed to its apex, em-
bra¢ing a fleshy mouth (generally without mandibles) and
tongue, and adapted, of course, for its changes of dimension.
In the latter sort, the tubes open directly into each other.

The tongue is much alike, excepting as to length, in all:
pointed at the extremity, or dart-shaped, and serrated in the
middle, it passes, as in some reptiles, through the back of the
mouth, and lies extended along the cesophagus. After the spe-
cies of Haliotis and Patella, and some Nerite, (in which it
greatly exceeds the length of the animal), it is longest in the
Cypree ; in the others it does not far surpass the mouth. |
_ ‘Phe fleshy mouth belongs to Cyprea, Bulla ampulla, Tro-
chus, Turbo, Strombus, Helix, Nerita, Haliotis, Patella, Ser-
pula, and the pyriform species of Buccinum and Murez ; the
tube, with mouth and tongue, to Murex, Voluta, Buccinum spi-
ratum, B. Cassis, B. Patulum, B. Dolium, and varieties; the
tube simply to Conus, Bulla Ficus, Buccinum maculatum, and a
few others. 5 hy

The brain is formed of two ganglia (generally of a red co-
lour, sometimes, as in Strombus and Cyprea, rather of a pale
yellow hue), which form one mass, with a small intervening
white substance, or, being separate, are connected by nerves.
Whatever the colour may be, it is as a centre, if united, with
the nerves for radii; or it forms, if separated, various figures,
according to the number of centres and connecting filaments.
It is single in Cyprea, Strombus, Trochus, Murex, Voluta ;
of two ganglia, one above and another below the cesophagus, in
Conus ; of three in Bulla Ficus ; of five in B. ampulla.

The esophagus is enlarged into a crop or first stomach, in-all

230 Mr C. Collier on Univalves,

the species of Cyprea, in Bulla Ficus, B. Ovum, B. ampulla,
and some species of Buccinum, Strombus, and Murea*. In most
species of Conus, and in Buccinwm Cassis and Vibe, the walls

are peculiarly strong, with corrugated, internal, longitudinal

fibres. In some species of Murex, (as T'ulipa, longicauda, ra-
mosa, and sawxatilis), this tube is so narrow and delicate through-

out, that, considered in relation to the bulk of the <9 it is
worthy of physiological notice.

The lung + forms the roof of the pulmonary cavity, ware is
extended along the inferior surface of the mantle, with the heart
at its lower surface, or contiguous to the liver, and the intestine
parallel with its base. It is a single membrane, with the pulmo-
nary vessel along its summit, whose ramifications, bemg arranged
horizontally, like the teeth of a comb, constitute the fifth order,
Pectinibranches, of Cuvier’s System. This organization belongs
to all the families, excepting Haliotis, Patella, and the Tubi-
cines. These differ by an approximation, in the character of
those parts, to bivalves; and these by the colour of the circulat-
ing fluid. ;

The diver is generally of a dark green aspect. — sanieatitine
Conus it is brown, or reddish-yellow. The stomach lies ‘com-
monly on its outer surface, but is sometimes, as in Strombus,
Haliotis, and Patella, imbedded within its substance.

There is an organ, the crystalline cree a erro-

; ‘a ii}

* One species (Aluco ?) has the crop of + evil re or, vat

by the ramifications of the nerves. —_, wile

+ In most individuals, there is a small additional membrane, of pent
colour, placed above the larger, and towards the fringe of the penta, which
receives a branch from the pulmonary vessel. As connected with this organ,
it may be observed that mollusca do not support want of water, and removal
from their habitats alike. The species of Voluta and Buecinum generally (par-
ticularly B. oliva and B. harpa), die in a few hours; those of Strombus and
Murex survive thirty-six, forty-eight, and even sixty hours; Trochus nilotious
and turritus live yet longer; and Strombus palustris will live several days.
Excepting Trochus turritus and Strombus palustris, none have lived many days
in water, though changed once in twenty-four hours; and those individuals
which die so soon in the air, scarcely ever live beyond the cain
moved from their usual habitat.

$ Dans d’autres,/il y a un veritable second estomac separé, une pe de
ccecum prés du pylore. Ce que ce canal a de plus singulier, et meme d’abso-
Jument propre a certains acéphales, c’est une partie remarquée depuis long

Mr C. Collier on Univalves. 231
neously, by a celebrated naturalist, to bivalves, which is found
inevery species of Strombus, in Trochus turritus, and a species
(vertagus?),of Murex. It is inclosed in a sheath that passes
parallel to, and by the side of, the cesophagus, to the stomach,
into which the stiletto enters, leaving its covering. ‘That end
which lies within the stomach is obtuse, laminated, and fixed
by a hook of similar substance to its situation. The upper
portion is circular, homogeneous, slightly tapering, transparent,
- manana hana mmann iar ete

its stigma.

» Inpevery) species of the genus, Conus, (excepting, that. like
eleieabanid euhanesien sheMlenen (M. Colus), there is found
within the cavity containing the proboscis or tube, a bulbous
crescent-shaped body (not unlike, and of the dimensions. of, a
bean), having a cavity * and a duct, five or six inches long, cu-
riously contorted, coming off from its apex. This duct pene-
trates the oesophagus, just at its commencement, close to the
brain, through a mucous gland, and a thick white fluid escapes
when it is divided. The cavity of the body is empty in general.
_ The opportunities of observing individuals of the genus
Serpula are unfrequent at Trincomali, and mine have been con-
fined to a very few specimens of the species dumbricalis and
aquaria. ‘These are not, as is observed by M. Cuvier, attached
by muscles to their covering. The former resides rather like a
parasitic inhabitant, within its narrow tube; the latter is closely
connected to its shell, by adhesion to ‘a thick membrane, which
lines it throughout. The lumbricalis is furnished with an
operculum+, small slender tentacula, a fleshy mouth, a short
serrated tongue, a delicate cesophagus, passing, as in mollusca,
to the stomach ; the lung and mantle of a bright orange hue,
the liver of a greyish appearance. The aguaria, in two speci-
mens, did not correspond with the supposition of M. Cuvier$.

tems par Willis, Swammerdam, et d’autres, mais que M. Poli a décrite plus
en detail, sous le nom de Stylet Crystallin—Cuvier, Anat. Comp. t. iv. p. 123.

* ‘This cavity is longitudinal as to the body, small at either end, and dila-
ting towards the centre.

+ Regne Animal, t. ii. p. 522.

+ The operculum has an appearance, as if formed by irregular depositions
differing from any other.

232 Mr C. Collier on Univalves.

The perforated disc was closed within by the lining membrane
of the shell, and by that mass which has been alluded to as the
foot. ‘There were no tentacula observed by me, and none, cer-
tainly, passing through the perforations. The mouth was
fleshy, and the cesophagus to be traced into a soft black mass,
which formed the greater part of the animal. Beyond ‘these
facts, from the exceeding difficulty experienced in the examina-
tion, I hesitate to speak. ‘The membrane passed to the open
extremity, and it there contained fluid ; it resembled an air-ve-
sicle of fishes.

Were it not decided by the high authority of M. Cuvier, I

should have concluded, from my opportunity of observation,
that the circulating system was the same as in mollusca. 'The
muscular system of both these species was of a very pale white,
and the red muscles of the mouth less florid than in that class.
- This brief review of the features of mollusca shews them to
be often different among individuals of the same family, consi-
dered as to the form of the shell, and to be always so inter-
mingled as not to afford generic distinctions.

The annexed table displays the assemblage of organs in the
different families ; and, on consideration of the facts, it seems
impossible to select generic features capable of being discrimina-
ted and cognizable in a system *.

If the inference be granted, it follows that the shell must be
considered alone ; and it is to be regretted that so able a natu-
ralist as Linneeus did not transfer to this science the principles
of arrangement and nomenclature which he adopted so success-
fully in botany. To facilitate the acquisition of knowledge in
any branch of natural history, the generic name ought to desig-
nate the part or condition in which the distinction as a family
rests; and this part or condition ought to exist through all the
individuals. The intention of all system is to arrange and to
generalize isolated facts, so that, by abstraction of what is par-
ticular, one family may be separated from another of the same
order, and the order, in its turn, from another of the same
class.

What applicability is there in any one of the terms now em-

* This table was wanting in the accompanying MS.—Epit.

Mr C. Collier on Univalves. 233

«ployed for the genera? Who, taking up a murex, or eyprea, or
-strombus, or buccinum, or bulla, could, from the application,
be led to the generic features of the shell? Who is not forced
anne eanhininte ese pensonteie
By parts or conditions peculiar to univalves, I propose to dis-
snoiivents nominate families: to divide into sub-genera or
‘sub-families. such as are distinguished by an uniform state * of
the more general feature, and to separate into individuals such
as, with this peculiar state, have additional parts, or modifica-
tions of such parts. To simplify the nomenclature, and render
it. more perspicuous, I suggest Latin derivations exclusively,
and these to be adjectives, and of one termination. Were this
base considered substantial, a correction of the individuals might
also be made ; for these, like the genera, are diffuse and vague,
the same principles might determine their denomination from
essential distinguishing features+; next, from difference of
colour or size; lastly, these failing, from similitude with other

_. The parts and conditions chosen for generic distinction and
denomination are: Cavity, lip, columella, rostrum or beak,
spire, open, tubular.

1. The coverings of cephalopodous mollusca { assume, ante-
riorly, a locular or chambered form, with or without, to use the
language of conchology, dissepiments ; that is, in one, or divid-
ed into more cavities. It may be objected to the adoption of
this latter, that the fact cannot be known without a section of
the shell ; but the transparent walls of the smaller species (Li-
tuus spiralis) allow examination, and inference may thus be
made, besides knowledge of the fact, that the structure within

ne The generic appellation for all shells furnished with a ros-
trum, divided into three sub-genera from the state of that feature; a, straight
out ; 4, turned to the right, or from the columella; ¢, turned to the left, or

+ The first of the conditions is well exemplified in Murex Tribulus, aptly
named after its thorny processes. ‘The second is neither commonly or rigidly
fulfilled: Murex Gigas, Buccinum patulum. The last is, and sometimes
happily, employed: Turbo scalaris, Cypreea Caput-serpentis, Bulla Ovum, &c.

+ Division Testacés: Fam. Céphalopodes: Cinquieme Tableau, Cuvier.
2

234 Mr C. Collier on Univalves.

the Pompilius is the same. 'This shell is doubtless, as has been
observed, exterior to its inhabitant, but the exact connexion be-
tween them is yet a desideratum for science. It is asserted by
Rumphius *, that the animal is in part lodged in the. last cell ;
has the sac, eyes, parrot-bill, and tunnel of other

the mouth surrounded with many circles of numerous little ten-
tacula, without suckers. A ligament arising from the back
passes through the syphon, and forms its attachment to the
shell. But if by /ast, this author means the upper and largest
cell, how can there be communication from without? The only
opening exteriorly is the narrow syphon, and this, walled through-
out, does not open into the chambers, unless ito the Jas¢ and
smallest. If it inhabit the space above the chambers, then what
may be the use of these, large and regularly formed as they
are-+? The shell of the nautilus is always found on the beach,
deprived of its inhabitant, in an injured and decaying state; it
is probable, therefore, that when in life, it remains at sea, or
stays beneath deep water. The argo (Argonauta) is sometimes
met with on the coasts of Ceylon, of large size, but the species
generally of this family are smaller, and less delicate, than those
found to the eastward, and at New South Wales. .

I propose Cameratwm for the generic term, chosen thidiraibier
because significant of ships, to the form of which these ar
have some resemblance: Divisions, one, many.

2. The lip is chosen as a generic feature, wanes Lait the
more common form, it is ‘rolled over upon itself, or, if the term
express the fact, voluted; this adjective to the feature desig-
nates the family. The divisions are formed from the toothed
or radiated processes, and distinguished as they are, both on the
columella and lip, as in Cyprea ; or on the lip alone, as in
Bulla Ovum, or on neither, asin Bulla Voloa. The generic
feature is applicable only in the perfected shell, for the dip.in
young Cyprea and Bulla (B. Ovum) is of exceeding tenuity,
and the processes but partially, or not at all formed. But it, is

\ stledebst
=

* On the authority of M. Cuvier. Regne Animal, t. ii p. 366. 5 dghi A

+ As fluid is formed in every sai ante probably it may be a means of fa-
cilitating descent and ascent.

1

Mr C. Collier on Univalves. 235

understood, in every system of natural history, eeriearysecer
are drawn from the perfected individuals.

This arrangement breaks up, if the expression be allowed,
the Linnean Bulle ; but a slight acquaintance with conchology
will shew that this affords no solid objection, considering that —
very dissimilar shells are comprised under it.

8. ‘The difference between Conus and Voluta is but in de-
gree, and’ not so essential as to constitute a generic separation.
The inner windings of the pillar of the former are as cylindri-
cally rolled or voluted as those of the latter, and the dases in
some individuals of both are alike, or nearly so*. If these be
united by an adjective to the feature of assimilation (Columno-
volutum) the genera repose upon the minor distinctions of
furrowed or plain condition of that feature.

4. ‘Those shells which are furnished with a rostrum or beak,
seem classed in nature, and may be expressed by the term
rostratum. The direction of this feature constitutes the divi-
sions) ‘This arrangement is proposed partially by M. Cuvier
in his fifth table, but so mixed up with spiriform shells, and
so connected with the consideration of the animals, that it docs
not interfere with this system.

5. The spiral form, being a permanent feature, constitutes
the essential character of, and therefore unites many univalves.
This, adopted as as ‘significant of ‘a “family, embraces “‘Prochus,
Turbo, Helix, Nerita.

These shells present great difficulties, it is true, in the at-
tempt at more perfect arrangement and nomenclature, and they
shew’ the impossibility of equalizing, in an artificial system, the
profusion and individuality of nature. The generic feature
seems to belong to all, and thus to constitute them a family ;
but the minor qualities are not so apparent, nor so capable of
discrimination. ‘The turbinated shape, which is assumed in an’
ordinary acceptation by T'rochus and Turbo, being, after the
spiral, the more general characteristic, is a. first division. The
existence of two lips, or the double margin (formed by the
edge of the columella), which is now the diagnosis of Nerita

© The spires and apices are also similar in respect to their variety in:
both ; the former sometimes exserted or retuse, the latter acute or papillary.

236 Mr C. Collier on Univalves.

from Helia, is a second. 'The single lip, caused by the, con-
cealment of the columella fromthe roll of the body, is.a third... |

There are individuals, of Strombus, Murex, and Buccinum,
as strictly spiral as these, but their possessing the rostrum, a
more peculiar and therefore more . distinguishing), een are
classed after it.

Shells that are open, partially or completely, and of a flat
form, present, under such simplicity of construction, no feature
for association ; and hence a condition must be ‘chosen. .. This,
perhaps, is a departure from the precision and perspicuity which.
are the objects »of all system, and make its chief value. ° But,
next to the perfect arrangements, based on essential organs,
must be reckoned that which is modelled from the assemblage
of the whole, or from the peculiarity such may present com-
pared with others. An essential condition is selected, when
objects are thus contrasted, and the line, if not drawn by Na-
ture herself, may be assumed as a circumscribing limit. This
is raised far above that which is drawn from relation to other
objects, and it is as much removed from opinion as sub modi-
fication will allow.

Some systems of modern date tolerate this license oh compa-
rison, from the failure of discriminating features. The term
Pachydermata is taken from a relation of one part only, and
a relation which, literally considered, is not universally true.
Rapaces, among birds, is from a mere quality, which, exposed
as it is to opinion and opportunity of observation, is only a con-
ventional term, and obviously an artificial bond of union. _

The shells, then, of the Linnean Haliotis and Patélla, unit-
ed by a distinguishing condition (apertum), may be formed
into sub-genera by the presence or absence of the only secon-
dary qualities which belong to them, namely, the ie sa
absence of a margin. '

7. Although the inhabitants of tubular shells are not, on ori
authority of M. Cuvier, constituted like those of Testacea, yet,
as calcareous productions, they have been considered within the
province of the conchologist. This shape, being the common
feature, forms the family, and unites, of course, Serpula, Den-
talium, Sabella, and Teredo. The divisions arise from pecu-
liarities which well enough designate the individuals, and may

Mr C. Collier on Univalves. 237
be comprised under three heads: a, straight and : Db,
etraight and closed ; c, contorted.

‘Having objections to the Linnean classification and principle
of nomenclature, I beg to submit the above, as at least prefer-
able, though not perhaps the very best which the subject will
admit of.

An Account of the Inundation of a Coal-work at Beaujonc, near
- Liege, belonging to Messrs Colson and Company, and of
__ the remarkable escape of a number of the Miners *.

Ox Friday the 28th of February 1812, about half past 10 in
the morning, the colliery situate in the parish of Ans, ‘near the
Brussels road, about a mile and a quarter from Liege, was inun-
dated by a body of water, which forced itself past one side of
the frame-dam, constructed in the Rosier seam of the 'Trique-
note pit, which lies about a furlong off that at Beaujonc.

The water coming from the Rosier seam, flowed over that of
Petsay, and from this fell down the Beaujonc pit into the Ma-
rias seam, in which 127 men were at that time at work. The
fall of water was therefore nearly 87 yards, which is the distance
between the Petsay and Marias seams. The serrement, or‘frame-
dam, is a sort of wooden dike, made to keep back the weight of
the water which collects between the two estates, and especially
in the seams which have been wrought out. The bure-pit or
shaft is a great oblong well, having its angles usually rounded
off. The seams are more or less thick, as well as the distances
between them. The corf is a strong square box, which is borne
by chains at the four corners. These are hooked to a great
chain, which is moved by ten horses yoked to the machinery.

The moment a full corf had been drawn up, Matthew Lay-
beye, the filler, observed the water falling down the shaft, which,
from the surface, is 185 yards deep. His fellow-workmen fora
moment thought that the pipes of the steam-pump were choked,
and that the water thus prevented from being drawn to day,

* The above interesting and affecting narrative is extracted from a French
pamphlet, published at Liege, and communicated to us by Mr Bald.

JULY—ocToBER 1829. — R

238 An Account of the Inundation of

fell down the pit. He, however, dispatched. Mathieu Larde-
nois in search of the oversman, Hubert Goffin, who was then in
amine about 540 yards off. He was almost immediately on
the spot, and perceiving the danger to be real, his first care was
to seek his son Mathieu Goffin, aged twelve years. No person
had yet been drawn up: the water was not considerable, and —
Goffin might still have escaped the danger. He had even one
leg in the corf, and his son standing close to him, when he ex-
claimed, “ If I ascend, my workmen will be lost ; I am deter-
mined to leave this place the last-—to save them all, or to perish
with them.” So saying, he jumped out of the corf, and put
Nicholas Riga, a blind man, into his place. ‘The corf ascended
rapidly, but, being suspended only by two of the four chains, it
fell to one side, and some of the men not able to keep their
position, fell, into the water, out of which they were pte by
Goffin and his son, who had not left him.

The corf reached the bottom a second time, and the workmen
rushed towards it in a crowd, but the force of the fall of water
threw a part of them down, some of whom, by the depth of the
water at the bottom, and the assistance of the brave Goffin, his
son, and John Bernard, were saved. ‘The horses of the ma-
_ chine being rapidly whipped round, the corf once more returned.
_ The men had only a moment allowed to lay hold of it. Goffin
perceived their danger; they, however, rashly disregarded him,
clung to the corf, and in their ascent most of them fell and
perished in the pit, which is two yards six inches deeper than
the place of filling, where the water was already breast high.

Not a moment was now to be lost. Escape by the pit became
impracticable, the water having nearly reached the roof of the
galleries. Goffin continued collected. The devotion of this
father of seven young children had electrified Nicholas Bertrand,
Mathieu Laybeye, and Melchoir Clavir, who, though they
could. have ascended, remained beside him. He had ordered
N. Bertrand: to make an opening in the air or upcast shaft, in
order that the workmen coming from the dip or lowest part of
the mine might turn round the downcast, and pass through the
upeast shaft, to gain the rise-boards or galleries on the ascend.
ing part of the strata from the pit, every other way of eseaping
death being impossible. The upcast shaft is a pit of the same

a Coalwork at Beaujonc, near Liege. 239
depth as the principal shaft, having a chimney raised from it
“dM: Laybeye! was, directed to secure all the candles, anid to
place the lighted ones against the props of the mothergate or main
gallery of the mine, that the miners might see from a distance
that they could no longer get to the shaft. Every excavation
ought to be propped ; that is, when the coal has been taken away,
the roof should be supported by. pieces of straight wood, to pre-
vent falls. M. Clavir remained with Goffin, and assisted him in.
assembling the workmen, and in forcing them to the side of the
In the first place, Bertrand executed the order to unstop the
bore-hole, which, from the reservoir of the steam-engine, leads
to the workings that dip or incline downwards from the shaft.
By this measure the workmen in the more distant boards were
enabled to save themselves while the lower parts were filling
with water. ‘This disposition, in fact, saved the lives of many
men who had time to join their brave leader. Unfortunately,
some of them, deaf to his entreaty, remained in the filling place,
near the shaft, in hopes of reaching the corf; these perished,
victims of their imprudence. The corf descended several times
in vain. The ladders placed for the use of the fire-engine
seemed to offer another way of safety, but the unfortunate men
who attempted to profit by it were thrown down by the vio-
lence of the waterfall.

The men ye boys being drawn together, Goffin repeatedly
said to them, ‘‘ Lambert Colson will not abandon us; letous
turn towards the Roisse; we shall go up the boards, he will
understand where we shall be; and if we cannot escape hence
by Beaujonc, we shall by Mamonster.” The Roisse >a palleny
which euts the boards obliquely.

Only imagine the situation of these unfortunate creatures,
buried in the bowels of the earth, at 185 yards deep—grouped
together in a narrow spacte—deprived of food, and almost of
vital air—with only a vague hope, and fearing to be drowned
in the water which they saw increasing. It is only after having
visited several coal-mines that we can form a just idea of the
danger of the miners, who all their days traverse these laby-
rinths, where, often, they can only creep, are deprived of air,

r2

240 An Account of the Inundation of

in danger of being scorched by inflammable gas, of being
drowned in subterranean lakes, and crushed by falls.

M. Mathieu, chief engineer of the mines, and Migneron, “a
deputy, as soon as they heard of this accident, hastened to the
spot. Already the lamentations of the women: and children

filled the air, and in this scene of distress orders were given to

bring all necessary assistance. The water, which. rose on the
following days to the height of twenty-eight yards above the
level of the bottom of the shaft, was at this moment fifteea
yards. All hopes of deliverance by Beaujone was therefore at
an end.

It was impossible to raise in a little time this immense and
increasing quantity of water. The inundation might even reach
the highest parts of the rise-boards, or, at least, confine the work-
men to so small a space as to suffocate them by want of air.
Shall we despair like the surrounding multitude, we said? or
dare to undertake works of which the history of the country
about Liege, where coal has been wrought for eight centuries,
furnishes no example ?—or shall we leave these men, who have
given us such a lesson of courage and constancy, to perish in
the mine? No, certainly! Our first care is to reduce the wa-
ter, in order that the works may not be inefficacious, which the
engineers and Mr Colson, after inspecting the places, have
agreed to commence in the Mamonster pit, distant from Beau-
jonc about 190 yards. Immediately, besides the fire-pump, the
power of the machine a lamotte was added. The directors of
the collieries were informed of the disaster, and sent 100 horses.
Every thing was instantly in motion, and the dispositions that
had been made insured 6000 cubic yards of water being drawn
up in twenty-four hours.

The fire-pump has a stroke 78.74 inches, and the diameter is
11.77292 inches. It makes at least twelve strokes in a minute.
We cannot dissemble that the machine a lamotte is of little use
in such extraordinary cases as this. A few casks of water are of
trifling importance, but it was necessary to animate the public
by complying with its sentiments. Besides, the tubs: in falling
agitated the water, and compressed the air in such a manner,
that globules of it might reach the men, and favour their respi-
ration. If the tubs, seven of which were left at the bottom, had

Alain

a Coalwork at Beaujonc, near Liege. 241

failed us, we had proposed to throw great stones down, to pro-
duce the same effect. Goffin afterwards told us, that this con-
cussion of the water did them great service. A detachment of
the military of the department came to keep back the multitude,
lest they should prevent the working of the engines; and Mrs
Hardy, with the most praiseworthy sensibility, put the pit of
Mamonster, its workmen and horses, at the disposal of the en-

» The headway of this colliery, at the extremity of which they
were to open a drift, being fallen in, the air had to be carried
131 yards along a narrow and dangerous passage, covered with
large blocks of stone. M. Migneron boldly ventured through
it, though his clothes were much torn in the enterprize. Ma-
laise, the conductor, followed him with several courageous work-
men, whose size permitted them to follow the same example.
M. Lambert Colson stuck at the mouth of the passage, and had
to be drawn out backwards. Migneron, at the head of the
workmen, went towards the east, and began to open out a drift
in a seam Jess than 39.37 inches thick, bearing on the 28th point
apemprnnyeen.
Only two men at a time, lying on their sides, could work in
this narrow space ; but, on the least exhaustion of their strength,
each shift or company of twenty men, was relieved every four
hours. On account of the hardness of the seam they only pe-
netrated about eighty inches in three hours. Every attempt
was made to draw the attention of the unfortunate men to the
inner board of the Beaujonc mine. They blasted the rock, and
fired in small cannon; but the night of Friday and the morn-
ing of Saturday the 25th of February passed without a hope.
_ At this moment the level of the water was three yards higher
than,on the preceding evening, in spite of every effort; but the
public were not acquainted with this circumstance. At eight
o'clock in the morning of Saturday a distant noise -was heard,
which gave us the satisfaction of knowing that our plans were
understood, and that the men themselves were at work in the
interior. 4:

It, however, became necessary to hasten the progress of the
drift, for the water in the course of the day rose above seven
yards higher ; and it was also indispensable to stop the force of

242 An Account of the Inundation of

the water at the dam of the Triquenote pit, which the carpen-
ters at length effected on the morning of Sunday the Ist of
March, by fastening pieces of wood in the havage, which is a
technical term for the earth, sand, clay or rock which separates
two seams. From this moment the water began to diminish...
Our workmen, deceived by the effect of sound, now wished
to take another direction. In the night of Saturday and Sun-
day, through excessive zeal, they opposed M. Migneron:, In
vain he told them that, if they persisted in their plan, they were
in danger of holing into water. In despair, he also learnt that
the women and children, at the bank of the pit, were murmur-
ing; considering, therefore, the responsibility that lay upon him,
he yielded, for a few hours, to the will of the workmen. | At
this moment we came to the pit, determined. to descend and re-
establish order; when the engineer himself came up, and assured -
us that the men had acknowledged their error, and come back
to the-first drift, and that the sound from the interior was ree
more distinct. tiaw
‘On the 2d of March we were still wit to Preaek on
tance to be excavated, as the sound was not loud enough to
make us quite certain of its direction, for it sometimes appeared
to come from a place higher than our drift. M. Mathieu went
down and joined his colleague; and they held a consultation
with M. Colson, Stephen Bernard, the night oversman, in the
Beaujonc colliery (whose son was one of those in the interior of
the mine), and Ernest le Clerc, the foreman of Mrs Hardy’s
colliery, and it was determined that the work should proceed:in
the direction first commenced, which, on the 28th point of the
compass, would Jead to the fifth rise-board of the Beau-
jonc,pit *. When M. Migneron came to the surface, he traced
on the ground a plan of the subterraneous operations, more
to tranquillize the impatience of the public, and ‘to’ cons
vince the miners, than to verify ‘his own calculations.. ‘The
whole of Sunday, Monday, and part of Tuesday, passed
in the torment of hope constantly deceived. The workmen
kept up their spirit, but some of them made no progress. “On

“ This circumstance shews the absolute necessity and great importance of
having accurate plans of all mining operations. This cannot be too strongly
enforced..-Ep.

a Coal-work at Beaujonc, near Liége. 243
Monday the drift was only twenty-six yards long, and no exact
plan of the workings was to be found. They had no data*to
calculate the distance, which might be twice as great as they
supposed, even taking into account that the immured men,
whom on"good reason they judged were deprived of light, could
continue to work.

In this anxiety, each owner of pits was required to furnish
six of ‘his strongest miners, only two of whom could work at a
time. ‘The air, too, was so much rarefied and deprived of oxy-
gen, ‘as to be scarcely fit for respiration; it was therefore pro-
posed to open a second drift parallel with the former; but still
to’ ‘continue that with the greatest activity. This I insisted
upon, and wrote to M: Migneron. The advice was adopted,
and entrance into the pit positively forbidden to every one but
such as were absolutely necessary.

In a short time the two drifts were united, to form only one,
and to conduct the air more regularly. The $d of March ar-
rived. The dam at the Triquenote pit continued to hold, the
water lessened, and the noise of the men within was more dis-
tinetly heard; but nothing yet indicated that the direction of
our drift went precisely to the desired point. The boring-rod
made no discovery, and the varied effect of the sound kept up
an illusion which made us afraid we were going farther from
the unhappy men, who, plunged in darkness, might be equally
deceived. The miner scarcely breathing, and dropping down
with sweat, can make use of the pick only for a few minutes;
another, however, takes his place; the work advances, and we
begin to entertain a hope of breaking down the barrier in the

Filled with this hope, I gave order that a messenger should
be dispatched to me as soon as the boring-rod should pierce into
the interior, and returned to town a quarter after four o’clock
in the afternoon, with the principal engineer M. Mathieu. I
had -scareely reached the prefecture, when M. Engineer Mig-
neron recalled me to the spot, and told me we were in commu-
nication with the interior of the mine. It was about six o'clock.
I called upon M. Mathieu and Dr Logens, and set off, taking
with me M. Asiaux junior, a surgeon. A new detachment of

244 . An Account of the Inundation of

military, necessary to keep order, was already on the way ; one
méssenger: after another was dispatched by the zealous: M.
Pague, the mayor of Ans; all the inhabitants were at their
doors with torches in their hands. On my arrival, I learnt that
the boring-rod, after passing obliquely through fourteen yards,
had met an old holing, which, though indirectly, opened a com-
munication with the unfortunate sufferers, sinking with fatigue
and hunger, and deprived of light during four successive days.
But at what point the boring-rod had entered the old holing, or
what was the exact length of the hole, it was then impossible to
determine. Had the seam or bed declined. vertically,» the
boring-rod would. have hit the top, and been useless. How
should we afford the men any support? Our desire to introduce
liquids to them, through tubes of block-tin, was impracticable ;
yet, ere another day should elapse, many of them might cease ‘to
live. Happily we were sure to pierce the barrier in a few hours.
‘The work seemed to proceed with vexatious slowness; we ima-
gined. we could hear the expiring groans of the men, and wished
to have hold:of the pick to hasten their deliverance. 1

_ At length they themselves pointed out a better duvedticnrhie
the rod, which reached them in a direct line at two o’clock, when
our workmen called to them, and they desired that the: hole
might be stopped, as they were not able to bear the pressure of
the air, which rushed in impetuously. All precautions were
now taken against fire, and the necessary dispositions made for
re-animating men, exhausted through want of light, air and
food, during five nights and days. The light in our drift was
kept at a distance from the workmen, and the fire-keeper had
orders to step backwards, when the flame of the candle indicated
the presence of inflammable gas. Broth, wine and clothes were
taken down the pit, and the women and. the children removed
from the surrounding buildings. Wretched creatures! ye are
yet ignorant that many of you have to weep for a husband, a fa-
ther, or a son. . Sensibility certainly does not enervate; for du-
ring these five days our hearts have been wounded with’a sight
the more afflicting, because the families of colliers being nume-
rous, are all reduced to the most frightful anaes when Y tycae
their head,

a Coalwork at Beaujonc, near Liege. 245

. Messieurs Georgen, colonel of the Gendarmerie, De Rouve-
came inthe night to offer their service. Every whareitmelde
anxiety was displayed, and the men at work, desirous of the merit
of rescuing their companions, refused to be relieved. At seven
o'clock in the morning of the 4th March, the workmen, equally
impatient as ourselves, let off a blast, the smoke of which incom-
modedthem This mode of expediting the drift was therefore for-
bidden, because its effects in the interior might kill those whom
‘we were endeavouring to save, and, by igniting the hydrogen
gas, destroy our ewn workmen. Besides, we were now certain of
the existence of all those who followed the brave Goffin, and as
we! are come to the moment of their being rescued, we shall re-
late the occurrences in the interior according to the simple nar-
rative we received, not altering it, but for the sake of perspi-
- We left Goffin in the midst of the miners, whom he had col-
lected near the upcast shaft, after all hope of escape by the Beau-
jone pit was ‘done away. Some of the men remained to watch
the progress of the water ; others betook themselves to the gal-
leries of the mine on the rise side of the pit, which they reached
in, the most deplorable condition. The boys crying bitterly,
crowded about Goffin, exclaiming, “ Dear master, how shall we
escape!” “* My God, must we die so young!” He ordered
silence, and consoled them with promises that they should all
escape. He then distributed his people in the different rise-
boards, from the 4th to the 7th board, and which communicate
with each other by the headway (par la Rousse). The most
robust.and.. courageous workmen he allotted to the 7th board,
where a drift was commenced under the persuasion that the
workings of the Mamonster pit might be penetrated from thence.
Though it was impossible that more than two men could work
ata time, yet by constantly relieving each other, the work pro-
ceeded. The feeble carried. away the excavated’ materials i into
the dip. .They had proceeded about seven and‘a half y

and hoped to. be soon in the bosom of their families. Ev
stroke of the pick returning a heavier sound, shewed that they
were near a waste ; but what was their disappointment, when they

246 An Account of the Inundation of

holed the old workings of the abandoned pit of Martin Wrey,
out of which the crouin, or inflammable air, issued’ with a hor:
rible noise, and would certainly have destroyed them all, had
not Goffin immediately stopped the hole. The workmen seized
with stupor, fell upon the deille of the seam, i. e: the floor of the
seam, or schiste, upon which it rests; some of them were desir-
ous of continuing the work in the same place, but this Goffin —
opposed, saying, ‘“ When we have nothing further to hope for,
I will. bring you back here, and then our work will be readily
finished.” Their despair seemed to be at the height. “All ex-
claimed that their death was inevitable. 'They uttered the sad-
dest cries. The boys begged their father’s blessing, and those
who had none, implored Goffin, on their knees, to give them his.
The men bewailed the lot of their wives, children, and parents.
Their groans made them desperate; they demanded of their
master what was to become of them. This brave man, who never
ceased to encourage them, informed them that there was still a
resource in the fifth board, to which he wished to conduct them ;
but no one rose or answered. ‘They uttered fresh cries, and
seemed to refuse to undertake any new operation ; ‘‘ Well,” says
Goffin, “ since you refuse to obey me, we will die.” He then
took his son in his arms, and the most faithful of his friends
gathered round him, wishing to testify to those who might find
their dead bodies, that they had preserved their attachment to
him to the last. They embraced each other, and were praying
to God, when, O prodigy of courage! a child of feeble being,
as if inspired, rose up and said with a loud voice and firm tone,
“< You act like children ; follow the orders of my father: We
must persevere in our work, and shew to those who shall survive
us that we have had courage evenin death. Has notmy father
told you that Lambert Colson will not abandon us.” This
youth was Mathew Goffin, the oversman’s son, 12 years old, who
is of little stature, and has the bone of his leg crooked inwards,
as most of the miners have, who begin to work too ‘young.
He advanced a step, and all, asif struck by some sudden inspi-
ration, felt a return of confidence, rose and followed the elder
Goffin, and began to undertake an opening in the fifth ‘board.
They had scarcely reached the spot, when, with inexpressible
joy; they heard a strange noise, which they recognized to be that

a Coal-work-at Beaujonc, near Liege. 247

of persons working to save them, and which increased their hope

as they began to distinguish the different operations of kerving,
_, nieking, judding, boring, and blasting *. This, according to our
calculation, must have been on the Sunday night, when they
had. been thirty-six hours in the pit, and, exhausted by the fa-
: tigue they had in the seventh board, and the labour of contend-
ing with the water at the time of its irruption, they again re-
fused to work, saying, ‘‘ That they had as soon die one way as
another.” In this extremity, the heroic Goffin treats them as
cowards, declaring that he will hasten his death, and take from
them all hopes.of safety, by drowning himself and his son, whom
he seized hold of. They all threw themselves down before
him, and again promised to obey him. But the air no longer
containing sufficient oxygen, the two candles which lighted the
workmen went out, and a third left in the head-way, in reserve,
and which to them was sacred fire, was overturned at the same
time by accident. From that time profound darkness destroyed
the little courage by which they had been animated, and they
again refused to work. Goffin became desperate. The first
man he could find he seized, and, though without arms, threat-
ened to stab him if he refused to work. Dark as it was, he
conducted them back to their post, and though his hands, un-
accustomed to use the pick, were covered with blood, he always
set the first example. The young hero his son, too, frequently
came to-him, and clapped him on the back, saying, “ Courage,
’ father, all goes well.” .

In this dreadful anxiety, some promised to make nine days’
vows, and others pilgrimages on naked feet. Two orphans,
12,or 14 years old, flattered themselves they should not perish,
because their father, who was gone to Heaven, prayed for them.
One of these offered his brother a piece of bread, which he re-
fused; and gave to another boy, who devoured it immediately.
The young Goffin wept not: he was occupied only with the
thoughts of his mother, sisters, and brothers: “ Father,” says
he, “ you and I only earned money: how are they to live?
Must they beg? ‘Dear father, I know that you have hid some

* Haver to kirve, is cutting the coal from its bed; couper to nick,. is hew-

ing the seam on each ‘side in order to force down a jud or block of coal ; and
hotile to jud, is forcing the jud from the roof with iron wedges.

248 An Account of the Inundation of

money in the gow-house, how will my mother be able to find
it?” ‘ And you, my boy, where have you hid yours?” “ I
have only a crown which my sister has.” ‘Two workmen dis-
puting were beginning to fight; let them alone, said a third,
“‘ if one of them be killed he will serve us for food,” this ended
the quarrel. Some of them ate candles which they had hid,
and others drank their urine in preference to the extremely nau-
seous water. Bertrand, Labeye, and Clavir, whose courage
prompted them willingly to follow the fate of their leader, fre-
quently said, ‘ Dear Goffin, we must love a man with whom
we had rather see death than abandon him.” Another used this
reproach, “If you had not called me, perhaps I might have
got up in the fourth corf.” In this manner, this most generous of
men was doubly afflicted. Still such is the versatility of the
imagination that a scene quite comic succeeded to the most
hideous views of death. One of the men complained, on enter-
ing the drift for the first time, that the heat was iusupportable,
and that he had no hole in his nose, at which his companions
burst into laughter ; he was therefore dismissed, and his work
dispensed with. This absence of mind, however, this forgetful-
ness of misfortune, was of short duration. Those especially who
could not work, found the most urgent want of subsistence. A
little time back, fearing to be drowned, they only went to the
edge of the water to judge of its height, now deprived of ‘light
they crept there, in hope of finding the body of one of’ their
companions to serve as food at the last extremity. But the on-
ly aliment they could find was the infected water, which they
brought to the workmen in their hats (callotes) and in their
candle box. These hats are bad, and have very small brims
in which they fix the candle with clay. The perspiring workmen
promised Goffin only to moisten their lips in the water, but they
drank the last drop, without quenching their thirst.“ We
have drunk,” said they, ‘‘ the blood of our friends who perished
under their burdens,” others, losing their senses, asked their way
home. They complained they were left to perish without light
or food. Among other proofs of insanity, they asked for sallad
and cabbage, and rose into violent passions against Goffin, who
unceasingly endeavoured to calm them with the assurance that

a Coal-work at Beaujonc, near Liege. 249

he would conduct them back, and give them all they wanted.
He called them all by their names, and hoped those that did
- Mot answer, had ascended to the light of day. He often men-
tioned Anthony Hallet, who, in seizing the chain of the bell that
hung at the top of the pit, gave the first alarm ; but this man
being taller than the rest, and hoping to have time to ascend,
gave place to others, who, on account of their stature, might be
drowned sooner than himself, and thus fell a victim to his ge-
nerosity. Five days and nights of misery had now gone by,
but having no idea of time, they supposed it to be Monday,
when it was Wednesday, so true it is, that éven when affliction
is of long continuance, the moments seem to glide rapidly by,
because the mind is altogether taken up with its calamities.
(Here ends Goffin’s Narrative.)

__ A passage was now made 51 yards long, in a seam 35.43390
inches thick, by which we reached the desired spot in the pre-
cise direction of the 28th point of the compass. The men in
the interior had wrought 12 yards in the 5th board, and nearly
8 yards in the 7th, making a total of about 71 yards. All ar-
rangements were made for receiving them. They heard us dis-
tinctly, and each endeavoured to press before his comrade. It
was the 4th March, and 12 o'clock. But because too much
eagerness might cause an explosion, the last operations were
performed in the dark. As soon as the barrier was finally pe-
‘netrated, the air, in regaining its equilibrium, produced a sort
of report like thunder, which, though foreseen, alarmed the men,
and, put a part of them to flight. Order being established, the
unfortunate men crawled through the drift, which circumstance
was announced at the surface to a great number of distinguished
personages assembled in the inside of the buildings. Some re-
pose was, however, necessary to accustom men just rescued from
the grave to the air and light. Every thing, by the kindness
of Mrs Hardy, had been in preparation for two hours. M.
Mathieu and Dr Asiaux were now informed of the proceed-
ings. Each of the men was wrapped in a blanket, and received
in the pit a basin of broth and a little wine. * They were then
placed successively in the corf, and accompanied to day by four
miners, one at each corner. We reckoned them over several

250 Inundation of a Coal-work, &c.

times ; but our happiness was incomplete. Of the 91 persons
who were shut up in the mine, only 70 were restored to their
friends ; of the whole number 127 who were in the pit at the
irruption of the water, 33 saved themselves by the corf, 22 were
drowned, 70 eseaped by the drift. Goffin and his son ascended
the last, with M. Migneron, who had been 24 hours in the pit,
and conducted himself with a zeal worthy of the highest recom-
mendation *. The air was now rent with acclamations of joy;
but in this moment of strong feeling it was necessary to pre-
vent the relatives of the persons restored to life from rushing in
upon them in a body. The Colonel of the Gendarmerie was
everywhere exerting himself to restrain the imprudent populace.
M. Mathieu, who had attended most of the operations, and shared
the responsibility of the recovery of the men, partook of the
blessings of the multitude. Migneron and myself returned to
town at 4 o’clock; but M. Mathieu remained on the spot till 8,
giving directions about another visit to the pit ; but the air, al-
ready highly impregnated with noxious gas, did not permit
the men to go, even without a light, beyond the scene of our la-
bour.

Such is the faithful account of events which has caused so
deep an interest in all ranks of society. The difficulty of ob-
taining information from common workmen, who cannot speak
in French, the desire to meet the impatience of the public, my
constant occupation, and want of time, must be my apologies
for any defect in style; but facts have been collected with scru-
pulous care, the deposition of every workman having been se-
parately taken; yet we give but feebly the energetic expres-
sions of veneration which the workmen have for Goffin.

Sir Frepertcx Mons, Professor of Mineralogy, in Vienna.

Faepenicx Mous, formerly Professor of Mineralogy in the
Mining Academy at Freyberg, and Counsellor of Mines, was
born in the beginning of the year 1770, in a little town in the

* The king of the Netherlands bestowed the decoration of the ee of
Honour on the active, energetic, and noble-minded Hubert Goffin.
:

Sir Frederick Mohs, Professor of Mineralogy at Vienna. 251
Dukedom of Anhalt-Bernburgh. He was very young when he
lost his father, who was a merchant ; and he also was designed
to follow the same profession, but was prevented by his inclina-'
tion to science, particularly to mathematics. The arrangements
of those schools in which he received his early education, obliged
him to walk about five miles two or three times a-week, to re-
ceive an hour’s mathematical instruction. In 1796, he entered
the University of Halle, where he studied science and philosophy
under his countrymen Klugel and Gren ; and two years after,
went to Freyberg, where he became a devoted disciple of the
celebrated Werner. Dissatisfied with the geological theories of
the old naturalists, he was forcibly struck with the opinions of
Werner upon geology ; particularly because they were founded
on observation, and required that knowledge should precede
explanation.

Practical mining engaged much of his attention, and he soon
received an appointment in his native country, which he shortly
afterwards abandoned, to take a charge in the foundation of a
scientific institution projected in Dublin by Kirwan, which was
soon broken up, owing to the death of those persons who. possessed
the chief influence in it. About a year after, he returned to Frey-
berg, where he became acquainted with Jameson, then prosecut-
ing his studies at that place, and now Professor of Natural His-
tory in Edinburgh ; and wrote an admirable description of the
mine of Himmelfurst, which was published somé years afterwards.
In 1802, he went to Vienna, where he enlarged his acquaintance
with the literati of that place; and undertook a description of
the mineralogical collection of the Banker von der Nill. In this
work (Vienna 1804), are contained the elements of those views
of natural history which he has since developed. At the same
time, he also wrote single essays on various mineralogical sub-
jects, which made their appearance in the “ Ephemerides” of
Baron Von Moll.

His enthusiasm for geognosy and mining caused him to un-
dertake very extensive excursions into Stiria, Saltzburg, Carin
thia, Carniola, Hungary, Transylvania, &c. In 1810 he was
appointed by the Austrian Government to examine the districts
in Austria and Bohemia, where porcelain earth is dug up, and

252 Sir Frederick Mohs, Professor of Mineralogy at Vienna:

where hopes were then entertained of finding this mineral. A
number of the results of these investigations have been pub-
lished in the Transactions of the Polytechnic Institute of Vienna;
and have given rise to several new manufactories in Bohemia:
He became known to the Archduke John, who at that time
contemplated the establishment of the Johanneum at Gratz.
At the suggestion of the Archduke he undertook another jour-
ney into Stiria, upon which the State of that place appointed
him Professor of Mineralogy in the Johanneum. In the exten-
sive and excellent mineralogical collection in the Institute, the
whole of which, together with the apparatus, was a donation
from the founder, he had an opportunity of proving and apply-
ing his principles and opinions regarding mineralogy. - .

In 1812 he commenced his lectures on mineralogy, in which
he considered the natural history of the mineral kingdom, and
at the same time attempted an elementary method for determin-
ing the natural arrangement of the mineral species. In these
lectures he always expressed the highest esteem for his cele
brated instructor Werner, without, however, generally following
his views. ‘The arrangement and distribution of the mineral
collection according to natural principles, met with great ap-
plause; and Professor Mohs himself, in his later writings, men-
tions this arrangement as a principal cause of the rapid progress
of his pupils. His attempts to make out the specific differences
that characterize the divisions of his natural system being at first
attended with great difficulties, obliged him to make innumer-
able experiments on the hardness and specific gravity of mine-
rals. In mineralogical writings he found these characteristics
entirely omitted, or if they were mentioned, it was but very
inaccurately. This induced him to draw out a scheme of his
scale of hardness, and of a system of crystallography, which
should be more fundamental than that generally prevalent in
Germany, and at the same time simpler and more agreeable to
nature than that of the celebrated French mineralogist Haiiy.
In 1816 Mohs wrote an essay to Professor Jameson in Edin-
burgh, with the design of communicating a general explanation
of his natural mineralogical method, which this gentleman print-
ed in the Edinburgh Philoscphical Journal.

Sir Frederick Mohs. 253
Mohs, -by his lectures, had attracted many students from the
Imperial States to Gratz. Count Brunner, Hereditary Cham-

berlain of Austria, was among the number. He engaged in the
subject with peculiar enthusiasm, and invited the Professor to

accompany him in a tour through England and France, a pro-
posal which met with the concurrence of the Archduke John
and the State of Stiria. The travellers arrived in London in
the beginning of January 1818, went to Cornwall, and then
from London to Edinburgh. Here Mohs found his friend
Professor Jameson occupied with views similar to his own re-
garding the natural history of the mineral kingdom. They
soon agreed as to the principal points; and Mr Jameson, who
was then engaged in revising the third edition of his “ System
of Mineralogy,” adopted part of the views of Professor Mohs.

Mohs first published his “‘ Characteristick” in German and
English merely as a fragment. Jn the following year appeared
“ Jameson’s Manual of Mineralogy,” in which the author
adopted the natural method, with but few alterations in the no-
menclature, and thus introduced it into England.

Mohs, upon his return to Edinburgh from an excursion to
the Highlands, found an invitation to the chair of his immortal
instructor Werner, which he accepted, provided the consent of
the Archduke John could be obtained. This he received in
a letter written by the Archduke himself, from Dresden, and
he entered into his professorship in the autumn of 1818. The
above mentioned “‘ Characteristick,” which was published in
1820, passed through a second edition in the following year,
accompanied with an explanatory introduction. In 1822, Mohs
_ published the first part, and in 1824, the second part, of his
Elements of Mineralogy, the most remarkable work on minera-
logy which has appeared in our time. Three or four years ago,
Mohs was invited by the Emperor of Austria to Vienna. He
accepted the offer of Professor of Mineralogy there, and has
been succeeded i in Freyberg by Nauman, the celebrated mi-

( 4H y

Extraordinary Case of atthoiipherte Refraction. By Tents
CrurcksHank, Esq. Professor of Mathematics in the Maris:
chal College, Aberdeen. Se en by the Author.

Mariscuat CoLreee, ABERDEEN,
Sir, 15th August 1829.

Havine been informed lately by my friend, the Rev. Dr For-
bes of King’s College, that you were desirous of collecting facts
respecting extraordinary cases of terrestrial refraction, I send
you the subjoined account of phenomena which I observed here
on the 10th June 1826. I am, &c.
Joun CrurexsHank,
To Professor Jameson, &c. &c.

On the morning of the 10th June 1826, there was a thick
fog at Aberdeen, with a slight breeze of wind about south-east
by east. Between eight and nine a. m. the fog vanished from
the land, and bright sunshine succeeded, which continued till
late in the afternoon ; but fogs, apparently dense, remained at
a distance on the sea, and occasionally extended to the shore at
some points till after mid-day. From the observatory of Ma-
rischal College at noon, the rocks about Slains Castle, on the
Buchan coast, and distant about twenty-four miles, attracted
my attention, by appearing more elevated, and with much greater
distinctness of parts, than usual. Places beyond Slains Castle,
which are not visible from Aberdeen in ordinary states of the
atmosphere, were at some instants distinctly seen. ‘The rocks,
and the adjacent land, to the distance of about two miles, \ west -
of them, seemed to vary in altitude almost every ten seconds,
the whole tract appearing alternately to rise gradually to three
or four times its ordinary apparent height above the level of
the sea, and subside again into itself. Thus far the phenomena
were observed with the naked eye, and during the space of
about five minutes. But, upon examining the same tract of
country with a telescope, a three and a half fect achromatic with
a low power, I found the appearances presented by smaller ob-
jects to be still more interesting, particularly those objects which

Fe aE.
ra

Mr Cruickshank on Atmospheric Refraction. 255
were at some distance from the sea, and distant from Aberdeen
about twenty-one miles. Various objects, which at some in-
stants appeared only as small roundish spots, seemed often to

to four or five times their usual height ; at
other times, while these objects themselves appeared to remain

- of a fixed. altitude, exact copies of them appeared above them,

and often second or third copies above the first. Taller objects,
as the ends of farm houses, sometimes appeared to shoot up in-
to lofty pillars, but without having their appearances repeated,
like those above mentioned.

One rectangular object, of a light yellow colour, and which
was soon discovered to be the thatched roof of a farm house,
strongly illuminated by the sun, attracted more attention than
any other, from its being very well defined. It appeared asa
perfect rectangle, its base being horizontal, and equal to about
twice its perpendicular. This object sometimes seemed to grow
up to about five times its ordinary height, and again to sink
down to its natural dimensions. Sometimes an exact copy of
the object appeared above it; and sometimes a second copy
above the first, forming three equal and similar rectangles. The
apparent distances between these rectangles were different at
different instants, varying from mere dark lines to spaces about
equal in breadth to the object’s extent in altitude, as seen in or-
dinary circumstances. ‘The two or three rectangles were some-
times formed by a sub-division of the object when extended in
apparent height; at other times the first copy appeared to be
drawn up, as it were, off the object, and the second copy to be
drawn off the first ; and at other times, while the object appeared
to retain its natural dimensions, the copies of it began to appear
above it as horizontal yellow lines, which rapidly increased in
breadth. In no case did the lowest rectangle appear of less
dimensions than in ordinary states of the atmosphere: and in
no case did its extended figure, or the figure formed by the
three rectangles and the interyening spaces, appear to exceed
five times the ordinary height of the object ; but with these li
mitations, almost every conceivable variety of appearance was
exhibited, which could be presented by three rectangles perpen-
dicularly above each other, varying in their vertical dimensions,
and uniting and separating by turns. The distance of this ob-

s2

‘

256 Mr Cruickshank on Atmospheric Refraction.

ject was from twenty to twenty-one miles. ‘The straight line join-
ing it and Aberdeen, passes above the land for about a mile and
a half, reckoning from Aberdeen, and about half a mile on the
Buchan coast. The remainder of the line passes over the sea ;
and its greatest distance from the shore is about a mile and a
quarter. The sands of Belhelvie occupy the greater part of the
intervening coast.. The observations were continued for half an
hour, by the end of which those extraordinary phenomena had
become less striking, and could not so easily be observed, owing
to increased tremor in the atmosphere. There was no fog in.
the direction of the object during the observations. The at-
mosphere was rather warm; but I regret that I have no record
of the state of the barometer or thermometer at the time. At
eight in the morning and nine in the evening of the same day
the thermometer was at 56° of Fahrenheit.

Analysis of Galena, fron Castleland Hill, near Inverkeithing.
By Mr A. Rozertson junior, Inverkeithing. Communi-
cated by the Author.

Tus ore is partly massive, and partly in very regular octa-
hedral crystals, some of them almost as large as a pullet’s egg.
It is found very near the surface, at the foot of a small hill, in
a piece of ground, which, till the drain was cut, which at pre-
sent carries off the water, must apparently have been a marsh, or
perhaps the bed of a small lake. It is contained partly in green-
stone, partly in a quartzy sandstone, both belongmg to the coal
formation. It appears to have been disposed in a vein, not in
a bed, or irregularly intermingled with the neighbouring rocks.

This vein was first discovered, about seventy years ago, in
cutting a road, and was wrought at that time, but without ad-
vantage. The working of it was resumed about thirty years
since, when nearly fifty tons of ore were raised, which, however,
did not pay the expense. It was abandoned shortly afterwards,
in consequence of a pretty extensive sliding in the greenstone
and sandstone of the strata, at a fissure between, which closed
up the greater part of the mine.

Some of the crystals were carefully cleaned, and reduced tox

Mn

Mr A. Robertson’s Analysis of Galena. 257

vvery fine powder, a hundred grains of which were digested in
three hundred grains of pure nitric acid, considerably diluted
with distilled water. When the action of the acid had ceased,
it was poured off, and replaced by two hundred grains of the
_ same: acid similarly diluted, and the digestion was continued for
some hours longer. ‘The two solutions, and the water with
which the undissolved matter was washed, were mixed together.

This residuary matter, after being well washed with distilled
water, was dried by exposure to the air, and gently heated for
_ some time by warm water placed under the vessel containing it.
The sulphur was then burnt off, and the loss of weight accu-
rately noted. The mean result of five experiments, from which
none of them varied two-tenths of a grain, was 12.37 grains.

After the sulphur had been dissipated, there remained a
whitish powder, which, from several of its properties, was re-
cognized to be sulphate of lead. This had been formed, during
the analysis, owing to the oxidation of a small portion of the
sulphur by the nitric acid, although every precaution had been
taken to prevent it. A quantity of this, collected in the diffe-
rent experiments, was decomposed by boiling on it a solution of
carbonate of soda. The weight of sulphate of barytes which
this alkaline solution yielded, was nearly proportional to the
quantity of sulphuric acid, which, by calculation, the sulphate
contained ; and the carbonate of lead which was formed, dis-
solved completely with effervescence in diluted nitric acid, with
the exception of a little undecomposed sulphuret of lead. When
a solution of sulphate of soda was poured into this solution, it
afforded a quantity of sulphate of lead, only 4 per cent. less-than
that of the original sulphate. After this had been separated,
the solution being supersaturated with carbonate of soda, a slight
pink tint appeared, which seemed to indicate manganese ; and
when tincture of galls was added, it also gave slight, though un-
equivocal, traces of iron. The average weight of this sulphate
of lead, in the three experiments from which the weight of the
lead was deduced, was eight grains, equivalent to ‘84 of a grain
of sulphur, and 5.47 grains of lead.

The nitric acid solutions gave no trace of silver with muriate
of soda. From one of them the lead was precipitated by car-
honate of ammonia, the precipitate being afterwards reduced ;

258 Mr A. Robertson’s Analysis of Galena.

‘but the-reduction was evidently incomplete, so that a portion of
lead was lost. A plate of zinc put into another ‘threw down
metallic lead, but this was accompanied by a quantity of what
appeared to be a whitish oxide, so that this experimentialso failed.
The remaining three solutions were neutralized by carbonate:of
ammonia, and a solution of sulphate of ammonia was poured ‘in,
in sufficient quantity to precipitate the whole of the lead which
they contained. The mean weight of the three parcels of sul-
phate of lead thrown down, after these had been well washed
and ‘heated to low redness, was 115.7 grains, equivalent to 79.16
grains of lead. From this none of them varied half:a grain.

Carbonate of ammonia, and ‘carbonate of ‘soda, threw down
nothing farther from these solutions.

As no trace of silver was observed ‘in these solutions, to de-
termine this point with greater accuracy, 1000 grains of the ore
were cupelled, until reduced to about twenty grains of lead.
These were dissolved in nitric ‘acid. The solution. did not lose
its transparency on the addition of a solution of muriate of soda,
and therefore contained no silver.

Through the nitrie acid solutions, from which ‘the lead’ had
been separated, and which had ‘been afterwards supersaturated
by an alkaline carbonate, sulphuretted hydrogen gas was trans-
mitted. A little of a brown’ precipitate subsided. About half
a grain of this, on charcoal before the blowpipe, gave out a
bluish flame, seemingly that of sulphur, and a ‘globule’ re-
sembling fused oxide of iron remained. 'The most ¥emarkable
feature was the very strong odour which it communicated to
the air of a pretty large apartment, and which was retained for
several hours. "This smell was pungent, ‘and, so far'as could
be judged from ‘recollection, bore some resemblance to that
smell of horse-radish which is stated to’ be the indication of ‘se-
lenium. The presence of this substance, however, must be
doubtful, as in recognizig substances in ‘this way’ there is very
considerable room’ for fallacy from various causes.

To discover whether any iodine might ‘be ‘contained ‘in ‘the
ore, an ounce of it, reduced to a fine powder, was distilled in a
strong heat with an ounce of concentrated sulphuric acid. A
little sulphuretted hydrogen was first evolved, then some sul-
phur was sublimed, and a Jarge quantity of sulphurous acid

Mr D. Forbes on a Greenstone Boulder. 259.

‘gas came over. About three drams of a fluid also condensed in
the receiver. This was poured on black oxide of manganese,
and again distilled. No purple tint could be observed, and a
little liquid which came over gave no blue colour with solution
ieee

Statement.
Sulphur a 1887 phat 13.21
oe i way 47 } 3468 84.63

97.84

Notice of a large Greenstone Boulder in the Pentland Hills.
By James D. Forzes, Esq. Communicated by the Au-
, Cotrton House,
~ Dear Str, 3d August 1829.

pter send you specimens of the boulder at the foot of the
Pentland Hills, in which, from my description, you took an in-
| terest. It is situated at the opening of a valley named Haw
Dean, which lies between the hills of Allermuir and:Cape Law,
and at a short distance behind the house of Dreghorn. By a
mean of two observations with the sympiesometer, on July 31.
and August 1. the stone lies at 333 feet above my room here,
which is 415 feet above the mean level of the sea, giving 748
feet. oy the elevation of the boulder above the latter point.
_Though now in two pieces, it seems formerly to have been
united in one, and the mode of separation is easily explained ;
lm composed of greenstone, with a tendency to globular de-
-composition, the coats of one of these nuclei beginning to fail
from the action of the weather, the projecting part which had a
different concretionary structure was detached, since the equili-
<brium of the whole mass depended greatly on the portion of the
nucleus, which still remains buried ; and the other portion not
“being completely supported at its own centre of gravity, fell a

260 Mr D. Forbes on a@ Greenstone Boulder

little over, leaving the division which now exists between them

This is rendered obvious by the first of the rough outlines
in pen and ink which’ I have annexed, the correspondence of
the forms being there distinctly seen exactly as they appear in
nature, and likewise proving, by the spherical form of the frac-
ture, the globular structure already mentioned in the left hand
portion. |

The stone is excessively hard, except where it has begun to
disintegrate ; even with a very heavy hammer, it was not with-
out great labour that I succeeded in obtaining specimens of a
considerable size. I send some of the disintegrated portions,
which are from the concentric lamella of the western half of the
boulder. You will be the fittest judge of the precise nature of
the stone (which appears to be greenstone, pretty highly crys-
tallized, and containing a little iron pyrites), and what may be
the most probable site of its parent rock. ‘To one fact relating
to the theory of boulders, and the period at which they were
deposited, I would call your attention, from the peculiar situa-
tion in which this mass lies, and of which, in the sketches, I
have attempted to give some idea. Being placed upon the ac-
tual declivity of a small but steep ravine, it seems physically im-
possible that, had that valley existed at the time of its journey,
it should not have been precipitated to the bottom of it. If it
came from the last, it is not credible that it should have cross-
ed the channel of the streamlet, and ascended half way ‘up the
western bank; and it is equally beyond explanation that, by any
power short of a miracle, had it come from the west, the course
of so enormous a mass (the weight of which I shall endeavour
to estimate), should have come to a stand under the influence of
the tremendous impetus, of whatever kind, by which it was
moved, in the middle of a short and steep descent of this de-
scription. I therefore consider the induction undeniable, that
the excavation of the valley must have taken place subsequent-
ly to the deposition of this boulder.

In order to form a rough estimate of the size of the fragment,
after an attentive inspection by the eye, I conceived the western
portion, as far as it is uncovered, to be a semicylinder seven feet
long, and three and a half in diameter ; and the eastern, a pa-
rallelopiped, having a mean of six feet, four and a half feet, and

in the Pentland Hills. 261

two and a half feet, for its three dimensions. From these as-

i which must be considered merely as rough approxi-
mations, I computed the former fragment to contain about 33
cubic feet; and the later 67. Allowing a half of the bulk of
the former for the portion buried, we shall have about 117 cu-
bic feet for the whole.

To gain some idea of the weight of the mass, I took, with
great accuracy, the specific gravity of a fresh fractured portion,
which I found to be 2.90 *; whence the weight of a cubic foot
will be 181 tb., and the whole mass near 200 ewt., or about 10
tons. Its enormous momentum may therefore be conceived,
when it was transported to its present situation from a distance
certainly of some miles. From the spontaneous decomposition
‘of the greenstone, it is not easy to determine whether it suffered
much from attrition in its transportation; but I am disposed to
think it has not, from the angular form of the eastern fragments _
which now exhibits scarcely the least tendency to disintegration,
forming a striking contrast to the other portion with which it
has been so closely united.

_ The argument of the excavation of valleys subsequent to the
deposition of boulders might, I believe, be inferred from nume-
rous cases, though this is the strongest I have met with. They
are often placed in such insulated situations in mountainous
countries as to intimate the degradation of the surrounding

‘I fear I may have extended my remarks beyond the import-
ance of the subject. But as you were very particular in your
inquiries when we last met, I collected such observations as you
mae consider ne

* Weight in air, . 7586 grains.
in water, 4966

Hence sp. gt. = 735 —a966 = 2.895. In minute accuracy this should

To Professor Jameson.

~ (© 262)

Notice of Earthquakes on the Mississippi. By Mr Fuiyz.

F'nom all the accounts, corrected one by another, and compa-
red with the very imperfect narratives that were published, says
Mr Flint, I infer that the shock of these earthquakes, in the
immediate vicinity of the centre of their course, must have
equalled, in their terrible heayings of the earth, any thing of
the kind that has been recorded. I do not believe that the
public have ever yet had any adequate idea of the violence of
the concussions. ‘We are accustomed to measure this, by the
buildings overturned, and the mortality that results. Here the
country was thinly settled. The houses fortunately were frail
and of logs, the most difficult to overturn that could be con-
structed. Yet, as it was, whole tracts were plunged into the bed
-of the river. The grave-yard at New Madrid, with all its
sleeping tenants, was precipitated into the bed of the stream.
Most of the houses were thrown down. Large lakes, of twenty
miles in extent, were made in an hour; other lakes were
drained. _The whole country to the mouth of the Ohio, in one
direction, and to the St Francis in the other, including a front
of three, hundred miles, was convulsed to such a degree, as to
create, lakes and islands, the number of which is not yet known,
to. coyer a,tract of many miles in extent near the Little Prairie,
with water three or four feet deep ; and, when the water disap-
peared, a stratum of sand, of the same thickness, was left in its
place. The trees split in the midst, lashed one with another,
and are. still visible, over great tracts of country, inclinmg in
every direction, and at every angle to the earth and to the ho-
rizon.
They described the undulations ef the earth as resembling

waves, increasing in elevation as they advanced; and, when
‘they had attained a certain fearful height, the earth would
‘burst, and vast volumes of water and sand and pitecoal..were dis-
-charged, as high as the tops of the trees. I have seen a hun-
dred of these chasms, which remained fearfully deep, although
in a very tender alluvial soil, and after a lapse of seven years.
Whole districts were covered with white sand, so as to become
uninhabitable.

Mr Flint.on Earthquakes on the Mississippi. 265
Phe water at first covered the whole country, particularly at
the Little Prairie; and it must have been indeed a scene of
horror, in these deep forests, and in the gloom of the darkest
night, ‘and-by wading m the water to the middle, to flee from
these concussions; which were occurring every few hours, with
a noise equally terrible to the beasts and birds as to men. The
birds themselves lost all power and -disposition to fly, and re- _
treated to the bosoms of men, their fellow-sufferers in this scene
of convulsion. A few persons sunk in these chasms, and were
providentially extricated. One person ‘died of fright ; one pe-
rished miserably on an island, which retained its-original level,
in the midst of a wide ‘lake created by the earthquake. The
hat and clothes of this_man were found. A number perished,
who sunk with their boats in the river. A bursting of the
earth, just*below ‘the village of New Madrid, arrested this
mighty stream in its course, and caused a reflux of its waves, by
which, in a little time, a great’number of ‘boats were swept by
the ascending current into the mouth of the Bayou, carried out
and left upon the dry land, when the accumulating waters of
the river had again cleared .their.current. There were a great
number of severe shocks, but two series of. concussions were
particularly terrible, far more so than the rest. _They remark,
that the shocks were clearly distinguishable into.two classes ;
those in which the motion was horizontal, and those in, which it
was perpendicular. The. latter were,attended by the.explosions
and the terrible mixture of noises that preceded and accompa-
nied the earthquakes in a louder.degree, but were-by no means
so desolating and destructive as the other. When they were
felt, the houses crumbled, the trees waved together, the.ground
sunk, and all the destructive phenomena were,more conspicuous.
In the intervals of the earthquakes there was-one evening, and
that a brilliant.and cloudless one, in which the western sky.was
- a continued glare of vivid flashes of lightning, and repeated
peals of subterranean thunder seemed, to proceed, as the flashes
did, from below the horizon. They remark that this night, so
for. subterranean thunder, was the same period in
which the fatal earthquakes at Caraccas occurred, and they:seem
to suppose these flashes and that event. parts-of , the. same scene.

264 M. Marcel de Serres on the Deposition of

The people, without exception, were unlettered backwoods-
men, of the class least addicted to reasoning. And it is re-
markable how ingeniously and conclusively they reasoned from
apprehension sharpened by fear. They remarked, that the
chasms in the earth were in direction from south-west to north-
east, and they were of an extent to swallow up, not only men
but houses, and these chasms occurred frequently within inter-
vals of half a mile. They felled the tallest trees at right angles
with the chasms, and stationed themselves upon the felled trees.
By this invention all were saved ; for the chasms occurred more
than once under these trees.

Siliman’s Journal, January 1829.

On the Circumstances which appear to have accompanied the
Deposition of the Tertiary Formations. In a Letter ad-
dressed to M. ApotpHe Broneniart, by M. Marcen pz
SERRES.

"Tue observations recently made by M. Elie de Beaumont, on
the fossil vegetables of the anthracite or glance coal deposites of
the Alps, and the notes which you have added to them, appear
to me so important, and seem to coincide so well with the facts
which I have observed in the South of France, that they induce
me to submit to you the following reflections, even before pub-
lishing the facts on which they are founded :—

You observe, and, as it seems to me, with perfect reason, that
although, from the identity, or extreme similarity of the vege-
tables of the coal formation, in all parts of the globe, it is pro-
bable that the same kind of vegetation existed over the whole
earth at the period when that combustible was deposited, it
ought not to be inferred from this, that the same circumstance
existed at the periods when the lias formation, the oolites, the
chalk, or the Paris formations, were deposited, and that the ve-
getation was then the same over all parts of the globe.

I agree with you in thinking, that, in proportion as the earth
became covered with a greater number of vegetables, and was
inhabited by a greater variety of animal species, it tended more
and more towards the settled state at which it has now arrived,

the Tertiary Formations. 265
and that thus thé differences of climate beginning to be esta-
blished, or becoming more decided, different vegetables must
have grown in the different zones of the earth, and different ani-
ones vegetation was no longer the
same. !

Bubiifiaethbitime-of sieniliehdihiameat talon diacetate was
already divided, as it now is, into different zones, each of which
was characterized by animals and vegetables peculiar to itself,
ought it not equally to be concluded, that the geological times
were less remote from the present epoch than has hitherto been
supposed ? In fact, the erystalline deposites, which seem to have
been solidified anteriorly to the appearance of living beings up-
on the globe, and which alone are of any importance with refe-
rence to the solidity of our globe, are probably only the result
of the diminution of the earth’s temperature; or, in other
words, a pure thermometrical effect, while the deposites which
contain remains of organised bodies enter into the effects pro-
duced within the limits of causes at present in action. The ter-
restrial globe has undergone modifications in its formation, as
the other planetary bodies probably have ; but it has not under-
gone great and numerous revolutions, unless the name be given
to the last inundation, which has scattered the di/uviwm over a
considerable extent of the lower part of our planet.

What at least appears certain, is, that the distinctly stratified
tertiary deposites have been produced by causes which had no-
thing violent or irregular in their action, and that all have taken
place in the bosom of the same fluid, whatever diversity there
may have been in the habitation of the animals and vegetables,
whose remains they contain *. It also appears certain, that the

* This opinion is also that of M. Constant Prevost, who announced it long
ago; but it is not admitted by all geologists, and it can only as yet be consi-.
dered as a theory possessed of more or less probability. We hope to be able
shortly to publish an article in which this opinion will be carefully exa-
mined, and in which the facts that are favourable cr contradictory to it
will be comparatively discussed and weighed. For the present we shall
merely observe, that we are far from adopting the theoretical opinions con-
sidered as positive facts by the author of this memoir ; and that, in general,
we are desirous of collecting in these annals the most discordant opinions,
and those most foreign to our own ideas, when they are deserving -of being
submitted to the general examination of naturalists.—Eprror.

266 M. Marcel de Serres,on the Deposition of

seas were already separated when they were formed; the seas
and the ocean having the place which they now occupy, and
the continents a configuration nearly the same as ——
they have at the present day..

This last fact results from the observation of eh numerous
differences which are remarked among the tertiary basins de-
pending upon the Ocean and the Mediterranean ; and from the
striking similarity which exists between the tertiary deposites and
the fossils which they contain in basins depending upon the
same seas, or upon different seas not at great distances from
each other. This does not prevent some particular basins,
depending upon the ocean, from having yet communicated
with the Mediterranean, or with other seas, when the tertiary
depositions took place, especially when their level was low, and
coincided with their line of inclination towards the other seas:
It is probably on account of this latter circumstance that we
find recurring, in the two basins of Lower Austria and Hun-
gary, the formations of the Subappenine Hills and Languedoc,
or the marine sands, the caleaire meoellon, or second terti
limestone, associated with the Swiss nagelfliih, which, repre-
senting the middle fresh-water formations, covers the first ter-
tiary limestone, these basins possessing the characters of iets
oceanic and Mediterranean basins at the same time.

A proof of it will also be found in a multitude of other Sabin
which we shall proffer in another memoir on the tertiary forma:
tions of the south of France, and which is at this moment im the
press. It especially results from the constant position of these
tertiary deposites in the bottom of valleys never rising to'the
height of the counterforts, when these attain any considerable
elevation. This position of the tertiary deposites, formed in the
ancient sea at the foot and base of the secondary counterforts,
and without rising with them, is so constant in the tertiary ba-
sins dependent upon the Mediterranean, that, in proportion as
we rise toward the culminating point of a counterfort, the ses
condary formations are alone seen, while the tertiary deposites
are again found on the opposite side of the same counterfort,
which separates two contiguous tertiary basins. This fixed
situation at the foot and on each side of the counterforts which
separate the contiguous tertiary basins, proves that if the ter-

the Tertiary Formations. 267
tiary deposites are not raised higher, it is because, during the
time of their precipitation, the waters of the Mediterranean
which produced them in each basin, did not rise to the height
of the counterforts, and that, in proportion as that sea withdrew
within the limits which it now occupies, the mass of its waters,
flowing towards its present basin, gradually dimimished. It
basin of the ancient sea did not rise in the south of France to
a height of more than 400 yards above the present level of the
Mediterranean *.

The tertiary formations, with the exception of the upper
fresh-water deposites (comprehending the deposites of lacustrine
and fluviatile limestone, with the marls and lignites peculiar to
this system, in which marine fossils are never seen, unless those
which may have been detached from previously existing forma
tions and from the diluviumy, being the last relics of the seas,
when the Ocean and the Mediterranean were already separated,
seem so much the older the more distant they are from the pre-
sent seas, and so much the newer the nearer they are to them.
They appear, moreover, to have this peculiarity, that most of
those depending upon the ocean are older than the tertiary de-
posites depending upon inland littoral basins. }

One is involuntarily led to this inference, on observing the
difference of position which the marine rocky banks occupy in
the two orders of these basins. In fact, the tertiary rocky ma~
rine limestones of the oceanic basins are in general inferior to
the gypsum containing bones, while those of the imland_ basins:
are for the most part not only superior to the gypsums, but
also to the subappenine blue marls. Both are as distinct in re-.
spect to their geological position as in the fossils which they con-
tain,—a fact on which we have insisted in our papers on the cal-
caire moellon.

Thus, setting out from the positive fact, that the second ter-
tiary limestone of the South of France is newer than the cal-
caire grossier, or the first tertiary limestone, since the calcaire

* The tertiary formations deposited after the retreat of the seas from our
continents, are the only ones which rise to all kinds of levels, and which rest
indiscriminately upon rocks of the most discordant ages.

3

268 M. Marcel de Serres on the Deposition of

moellon always occurs superior to marls, which, in the oceanic »
basins, and particularly in that of Paris, are themselves above.
the calcaire grossier, there results that, if two parallel series be
established, representing the tertiary beds of the Paris basin, .
and those of the Mediterranean basins, and proceeding from the
common term A, blue clayey marls, we should have in the Paris.
basin, A blue marls, A’ upper marine sands; while, in the
Mediterranean basin we should have A blue marls, A‘ calcaire’
moellon, A” marine sands ; a series which, having for its last.
or upper term, a more elevated stage, indicates, in consequence,
that the sands of the Mediterranean formations have been de-
posited posteriorly to the sands of the Paris basin, or at least
that they have followed the deposition of calcareous ae
banks, and have immediately succeeded the blue marls.
But it is remarkable, that, while the second tertiary ihialithdiih
is wanting in most of the organic basins, and, in particular, in
that of Paris *, the first, or that lymg under the bone gypsum,
seems not to have been deposited in the basins of the south of
France. In fact, most of those which are observed there, and
we might almost say all, belong to the second tertiary marine’
limestone, or calcaire moellon. It is of this limestone that nearly
all the towns of the south of France are built +, of which it will
suffice to mention Marseilles, Nimes, Montpellier, Beziers, and
Narbonne; and that the most remarkable monuments, whether
ancient or modern, such as the triumphal arch of Orange, the
Pont du Gard, a portion of the Arenz of Nimes, and the beau-.
tiful aqueduct of the Peyrou, near Montpellier, have 4+ con-

* This assertion of M. Marcel de Serres is not correct, if we adm the
facts, -such as they have been represented by the authors of the
description of the neighbourhood of Paris ; for the beds of solid limestone,
worked at Nanteuie-le-Haudouin, are considered, in that work, as belonging
to the marine formation lying above the gypsum containing bones; and it
has not yet been proved that these naturalists have been deceived in this de-
termination, although some geologists appear inclined to consider the lime-
stone in question as the upper part of the calcaire grossier.

+ It appears to be the same in Italy and Spain, where the calcaire moel-
lon, as well as the fresh-water limestone, are largely employed in building.
It would be useful to observe the different materials used in building, in or-
der to form a correct idea of the extent and development of the various for-
mations of a country.

the Tertiary Formations. 269

structed. This deposite is so necessary for the purpose of build-
ing in that district, that when it happens to be wanting, or be-
comes sandy, as in the neighbourhood of Perpignan, the inha-
bitants are reduced to the necessity of building their houses, and
even their monuments, of brick.

If, in our large memoir on the tertiary formations of the
south of France, we have admitted the existence of the first ter-
tiary limestone, it is because we were deceived by the presence
of green grains in the lower beds of the second tertiary lime-
stone ; but, since we have found that these grains also exist in
the tertiary marine sands, we have perceived that we there gave
the green grains a geological importance which they do not
possess.

From these facts, it would appear not only that the seas were
already separated at the time when the tertiary formations were
deposited, but also that the ocean retired within its present limits
sooner than the Mediterranean ; a fact which seems equally to
result from the geological comparison of the Mediterranean and
oceanic tertiary basins, as well as from historical monuments.
Thus, the more recent geological times are connected with the
historical times; for the period which refers to the tertiary de-
posites is probably not remote from the present times, as may be
presumed, we repeat, from the numerous species identical with
those at present existing, which are found in the newer tertiary
strata.

If the tertiary deposites have been successively produced, at
no great interval from each other, and in proportion as the seas
retired, it cannot be admitted that the strata, of which they are
composed, and whose organic remains announce different habi-
tations in the beings which they contain, have been precipitated
by different fluids, or by successive retreats and refluxes of the
waters of the sea, upon our continents. The facts which an-
nounce the reverse are so numerous, that, for the sake of brevity,
I shall only mention one that has not yet been published, al-
though the basin, in which we observed it, has been visited by
numerous geologists.

In the bottom of the valley of Aix (Mouths of the Rhone),

JULY—ocToBER 1829. T

270 M. Marcel de Serres on the Deposition of

and to the south-west of that city, near St Jerom’s Mill, there
are observed under the diluvium,

lst, Tertiary marine sands, characterized by numerous re-
mains of marine shells, mixed with fresh-water Mussels, lange
Helices, and Cyclostome.

2d, A hard calcaire moellon, with numerous marine shells,
small oysters, and some individuals of Ostraa crassissima.

3d, A marly fresh-water limestone, with small paludine, in
contrasting position with reference to the calcaire moellon which
lies above it.

The most remarkable’ thing about this limestone, is its being
perforated in sitw by modioli, and other boring shells. Now,
as the connection between the calcaire moellon and the fresh-
water limestone is as intimate as direct, both must have been
deposited in the same fluid, that is to say, in the basin of the
ancient sea; for, were it otherwise, there would be found on the
fresh-water limestone some deposite produced during the retreat
of the Mediterranean, while this basin was occupied by fresh
water only, and inhabited by land animals. No trace of conti-
nental surface existing between these two deposites, and the
second marine limestone being mingled. or alternating with the
fresh-water limestone, as, for example, in the basins of Pezenas
(Herault), and Lasfoux (Gard), it must be admitted that both
have been precipitated in the same fluid, inasmuch as the ma-
rine deposites often contain fluviatile and terrestrial organised
bodies, as the fresh-water deposites contain marine fossils, the
latter being even occasionally perforated by sea-shells, whether
im situ, as at Aix, or rolled, as at Montpellier.

To recapitulate, and, at the same time, having reference to
your observations, it appears to me,

1st, That at least, after the deposition of the lias, the ei,
being already separated, there existed on the earth different
zones, inhabited by peculiar animals, and covered with vege-
tables, to which the temperature of these zones corresponded.

2dly, That, when there has been no transportation of ani-
mals and vegetables from one zone to another, their remains are
still found in the places which they originally occupied ; but that
when there has been displacement, a mixture has been produced

the Tertiary Formations. 271 -

of the remains of organic bodies belonging to one zone, with
those belonging to another.

-8dly, That the tertiary deposites produced in the basin of the
ancient sea (with the exception of the diluvium and the upper
fresh-water formations formed after the retreat of the seas), are
so much the older, the more remote the basins in which they
are observed are from the present seas, and so much the newer,
the nearer these basins are to our seas.

4thly, That the tertiary deposites of the basins depending up-
on the ocean seem older than the same kinds of deposites of the
littoral basins of the Mediterranean, since the second tertiary
limestone is almost the only one that occupies a great extent in
the Mediterranean basins, while the first occupies almost the
whole extent of the oceanic basins.

5thly, That the tertiary deposites have been produced by
causes similar to those still acting, although with less energy,
and that the great number of species, similar to ours, which
they contain, indicate that their depositions have not much pre-

ceded the present geological period.

- ‘The interesting nature of the subject to which these observa-
sien sili, will perhaps induce you to pardon their length.
nomena accord with the causes which are still acting ; and it
should not be forgotten how much the progress of geology has
been retarded by the idea, generally admitted, that these phe-
nomena could only be accounted for by supposing them produ-
ced by causes that have ceased to operate. In consequence of
this manner of considering the modifications which the terres-
trial globe has undergone, the extinct volcanoes have been looked
upon as effects of a different nature from those which our pre-
sent voleanoes exhibit; and it has been refused to see in the
crystalline beds, and the heavings which have raised them above
their original level, proofs of the elevated temperature which
the now solid crust of our globe possessed at its commencement.

4

( 272 jy

On Pasturages, their importance and their extent, in te sip
ferent countries of Europe. rr

M. Monzeau ve Jonnes read, a few months ago, to the French

Institute, a memoir entitled, Statistical inquiries respecting the

extent and the nature of Pastwrages in the magn parts of

Europe.

The author commenced with shewing the defects of the, sys
tems of cultivation in which the subsistence.of nations: is left de-
pendent upon the uncertain chances: of the harvests of cereal
vegetables. The frequent famines to which all the countries
of Europe have for many ages been subject, sufficiently attest
the unavoidable danger attendant upon the —< these _
temas?) Bt HW doe Lanta Mise erosion egg

Anew system of cultivation has been lately sntriaidh sid
progressively improved among different nations, and particular-
ly in England, where it has produced the most happy results.
Not only has the proportion of land devoted to pasturage been
extended, but this land has been rendered incomparably more
fertile of vegetables adapted for the food of cattle. The in-
fluence of this happy modification appears to have been immense.
To give an idea of its extent and power, M. Moreau de Jonnés,
passing in review the different nations of Europe, shewed that
the agricultural and commercial prosperity and well-being of
the inhabitants are everywhere in direct proportion to the extent
of land left for pasturage, whether in improved natural, mea-
dows or in artificial meadows. In these respects, England is
at the head of the European countries, while Spain, in which
the cultivation of artificial meadows is entirely unknown, is the
lowest in the scale. iethy

The author particularly compared England and France
There results from important documents that, with respect to
the latter country, agricultural improvement is at the point at
which the former was a century ago; and that, to equal Eng-
land, Franee would have to make the immense progress which,
since that time, has more than doubled the agricultural prospe-
rity and well-being of that country.

England not only surpasses France with reference to the

“&\

On the Importance and Extent of Pasturages, &c. 273
‘number of cattle, but the animals are also finer, and their flesh
is of better quality ; so that the inhabitant of England may em-
ploy for his food a quantity of animal substance nearly double
that which France supplies to each of its inhabitants, and has
the further advantage of having it of better quality. SUL
_» Brom the very numerous facts contained in his memoir, M.
Moreau de Jomnés draws the following conclusions :—

1. That the pasturages, being the condition of existence of
cattle and sheep, are one of the necessary elements of the well-
‘being of men, the agricultural and commercial riches of states,

2. That they become eminently productive, only through
the assiduous and persevering cares of human industry ; and
that they abound in species adapted for pasturing animals only
by their conversion into artificial meadows, or by the destruc-

tion of useless or pernicious plants, which in all countries over-
run the natural meadows.

_ $. That when these means of sotipaiheiabaines' atailageih
there is a loss of three-fourths in the development and fat of
pasturing animals, and that then, as in the provinces of France,
_ the mean quality of flesh furnished for consumption by a hec-
tare of pasturage, does not exceed 98 1b. in place of rising to

-. 4 'That, on the contrary, by the use of these means, 300 Ib.
of animal food are obtained from a hectare of improved na-
tural meadows, and 4001b. from the same extent of artificial
meadows.

_ 5. "That calculating only at the rate of $0 per cent. the pound
of flesh, and the products of cattle and sheep, hides, wool, but-
ter, milk, and cheese, the revenue of the hectare is 49 francs
when in unreclaimed pasture, 150 francs when in improved pas-
ture, and 200 francs when in artificial pasture.

6. That, consequently, the 5,775,000 hectares at present
abandoned in France to pasturing animals, produces only a nett
revenue of 282,000,000 francs, while, if they were converted
into improved meadows, they would yield 863,000,000, and
into artificial meadows, a third more.

7. That such an increase of revenue, rendered attainable by
attention to the pasturage, raises to the first rank of economical

274 Biography of M. Bosc.
and agricultural improvements those from which so important
results might be expected. ty tbe cwnt
8. That the improvement of pastures, which is the necessary
condition of this increase, requires a complete investigation of
the geographical distribution of pasture plants, and careful in-
quiries for discovering by what secret operations nature peoples
the meadows with useful or noxious plants, and by what means
the multiplication of the former may be en and re ing
sion of the latter opposed.

With this twofold object, the author uapioduannaniie herald
made inquiries by means of experiment and pees me
ing the following questions :— “ant oP

1/ What are the local causes of ‘the sate of pasture
plants, in the different natural meadows of the same country ? ©

2. What are the original causes of this yeas. ey Lard
menon ? ype et fem

3. What are the means by which the indigenous lora ned =
tures may be 0

7 wy

a of M. Bosc.* By Baron Covren. “ a

M. Bosc was of a family belonging to the Ceneiial whieh,
although formerly flourishing, had suffered greatly im conse-
quence of religious wars, and its firm attachment to Protestant-
ism. He was at first intended for the military service, and the
powerful interest which his family still possessed seemed to hold
forth the promise of brilliant success in that career. But his
genius impelled him in another direction, soy 9
He had scarcely begun to walk, when shélelidematiainal na-
tural objects became his only passion. He collected stones and
caught insects, before he knew to write ; and he himself has said
that he did not remember ever to have had other amusements.
This natural inclination was farther strengthened by domestic
occurrences. M. Bose d’Antic, his father, married again, but
his second wife shewed little kindness toward the offspring of a

* The above is a sketch of a beautiful memoir of the celebrated Bosc, read
to the French Academy in June 1829, but not yet published.

~~

Biography of M. Bosc. 275
first union. He was allowed to pass his days in the woods, and
the love of solitude with which he was there inspired clung to
thim so long, that, at the age of fifteen, and protestant as he
owas, the idea of giving himself up entirely to it, joined with
that of cultivating a small garden, had nearly duced him to
yield to the suggestions of a Chartreux, who was anxious to
On being placed in the college of Dijon, M. Bose retained his
former tastes, notwithstanding the efforts of his masters to induce
him to renounce them, and attach himself to the study of ma-
thematics, which his friends were desirous that he should culti-
vate, as calculated to contribute to his success in the military
career, for which he was still intended. It would appear that
he was rather a bad scholar, and that he did not distinguish
himself until he was at length permitted to attend a course of
lectures on botany.

‘Reverses of fortune at length induced M. Bosc’s father to re-
nounce his design. The young naturalist obtained a situation
in the post-office department. In this employment, so little
suited to his inclinations, he was yet taken notice of for his ac-
curacy and intelligence, and in a short time obtained an ad-
vancement, which left him a little more leisure, and allowed
him to return to his favourite studies.

At this period the precise and methodical school of Linnzus,
supported in France by a small number of partisans, was strug-
gling against the more attractive but less rigorous direction
which had been given to the natural sciences, by the surprising
discoveries of Reaumur, the profound researches of Bernard de
Jussieu, and especially the bold conceptions and lofty eloquence
of Buffon. M. Bose was one of the first and most ardent sec-
taries of the Linnean school. His admiration for the works of
Fabricius procured for him the acquaintance and friendship of
that celebrated man, who, until his death, remained his devoted
friend.

_.M. Bosc, who was one of the founders of the Philomathic
Society, also founded at Paris a society in imitation of the
Linnean Society of London ; but it did not long exist, the po-
litical disturbances of those times having quickly brought about
its dissolution. He had hitherto retained his situation in the

276 Biography of M. Bosc.

post department, but could not long escape the tempests of the
revolution. He had been the intimate friend of Roland, and
nothing was able to prevent him openly shewing his attachment
to him after his fall ; he had visited Servan at the Conciergerie ;
he had always openly seen Madame Roland, whether. at ity or
in the different prisons.. The day on which she was arrested,
she had confided her daughter to him, and. it was in his hands
that she deposited her manuscripts. Roland himself had found
an asylum in a small house which M. Bose .xented at the
bottom of the wood of Montmorency, and_it was from it that
by winding paths he betook himself to Rouen, where he: was
concealed by two friends, This was more than enough to make
him lose his employment, and had he remained in Paris it. is
probable. that. he would have shared: the. fate, of his, friends.
Fortunately he had the idea. of retiring to that very solitude
which had afforded an asylum to Roland, The distance at
which he there was from frequented places and roads, the,coarse
clothes which he wore, and. his labouring with. his own hands,
-prevented his neighbourhood from suspecting what he was, and
especially from imagining the connexions which he had.
In this retreat he learned, with inexpressible grief, thatMa- |
dame Roland had perished on the scaffold, and that,on receiv-
ing the news her husband had killed himself... He thought him-
self lost. one day when on a, walk he met Robespierre. face to
face, whom he heard pronounce his name quite low, .But»nei-
ther grief nor danger could induce him to repel the unfortunate
persons who still came to,ask an asylum of him. One shudders
when he thinks of his concealing in a small garret.one of the
deputies ¢ condemned to the scaffold, at the very moment when
chance had brought about his house some of the agents em-
ployed in seeking out proscripts. With this unfortunate per-
son he sometimes had nothing better to share than snails, and
wild roots, and in his sickness nothing to offer but the eggs.of
a single hen, which, at length, was one day killed by a.hawk.
This very deputy, issuing from his place of concealment, after
the 9th Thermidor, saw himself in the course of a few months
at the head of that Directory, which, in the fulness of its quick-
ly acquired power, made Germany tremble, conquered Italy,
dethroned the Pope, the King of Sardinia, and the King of

Biography of M. Bose. 277
Naples, humbled the King of Spain, and forced Austria to sign
a peace which added a fourth to the extent of France, pre
her almost mistress of the south of Europe.

_ It might naturally be supposed that M. Bose should be raised
to affluence by the man whose life he had so recently saved, and
who had now become one of the masters of the state. This,
however, was not the case: M. Bosc was too proud to allow
himself to do good for the purpose of benefiting himself. It was
intended to restore to him his office, but it was at the same
time necessary for him to become the colleague of those who
had reduced him to destitution. Nothing in the world could
have induced him to do this, and his great protector had not
the power to reinstate him on any other conditions. All the
favour he was able to shew him was to come sometimes and
walk with him at the little house which had furnished him an
asylum.

He experienced another keener disappointment. The young
lady, whom a dying mether had confided to his eare, inspired
him with a passion which she did not return, and nothing could
quiet it but a long and great separation. It had been promised
to him, that, on the first vacancy, he should be appointed consul
to the United States. His friend, Michaux, at that time di-
rected a botanic garden in Carolina; from him he was sure of
a good reception, and he determined to go and wait his promo-
tion on the spot. M. Bosc’s voyage was attended with many
disagreeable circumstances. The absence of M. Michaux, who
passed him on his way to Europe; a long adjournment of his
hopes; the coolness at first, and then the rupture between the
government of the United States and that of France, disturbed
the tranquillity which he enjoyed in America, and were sad
comipensations for the happiness which he at length had, in liv-
ing a life according to his taste, mS aN TT
tural sciences.

When, in 1800, the broils between France and the United
States had risen to such a pitch that it became impossible for
French agents to remain in America, M. Bose found himself in
a condition to carry contributions to all the naturalists in Eu-
rope. In fact, always generous, if he had new insects, they
were for his friend Fabricius, or for Olivier ; if fishes, he gave

278 Biography of M. Bosc.
them to Lacepede; birds, to Desmarest; reptiles, to M. La-
treille. Whoever laboured in any department of natural his-
tory, was sure to obtain from M. Bosc all that he ‘possessed,
and of learning all that he knew. It was only after enriching
so many ‘writers with the fruits of his labours, that he deter-
mined to profit by them himself. wait daiath arth
_ M. Bosc, on returning to France, found every thing ‘there
reduced to peace. The men with whom he was connected in
friendship and fellowship of sentiment were in credit, and the
places which he had occupied could not fail to be restored ‘to
him. However, tired of being balloted from one ministry to
another, and frightened at the idea of becoming dependent, he
accepted, with joy, the situation of inspector of the gardens of
Versailles, which Count Chaptal obtained for a and to which
he fixed himself. v Tie eee

M. Bose’s principal writings are to be found in the Diction-
naire des Sciences Naturelles. Any other would have ‘prefer-
red employing his rich materials for a work which was not col-
lective; but here, as in every other case, M. Bose looked only
to utility, and took no care of the interests of his self-love. For
the same reason he held his Cours d Agriculture in greater es-
timation than all his other works. The second edition of that
collection appears especially to have occupied his whole atten-
tion... ** I have not read a book,” he writes, ‘* I have’ not as-
saahiahadihile meeting, nor taken a walk in the gardens or
fields, without taking notes; and these notes have been ar-
ranged so as in a few days to be intercalated a
which they refer.” ft

This was his constant method of labiouting. sEwedy nist
have seen the beautiful collection which he formed near the
Luxembourg of our principal varieties of vines. The kingdom
produces upwards of 1400. To compare them, determine
their permanent characters, ascertain the circumstances best
adapted for their thriving, and then propagate by preference
the most advantageous with reference to each kind of soil, ex-
posure and latitude, would be a labour of the highest import-
ance, and one whose advantages nea be immense — —
to our territorial riches.

~ Biography of M. Bosc. 279

»-M. Bose had wndertaken this task. Already in three years
he had described, or caused to be drawn, more than 400 of
these varieties; but he would have required ten years,—and in
France it is very seldom that a project which is only useful
meets with ten years’ continued encouragement from the higher
administration. It would be necessary that the chief should be
possessed of as much knowledge as his subordinate, or that he
had the modesty not to interfere with the direction,—and while
he possessed one or other of these rare qualities, it would be
required that he should remain ten years in place. The con-
currence of these three conditions, however, peat om
pr A AC

sctldigtle Miertunete tt hed judindyedlicketislaidide) tamcsten
euntltasiduns hishasdeniihtey, that M. Bose caught the germ of
the disease which shortened his days. He always performed
these journeys on foot, as in his youth. Being overtaken by a
violent storm in the Department de PAin, the cold and wet to
which he remained for a long time exposed, produced a serious
interruption of his health, which led him slowly te the grave. —
- In his latter years he experienced great disappointments.
M. Thouin’s place having become vacant in the Jardin des
Plantes, M. Bose became a candidate for it. Notwithstanding
the numerous titles which he had to obtain this place, the ma-
jority of votes was against him. It was not that the professors
did not do full justice to his merits, but that the greater num-
ber thought it improper to charge an infirm old man with fune-
tions which had already been but too long performed by an old
man. Another was, therefore, placed on the list. The higher
authority, however, chose M. Bosc, not from any interest felt
for him, but from dislike to the candidate who had obtained
the majority of votes. This disposition of the authority towards
place, on which he saw that he had only been appointed to it
for the purpose of ‘preventing another from getting it. Tt can-
not be denied that the mortification which M. Bose
iti Gonsctyudnes ‘of ‘this’ affit,' hastened ‘his ‘end ‘by edibielihing
his days. M. Bosc was born at Paris on the 29th January
1759, and died on the 10th July 1828, aged sixty-eight years.

M. Cuvier’s discourse was frequently interrupted by ap-

280 On the Land Crabs of Jamaica.

plauses. M. Bosc’s eloge appears in all respects worthy of oc-
cupying a place among those which form the interesting collec-
tion of which three volumes have already becn published by
Cuvier. . 1 Sot NDEI ITE BS

. ow tha Sd

yt eile i pater
Om the Land Crabs of Jamaica. By ALEXANDER meneame
Esq. . janie sdb eed

tt} ‘=

oa abound in the. eastern | part of Jeieniets stislhansane,
but are considered to be best in the months the. names. of
which contain the letter R. They are most plentiful in May, the
season at which they depusite their eggs, or run, as the Negroes
express it, and when the earth is literally covered with, them.
At this season it is impossible to keep them out of the houses,
or even out of the bed-rooms, where, at one time, scratching
with their large claws, and at another rattling across, the floor,
they make a noise that would not a little astonish and alarm a
stranger. Occasionally they will lodge themselves very snugly
in a boot, and if a person puts his foot upon them inadvertently,
he has quick intimation of the intruder, by a grasp of his nippers.
For a few weeks in this season, they may be gathered in any
quantities, and the Negroes sometimes hurt themselves by, mak-
ing too free use of them. Even the hogs catch, them, although
not. always with impunity, as a crab sometimes gets hold of one
of them by the snout, from which he is not easily disengaged ;
and. the terrified animal, runs about squeaking in, great, distress,
At other seasons, and when more valuable, they are caught
by torch light at night, and put into covered baskets. Crowds
of Negroes from the neighbouring plantations, pass my house
every evening with their torches and baskets, going to a crab
wood on the other side, and return before midnight fully laden,
Their baskets will contain about 40 crabs, and the regular price
is a five-penny piece, our smallest coin, equal to about,334d.
Sterling, for, five or six crabs, At this rate a Negro. will make
2s. 6d. currency in an evening ; ; and the more improvident, who
will not cultivate provision grounds, depend, in some measure,
upon catching crabs, and selling them to the others, A hun.
dred plantains, usually sold at five shillings, will purchase from

On the Land Crabs of Jamaica. 281

sixty to seventy crabs, and two of these eaten with plantains
or yams, make an excellent meal. I have seen upwards of a
hundred Negroes pass my house in an evening, and return with
their baskets on their heads, not only full of crabs, but with
quantities of them fastened by the claws on the tops of the bas-
kets. I make but a moderate computation, when I suppose they
must have had; at the very least, three thousand crabs. Almost
has an old flour barrel pierced with holes,
in which their crabs are kept. They are fed with plantain
skins, &c. and taken out and thrown into the pot as wanted.
» ‘Where is a great variety of crabs in Jamaica, of which two
only are eaten. ‘The black is the finest, and has ever been es-
teemed one of the greatest delicacies in the West Indies, not
excepting even the turtle. These live in the mountain forests,
on stony ground, and feed on the fallen dry leaves of the trees.
The white crab, as it is called (although rather purple than
white) used principally by the Negroes, but by the white people
also, is larger, and more resembles in taste the lobster of this
country. These are amphibious, and are found in the low
lands, principally in the woods, where, as I have already said,
they are caught at night with torches. But they are numerous
also in the cultivated fields, and in some of the low lying estates
frequently do considerable damage to the planters in dry
weather, when vegetation is slow, by nipping off the blade of the
young canes and corn, as it shoots through the ground. In
situations of this kind, the Negroes have a somewhat singular
method of catching them: they know from the appearance of a
crab hole if there be a crab in it, and dig down with a hoe
through the soft loam, till they come to water (about eighteen
inches or two feet) ; and then close the hole firmly with a hand-
ful of dry grass. In this manner a Negro will shut up two or
three dozen of holes in a morning. About four hours after,
he returns, and his prisoners being by this time drwnkened
(half drowned), they tumble out along with the plug of grass,
and are caught.

In the year 1811, there was a very cutrhentinny pallies
of black crabs in the eastern parts of Jamaica. In the month

of June or July of that year, I forget which, the whole district
of Manchioneal (where the great chain of the Blue Mountains,

282 On the Land Crabs of Jamaica.

extending from west to east, through the centre of the island, ter-
minates on the east coast) was covered with countless millions of
these creatures swarming from the sea to the mountains, Of
this singular phenomenon, I was myself an eye witness, having
had occasion to travel through that district at the time. On
ascending Quahill, from the vale of Plantain-Garden River, the
road appeared of a reddish colour, as if strewed with brick-dust:
I dismounted from my horse to examine the cause of so unusual
an appearance, and was not a little astonished to find that it
was owing to myriads of young black crabs, about the size of
the nail of a man’s finger, crossing the road, and moving at a
pretty pace direct for the mountains. I was concerned to'think
of the destruction I was causing in travelling through such a
body of useful creatures, as I fancied that every time my horse
put down a foot, it was the loss of at least ten lives. I rode
along the coast a distance of about fifteen miles, and found it
nearly the same the whole way, only that in some places they
were more numerous, and in others less so. Returning the
following day, I found the road still covered with them the
same as the day before. How have they been produced in
such numbers, or, where are they come from? were questions
that every body asked, and no one could answer. It is well
known the crabs deposite their eggs once a year, and in the
month of May; but, except on this occasion, though living on
the coast, I never saw a dozen of young crabs together, and
here were millions of millions covering the earth for miles along
a large extent of sea coast. No unusual number of old crabs
had been observed that season ; and it is worthy of remark,
that this prodigious multitude of young ones were moving from
a rock-bound shore, formed by inaccessible cliffs, the abode of
sea birds, and against which the waves of the sea are constant-
ly dashed by the Trade-wind blowing directly upon them.
That the old crabs should be able to deposite their eggs in such
a part of the coast (if that, as would appear, is the habit of the
animal) is not a little extraordinary. No person in Jamaica,
so far as I know, or have heard, ever saw such a sight, or any
thing of the kind, but on that occasion : and I have understood,

that, since 1811, black crabs have been abundant farther into
the interior of the island than they were ever known before.—-
Barclay’s View of Slavery in the West Indies.

{ 283 )
1p oubwl dhe

Of the Red Pew te Carucru or Chica. By Joun
““Haxcocx, M. D. Communicated by the Author.

Thai rma. the mame onde, fe

The plant producing it is chiefly found
pe A Essequibo, Parima, and: Rio Negro, where
it is known by the name of Chica.

There jis one of these, a large extended vine, growing in Ta-
pacoma.; and that is the only one I know of on the eastern part
of Guiana. It there grows extremely frondose, and climbs to
the tops of the highest trees. This shews that it might be cul-
tivated in Guiana to any desirable extent.

When you break a branch, the leaves, on drying, penne
most of a blood red ; and it yields its paint or fecula, I believe,
io talemableqpantity cnn: gresten/propastion; than ie gatialtite
digo from the Anil.

ER a IP
rumas, a numerous and industrious tribe of Indians, who in-
habit. the eastern branch of the Essequibo, near its source.
_ According to the description given us by the Caribs, who are
great travellers, and well acquainted with the Tarumas, the
plant is manufactured much in the manner of indigo. The
leaves are pounded and infused in water till a fermentation en-
— The liquor is next poured off and left to deposite a sedi-

_ This sediment is collected, and forms the carucra
nme

It is seldom stints risk iauparition: I believe the carucru,
which, is produced by the Tarumas, at the head of Essequibo,
is usually much finer than that which comes down the Orinooko
from the Rio Negro.

‘They put it up very neatly in little caskets made with palm
leaves *. Hence, it is carried by the Atorayas and the trading

* The same Indian (the Tacumas) are the fabricators of those curious
Cassada graters, which are considered superior to all others by those acquaint-
ed with them. They are made of a very hard wood, studded over with

pointed silicious stones, and fixed by a kind of cement and varnish of sur-
prising durability ; the substance being at the same time a strong cement and

284 Dr Hancock on the Red Pigment

Caribs over all Guiana. Very little, however, reaches the
eastern shore, unless by the way of the Orinooko..

The fracture of this substance is smooth, of a soft a
crimson shade, diffusible, but insoluble, in water, unless by
heat, which I have not tried. When once fired, it burns with-
out flame until completely incinerated, leaving a grey cinder,
nearly equal in bulk to the portion burnt. This cinder is quite
insipid, containing, it seems, little or no alkali ; and is probably
a combustible substance, combined with an earthy base.’

The Carucru or Chica is an article in great demand amongst
the interior Indians as an ornamental paint. They employ it
chiefly as a pigment for the face, while they stain the other
parts of the body with Arnotta. They also apply the carueru
on the cheeks and about the eyes, and variegate the countenance
by marking the forehead, and along the facial line, with their
coomazu, a yellow clay or ochre which is abundantly found near
the residence of the Carib chief Manarawa.—This manner of
painting produces a singular and striking wate nd _
them a very strange and furious appearance.

From the scarcity of this pigment, however, its employment
is almost exclusively confined to their chiefs and higher orders,
their nobility. The rest must be contented to decorate their
persons with Arnotta or Poncer mixed with the oil of Carapa, a
portion of which, with the balsam of Aracousiri (from a species
of Amyris), mixed with these paints, imparts to them a very
fragrant and agreeable odour.—The toilet, therefore, of these
rude tribes is simple as their manners and mode of life, their
chief material being perfume, and all being carried in a little
mo is not a little extraordinary that such a species of manufac-
ture as this would be carried on by such a tribe, like those of
the interior of Guiana. It seems to indicate, at least, that great
advantages are derivable from it, since they are such as to fix
the attention of savages. I am not aware that penn: was
found prepared by the Indians of America.

a transparent varnish. These Cassada graters are scarcely, if at all, known
on the coast, or in the European settlements; and those who may "hereafter
visit these parts will do well to inquire after this manufactory.

|

:

——— i —<—- Orr

—- =~ .-

Taln\3

. ealled Carucru or Chica. 285

»» Hitherto very little of the chica, I presume, has reached
Europe; and very few experiments have been tried for the so-
lution and application of the colouring principle. I feel strong-
ly prepossessed, however, that the carucru might be applied to
useful purposes in dyeing, but I can say nothing positive on this

point, having made nc experiments with it as a dye,—nor having
lincoverd ts chic properties any farther than above men-
tioned: ts

It would ~ extremely interesting, by proper elect agents,
to-find-a solvent which should not injure the colour, and also

a method of applying it either with or without a mordant—with
a view to perc it like indigo as a dye, as well as a pig-
ment.

~Ivis certain that it might be vusidaiels procured by plant-
ing and manufacturing it in Guiana, where the specimens I
have alluded to prove the soil to be most congenial to its growth,
or by sending it up the Essequibo. In the mean time, the
finest quality may be had of the Taruma Indians.

The chica is not merely esteemed as a pigment,. but is con-
sidered in the Orinooko as the most sovereign remedy for
erysipelas, where that complaint is very prevalent. I never,
indeed,» witnessed its use myself; but, from the strong terms
in which I have heard many people speak of its. efficacy in
their own cases and those of others, I cannot but consider it as

a remedy well established, and worthy of further attention. It
is simply made with water into a paste, thinly spread on old
linen or cotton, and applied as a plaster, so as to entirely cover
the inflamed part.. They say that one application is sufficient,
unless the disease be far advanced.

IT have also heard it mentioned: as an internal remedy, but in
what case or what complaint I do not now remember.

Report on the Impression made on the Ground by the Foot. of

the Sow. By Messrs — Srrrrat and Roserr Ste-
VENSON junior. |

Is compliance with a wish expressed at the last meeting of the

Wernerian Society, that the question as to the impression made

on the ground by the foot of the sow, in relation to Dr Flem-
JULY—ocTOBER 1829. U

286 Messrs Spittal and Stevenson on the Impression made

ing’s remarks on that subject, be decided by experiment, I beg
to lay the following remarks, containing the conclusions which
my friend Mr Robert Stevenson junior, and I, from experiment
and observation, have come to on this topic. ‘The common do-
mestic pig was the subject of our observations.

To ascertain the impression made by the feet of these ani-
mals, we with some difficulty caused them to walk across a
board spread over with soft clay, to about three-eighths of an
inch in thickness, and were satisfied, on subsequent examination
of the marks made, that, at some places, these were bisuleated,
but at others, they presented, besides the bisulcated impression,
those of the two posterior toes; and indeed, this was the most
frequent appearance. The board, in this case, was placed in a
horizontal position, and we could not, owing to the unruly na-
ture of the animals, succeed in making them walk along it while
in the position of an inclined plane; but, what answered nearly
the same purpose, the animals were let out into a court, the sur-
face of which was generally uneven, hard at some places, and
soft at others.

In this case, we observed, that while walking down a soft in-
clined surface, there were always four marks, and this was gene-
rally the case on soft level ground, where the yielding surface
was deep, so that the animal’s feet sunk deeper than they could
have done on a shallow soft surface, thinly spread over an un-
yielding one ; and on places of such a nature, we frequently
observed bisulcated impressions, but more frequently with marks
of the posterior toes added to these.

‘On observing the animals walking over an suyitlionl bork:
zontal surface, it was quite evident that the two posterior toes
generally touched the ground when the animals took long steps,
and it is clear that this brings the posterior toes nearer to the
ground, by causing the legs to form a more acute angle with it,
than when shorter steps are taken,—the legs in the latter case
forming more nearly a right angle with the ground, and _rest-
ing entirely upon the two anterior toes, as is generally the case
when standing upright. They thus leave on the ground a bisul-
cated impression, provided the surface be not too soft, or r the
yielding portion too deep, as mentioned above.

On ascending an unyielding inclined surface, the two posterior
toes never touched the ground ; on descending the same, they

ae

on the Ground by the Foot of the Sow. 287
»generally did so, however. From the foregoing remarks, then,
it appears, that, on comparatively hard ground, where the im-
pressions are slight, the marks made may be either bisulcated,
or have in addition those of the posterior toes, on a horizontal
surface ; always bisulcated on ascending an inclined surface ;
‘but on descending the same, will generally present, in addition,
the marks of the posterior toes ; but this may or may not hap-
pen, according to the inclination of the surface.

The general conclusion to be drawn from these observations
we think is, that the impressions made by the feet of the sow on
‘the ground, vary according to the softness, depth, and: position
‘of the soil over which the animal may have passed ; and though
it seems to be true, that, in general, there are four impressions,
viz. of ‘the two anterior and two posterior toes, still it seems
equally true that the same animal may, in certain circumstances,
leave a bisulcated impression, or that of the two anterior toes
only.

April 1829.

On the Tertiary Fresh-water Formations of Aix, in Provence,

' ineluding the Coalfield of Fuveau.. By Rovericx Imrry
Munrcuatson, Esq., and Cuarves Lye, Esq. junior, Secre-

» taries to the Geological Society ; with a Description of Fossil
Insects, Shells and Plants, contained therein ; by Joun Cur-
ris, F. L.S. ; J. De C. Sowerby, Esq: F. LS, and J. Lrwv-

Ley, Esq., Professor of Botany in the London Owe oe.
. Communicated by the Authors.

WE are induced to offer the following sketch of. the tertiary
district around Aix, im Provence, from finding that. several of
the testacea and plants which we collected there last summer
belong to species hitherto undescribed; and more particularly
that we may point out the geological position of certain fossil in-
sects, of which Mr Curtis has added some interesting figures,
and a description. A portion of this district has already been
described by M. Bertrand Geslin *, and as a still more detailed
account of the whole country is shortly expected ,from the pen

* Sur le Bassin Gypseux d’Aix, &e. Mem. de Hist. Nat. de Paris, tom. i.
part 2. p. 273.

;
5. 1 wu
a

288 Messrs Murchison and Lyell on the Tertiary

of M. Elie de Beaumont, we shall confine ourselves to such a
line of section as may illustrate the objects above alluded to.

The oldest and fundamental rock of this district, is a se-
condary limestone, comtaining Belemnites, Gryphites and 'Te-
rebratule, which, in highly inclined and contorted strata, rises
to the lofty and peaked summits of Mont St Victoire. ‘This
rock is referable to some member of the Jura limestone, and un-
conformably deposited thereon is the vast fresh-water formation
we are about to describe.

The town of Aix is situated in the lowest part of a deep val-
ley, running from E. to W., the immediate flanks of which are
composed of this overlying deposit. On the northern side of
the valley the strata rise to the height of many hundred feet
above the town; and the high road from Paris descends over a
denuded escarpment of strata, which may, for our present pur-
pose, be grouped together in the following manner :—

Upper Beds.—White calcareous marls and marlstone, passing occasionally
into a calcareo-silicious grit, used as millstones, with a band of resinous
flint. This system contains a small and undescribed species of Cyclas,
named gibbosa by Mr Sowerby, Potamides Lamarckii, Bulimus terebra,
B. pygmeus, and a new species of Cypris. Below these beds, which form
the cap of the range, are marls, both argillaceous and calcareous, con-
taining many species of fossil plants, some of which, together with seve.
ral others occurring in the inferior gypseous beds, have been examined
by Mr Lindley, whose account of them will be found at the end of
this memoir.

The amount of thickness of these overlying beds is at least
150 feet. Here the subjacent strata run out horizontally into
a terrace, in which is placed the upper zone of gypsum, and
which is reached by a highly inclined flight of steps sunk
through beds of marlstone and marl. These gypsum quarries
had long been celebrated for their prodigious number of fossil
fish and plants, but the discovery of insects is of very recent
date; and their occurrence was first made known to the scienti-
fic world by M. Marcel de Serres*. In our examination of
the exact position of these remains we descended about 260
steps, through marls and marlstones, abounding in plants, fish,
and an occasional shell ; and, on reaching the gypsum gallery,
we observed the following order :—

* Bulletin des Sciences, vol. viii. p. 181. (No. 15.)

aa\ al

Fresh-water Formations of Aix, in Provence. (289

1. The roof called “ Les Caniards”. je» aside bit spent clea eevee’ _
of gypsum, in a matrix of pulverulent marl, —
by iss Ein Nolee”-dath green, and whité fine lamine of mail) with
some vegetables and crystals of gypsum, . . ° 4 Oh
| 3. “ La Figuette”—fine foliaceous marl, with some gypsum, . 0 5
\ OMS pox dha, ga bituminous marlstone, ee
: lour, hs . 0 2
5. “ La Feuille a Poisson,” or Bed containing many Fish—a light
brown finely laminated marl, with a polished upper surface,
| rn ee ae OT eres
nis? Ad. Brongniart, ; 0 2%
6. “ Feuille a Mouche,” or Insect Bed—This is a brown greenish,
or light grey calcareous marl, effervescing briskly with acids,
fetid under the hammer, very thinly laminated, and is the on-
ly bed in which insects have been found ; with these are, how-
ever, associated an occasional Potamides, and leaves of plants, 0 2
By the aid of the lens, it may be seen that there are some-
times more than seventy distinct laminz in the thickness
of an inch, being about as thick again as ordinary printing
paper, often preserving a very uniform thickness, and
sometimes one of them is equal to from five to ten of the
others. Although the rock may be divided at almost any
of these laminz, it generally requires a sharp blow of the
hammer. An impression of the form, together with diffe-
rent parts of the insect, is seen both on the upper and un-
der laminz, as in the case of the Monte Bolca fishes.
7. “ Feuille de Diablon”—more compact, and passing below into
gypsum, * « - . ° . -' OB
~ 8 “ Le Diablon”—first good bed of hard workable gypsum, thinly
laminated, of whitish brown colour, and containing an occa-
sional nodule of silex, . “2i@ 6
9. “ La Premiere Blanche” aD eatity ef acchanita pyisiien, bo.
lour white and pink, with large stems and leaves of Flabellaria,

&e. . . . . . . . . 0 94

10. “ La Seconde Blanche”—saccharoid gypsum, less white than the
above, . . - 08
"1. “ La Prime”—differs little from 9. and 10. : : 0 5

Saale Misiie’*s-meddbhe ederaenteine amongst thins loaves ve.
sembling those of Laurus dulcis, or cinnamon ?

13. “ Les Queirons”—with occasional silex, vegetable stems, and
minute plants, ‘ 3 0 7

14 “La Blestinndin.- icy pais Nehciiblig off tad quikty, with ond
casional Potamides, ° 0 65

15. “ La Tuf”—fetid coarse ibaa sata; Shei the bottom, par
rests upon,

. 0 6
16. “ Pierre Froi veidi,” do Teed Nad—cialiputt/tagtligndatls vpadtuaelaias

}
Total of Gypsum Gallery, 7 5

290 Messrs Murchison and Lyell on the Tertiary

_ By penetrating still further through marls and marlstones, to
the depth of from thirty to forty feet, a second mass of gypsum
is found, which, although of exceilent quality, is less worked
than the upper zone just described, as being less accessible.
Fish of various sizes, and in great abundance, are also found in
this part of the series. A third range of gypsum occasionally
crops out on the denuded and fissured sides of the hills, but is
said to be of inferior quality, and, from its ordinary deep-seated
position, is rarely worked. |

These ranges of gypsum and marl graduate downwards into
a flesh-coloured limestone, highly charged with potamides (Ce-
rithium of Lamarck), and two species of Cyclades, one of which
is the Cyclas gibbosa above mentioned, and the other is a large
and also a new species, and has been named Cyclas Aque Seatia.
The limestone is, in some parts, highly contorted, passing into
a sandy calcareous grit, in other localities into a red sandstone
(molasse), and still lower into a calcareous breccia, very com-
pact, the beds of which are separated by wayboards of argilla-
ceous marl, the whole terminating in a coarse conglomerate of
rounded pebbles (nagelflue.) In all the parts of this lower sys-
tem which we examined, we found the beds much contorted, or
inclined from 25° to 30° to the N. N. E., and hence they are ra-
pidly lost under the marls and gypsums *.

The accompanying sketch (Plate V.) will give a general idea
of the relations of this vast fresh water formation, shewing that,
since the epoch of its deposite, all the deep valley in which the
town of Aix stands, has been formed +.

We have briefly described the strata forming the: escainpment

* In an interesting article in the second number of the London Review
‘(from the pen, we believe of Dr Daubeny), the frequent verticality and vio-
lent disturbance of the strata in the immediate proximity of ‘hot-springs is
pointed out. The contiguity of the baths of Aix co great dislocations ne on
strata, afford a good éxample in corroboration of his views.

+ Upon the fresh water beds in the bottom of the valley are eb stile
immediate environs of Aix, a small deposite of marine sand, containing large
oysters. These strata, as well.as some insulated patches resting on the jura
limestone, near Aix, must be referred to a formation posterior to the fresh
water series described. To determine, with accuracy, the geological relations
of these more recent strata, would require a more extensive investigation of
this and the neighbouring districts, than our time enabled us to accomplish.

| Section from the Escarpment NE. of Aix in Provence to the Coal field of Faveau extititing a succession of TERTIARY FRESHWATER DEPOSITS.
SS Viatiaree Sonus stn.
=——= Opris.Cyelas, gtbbesus, Potamdes Lamarckit §v.

ms -
Maris with plants fishes & Shells.

ne
—————

= Maris.
\,
a EG 34 Gypeum tmees of
» marls swhite limestone.with Cyclas.
nk limestone otamides Fe.

Sy Sreveta Limestone de.
Ay ‘ed Sandstone (molasse.

with Sibrens
compact grey Amestene with
Lymnat and Hlanorbes.

i . Sand stene & Argillaceens Black § Blue Limestone with Shate
containing many seams of Coal accompanied by Cyclades, Melame,

Potamides, Cvregonites &e. ss

ee ieee eee eek me
5 ‘ > ») ee
a Bi]

Eyl ;

aA

ay

PPI EP Qe Es

¥en

Fresh-water Formations of Aix, in Provence. 291

on the northern side of the valley ; and we now proceed to those
on the south flank. Here, to the south of the river Arc, we
find a country extending for many miles in the direction of
Toulon (intersected by a series of vallevs having the same gene-
ral direction, viz. from east to west, as the principal valley of
Aix), composed of a great succession of fresh water strata, ge-
nerally inclined to the north. This district is divided by de-
pressions parallel to the principal valley of Aix, into several
broad elevated ridges, the northernmost of which, containing
the superior beds, exposes a considerable thickness of red marl,
with gypsum of a fibrous silky texture, and therefore differing
in character from the gypsum to the north of Aix. Interstra-
tified with the above are beds of a very compact limestone, in
which we found Planorbis rotundatus, and casts of a reversed
limnea. In the succeeding ridges, solid strata of brown earthy
limestone occur, with micaceous and calcareous sandstones, and
party-coloured shales. In this limestone are numerous frag-
meats of limnes, associated with gyrogonites, the latter being
very abundant, but as we could only procure casts of the in-
terior of the seed-vessel, we cannot determine the species. It is
of smaller size than any of those occurring in the Paris basin,
but of the same spherical shape. Its magnitude does not ex-
ceed that of the seed-vessel of Chara hispida,—the recent species
found fossil in the marl lochs in Forfarshire.

Still farther to the south, inferior beds of grey fresh water
limestone, sandstone, and shale, crop out ; and at length, to the
south of Fuveau, is seen a great series of beds of blue lime-
stone, and shale, with workable coal. The collieries visited by
us are situated about two miles to the south of Fuveau, where
the strata have been pierced to the depth of 500 feet and up-
wards. The dip is uniformly to the north, but the degree of
inclination varies in different pits. The beds consist of blue ar-

gillaceous limestone, from three to five feet thick, of very regular

stratification, and separated, for the most part, by thin way-
boards of shale, about six inches thick. The principal coal
seam is not more than from nine inches to a foot thick, and the
united thickness of all the seams rarely exceeds five feet *. The

*'M. Tholouzan, in the “ Statistiques des bouches de Rhone,” states

292 Messrs Murchison and Lyell on the Tertiary

coal is bituminous, highly compact, and shining ; does not soil
the fingers, and serves for all the purposes of domestic use, ‘as

well as for those of the large iron factories of ‘the eepeeres of

- “Toulon.

The various carboniferous strata are characterized by diffe.
rent groups of shells; and the workmen have availed themselves

of these organic remains to distinguish the order of the beds.
One’stratum, in particular, is well marked by the presence of a
Jarge unio ; others by planorbis (P. cornu ?), and a new species
of melania, as also by two species of cyclas, hitherto undescribed,
all of which have been named, and are now figured by Mr
James Sowerby, as Melania scalaris, Cyclas concinna, and
C. cuneata. The shells among which the cyclades are most
abundant, form numerous thin laminze, dividing the black coal
by white lines parallel to the planes of stratification.

The charcoal between some of the laminz of coal is fibrous,
and in some cases made up of a fasciculus of minute dull black
tubes, of a plant resembling Endogenites baccillare of Lobsann,
in the Lower Rhine, and of Hérgen, near Zurich, and thus dif-
fers much in appearance from the satin-like lustre of the char-
coal of old coal ; whilst it is a most curious and novel fact, that
we observed casts of ‘the seed-vessels of charze even in the coal
itself.

In conclusion, we may remark that the general physiognomy
of these lower members of the great tertiary deposite occurring
between Aix and Fuveau, differs remarkably not only from
the character of the beds of white gypseous marls, sandstone,
and limestone on the north of Aix, but from any other fresh
water formation examined by us in central France. ‘The great
thickness of the regular beds of blue limestone and shale, ‘the
quality and appearance of the coal, the large developement of
the compact grey, brown, and black argillaceous limestones and
sandstones, together with the red marls and gypsum, gives to
the whole series the aspect of the most ancient of our secondary
rocks ; and it is only by the occurrence of fluviatile and lacus-
trine shells, and the seed-vessels of chars, that the geologist is
undeceived, and recognizes, from the unequivocal specific cha-

that the coal measures extend over an area of 10,000 French myriametres,
from Trets, on the west, to the Etang de Berre, on the east.

=e) oe

—-

Fresh-water Formations of Aia, in Provence. 293

racters of many of these remains, the comparatively recent date
of the whole group. That the deposites of Fuveau and Aix are
of the same epoch, may be inferred, not merely from the conti-
nuity of fresh water strata between those two places, and the
absence of any interpolated marine formation, but also because,
among the fossil shells, some of those which characterize the
escarpment north of Aix, (as the Potamides Lamarckii, Bulimus
terebra, and B. pygmeus ); and others found near Fuveau, (as
the Lymneus ovum, and Planorbis rotundatus ), are all com-
mon to one and the same fresh-water formation in the Cantal *.

thu ,
n On the Koprolites of the dix Deposite.

In the insect bed above Aix, we found an incurvated fossil
body, somewhat resembling the larva of an insect, but, on exa-
mination, Dr Buckland has discovered that it is the foex of
some piscivorous or bone-eating animal, and consequently one
of the species in his extensive and new-named family of Kopro-
When examining the remains in the Fuveau coal, we were
much struck with a kidney-shaped convoluted body, of a deep
brown colour, and about one inch in length, which occurs in

the shale alternating with the coal. We were wholly at a loss

to know to what kingdom of nature we might assign this sin-
gular fossil, until our friend Dr Buckland solved the wonder,

having arranged it in his family of Koprolites under the de-
marge agli

‘hasinttions upon a Collection of Fossil Insects discovered near Aix in
Provence, in the summer of 1828, by R. J. Murcuison, Esq. and
Cuartes Lyewt Esq., jun. By Joun Curtis, F. L.S.

Iw the examination of this curious and interesting collection,
one of the most striking facts that presents itself is, that the in-
sects are all of European forms, most of them belonging, I be-

‘lieve, to existing genera. The greater proportion of those
-which have been submitted to my investigation are Diptera and

* See a memoir by Messrs Lyell and Murchison, read before the Geolo-
gical Society of London, and now in progress of publication in the Annales

_~des Sciences Naturelles, Paris.

+ Dr Buckland will give figures of both these “‘ Koprolites.”

294 Messrs Murchison and Lyell on the Tertiary

Hemiptera ; the next in number are the Coleoptera: there are
a few Hymenoptera, and but one Lepidopterous insect. With
the single exception of the Hydrobius, none of the species are
aquatic.

As in a larger collection of species the proportions of the dif-
ferent orders might be greatly altered, I forbear to draw any
inference as to the climate from the present assemblage, :parti-
cularly as I have not had the opportunities of M. Mareel de
Serres of examining large collections of these fossil remains. 1
_ see nothing, however, in the character of the insects to warrant
the supposition of a higher temperature than that of the south
of France, although I am informed that some of the associated
plants resemble: thinse from tropical regions.

Several of the beetles have their wings extended beyond the
elytra (Figs. 2. and 3.), as if they had been flying, and had
dropped ; and a Chrysomela (Fig. 4.) has the elytra expanded,
from which it would appear that it had fallen upon the water,
and been drowned. Other insects, however, (as. in Figs. 7,9, 10
and 11.), seem to have been imbedded whilst in repose, or when
walking, and the dislocation of the members of some may have
been caused in certain instances by violent pressure, and in
others I should be more inclined to attribute it to decomposi-
tion.

On reviewing the whole collection, it appears probable that a
great portion of the materials have been brought together from
different localities by floods, mountain torrents, and. rivers, al-
though it cannot be denied that there is no insect ange
them that might not be found in a moist wood.

Although there are sufficient characters preserved to deter-
mine with certainty the genera to which many of the insects
belong, the parts that would best accomplish this are very in-
distinct, the antennze, the tarsi, and trophi, being generally very
obscure or distorted ; yet in a few the claws are visible, and
ithe sculpture, and even some degree of local colouring. are pre-
served in several of them ; but all pubescence seems to be obli-
terated, except on the head of a fly, (Fig. 12.)

I have not attempted to name the msects, as I question the
utility. If, however, it should be deemed necessary, those na-
turalists who reside where 'the fossils are found will be the best
able to assign to them their proper names, as they will have it

Fresh-water-Formations of Aix, in Provence. 295

in their power to institute a more full and accurate comparison
between them and the local species.

_ In the accompanying figures, one insect is represented upon
marlstone, to shew the nature of the subject; and the lines be-
neath each denote the natural size of the insects, all of them

being magnified, to exhibit more distinctly the minuter parts,
and the nerves of the wings.

T shall now proceed to arrange and enumerate the specimens,
with occasional remarks for illustration.

Orper COLEOPTERA.
oe Herpahis, with punctured elytra, perhaps Ophonus. There is al-
an is
so the elytron of another species.
Fam. Hyprorsi.ipz.
2. Hydrobius, nearly as large as H. fuscipes, Linn
Fam. Starnycryip2. :
3. Lathrobium? (Plate VI. Fig. 1.)
Fam. Privip2?
4. Ptinus? about the size of P. ‘Lichenum, Marsh.
Fam. MELoLoyTHID2.
_ & Cetonia, resembling C. hirtellus.
6. like C. stictica, Fab.
Sang Fig. ), The dark show the
7. ? 2 parts corneous covering which
remains ; ry perfect: the wings of this and of Fg 10
the sculpture is very perfect of this and of Fig. 10.
Lee catealied beyond tas alytca, aff y had been arrested in

14. Cele hh ath ha pae of viridis, Fab,
15. - vee ; Cc. Fab.

16. and at earcely 0 as C. Banksii, Fab.
17. et pipenr ia a>
18. Ditto? much

_ Onpvern HYMENOPTERA.

20. Ichneumon? the wings are wanting ; but, from the long ovipositor,
it is probably allied to Pimpla or Bracon. Ba fi gr
a Formicip2.

21. Formica, and cast, winged.
22. Ditto,
23. Ditto, ditto.
Orver LEPIDOPTERA.

24. Phalena? or it may be one of the Noctuidae.

296 Messrs Murchison and Lyell on the Tertiary

Onper OMOPTERA.
Fam. ApHID2. :

25. Aphis, of the middle size.

26, 27. Obs. There are several small insects, some apterous, others with
very short wings, which I thought Thrips; but the apex of the
abdomen is too obtuse for that group; and, from the shortness of
their legs, they cannot, I think, be the larvee of any of the He-

miplera.

Fam. CERcoPIDz.
28. Tettigonia, exceedingly like 7. spumaria, Linn. (Fig. 6.)
29. Asiraca? or it may pare to some of the neighbouring genera,
Cixias, Delphax, or Cercopis (Fig. 5.)

Orpver HEMIPTERA.
Fam. CorEmp2.

30. Miris, a small one. :
31. Lygeus, allied to L. Abietis, Linn.
32. Obs. There are many examples of different divisions of the Lygei.
33. Corizus, and cast not half the size of C. Hyoscyami, Linn.
Fam. PENTATOMID2.
34. Cydnus, the size of C. albomarginatus, Fab.
35. Pentatoma? or it may be a Cydnus, the corners of the, thorax
re in form it resembles Tetyra, but it has a smaller scu-
tellum.

Orvper DIPTERA.
Fam. TipuLip2.

36. Limnobia, female (Fig. 7.), allied to L. seapunctata, Fab., apparently
fixed whilst at rest.

37. Gnoriste? (Fig. 8.), either struggling on its back, or in the attitude
of depositing her eggs.

38. Another species, or the other sex of the former one.

39. Mycetophila? (Fig. 9.), walking, black, articulations of the body dis-
‘tended by pressure.

' 40. Mycetophila? a pale one.

41., Nov. Gen. (Fig. 10.), allied perhaps to Penthetria holosericea, Meig. ;
but not being acquainted with the genus, I speak with uncer-
tainty. There are several examples of this insect: the one re-
presented seems to have been at rest ; the hinder legs are broken
off, and one of them is reversed, so that the tarsi nearly touch the
thigh. The pal i are long, and very perfect, and the antennz

. are remarkably distinct. ;

42. Nov. Gen. ? another species, or the other sex of the last.

43. Bibio, male, and cast, allied to B. venosus, Meig.

44. Several specimens of a genus between Bibio and Beris.

Fam. STRATIONIDA.

45. Nov. Gen. (Fig. 12.), apparently allied to Sargus ; *but I am not ac-
quainted with any genus of the family having the same nervure
in the wings. The antennz are no doubt distorted by pressure,
but they are too robust and short to belong to Beris or Xylopha-
gus. One of the halteres is discernible of this handsome and dis-
tinct insect, of which there is the cast. ee

Fam. EMPIp2.

46. Empis (Fig. 11.), a female, and cast. i) he

47. Obs. There are eight species of Empide, comprising a) tly other
species. a ae

Messrs Murchison and Lyell having received another box of
fossil insects from the same locality since the preceding obser-

Stee A Gree aw a te SOE

Edintnew Chit be V AVI fp 29S

el ob neal: Mian. 1825 Published be ABtack Edin® 1829.

Fresh-water Fdrmations of Aia, in Provence. 297
vations were written, containing many totally different species,
I hope at some future period to have the pleasure of resuming
the subject; and I was happy to find, that the remarks I had
ventured to make at the commencement of this notice were ra-

_ ther strengthened by this valuable addition to their collection.

List of Fossil Shells in the Fresh-water Formations of Aix and Fuveau,
in Provence. The new species of Shells named and figured by
J. De C. Sowersy, Esq. F. L. S.

; BIVALVES. LOCALITIES.
1. Potamides i : pide. Escarpment N. of Aix.
Fy ccagnsceate (Cerithium gr. of Deshayes), Do. do.
1. Bulimusterebra, =. =. «. + «~~ Do. do.
Diivcicecns> pygmeus, . je : ‘ S Porte Bellegarde, Aix.

1. Neritina (cast of), . . . ‘i do.
S. side of the river Arc, Aix.

1. Lymneus ovum, a7" A re riige
2. ...ecseeeeee NEW species (whorls reversed, ae
Physa?), tt civ eee tee “cr
of Fuveau, and lime-
1. Planorbis rotundatus, M. tiie 46 { hte ORAS.
2. ....e0e2++e+ NEW Species, somewhat resembling '
P. rotundatus. , ,
1. Melania scalaris (new species, Sowerby), Coal, Fuveau.
B.. oscccrsee new species, striated, too imperfect
to be figured, . >. p do. oo
UNIVALVES. '
1. Cyclas gibbosa, new species, Sowerby, . . Escarpment N. of Aix. |
2. ...... aque-sextia, do. do. Sowerby (very large), Porte Bellegarde, Aix.
inne concinna, do. do. Sowerby, . ‘ Roof of coal, Fuveau.

4. eens cuncata, do. do. Sowerby, . . ae Spree pa Fu-

1. Unio, a new and very large species, - Roof of coal, Fuveau.
Cypris, (new species, Sowerby), - «+ Escarpment N. of Aix.

+
Cyclas gibbosa. Cyclas aqua-sextia. Cyclas concinna. Cyclas cuneata. Melania scalaris.

v4 ae ee
Meg f
ae yy a7 =
7 = — .
y . 3 a
j \ tee ey >
~ 2 7?
x

298 On the Freshwater Formations of Aix, in Provence.

Description of the Plants alluded to in the preceding Memoir. By J.
Linpxey, Esq. F.R.S. F.G.S. L. 8. &c. and Professor of Bo-
tany in the University of London.

M, Appears to be the terminal pinna of some articulated compound leaf. I
have no doubt that it belongs to some Leguminosa, either of the tribe
of Lotew, or Phaseolia of M. De Candolle’s arrangement. To what
particular species, I am not at present able to state. or

A, Is the leaf of Podocarpus macrophylla ?

B, Is apparently the branch of some Thuja, nearly related to Thuja Ielibaiats.

C, Are leaves of Laurus dulcis? or, if not, of a species of cinnamon that can-
not be distinguished from it by these specimens. C* is the best spe-
cimen.

D, Is the fruit of some plant, but i in too imperfect a state to be determined.

E, Is very like Buaus Balearica ; but it is perhaps something else, and can-
not be determined.

F, Is a leaf, but of so common a form, that it could not be safe to offer ¢ even
a conjecture about it.

G, Is the stem of an herbaceous plant; but there is no evidence to shew
what it was.

Of the recent plants referred to in the annexed memoran-
dum, Podocarpus macrophylla and Laurus dulcis are natives
of India, Buwus Balearica of the Mediterranean, and Thuja
articulata of the coast of Barbary.

oe he

( 299 )

Haguiriel respecting the Relative Age of Mountains.

M. Ente ve Beavumonr lately read to the Academy of
Sciences of France, a memoir, entitled Inquiries respecting some
of the Revolutions of the Earth's surface, presenting different
examples of the coincidence which appears to have existed be-
tween the raising of the beds of certain systems of mountains,
and the sudden changes attested by the rapid variations of the
characters which are observed among certain consecutive stages

Geologists are generally agreed in thinking that the sedimen-
tary beds which are frequently seen in mountainous countries
inclined at very large angles or placed vertically, and of which
certain parts even occur in a reversed position, could not have
been formed in this position ; but that they have, on the contrary,
been placed in it through the effect of phenomena which took
place after the first epoch of their deposition, and which, as the
author remarked, must have happened at very different epochs
in the different systems of mountains which appear upon the
surface of the globe.

Other observations have been made by geologists who have
carefully studied the sedimentary deposites depending upon
the slow and more or less tranquil action of the waters, and
by naturalists who have examined the remains of animals and
vegetables which these deposites contain. They have gene-
rally remarked, that at different heights abrupt variations ma-
nifest themselves at once in the position of the strata, and in the
animal and vegetable fossils which are contained in them.

Struck with the co-existence of these two parallel series of in-
termittent facts, and the analogies which seem to approximate
them, the author has tried to bring them into mutual relation
in the part of the history of the globe which is least remote from
the present era.

His object has been to prove that the epochs to which several
of the solutions of continuity which are observed in the series
of sedimentary deposites correspond, have coincided with those
of the convulsions to which are owing the raisings and disloca-

* This interesting memoir contains a view similar to one delivered some
_years ago, by the Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh.

300 M. Elie de Beaumont on the Relative Age of Mountains.

tions of the strata which so many systems of mountains present
to us, or, in other words, to shew by examples that the disloca-
tion of a certain portion of the external crust of the globe has
formed an essential integrant part of each of the abrupt changes
of which zoologists and geologists have discovered the traces,
and to which the labours of M. Cuvier have so strongly called
the attention of the learned world.

M. Cuvier has shewn that the surface of the globe has expe-
rienced a series of sudden and violent revolutions. _M. Leopold
de Buch has pointed out precise and distinct differences between
the various systems of mountains which are raised upon the sur-
face of Europe. The present essay of M. Elie de Beaumont
is a first attempt to establish a kind of alliance between these
two ideas.

In the four separate chapters of which his memoir is compos-
ed, the author has successively considered four of the most
marked solutions of continuity which the series of sedimentary
deposites presents, and has tried to connect each of them with
the raising of the sedimentary strata in a determinate system of
mountains. |

‘‘ To attribute,” says he in concluding, “ to slow and progres-
sive modifications the whole of the changes that have been ef-
fected upon the earth’s surface, and to overlook the traces of
sudden revolutions which have almost periodically renewed the
state of that surface, would be to suppress one of the most im-
portant and most striking features of its history. Every thing
leads us more and more to divide the facts which the sediment-
ary formations present to our observation into two distinct clas-
ses ; the one comprehending the facts relating to the tranquil and
progressive course which the accumulation of each of the sedi-
mentary deposites has followed, the other containing the facts
relating to the sudden interruptions which have established lines
of demarcation between the different consecutive deposites.

“‘ After thus admitting violent and transitory phenomena, it
is more easy to perceive the resemblance to the phenomena of
the present period presented by those which were repeated on
the surface of the globe during the different periods of tranquil-
lity in the course of which the various sedimentary deposites
were successively formed.”

M. Elie de Beaumont announced further, that he had no in-
2

M. Elie de Beaumont on the Relative Age of Mountains. 301

tention whatever of searching into the causes of the violent and
_ transient phenomena which produced the different cataclysms:
The questions which he has proposed to himself to solve, are
questions of epochs and of coincidences of dates.

» The resalts at which he has arrived with respect to the
Lenchsiabapihils several systems of mountains received the prin-
cipal features of their present form, are entirely independent of
all hypothesis respecting the manner in which they have received
that form, Admitting his results, one remains free to choose
between the hypothesis of Deluc, who explained the raising of
the strata by the sinking of a part of the earth’s crust, and the
hypothesis generally adopted by the most celebrated geologists
of our epoch, and which consists in supposing that the secondary
strata which are found raised in the mountain chains, have béen
thus elevated by the heaving up of masses of - ‘primitive rocks,
which generally constitute their central axis and anya _sum-
mits. sad

., The coimeidences of dates bik the nine thinks he has dis.
covered are the following :—

+ 1..In a:small system of mountains of which the peg in
Saxony, the Cote-d’Or in Bourgogne, and Mount Pilas in Tores,
form. part, the raising of the strata has taken place at the epochi
which has separated the period‘ of the deposition of the Jura for-
mation from that of the deposition of the greensand and chalk-

)2 Ina system of which the Pyrenees and Appenines form
cate the raising of the strata has taken place at the epoch which
saw the chalk deposite ended, and which was followed by es
period of the deposition of the tertiary formations. © 6

_ 8. In the western part of . thovAlpn, Wosiraidinge tetas
has taken place at the epoch in which the tertiary formations
were ended, and which preceded that of the deposites called
transported, rolled, diluvial or alluvial.

4. A new revolution interrupted the deposition of these for-
mations, leaving, as traces of its passage, the large alpine blocks
transported to the Jura mountains, and the pebbles of the Crau,
and this revolution has probably corresponded to the formation
of certain fractures which cut up the ground in Provence, and to
which is owing the existence of the mountains of Leberon, Sainte
Baume, &e. ; a system with which it is not impossible that the

JULY—OCTOBER 1829. x

302 M. Elie de Beaumont on the Relative Age of Mountains.

mountains of the Balearic Islands, and of a part of Spain, as
well as Atlas, Taurus, and the Himalayan mountains, may one
day be connected.

‘< These first results, if they are correct, will form but a small
part of those which may be foreseen, when it is considered how
many other interruptions the series of sedimentary deposites pre-
sents, and how many other systems of mountains rise upon the
surface of the globe.

«< The few data which I have nn together, do not yet
shew the date of the dislocations of several systems of mountains;
very different as to their principal direction, such as those be-
tween which M. Leopold de Buch has shewn that the soil of
Germany is divided.

“‘ Several indications of interruptions in the series of sedimen-
tary deposites are not perhaps so marked in the known parts of
Europe, but because the systems of mountains to which they
correspond send out no ramification.

“ The appearance of a chain of mountains could have influen-
ced very distant countries only by the agitation which it caused
in the waters of the sea, and by a greater or less derangement
yn their level ;—events of a nature similar to that of the sudden
and transient inundation, of which indications are found in the
archives and traditions of all nations.

If this historical event were nothing else than the latest of the
revolutions of the earth’s surface, one would naturally be led to
ask, What is the chain of mountains whose appearance ascends to
the same date? and perhaps it might be remarked, that the
chain of the Andes, whose volcanic spiracles are still generally in
activity, forms the most extended, the sharpest, and the least
worn of any that the present exterior of the globe exhibits.

a

———— eee

————— Ce

*
L
’ se

© 808")

“i

Observations on the Caymans or Alligators of Guiana*. By
“, _Joun Hancock, M.D. Communicated by the Author.

Iw reviewing the Indian vocabulary, I find three of the croco-
dile kind mentioned, as follows :—
1st, The Poupou of the Caribs, i.e. the Cayman or common
great alligator.

- 2d, The Akari of the Caribs, Kykoty of the Arowaks, or

~ eommon alligator.

- $d, The Teriteriou of the Caribs, the largest of all. The
Makusies and Akawais call it Atokary. ‘The Porocotos
call it Tiratiréma.

’ I may here give the names of the crocodiles of Guiana in

several Indian dialects, viz.

Canrip. AKAWAL. Macost. ATTORIA.
The Common Poupou. Arara. Caratu. Wahdu.
Great Cayman Akaari. Takaari. Yakaara. Attori.
The Alligator Teri-teri-ou. Atohari. Teri-teri, or _Attohari.
Duri-duri.
PorocorTos. ARAWAKOs. Warrow
4 Aroweima. Cayman. Niaribuca-ya.
Areewa. Kaikooti. Niaribuca.
Tiratireema

_ The reader will observe that the Attoris give the name. of
their own nation to the alligator.—This is a most extraordinary
language, if so it can be called, The above names in Attoria
are only approximations to their strange sounds, which are ut-
tered as it were entirely from the glottis, not moving the lips,
with a clack of the tongue, however, which it is impossible to
imitate, much less to convey on paper. They throw back the
head in speaking, shewing that the utterance is difficult even to.
themselves ; and it almost gives one pain to hear them talk.
They inhabit about the southern branches of the Essequibo,

* It is curious to observe, that the term cayman means, in Spanish,
cunning, subtle, sly; in Arowak, fierce, ferocious; but the name, I pre-
sume, must be entirely of Indian origin.

x2

304 Dr Hancock on the Caymans, or

where the Teri-teri-ou are said to be most common. This ac-
counts for the Ackawai and other tribes having borrowed their
name for the animal.

The Mandavacas live on the Rio Negro and Cassiquiari or
Casicari. It is singular that there are no large species of cro-
eodile inhabiting those rivers, although the alligator is numerous
there. They have not even a name for any other species. Mr
Humboldt must have been strangely misinformed, when he speaks
of the dangerous and ferocious crocodiles of the Cassiquiari ; no
species, but the inoffensive alligator inhabiting there. This ex-
ception is the more extraordinary, as most of the other great
rivers of Guiana, so far as I know, abound with the Cayman.
Perhaps it may be owing to the porpesses which are numerous
in the Cassiquiari and the Rio Negro.

The Spaniards call one (the second. here described) Cayman
Negro; another of the same size they call C. amarilla, or yellow ;
and a smaller, which they say inhabits the oe vee is called
Baba or Babilla, of grey colour.

The Cayman is in length eleven feet three pies a half inches,
and in‘girth four feet. ‘Teeth, thirty-six in the upper jaw, and
the same in the under, not corresponding, but alternate; fore
legs, fifteen inches long, with five toes, the two outer without
nails; hind legs twenty-two inches, with four toes, three with
strong nails, the outer ones without any. The belly and under
jaw are white ; the rest of the body black. Many caymans are
killed for the sake of their teeth and fat, which lies in a deep
oblong mass on each side the tail, or along the posterior part of
the'spine. The cayman runs fast in a straight direction, but
cannot turn quickly. It travels far over land at night, to re-
move 'to other waters, for which it instinctively directs its course
from great distances. In procuring its food, the cayman has the
sagacity to lay the Fortuga on its back to prevent its escape, if
not hungry. The large tigers (jaguar) fall sometimes a prey
to the cayman in the water, but generally conquer on land. ; The
strength of the tiger is so great, that he lacerates and lays open
the side of the neck where the cayman is most vulnerable. ‘The
battle between them when they meet on the land is said to be tre-
mendous. There the jaguar makes the attack ; and the contrary,
if they meet in the water. Asthe cayman lies basking his scaly

.
:

Alligators of Guiana. 305
carcass m the sun, his enemy often: encounters him ; on the
contrary, if the tiger is seen swimming, the cayman plunges in
after him, and pulls him under the water. The caymans, how-
ever, usually watch their prey in the water, submersing the
whole body except the snout and eyes, which are prominent.
A terrible encounter ensues when the cayman and camaiduor,
or great water serpent, meet. Their tumbling and splashing

be heard at a great distance. The serpent, when they
meet on the brink of the water, avoiding the enormous jaws of
the cayman, rapidly throws itself about his body, is often un-
twisted in the struggle, lashing the water with tremendous vio-
lence, and returns like lightning to the gripe, till he completely
squeezes his antagonist to death, unless the cayman succeeds in
getting his jaws to bear upon him, in which case the battle is
quickly decided. Mr James Fraser, being in the river Waieny,

. on a tour to the Orinooko, in 1826, heard some loud noises, seem-

ingly like the discharge of great guns at a distance ; and all his
Indian attendants said it was caused by the tail of a camudi
ba aia the water in a battle with the cayman.

_ The porpess is the natural enemy and entire master of the
siete so much so, indeed, that the natives enter the water
without fear when the tonina (porpess) is in sight. It attacks
the cayman wherever they meet. The cayman is driven into
the water by other enemies, as the tiger; but it is made to
seamper ashore by the porpess. The ideas of the ancients re-
specting the dolphin’s attachment to man, seem to be in some
measure realized in this species of delphinus. It-is well known
that they accompany ships to considerable distances, as does'the
shark, but with different motives. This is doubtless a distinct
species from the common porpess or the D. Phoczena of natura-
lists; Phokaina of Aristotle. We even saw them in the Rio

‘Maou and the Parima, whence they must make a joutemint

many hundred miles to reach the ocean.

Two caymans in combat make a dreadful noise, mnndiieg up
chopping together their jaws, tumbling down, and shresting" “04
water with great violence.

‘An instance is related of an Indian caught by a Ponti
the Lake of Marawareta, procuring his, release by having’ the

306 Dr Hancock on the Caynians, or

presence of mind to stab the cayman in the eyes with a-knife,
the water being shoal. ‘This manceuvre is inculcated from their
infancy. This, or a similar occurrence, is related by Humboldt
while at Angostura.

At Metanza, the caymans are more shy than those of, the
Essequibo, and take to the water before one can approach
them. These animals have become incomparably more bold
and ravenous than formerly in the Orinooko, since the feasting
they have had on human flesh during the carnage of the late
war. Before that time, they were scarcely dreaded, and up the
Essequibo they would rarely attack a man, or endeavour to _
shun him, being, in those solitary retreats, quite. unmolested.
They were so numerous, that my travelling companion, Mr
Sertema, at’ the same time, and without changing place, :stood
_ and counted thirty caymans at a stagnant pool or lagune’ on
the Repoononie, the animals lying just below the water; and .
their snouts projecting above it. Travelling, in 1811, in the vi-
cinity of the Takotu with some Portuguese, we had several
times occasion to ‘swim across ‘the smaller rivers and pools. .To
frighten away the caymans, we had only to throw ourselves in-
to the water with violence, beat and cause a great splashing.
Such experiment in the Oronooko would now be a very danger-
ous one, as they overthrow small corials, and meng seize re
person in the water.

The cayman, it is said, does not strike, as generally bial
with its tail, but with its head, and that suddenly and with
tremendous force. The alligators do the same.

"The cayman of Orinooko takes its prey both on land si in
the water indifferently ; but it can devour it only on land, as it
cannot swallow under water without letting it in, such is the
formation of the glottis. The larynx is provided with a valve
which excludes the water by shutting over the orifices both of
the cesophagus and trachea. It cannot, however, bear long ex-
posure to the sun.

The cayman swallows stones in considerable quantities. Some
think this is to satisfy hunger ; others, to assist digestion; while
others believe it arises from an instinctive faculty to render the
body specifically heavier, and to enable the animal to‘sink in the
water. I found, in a young cayman, two pieces of lead as well

ll i

Alligators of Guiana. 307
as stones. oo ere meg yn ne
(ra ie RENN

- In opening one to determine this fact, I found Oa teed
and intestines membranous; the former consisting of an ex-
tended canal, very thick in its coats and narrow, and having a
small quantity of half digested animal and vegetable substances
within it... Below this, in a large paunch or perhaps second sto-
mach, were found 4b. or 5 lb. of pebble stones of various sizes,
from that of a pea to that of a walnut. Nothing else was
found within it except a bit of indigested skin of some animal.
As to the incubation of the cayman, if any one stoops over
the nest, places his ear close, and strikes over it,—if ready to
come out, the young fry will be heard croaking. It is said the
cayman takes this method of trial. The cayman waits about its
eggs laid in the sand, places itself to the landward, and when
the little ones are rising from the ground, it devours all that
run that way: the others go clear and find their way to the
water.

» The cayman is not known above the falls in the Rio Caroni,
as the people there think from inability to ascend the falls; but
this is a great misconception. This river, above the falls, is
quite unfit for its abode, being shallow, rapid, and full of rocks,
It seems rather strange, however, that they are not found in
the River Pomeroon, which is very deep, still, and dark-colour-
ed; but some of the natives have a fancy that they are deterred
by the camuduors, the great water serpents, which inhabit this
river, for these are inveterate enemies, and the deep black water
of this river must give a decided advantage to the water ser-

. It is asserted that the animal buries itself in the mud, to pass
the summer or dry weather, when the water of the lakes is dry-
ing up. Jose Yustre, however, says that the cayman and great
serpents do not inter themselves in the ground, as represented by
Humboldt ; that they do not roar; and that the tiger always
kills the cayman in combat, the latter being so inflexible that he
cannot get a grasp of the tiger, who springs upon his back and
gores the neck. He confirms the story that the cayman eyer
avoids the porpess.

308 Dr Hancock on the Caymans, &c.

' Acayman was killed, in 1815, before the house of Mr Loran-
da at Angostura : I examined and found it measured eleven feet:
It had a series of thin cartilaginous appendages on both sides
of the back, extending to within 18 inches of the extremity of
the tail. | The head was long and narrow. It had soft. crescent-
shaped nostrils near the end of the snout. There were 19 teeth
on one side of the upper jaw, 20 on the other, and 15 on each
side the lower jaw. The two fore-teeth in the lower jaw jpro-
jected through the upper. There were 5 toes on the fore feet ;
and 4 on the hind ones. , Its colour was black, except the belly.
Internally, there was a folding membrane, valve-like, before
the gullet, but no tongue. This was a young female, and: had
small eggs the size of pistol bullets... triphtitn onieoD
A Carib called it Acarou, or Acaaru, in his peri pO pat
There is a large species of crocodile inhabiting the interior
rivers, which is quite unknown to naturalists, and» even ‘to the
littoral tribes of Indians ; but all the inland. tribes recognise:it
by a distinct name. The Macosi Indians call it Teri-terisou:
They described it as having an appendage or extension of the
skin along each side of the belly, and a forked or divided tail.
It is said to grow near the size of the cayman of Orinooko; but
to be less dangerous than it. Some Arowaks say the Teri-teri-ou
is second in size, and inhabits deep waters. I should doubt the
existence of this last, were it not that all the inland nations have
aname for it distinct from that of the cayman and alligator.
The united testimony of so many tribes renders. it certain that
such an animal does exist. vrewi
. Don Francisco Yustre, an intelligent, Pe poner thiche Sa
another smaller species of baba, yellom, with short head, and
nose turned up.’ :
William. and. Johnson, two, so Fe THe says chon isa
white kykoty ; and both agree in eens it as about “i
inches long... okie pt

i! i

—

———— se TO

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(309)

~@

ser vitesdiyi ts

Researches in nae to the Ancient History of our Domestic
~ Animals, and our Common Plants. By M. Doereav de la

sirMallu. chore ; ,

"a a A bive fuses I. The Cat. Felis.

, wane is sina obscurity respecting the native country of the
cat, and the period at which it was first domesticated.

» Baron Cuvier, in the last edition of his Regne Animal *, and
Bnidéricki Cuvier, under the word Chat +, in the Dictionnaire
des Sciences Naturelles, affirm, the former, that the cat (which
it,is true sometimes occurs wild in France) is a native of our
forests; the latter, that the period at which the cat was domesti-
cated, does not seem to be very remote, and that the Greeks
were little acquainted with it, &e. }

These assertions of two very able zoologists have seemed to
me to require examination, not being confirmed by positive

eile |

It.is evident, in the first place, that the Greeks were ac-
quainted with the cat from the most remote antiquity. The
mummies of that animal found in the sepulchres of Thebes,
and the figures sculptured on monuments on which we read
the names of the Pharaohs, concur with the Sacred Scriptures to
prove that, in the earliest ages, it existed in Egypt and Palestine
in the domestic state.

Herodotus describes it under the name of “AsAcvges. The
manners of this animal carefully observed, the habit which the
male’ cats have of eating their young, related by the father of
history; and confirmed by modern naturalists, the terror inspired
in it by fire, the honours which were rendered to cats, their be-
ing embalmed, and their mode of sepulture, facts confirmed by
the numerous mummies of cats that have been brought from
Egypt, and which, moreover, positively determine the species ;—
all these circumstances together remove all doubts, 1s¢, re-
specting the identity of the species known to the Greeks under
the name of '4:yeee, and worshipped and embalmed in Egypt ;

>
y

* Tom. i. p. 165. + Tom. viii. p. 206. Levrault’s edition.
+ Ibid. p. 210.

310 M. Dureau on the Ancient History of

2Qdly, respecting the native country of this animal, which must
at least be extended to Africa and Asia; for to limit it to the
forests of France, as the Cuviers have done, would render it ne-
cessary to suppose, that, in the times of the Pharaohs, frequent
communications were established between Gaul and Egypt, and
that it was in consequence of these communications span the
cat was imported into the latter country. parca a.

According to Bochart +, who passes for a pan Hebrew
scholar, wild and domestic cats occurred in Palestine and Ba-
bylonia. eles erant palatiis eorum}, says Hosea; Isaiah has
the words wlubant feles in palatiis corum §; and Jeremiah
adds, et occurrent cercopitheci felibus ||. The Hebrew name of
the cat is T'sitgem, and the Chaldean name is Sinnaur, which,
as well as the Chinese word Mao, being derived from the ery
of that animal, designates it of itself. This word has passed in-
to Arabic, and Pastel regards it as an onomatopeia. :

Mount Hermon was named Sener by the Amorrheans, or
the Mountain of Cats, a name evidently derived, according to
Bochart, from the word Sinnaur, which signifies cat in Arabic,
or from. the Chaldean Sunar.

_. The cat is also named by the Hebrew authors golden cat,
an epithet which I imagine designates the three-coloured variety,
commonly known by the name of Spanish or Tortoise-shell cat,
in which the red is very bright and approaches the colour of
gold. Angora has also furnished a variety remarkable for the
length, fineness and silkiness of its hair. Here, then, we have
Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, and Babylonia, in which
the cat occurred in both the wild and domestic state. But the
native country of the cat is not so limited; it was common in
India, and has there been reduced to domesticity from the
most remote antiquity, It is very frequently mentioned in the
Sanscrit, and among other books in the Jtobades, the original
of the fables of Bidpay: It isnamed Acoubouk, eater of mice,

* II, 66. + Hierozoic, p. 859. + Hosea, ix. 6.
§ xiii. 22 ; xxxiv. 14. ) L. 39 and 11.

q Thargum. Esther, 1, 2.

«our Domestic Animals. $11
or Margara, the gay, in the Sanscrit language. For this va-
luable testimony I am indebted to the politeness of M. Chezy.

_ An express passage in Diodorus Siculus proves the existence
of; the cat in: the wild:state in the north of Africa *. He says,
that Agathocles, after taking Phillena, Mischela, and Hippaci,
cities of Numidia, and lastly Miltene, led his army over high
mountains which were 200 stadia im breadth, and were filled with
wild cats,” asarevger. ‘ There,” says he, “ no kind of bird makes its
nest, whether in trees or in the ravines,.on account of their
hatred for the cats.” It was more on account of the attacks to
which they were exposed from these animals. ‘The fact is well
observed; it expresses one of the habits of the cat, which, whe-
ther wild or tame, is a hunter, and lives on prey. ‘The circum-
stance of accounting for the absence of nests, by the hatred. of
the birds towards the cats, is defective. After passing this chain,
Agathocles found ‘himself in a country full of monkeys, =séjxay,
from which these villages derived their name, and might, says
Diodorus, be literally translated into Greek by the word

The poet Memesian+, who lived at Carthage, names the
wild cat as an object of his huntings, with the fox, the-wolf,
the ichneumon and the hedgehog.

CL LL

iil a i

ny Nos.timidos lepores, imbelles figere damas,
3 -__. Audacesque lupos, vulpemque captare dolosam
__. . Gaudemus ; nos flumineas errare per umbras
Malumus, et placidis ichneumona ¢ querere ripis,
Inter arundineas segetes, felemque minacem

Arboris in trunco longis preefigere telis,
Wades amit Ala aaa

M. Abel Remusat ih supplied me with this valuable docu-
ment. The cat has been known in China for a great number
of centuries, under the name of Mao §, derived from the ery

° xx 5a + Cyoregetic, v. 51.
“gh lar WU cai ula emg,

§ The cat, in Chinese, Mao or Miao, in Japanese, Negoma. Its Chinese
mqano ie derived from 18 $17; It is a small quadruped which takes rats. There

312 M. Dureau on the Ancient History of

of the animal, and which, like that which in French oath its
plaintive cry, is a true onomatopeia.

Having determined the native country, or at least the habi-
tation of the cat, I shall pursue the history of its manners and
habits, and bring together the various traits which form the
true portrait of the species. The circumstances of the copula-
tion of cats, the number of their young, the duration of their
life, and their pny birds, related by Aristotle, along with
the name ‘AsAcvgs *, positively designate the same animal of
which Herodotus has painted the manners, and to which he has
applied the same name.

In the first place, however, I shall give the etymology of the
different names. of the cat. That of “Ascvges is founded upon
one of the most striking habits of the animal, which is continu-
ally moving and bending its tail. I would derive it from
aorarw and sea. The cat was, therefore, with the Greeks the
move-tail.

According to Sauinaise +, the name dAsgos comes > the

are of them yellow, black, white and spotted. It has the body of the
fox and the face of the tiger, the hair soft, and the claws sharp. The best
are those which have the tail long, the reins short, the eyes like gold or silver,
and many hairs above the eyes. Its pupil may serve to mark time ; it is like
a thread at 11 in the evening, 11 in the morning, and 5 in the morning; like
a jujubier nut at 1 in the morning, 1 afternoon, 7 in the morning, and 7 in
the evening ; and like the full moon at 3 in the morning, at 1, 9 and 8 in the
evening. The tip of its nose is always cold, excepting on the day of the
summer solstice, when it becomes lukewarm. This animal fears cold and
seeks heat ; it feeds according to the months, and eats rats in the first and
last decade of each lunation. Its head and tail resemble those of the tiger.
The duration of its gestation is two months, and at one birth it produces se-
veral young ; but some cats eat their young. There are persons who think
that the female can conceive of herself, by the rubbing of a bamboo brush on
the back, &c.—Japanese Encyclopedia, xxxviii. 19.

Mention is made of the cat in the Choue-wen, a dictionary of me period of
our era.

In the Li-Ki, one of the five Kings, which Confucius revised in the ‘six.
teenth century, before our era.

In the Eul-ya, a dictionary the antiquity of which some authors carry back
to the twelfth century before Christ, but of which the authenticity is con-
tested.

In the Chi-king, a collection of odes made by Confucius, bit of which the
different parts are much more ancient than that philosopher. .

* Hist. Anim. v. 2, vi. 20, 35, and ix. 6. + Pliny, Ezercit. 710, B

-

i

' our Domestic Animals. 313

‘old Greek word sae, flatterer, with the Holic digamma Fass,

from which the Latins formed the word Felis ; from 2:a%; comes
‘dsdvges, flattering with the tail. This etymology seems to me
false; it is not founded upon the manners of the animal, which
is by no means addicted to caressing or flattery. It would ap-
ply better to the dog, which is both, and which employs its tail
eee seocinests:

_ Suidas * adds to the common names of the cat, d:rxges nie
SUN se oR gts! and. sweet, which seem to be two epithets,
the cunning and the gay, and are derived from the manners of
the animal. Kuster corrects, erroneously in my opinion, (cgi
into déAevges, for the first of these names is given to the cat by
Artemidorus, and the playfulness of ycung cats has become
‘proverbial’. HATER

The word Catus, with the signification of cat +, first occurs
in Palladius; but the adjective Catws, which signifies sharp or
piercing, is employed by Ennius: Cata signa sonitum voce
dare parabant. Varro, who quotes it, considers it as a word of

the Sabine language. At a later period, the word took the ac-
of solers, callidus, acutus, as Cicero informs us f.

The word Catus or cat, from which the Greeks. of the rome
Empire took their word Kerres §, and the Arabians their name
cat, unless this word be derived from a more ancient source, is
therefore taken either from the sharp cry, or insidious, prudent
and wary character of the animal, Hae denser: cfs the Greeks
and the felis of the Latins.

eile teshedeen teen etatetindi ok an sdinin 30,
dsaiwan, ginda, chittal, and dim, which the Arabians have
given to the cat; but the very variety of these names seems to
indicate that the animal was either common in the country, or
long domesticated there.

_ I now pursue the description of the manners and organiza-

© V. didugos. + IIL. 9. (37 Varro, lib. v. iii)

- $ De Leg. i. 16.

§ Kérros é xaroxidiec didugos. This name is employed in the Scholi of Cal,
Himachus. H. ad Cer., iii. ; in a Latin poet (in Catalog. Pith. L iv.) Catus in

. obscura capit pro sorice picam. Sextus Platonicus ( De Medicina Animal, part i.

c. xviii.) employs the word catum for felem four times. See Werheik ad
Antonin. Liber xxviii. p. 186.

$14 M. Dureau on the Ancient History of

tion of the cat, known among the Greeks from wr time el Hero-
dotus under the name of 2rxges.

Milian accurately describes several of the habits’ wit antes
of the cat, which he calls 2Azgec. ‘ The male,” he says, “is
very lascivious; the female a very tender mother. It flees the
approach of the male, for the seed of the latter is said to be
very hot, and to burn the genital parts of the female like fire.
It is for this reason that the male kills the young immediately
after they are brought forth, for the desire of having other young —
ones forces the female to submit to the desires of the male. It
is said that cats abhor all kinds of bad smell, and it is for this
reason that they dig the earth to bury their excrements in it.” —

This description of A€lian, like many others of the ancients,
contains facts accurately observed, and a false ae meme of
these facts. —

The female cat does not flee from the male Shs edd
assigned ; but she avoids him, dreads him, and suffers from
him, because the glans of his penis is covered with very sharp
horny papilla. ‘This is the cause of the piercing’ a of the
female during copulation.

It is neither from cleanliness nor from the dislike of bad
smells that eats bury their excrements, but from an instinct of
distrust resulting from their wild state, which rebels against the
feeling of domestication, because the strong smell which their
excrements emit might reveal their retreat, the abode and ay
lum of their young, which are to remain concealed.

_A trace of this habit, and of the distrust from which it springs,
common to the wolf and other wild animals, still appears in the
dog, which, although much more completely eerie: + yee than
the cat, throws up a little earth upon its excrements. -

If the date of the fables attributed to Alsop sight be refer-
red to the period at which that fabulist lived, it would be cer-
tain that the cat was known at a very ancient epoch in Greece
and Asia Minor. Its domesticity, its manners, its character,
and the cireumstance of its being employed in houses to de-
stroy rats and mice, are described in four of these fables, in
which the name of 2,ageos is given to it.

The fable of the cat in ambush, which, to get at the rats,
pretended to be dead, and got itself powdered with meal, ought,

we

our Domestic Animals. , 315

in my opinion, to be applied to the cat, and not to a species of
Mustela, although Phaedrus * has, on this eccasion, translated

La Fontaine, indeed, who has translated A’sop, makes a true
cat the hero of his apologue, and it is a somewhat remarkable
thing that the French poet should have better determined the
sense of the Greek word and the kind of animal than the Latin
translator.

The other fable of Aisop’s, in which an officious zZasegec, at a
time when the poultry-yard was attacked by an epidemic dis-
ease, disguises itself as a physician, and goes to offer its services
with the design of devouring them, paints in a very natural
manner the perfidious manners and treachery of the cat, and at
the same time proves, in opposition to the assertion of the natu-
ralists above mentioned, that the animal in question must have
been subjected for some time to domestication before its tricks,
its habits, and its character, could have been observed.

Now, if I have proved that the cat was known in Egypt,
China, India, Judza, and Chaldea, at the most remote period,
it becomes probable that Greece and Asia also possessed that
animal; but they then imposed upon it another name yaaq, a
generic name which they, in like manner, gave to several spe-
cies of Mustela and to a Viverra. Itismy object now to unravel
the confiision caused by this homonomy, to distinguish in the
descriptions of the ancients the different species of aaj or Mus-
tele, to recognize the cat under all these names by the charac-
teristic traits which are peculiar to it; and I trust, if some at-
tention be lent to me, I shall succeed in solving the riddle.

When agriculture and civilization advanced, and men be-
eame sensible of the inconveniencies resulting from the too
great multiplication of a species, they would naturally devise
means of destroying it, and guarding themselves against its
attacks.

Rats, mice, and other glires of a like nature, appear from
the earliest times of history, and even of fable. Poisons, traps,
and machines adapted for destroying these noxious animals were
not yet invented, and there were then more forests, copses, and re-
treats for them than now. Man would naturally employ ani-

* iv. L1.

316 M. Dureau on the Ancient History of
mals for enabling him to get tid of this pest. © How should he
not have sought to tame the cat, which is their
and which could not fail to be’ the most powerful aa
man in this active, perpetual, and daily warfare?“
_ ‘The mythological traditions * which relate, tha !
war of Typhon, the gods fled into Rgypt, ee
themselves ‘into various animals ; Apollo into’a
toa cat, Latona into a mouse, confirm the antiquity of the’@xist-
ence of the cat and of glires in Egypt and Greece. | ©"
_ But, as I have said, the cat at this period “bore the Hanie of
yenj. ‘This is the opinion of Henri: mepeiinry
nevertheless, err in applying it only tothe wéazel and’ cat, while
it also designates generically various species Of "catiivorous atii-
mals of the genus Mustela, tamed by the ancients and ‘assoeiited
by them with the cat in the destruction. of glires. PO
We inave seen that Herodotus, Aristotle, lian, Diodorus,
and the fables of inetp give the name axes td the edt} whe-
ther wild or tame. “At a later period, when the "Latin titiitie
catus, xarses, prevailed among the Greeks, as: designative of ‘the
domestic cat, the name ‘aileeos was applied to thé wild eat. “At
a little later period, the domestic cat resumed the nainé of yaks,
which had been its original name at the ‘commencement. .af lite.
rature. bwulD
©The word yaacy, which oceurs delle times in> einer:
myomachia* must, in’ my’ épinion; have> been ‘applied 40° the
cat, and even to the domestic’ cat:’/Phis is als6rthe’opinioh of
Henri Etienne and Barnes §, who have: been, _combated jy
Perizonius ||, Perotto, Philonenus Conradus. and Lycius. iittat
_ The synonymy of the words yaren and Birugony 2
nation of the cat by Homer under the name of yanin, will be
fixed by comparing a verse of Callimachus with another of
the Batrachomyomachia, of which the former i is an imitation,
or to which it evidently alludes. nt iene
Homer makes:one of his: rats say, nase p b yeedinn it
is the -yanen that I fear most 5 and. Callimachus ays, _ “that
* Apollodor. I. vi. 8. Hygin, caps, ae Ovid. Met. v. 330. ‘Antom 1.
beral, cap. 28. Fad 1) 49 yj Jos
- 4 Under the word yliNte +9, 51, 113. § Batrach, Le.
| Apud ABlian, xiv. 4 .G& Had Cer’

vp

our Domestic Animals. 317
Erysichton, in his horrible hunger, devoured his mules, oxen,
animals, in short, all that was in Triopas’s house.”
_ We also find under the name of «am, in a proverb cited by
Theocritus, the cat, which his cotemporary Callimachus calls
asrugss The common saying, as yaria: pwraxas yor Corres xerrsvdny,
cats like to sleep on soft beds, retraces one of the habits of the
cat most frequently observed. It seeks soft beds, pillows, and
couches *.

» Some learned men have applied this desivads sitthpmeandl,
Se Hisleet cart. aint shirieahlentat that wild species which lives
in the bushes, thorns, and heaps of fire-wood, and whose nests,
which I have several times found, are in trunks of trees, and
formed of straws, hay, or hard and dry plants. Buffon’s expe-
riment of the weasel+, which, being shut up in a cage with
some cotton, squatted whenever one went near it, does not prove
that that species naturally seeks a soft bed, like the cat, but is
accounted for by the distrust inate in these feeble carnivorous
animals, which leads them to conceal themselves and seek shelter,
whenever they see the approach of an enemy stronger than

Observations connected with the Migration of the Herring and
' Mackerel, as noticed in the British Channel. ie erage
- M: Morrison. Communicated by the Author. di

Wissen from its peculiar situation, is well ‘suited for a
fishing station, and has, in consequence, for a considerable pe-
riod, employed many vessels in this particular branch of com-
merce. Each vessel is furnished with from one hundred to one
hundred and twenty nets, each net, being forty feet_in length,
They can be joined to each other with great facility ;, and,
when in the sea, present a curtain from fourteen. to sixteen
feet in depth. These the fishermen, when at any distance
the land, always shoot or place north and south, or as near
direction as can be done conveniently, in order that. they, may
drift with the flowing and ebbing of the tide, which takes. the

* Dict: d’Hist. Nat: viii. 208. - + Hist. Nat. Anim. art. Belette. '
JULY—oOcTOBER 1829. °° mont if

318 Major Morrison’s Observations on tlie

direction of east and west in this part of the British, Channel.
I have been particular jn noticing this. latter, circumstance, as
there is a singularity attachéd to the capture, of both the her-
ring and the mackerel, which is, that, those fish which are/en-
cumbered with roes, while caught in great numbers on the east
side-of the nets, are not met with in a greater proportion than
one in about one hundred without roes on the west. side; a fact
which (abstractedly from other sources of information. on this
subject), affords evidence, that not only the herring, but,also
the mackerel, reach this part of the Channel, for the pupa of
depositing their roes, from the eastward. . in
When the nets are arranged for the mackerel, the pra
parts are always supported on the surface by small kegs and
corks ; but: when placed for the taking of herrings, they are not
always left near the surface, but are sunk at. various depths
when there is little or no wind, from within a yard of the bottom
upwards, aceording to the judgment of the fishermen, but they
generally prefer placing them near the surface when there is.
brisk: breeze. 9. 4» Ligtty
_ The herrings seseiasalin appien off ‘Hesiogs abouit ‘eal,
ning of November. Their approach, however to, this: lati-
tude is earlier in some seasons; if, for imstance, the wind
sets in from the north-west in the beginning or middle of
October, which naturally occasioning smooth water along. the
eastern coast! of England, greatly facilitates the advances, of
the herrings: southward; and should the wind continue’ in
the same point for some time after the close columns»
these fish reach the Channel, this insures a profitable season |
the fishermen of this place. But should a south or ‘south-cast
wind come on and prevail for some time, while the herrings « are
on their passage to the Channel, the swell often produced from
these points disturbing the fish, operates powerfully towards
changing their direction in seeking shelter on the coasts of Hol-
land and France, and avoiding the southern coast of
This was the ease last season, which proved very unsuccessful
to those engaged in the fishery. During the presence of the
herrings and mackerel in this latitude, their eggs may, during
a calm, be seen floating on the surface of. the water like saw-
dust, amidst an appearance like the wake or track of a vessel,
from which the course of the fish may be traced.

|
:
.
|
:
|
}

Migration of the Herring and Mackerel. 319

- Phe*hetrings generally disappear in this part of the Channel
about the beginning of December, and during their transit along
this’coast, ate’ subject; as’ well as the mackerel, to.a very for-
midable enemy in the dog-fish, which have’ greatly encreased
within the’ last thirty years. One column of herrings may be
assailéd with these in great numbers, while other columns may
be without ‘them: The fishermen, however, consider the dog-
fish too constant 'in their attendance on these occasions, as they
‘know to their cost, from having ‘their nets greatly

injured by their quick-cutting teeth. loest hiuogi brad were
"The dog-fish, like the shark, turns on its side when it seizes
its prey, ‘and greatly resembles that ravenous fish in many re-
spects ;“and whenever it finds itself entangled in the net, dis+
engages itself in‘a few seconds, by making a large incision, and:
er. a ge: Lee f iad Or rata} same

Ate dst, in Wisi sigue abstiel shonin eisdiidsuil

pletion. ‘They then disgorge what they have swallowed with
such voracity, which being completed, they lose no time in re~
conimencing seizing and swallowing the herrings with as much
avidity as if it had been their first repast after a ‘long absti-
nenée, till they are‘again full, when their stomachs are again’
pe a ran ‘and this filling and emptying has continued’
as to exhaust the patience of the’ most)
saodanatnieiine This ‘process, when carried on by numbers
of the dog-fish about the nets, oceasions a white shining’ ap-»
pearance on the surface of the sea, accompanied with a smooth-’
ness, ‘as if'a quantity of oil had been strewed on it, emitting a’
cee nee, which a? - detected at some re
tase ell! Trill pret eo
An idea may be formed of the mumbérs of the dogefish which
too’ frequently visit this part of the Channel, when it is stated,’
that; in the latter end of October, in the year 1827, some fisher=)
men’ proceeded to a small ‘sand-bank, which is situated about»
four miles to the eastward of Hastings, and two miles from the:
land, in quest of cod-fish, and for this purpose shot linesy:to?
which four thousand hooks were attached, over the ground.

ee ee eee ae ee

Y 2 oehe

320 Major Morrison’s Observations on the

when, with very few exceptions, there was a dog-fish secured
by every hook. A large cod had also been caught at the same
time, but only the strong cartilages and bones of the head,. with
part of the vertebra remained, the rest haying been swept away
by the dog-fish, and this was probably the work of. only a a few
minutes after its capture. But the effects of their rapacity did
not extend to their own species in the same situation, the whole
of which were hauled in uninjured. These insatiable fish are
assisted in their ravages by the sepiz or cuttle-fish, which, with
their hard mouths, resembling parrots’ bills, cut up, the macke-
rel and herrings with great adroitness. The sepize are in their
turn sometimes attacked by the dog-fish, but they are generally
enabled to frustrate attempts of the kind, by, ‘ejecting a. liquid
resembling ink, which, rendering the water turbid and obnoxi-
ous, affords them an opportunity of making their escape. .

The mackerel first met with off Hastings in the season, which
generally commences about the month of March, come from the
German Ocean, to which they are supposed to belong, and ap-
pear to be of a different species from those caught off Mounts...
bay, in Cornwall, the latter being longer, with the edges. of the.
pectoral fins of a pink-colour, and not so thick in proportion to.
the former, which are of less weight, with the edges of the pec-,
toral fins of a blue colour, and are considered. of a Pieksith
quality.

The mackerel always appear off Mountsbay coil shea tiie,
off Hastings, and come from the Atlantic. The mackerel con-,
tinue off Mountsbay about a month or five weeks, during which,
time some decked fishing boats from Folkstone, near Dover, ,
proceed thither, and continue, until the fish, have disappeared.
The crews of these boats, under an impression that the mac-,
kerel had moved eastward along the coast, have .endeayoured
repeatedly on their return to, meet with them off the Praul-
point, Portland-race, and off the Isle of Wight, without suc-,
cess. But after an interval of about a month,, mackerel,,cor-
responding in every respect with those from. the | Atlanticy ap-
pear off Hastings; by which it has been inferred, that, after they.
have disappeared off Mountsbay, they take a south-east direc-.
tion until they approach the coast of France, when» they pro-
ceed to the east or north-east. But as the French fishing boats,

Migration ofthe Herring and Mackerel. 32
whose range of ground is very extensive, have never, in
the interval teh: met with the Atlantic mackerel, which,
before they make their appearance off this station, are invari-
ably met with off Yarmouth and the Northforeland, this cir-
Porch pelea Bm that these fish pro-

Whether they pass through the Pentland
Wei vu acs 2 the course of their passage
hither, is a point which I must leave to my friends situated more
to the northward to determine The early mackerel are fre-
quently accompanied by a few red mullet (the salmonet of the
Mediterranean) ; and whenever these nearly,’ if not altogether,
‘the mackerel in number, the circumstance is generally
, presag of the approach of great shoals of mackerel.
The season for mackerel at Hastings generally terminates
about the end of June or the beginning of July, although many
have been caught in the middle and latter end of September,
corresponding in appearance with those which appear off this
place about the commencement of the spring ; and as these are
taken on the west side of the nets (the general direction or po-
sition of which has been already mentioned), it is concluded
they are on their return to deep water in the German Ocean,
leaving, however, some stragglers behind, which have been met
with in the Channel the whole year.
August 1829.

On the Naturalization of the Cashmeer Shawl-Goat in Eng-
"Tand. - By C. T. Tower, Esq. of Weald Hall, Essex*.
‘au
ick lls timenapie have hens made to inavetines eniiescnen-
ralize, in the British Islands, the goat of Cashmeer, that varie-
ty of the common goat, or perhaps a peculiar species, the fine
wool.of which is the material of the so-called Indian shawls. ~
7a Ehese febtice, it Snenees of fibre; lightness, and warmth, are
1's giiknn ‘sad gtvi, ob UR Fenmictione ot Uh Matinee See shitinaaenaiage:

ment of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. The Society voted its large
Gold Medal to Mr Tower for a shawl.

$22 Mr C,'T) Tower on the Naturalization of the

unrivalled by those of any other material. It has, therefore,
been considered a very desirable object to introduce! the "shawl-
goat, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the climate of
Europe is suitable to “it ; and. whether, under these cireum-
stances, the fine wool given it by nature, as a protection against
the winter cold of its own country, will be viprodnaes bites
in the fineness of its staple. 4 Ag

A few years ago some shawl-goats were introduced i into Séot-
land ; but the'experiment did not succeed, as Bis 2 died —
any progenyi« .

_ From;France' two! agents were sent to Persia, ules
tronage of the Emperor Napoleon, for the purpose of making
purchases of goats of: the genuine Cashmere breed, in the pro-
vince of Caspahan.. A considerable number of these aniifials
was procured’; and ‘although many of. them died ‘in their long
march, to the coast of the Euxine, and in their passage thence by
sea to, Perpignan,’ yet a certain number. survived, and were
brought: to. Paris by M. Terneau, in the year 1823.

Mr Tower happening at that time to be in Paris, purchased
four of them, two/males and two females, and succeeded in con-
veying them safely. to his residence in Essex.

The soil of the park at Weald Hall, where they finve' been
kept ever since, is moist, and the situation is much’ exposed.
The animals have, nevertheless, continued in health, and have
multiplied rapidly, so that his present flock consists of twenty-
seven, including the four original ones. Of these latter, a polled
female, which was old when purchased by him, has every year
produced at least one kid, and has twice had twins. ‘Those in-
dividuals of which the horns cross are in Persia esteemed the
best; ‘and one of Mr Tower’s last-year kids has this
They shew no impatience of cold, and are very healthy, bagi.
ing only the occasional shelter of a shed in’ very rough’ weather.
In spring, summer, and autumn, ‘they gtaze like ‘sheep 5 ‘and
during winter have been fed with hay, and refuse’ ‘vegetables
from the garden ; but their favourite food is gorse (Ulex Euro-
pus ), which they devour eagerly, without being annoyed by
its prickles. They damage young plantations, but not more
than other goats or deer will do. They breed very early;

3

Cashmeer Shawl-Goat in England. $23

Rae eetn ne thin youn! pecihaeh MA ate Bay
were themselves a twelvemonth old.
ee snasie ofl leu-canyreasithe
a Sica genes teepirneteemieaticnr see:
than the other. —
Sidilicenibealting eakevere of niy-vveies nsir} unab it -eihed Ode
wool : this latter begins to be loose early in April; and is col-
lected:easily and expeditiously, by combing the animals two or
three times with such a comb as is used for horses’ manes. A
good deal of the long hair comes off at the same time, but the
manufacturer has found no difficulty in separating it*. The
produce of a male is about four ounces, and of a female
about two ounces. Two pounds of wool, as it comes off the
goat’s back, may be estimated to make one shawl fifty-four
inches square. ie wilh tharahens necqyine eed genta senile wel Mes
male, to furnish materials for one shawl.

Mr Tower has this year had three shawls made of his
wool, one of which was examined by the Committee of Manu-
factures. ‘The yarn was spun by Messrs Pease, of Darlington ;
and was woven by Messrs Miller and Sons of Paisley. Mr
Tower's shawl was compared with one made in Scotland, of
French shawl-goat wool, to which it was evidently far superior.
It was also compared with a shawl of M. Terneau’s own make ;
ornare? by viny compete jeigee apie taperieeres
this also.

Usagi On the German Polish for Wood.

Witseeesdsiane to dasha diny emcsanaratiiitadiieren “tls
French Polish for wood, now become so universally employed,
in our Technical Repository, from information derived frony Mr
Joseph Clement, the celebrated engineer ; and have continually
added, from time to time, such further particulars thereon as _
have come to our knowledge.

* A considerable quantity of rough Cashmeer wool was imported from
India a few years ago, and baffled the attempts of the manufacturers to dis-
entangle the wool from the hair; probably from the wool having become
felted, in conveying it from Cashmeer and shipping it from Calcutta.

$24 On ‘the German. Polish for Wood.

Our, scientific ‘friend, Mr, J. . lL): Hawkins, ,however, having
lately returned from Viera; where he, saw. this» process: -per-
formed by an excellent workman in the cabinet-making) line,
and where it was invented’ forty years since, has: kindly fur-
nished us with such valuable information on their supertorme=
thod. i peering: in ‘that wrorikne PRN
to our readers. ; wit) hacks tidow@e

The wood bookie ioe vidi fat, and finished vith the steel
asupen; as in the usual processes for the French «polish, has its
surface evened as follows: Two pieces of pumice-stone, having
been previously rubbed: flat, are then to be oiled, and»rubbed
against each other, until they have acquired:an:uniform.or,éven
surface. . The wood is then to be well rubbed: with these; first
longitudinally, then across, and, finally, in a spiral,orscireular
manner, always obliterating or removing the scratches,or marks
made by the former rubbing, before - finishing ‘the»succeeding
ones; in this manner the surface of the wood will likewise re-
ceive’an uniform surface, and will become hati the appli-
cation of the varnish. ofl'T . otmeie

-)/The Germans never use any shee athtaledtonsaimaleinidl
lute solution of seed-lac, or shell-lac, imaleohol, for:their polish ;
and, indeed, the addition of any other material would only. in-
jure the great hardness of the lac-varnish. If the varnish, be
required of a lighter colour than usual, in ‘this case the clearest
grains of lac ought to be selected in preference. i ulrb. queaientie

The varnish is applied in the following manner : A» piéce of
sponge being wetted with the varnish, is to be laid upon: five
pieces of linen’ rag, the borders or edges of them being:
together at the back, to serve as a handle to this rubber.’
the varnish has penetrated all. through these: idifferent»/thick
nesses of linen-cloth,-a little linseed oil must be applied in: the
midst of the varnish. The whole extent of one surface. of the
article to be polished must then be gone over at once with; ‘this
rubber; the varnish being also applied, first «in straight. lines,
crossing each other, and then in spiral,or circularones,inthe
same manner as in the evening the surface of the wood 51:4 and
fresh oil must be applied to the centre of the rubber,

a tackiness or adherence of the. varnish is beginning | to take
place. If there are four or five different articles to be polished,

On the German Polish for Wood. 325

each should be. gone -over in succession, in the above manner,
nd afford time for the varnish to. acquire consistence be-
another coat of it. upon the former ones. In this
way the process must be continued, with the usual care and
precaution, until it is thought that nearly enough of varnish has
the surfaces. One, of the linen rags is now. to
be taken off, and the varnishing continued with the remaining
four, with a-renewed surface, and the application. of the oil up-
on the outer one ; this again is then to be removed in its turn,
and .the: process carried on towards completion with four thick-
nesses only ; then with three; atone mean otiniepe
thickness of linen only. Sel mais Sins
» Should the varnish obealh vader ws edieayjpallite daheass
‘than'that afforded by the lac, it) may be reddened by filing a
dust; changed yellow by treating turmeric root in. the same
manner, and so with other tinging woods, the colour of which
is capable of being brought out he Sra nae
them.
‘iy Shouldy however, it be required that’ a-atll enslishaielteged
lish be given to the wood; then the above: process must be re-
peated at the end of two days after the first polish has been
given to it; next, in the course of a week ; again at the end of
a month ; and, lastly, at the end of three months ; thus: always
allowing due time for the previous coats to become,
hard. before applying the succeeding ones. — ‘Ten:thin: unitinen;
instead of having to lament the quick disappearance. of. this
beautiful polish, as in the ordinary French method of. —
eran Snetan epeilenesinding Sen peaie | ar epee
‘The German. cabinet-makers do not smendlycontent: ane
selves with, polishing the exterior of their works, but extend
this beautiful improvement to the drawers, partitions, and:every
other part of their interior fittings also, with great addition-to
their value; and, indeed, they also take much more care/inithe
finishing of their woods generally than we are in the habit. of
doing.—Gill’s Technological and Microscopic a
capetedhinns

(926)

‘Tiguiries respecting certain Changes observed to Me Rg
© pce in Di tic Anim ig es ‘ed from the

"New Continent. ‘By M. Rourix, M. D*. sas son cal

Dritnsswechheuncbvie years in Columbia, aeheverieakdoned
@ certain number of observations with respect to some’ poitits in
natural history, but more particularly with respect to quadru-
peds, (manimifera), and. birds, which I propose to submit suc-
cessively to the judgment of the Academy,
_ Of the large quadrupeds which at present occur in that coun-
try, the most numerous are those which have’been transported
from the Old Continent. As they are at the same time the most
useful, their existence in these countries has been much attended
to in an economical point of view ; but, in a scientific point of
view, they seem to have been utterly neglected. Perhaps'it ‘is
supposed that they have been sufficiently ‘studied ‘in Europe, to
prion eens se attention to chen in —_ — unneces-
sary. KER tt ho Ye ofa
But the intseiduction into the New World of ery which
have, in some measure, been substituted for the indigenous sf
cies, forms an epoch the history of which “certain y"GeewedNG ;
be studied. Has their establishment been accompanied with no
remarkable circumstance or phenomenon? Once naturalized in
the country, have they remained what they were'in ‘Europe ;
and, if they have undergone some durable change, may not this
transformation throw some light on ‘that which ‘they
experienced, in’ passing from the wild to the:
These are points which deserve to be cleared up, but!which can
only be so, in a complete manner, by bringing together observa-
tions made in different parts of this vast continent: ’ I now pre-
sent those which I have myself made in New Grenada, and in a
part of ‘Venezuela, from the third to the tenth degree of ‘north
latitude, and a“ the seventieth to the — degree of west
longitude. — hee ey
Although this ‘space is fast limited, it presents a favourable
field for’ observation, being traversed, in its whole extent, by the
great Cordillera of the Andes, which is, in this part, divided

* Ina former Number of the Journal, we gave a short notice of this me-
moir. We now lay before our readers the whole of Roulin’s interesting in.
quiries.

Aaa tal

M. Roulin on Domestic Animals. 827

into three principal chains; so that, in the space of a few
leagues, the same animals may be examined, some living in a
mean temperature of 56° F. GY qth, end efenb ieigpeiet
77° B. (25°) or 86° (30°).

“ tBhia quadtupeds which bave:been transported from the Old
10 the New Continent are, the hogy the horse, thease, the sheep,
the goatythe.cow, the dog, andthe cat,

| The. first hogs.were carried to America: siagtieiiiinayend
established in-the Islandiof. St-Domingothe year following its
discovery, in November 1493. In the succeeding years they
were carried successively to all the places where the Spaniards
had a mind to settle; and, in the space of half a century, they

were found established in the New World, from the latitude of
25+ north,,to the 40th degree of south latitude. They nowhere
seemed to suffer from the change of climate; and, from the
commencement, propagated with the same facility as in Europe.

Most of the hogs that are consumed in New Grenada come
from the warm valleys, where they are reared in great quanti-
ties, as their food costs little there, and in certain seasons is al-
seereniteetn Fomnpoenr toh ill ation andiepecialijiet clnewel
different,species of palms:
dp MMleithexinig-llslay ithe, iva >thia nina Dbat-mtandy
allthe marks of servitude: its ears have become erect, its head
broadened, and raised at the upper part, and its colour has been
rendered permanent. In the adults, the colour is entirely black,
but the young have yellowish lines on a dark ground. Such are
the hogs that are brought to Bogota from the valleys of To-
cayma, Cunday, Melgar, &c. Their hair is thin, and they pre-
a ihn i i tid A Rf RN RE
toeighteen months).

_ The wild boar’ sshipinnieraddcinueldenieumbee inbiasip
recently.:1, have had.-oceasion. of observing \it:in-Francey ona
farm near Fougéres, where seven or eight of these animals were
reared. One of them, about two years old, was fed in the sta
ble from the commencement of spring, in order to be fattened
for killing. Although it was not a prisoner in this'place, the
food which it ‘constantly found there kept it from going out for
two months. Its hair, from the effect of the heat, had almost
entirely fallen off, and it presented the most perfect resemblance
to the Melgar hogs, which I have just described, only that two

828 M. Roulin on Domestic Animals. -

longitudinal grooves on .the sides of the muzzle were mére
strongly marked, and gave it a more ferocious'aspect: On the
other hand, the hog of:the Poramos, that is to say; of the
mountains which have an elevation of more than 2500 yards,
assumes much.ofsthe aspect of the wild boar of our: forests,
from the; thickness of its hair, which becomes: curled,’ and ‘in
some. individuals even presents a kind of wool on the: under
parts.’ The: hog. which. is found .in- these places, however, is
small and. dwarfish, in consequence of the deficiency er INN

the continued action of an excessive cold)
In some warm parts, the hog is not black, like: thatowhieh
have described. above, but red like the: Pecari, Pecari, in its early age.

‘At Melgar itself, and in’ ‘the. other. places. which I have men-
tioned,, the hog is not always entirely black, some :being found
which are called Cinchados, from their having, under the-belly,
a broad white band, which commonly extends on either side to
the, back, so.as, to meet there, sometimes becoming narrower,
and sometimes retaining the same breadth. iio: dread nisms
_. The. young individuals in this variety have the-same mark-
ings asin. those which are entirely black. 82 ai YSshue) Wom
The only hogs that are seen. in Columbia; resembling those\of
France, have been imported only twenty years.ago. They do
not, however, come from Europe, but from:the United States of
America... It is right to observe, that, in the neighbourhood of
New York, where this race has.existed for a long time, it hada
climate very like our. own, and was, sincere mubineann
the constant.care of its.:masters, cupye sDIegod oe
_.) The establishment of black A I like that
of hogs, from Columbus's second voyage to. St Domingo. “They
there multiplied rapidly ; and that island .presently: becameva
kind of. nursery from which.these animals: were: successively
transported to. various parts of the continental coast, and from
thence carried into the interior. Notwithstanding thesenumer-
ous -exportations, in twenty-seven years. after the discoveryrof
the island, herds of 4000 head, as we learn from Oviedo;:were
not uncommon, and there were-even some that amounted»to
8000., In. 1587, the number. of hides exported from St Do-
mingo alone, according to. Acosta’s report, was 35,444; and, in
the same year, there were exported 64,350, from the ports of

New Spain. This was in the sixty-fifth year after the taking of
‘Mexico, previous to which event, the Spaniards who came into
ee Se
yee eee wank roa: sce tie enone velts
So) long as the cattle cemniniongl euabes: and
siaieed lie diedlings they thrived equally well in all places ;
‘but, when they had multiplied, it:was perceived that, in certain
places, they could not dispense with) the: assistance of man.
This arose from the circumstance, that a certain’ quantity of
salt in their food was absolutely necessary for them; and, if
‘they did not find it in the plants, the waters, or in certain soils
of;a,saltish taste, common in many parts of America, they re-
quired. to be supplied with it direetly, failing which they be-
eeepc a orresrene wwe Res
risked ; ved piowendee
Pabiasibiplnscsiwhese chosbetees idee teeta
it is found advantageous for large herds to distribute salt to the
animals at fixed intervals. It isa means of drawing them to-
wards the place where they have customarily been visited ; and
hele avidity. for salt is evehisthat after ithabten given them two
‘or. three times in the same place, they are seen running to it
beating the bushes at the same time. | ult endo gertevnuds. vor
_ If it be neglected: to bring the herd together from time to
time, and the country supply the quantity of salt necessary for
their existence, they become entirely wild inva few years.) Sich
an occurrence has happened, to my own knowledge, in two
places; the one in the province of San. Martin, on/a tract be-
longing to the Jesuits, when these people were expelled; the
after the abandonment of certain gold mines. In: the latter
place, the animals have not remained in the places where they
had. been stationed, but: have ascended into’ the: Cordillera in
search of the region of graminez, and live in a nearly constant
out to hunt them; they catch them by means of nooses, driving
the small maehe into the: nes where aad snares —
them. . fio 4.9qr01

330 M. Roulin on Domestic Animals.

When they have managed to render themselves «masters: of
one of these animals, it is often impossible for them to:take it
alive from the mountain, not on account of its resistance, which,
after a certain time, diminishes, but because the animal -fre-
quently, after seeing the uselessness of its efforts, is seized with
a general trembling over its whole body, presently falls, without
its being possible to make it rise again, and dies in a few hours.
The want of salt, the distance from inhabited places, and the
roughness of the roads, prevent them from deriving any other
benefit from their enterprize than that obtained from ‘the flesh,

«which is eaten on the spot. For these reasons, the hunting of

these animals is of rather rare occurrence. The hunters also
are always in dread of being surprised by snow, which some-
times falls in these places, and which, when it lasts several days,
causes these unfortunate creatures to perish, they being habi-
tuated to constantly warm climates. reat ae

When they have succeeded in taking one of’ these ‘animals
from the mountain, it is not very difficult to tame it, by*keep-
ing it near the farm, giving it salt frequently,‘and accustomitig
it to see men. I have never had an opportunity of ‘seeing any
of them alive, but I have eaten of the flesh of a’cow that 'was
killed the day before my arrival. It did not seem'to differ ii
any thing from the flesh of the domestic cow. ‘The skin’was
remarkably thick, ies of the sane size ; BrP a '
and ill laid. F wie)

Jn. herpeovinteniol: Bhs Die ER wai thewitd: bial”
feeding i in the Zanos among the domestic cattle. These animals
pass the morning in the woods, which cover the foot of the Cor
dillera, and come out only about two in the afternoon ‘to’ féed
in the savanna. The rN Pill man, ‘they gallop
off tothe woods) ; eiititl, ola) afer

Before the revolutionary war, when the domestic cattle were
more numerous, the wild cattle were not pursued, ‘being mueh
more difficult to be got up with. When one of them is’snared;’
it is immediately killed, for it would be difficult, in the’ midst
wre A rosin its habits of imde
pendence. — score rht) Neuepel le sagas

The skin of the wild cattle didbtqpeeipppent esha to differ in
any respect from that of the domestic cattle, which are found

M. Roulin on Domestic Animals. 331

in the same places. Both are always much lighter than those
of the cattle reared upon the plain of Bogota, and the latter
are inferior in this respect as well as in the thickness of the pile,
to the wild. cattle of the Paramo de Santa Isabel. ro a
. L have: seen.in the warmest parts of the province of Mare
guita.and Neyba, horned cattle, whose hair is extremely thin
and fine. They are called pelones. This variety is repro-

duced by generation, but the people are not desirous of pro-—

pagating it; for, as part of the cattle reared in these places is
destined for the consumption of the towns of the Cordillera,

where they are to remain to be fattened before being killed, the
paenesemiach io tot bonr.cold mel, esmonchiadapestasicnyiie
tation,

Ti siden tlhece ‘thendanninelas, GredutiiGpcpetdetectietiadt
viduals named calungos, whose skin is entirely naked, like that
of the Turkish dogs. These animals being weaker and more
eee ea) eee ee ee

None of these-naked aniavals are eves cen in:the eal pai:
In, Europe; where the milk is an important article in the
pamener hack cattle, the LT ARNE ge oT
constantly rept on all the: individuals during a a long series

has ended in producing durable alterations in:

goon The teats have acquired a greater size than usual,
and the milk continues to flow into them even after the calf has

been removed. In Columbia, a new rural-system,‘the’aban -
dance of cattle in proportion to the number of inhabitants, ‘their _

dispersion.in pasturages of too great an extent, and a multitude —

of cireumstances, which it is not my object to mention, ‘have
these habits. It has required but a small number

of generations to reduce the organization thus freed of restraint’

to its normal state. At the present day, therefore, if a cow is’
intended to give milk, the first care is to let it have its calf?

pleases. They are only separated in the evening, that the milk’
ie errna nenne mer- beeen If the calf
dies, the milk immediately ceases. biog: Genel

Thicpiny in tho provincesiin which hiave *hidep ditty

&

332 M. Roulin.on Domestic Animals.

of observing it, appears'to have undergone scarcely any altera-
tion in its form or habits. It is common at Bogota, where it is
employed for transporting building materials.) It is ill cared
for, being left exposed to the inclemency of the weather, <a
out sufficient nourishment being given it. It is on this ac

of small size, and is covered with a very long and ill:
pile. : Deformities are frequent, not only in the adults; which
are too soon put to labour, but even in the young at the mo-
ment of birth. Perhaps this circumstance depends upon the
bad treatment which the mothers receive during gestation.

In the low and warm parts, where jackasses are required for
obtaining mules, this animal is less neglected. In these places,
at least, it has a sufficiency of food, and it is accordingly larger
and stronger, and its hair becomes shorter and smoother. | | -

When a jackass and stallion happen to be among mares in a
pasture of limited extent, there is a perpetual war between them:
Notwithstanding his inferiority in strength, it is the ass that
oftenest comes to the charge. He does not at all seek to de.
fend himself against the bites of the horse, otherwise than. by
withdrawing the head and neck, on which the latter commonly
makes his attack ; he does not reply to his kicks bi other kicks:
he has but one object, which is to seize his antagonist by the
organs of generation, and not unfrequently, after persevering
for several days, he succeeds in tnige him by a gi
castrates him by a single bite. :

_ In none of the provinces which I have. visited, isos OR
returned to the wild state. ' VOLISS . M65
The case is different with the horse. There are wild horses
in several parts of Columbia, and I have seen ‘small ‘birds in’ ‘the
plains of San Martin, between the sources of the Meta; the
Rio Negro, and the Umadea. Their number being inconsider-
able, and the space in which they are confined much yea
and more frequented by men than the plains of Paraguay,

have not assumed all the habits which have: been:so Malin a
scribed by M. d’Azara; nor have I seen them in great herds
formed of small families. I have seen these families' |
of an old stallion, five or six mares, and: some filleys, com-
pletely isolated from all the others., So far from» approaching
caravans to entice the domestic horses, they fake\toflight the

M. Roulin on Domestic Animals. 333

momen it. they ve aman, and never. stop till. qut of sight,

2k - # iy animals are beautiful, especially. those. of

the but their form, although not clumsy, :is
ee

ful: the Ilanos, the horses, are. almost. entirely

‘to the nie only brought together, from, time..to

ta becoming entirely, wild, as, well,as forthe

fais st he of the laryze of cestri, and, of marking

ar hot iron, In consequenee,of;,this.independent

a character belonging to the unreduced species,| the colour

, chesnut being not only the predominant, but

the only, tint observed among. them... I imagine some-

of the same kind may happen 3 in Spain,» among such of

e an $ as are left to wander,in. the. mountains (cavallos

rrer 0s), for for in Spanish proverbs the horse i is often Hesiernie?
ry Niet et > of el bayo, as the ass is by that of rucio... , eu

e small hatos that occur on the platforms of. the, Cordil-

oes of domestication are more perceptible ;. the co-

8 are there, more varied ; ; there is more differ-

ipa.

a2

ro me a a a, little larger ; their, pac 30, aoe ‘as,they
ids, is pretty long and tufted, but,a few. months’
pent cient to render it short and glossy, . The race, of
these horses is in part renewed by stallions: which are brought
from warmer climates, and especially _ from the ,valley of the
Che Tea appeared to me, that in certain places where. this
eee was neglected, the horses had. become perceptibly

smaller, although i in other respects the pastures were. celebrated
for loo Their hair had ¢ grown, extremely longs but
a

scarcely | lost any | of their useful ant d those of
district were even distinguished ed for. tl heir "speed, 7”

n a horse is ‘brought from the llanos of of San, Martin or
Casanare, to the platform. of Bogota, it must be, Bape i the the
. stable ‘until it becomes habituated to the climate; for if
at first in the fields, i it falls off, is covered with, seab, i ae
dies in a few months. — i

The pace which is preferred. in saddle horses, is the amble
and le pas relevé. They are trained to them at an early age,
and when ridden, are carefully prevented from using any other
JULY—OCTOBER 1829. Z

384 M. Roulin on Domestic Animals:

pace. At the end of a-certain time, the legs of these horses
commonly s'engorgent. Then, if they are of a fine form, they
are left in the hatos as stallions. ‘There results from this a race
in which the amble is the natural pace in the adults. These
horses are named aguilillas.

Dogs, as is well known, were the auxiliaries of the Spaniards
in their military expeditions in the New World, and that from
the commencement. Columbus was the first who employed
them. At his first battle with the Indians, his band, as we
learn from his own memoirs, consisted of two hundred infantry,
twenty horsemen, and twenty bloodhounds. Dogs were after-
wards employed in the conquest of various parts of the Conti-
nent, especially in Mexico and New Grenada, and i in all places
where the resistance of the Indians was prolonged. Their race
has been preserved, without apparent alteration, on the platform
of Santa Fé, where they are employed for hunting deer. In
this they display an extreme degree of ardour, and employ the
same mode of attack which formerly rendered them so formi-
dable to the natives. It consists in seizing the animal by the

belly, and overturning it by a sudden effort, taking advantage .

of the moment when its body rests only upon the fore legs.
The weight of the animal thus thrown over is often si six times
that of the dog. .
Without having received any education, the dog of. pure
breed brings to this kind of chase certain dispositions, of which
hunting dogs of a superior kind that are brought from Europe
are destitute. For example, it never attacks a deer from be-
fore while running ; and even when the latter, not perceiving
it, comes directly upon it, it steps aside and assails the deer on
the flank. Another dog does not use these precautions, and is
often killed on the spot, the vertebre of its neck being dislocated
by the violence of the shock.

Among the poor inhabitants of the banks of the Magdalena,
the dog has become deteriorated, partly by mixture, and partly
by the want of sufficient food. In this mongrel race, a new
instinct seems to have become hereditary. Tt has been for a
long time almost exclusively employed in hunting the white.
lipped pecari. The address of the dog consists in restraining
its ardour, and in attaching itself to no animal in particular,

Rien cecil eal ee

~wve

Pe Sr ae

M. Roulin on Domestic Animals. 385

but in keeping the whole herd in check. Now, among these
dogs; some are found, which, the very first time they are taken,
to the woods, are already acquainted with the mode of at-
tack. A dog of another breed starts at once, is surrounded,
and, whatever may be his strength, is devoured in a moment. '
_ The cat has undergone no perceptible change in America,
excepting that it has ceased to have any more particular season,
of love in the year than another. This fact, which may easily
be conceived in a climate where the temperature undergoes no
great change, is equally observed with respect to all the other
animals of which I have made mention; but the case is dif-
ferent as to those! of which I have yet to speak, the goat and
sheep; for, although kids and lambs make their appearance at
all seasons of the year, there are two periods at which the num-
ber of births is greatly increased, viz. about Christmas and

Bie shbep which was carried from Spain is not t of the Me-
rino breed, but of the kind called de lana burda y Castra. It
is very common on the Cordillera, from the height of 1000m.
to that of 2.500 m. It nowhere’ seems to seek to escape from the
protection of man, nor has any change taken place/in its man-
ners, the only difference exhibited by it being a slight diminu-
tion of size.

Within the limits which I have pointed out, the sheep pro-
pagates easily, and without requiring almost any care; but the
case is different in the warm countries. It appears that, in the
plains of Meta, it is very difficult to rear sheep, as, although
their skins are very much in request there for making a kind
of chabraque, and although one of them sells as high as an ox’s
hide, no sheep are to be seen from the river, to the foot of the
Cordillera. In the valley which separates the eastern from the
middle chain, there are some indeed to be seen in a few places,
but always in small numbers, the females being unprolific, and
the lambs difficult to bring up.

Their existence in these places is worthy of attention, inas-
much as it gives rise to an extremely curious phenomenon.
The wool on these lambs grows much in the same manner as
on those of temperate climates. If, after attaining a certain
thickness, it is cut, it immediately begins to sprout again, and

z2

336 M. Roulin on Domestic Animals.

things go on in the usual order; but if the proper time for de-

priving the animal of its fleece is allowed to pass, the wool
thickens and becomes matted, and ends with coming off in
patches, which leave under them, not a new wool, nor a bare
skin in a diseased state, but a short, shining and well-laid hairy
very similar to that which the goat assumes in the same cli-

mates. In the places where this hair has once a , no

wdol ever grows.

The goat, although its form is altogether that of a mountain
animal, accommodates itself much better to the low and ish saad
valleys than to the elevated parts of the Cordillera.

In the climates which agree with it, it multiplies well, thers’
being commonly two, sometimes three kids, at each birth; but *

never six, as some have chosen to assert. Its size is small, but
in form it has gained much : its body is more slender, its head
more elegant, better placed, and generally less loaded with
horns. The agility of this animal, and its propensity for climb-
ing and leaping, are also singularly developed. I have often
amused myself with seeing the goats in the public place of a
village leap more than four feet high upon the cymaise of the
pilasters of the church, the projection. at the point where they
placed their feet being only three inches. They remained in
this difficult position for hours together, without any other ap-
parent object than that of warming themselves in the om which,
however, shone as well below as above. cite

The most evident sign of domestication in our European goat,
the great size of the udder, has entirely disappeared in the Sie
rican goat.

T have not reckoned the camel among the iosdruapediedadael
to the New World, because the species has not been preserved
there. It has, however, been repeatedly transported from the
Canary Islands, but always at the period of great political dis-
turbances. Perhaps, in more tranquil times, it might have been
got to propagate. The like has happened in the cases of other
animals, which for a long time refused to propagate in certain
places, and are now as productive there as m other places, as I
shall shew in speaking of the domestic fowls. .

The domestic fowls that have been carried to the West In-

_—

Pe eS aS

M. Roulhn on Domestic Animals. 337

bp the common fowl, the goose, the duck, the peacock,

and the Guinea-fow!].

two last species have undergone no change. The pi-
geons present all the varieties which are observed in Beenie

Tas $RdsA ia abeolutely the same as in France. It is ra-
GMI e? Ciliiebia; but this! aries from’ the circumstance
that little importance is attached to its propagation, for the fe-
male lays about the same number of eggs as with us, and the
young are reared without much difficulty. The case was dif-
ferent at first; and Gomara informs us, that, although much
Lowey pains were bestowed then, much less success was ob-

pent goose, which was introduced twenty years ago, sini
the same difficulties on the plains of Bogota. It laid but a
small number of eggs at long intervals, and scarcely the fourth
part were hatched. Of the goslings more than the half died in
the first month. ‘Those which escaped formed a second genera-
tion, which had become more familiarized to the climate; and,
at the present day, the species, without being yet as prolific as
in Europe, is evidently approaching to the same point.

With respect to the common fowl, the same thing happened
at Cuzco and in its whole valley, as Sarcilasso informs us; and
more than thirty years passed before chickens were obtained,
although at Y-Ucai and Muyna, only four leagues from the
town, they were procured in abundance.

At the present day the race originally introduced is every-
where prolific ; but the English breed, which has been imported
within these few years, for the purpose of obtaining game-cocks,
has not yet arrived at this degree of fecundity ; and in the first
year the proprietor of a flock thought himself fortunate if he
obtained two or three chickens from the whole.

When the chickens of either race are observed in the warm
districts, curious differences are remarked in them. The Creole
chicken, whose parents have lived for ages in a temperature
which never descends below 20°, comes from the egg with
a small quantity of down, which it presently loses, and remains
completely bare, with the exception of the wing-feathers, which
grow in the ordinary way. The chicken of the English breed,

338 M. Flourens on the Action of the Spinal Marrow

on the contrary, makes its appearance with a thick covering of
down, which falls off only as the feathers take its place. It is
still clothed .as.if intended to live in the country whiewice ving
rents have been but lately brought. —

The facts which I have above related were bead ahi
the preconceived idea of attaching them to any theory; but on
examining them, one is naturally led, I think, to the Teowets
inferetices : i

“1st, That, when certain animals are transported to a new cli-
mate, it is not the individuals only, but we Faces,’ — Eo
to be naturalized:

2dly; That’ when this naturalization ee place, hei are
commonly produced in these races certain durable ceatte
which bring their organization to a state of accordance with the
climates in which they are destined to live.

Sdly, That the habits.of independence soon make tie domes-
tic species resume the neeange of the wild yor from ‘which
ny have sprung. , sh

On the Action of the Spinal Dreeeod in i (iam
By M. FLourens.

Eveny body knows the opinion of the celebrated Legalleis,
who was led by a series of experiments, then entirely new, to
place the seat of the principle of the motions of the heart in the
spinal marrow.

M. Flourens shewed, in 1823, lst, That the is dadti,
which, in adult animals, is instantly stopped by the destruction
of ‘the spinal marrow, on the other hand, survives its destruc-
tion a certain time in new-born animals; 2dly, That, even
in adult animals (and this had already been determined by
Dr Wilson Philipp) the circulation survives the destruction of
the spinal marrow, provided the respiration be kept up by in-
sufflation. Thus, in the young animal, in which respiration is
less necessary to the circulation, the spinal marrow is also less
necessary. It is therefore especially because it is subservient to
respiration, that the spinal marrow is subservient to circulation.

Whence it follows, that, if there were an animal in’ which the

a

: _ im Respiration. 339
gespiration might be completely disconnected, at least for a cer-

This animal is the fish. ‘**T have shewn,” said M. Flourens,
“ by previous experiments, that the spinal marrow may be en-
tirely destroyed in fishes, without destroying the respiration ;
seeing that it.is no longer from the spinal marrow, as in the
other classes, but from the medulla oblongata alone, that in
a a RR ama RE eS 8

. The spinal marrow may equally be destroyed in fishes with-
ae creole

_* I successively destroyed, in several carps and barbels, the
iets atin] marrow, without touching the medulla oblongata.
In all these fishes, the respiration and circulation continued for
a long time; the motions of the trunk and appendages alone
disappeared, but the head and the region of the opercula con-
tinued to move as usual ; and the circulation still went on, even
at the extremity of the trunk, more than half an hour after the
total destruction of the spinal marrow.”
. On the other hand, the author always found in the other
classes the circulation survive the destruction of all the parts of
the spinal marrow, which the respiration survived ; the destruc-
tion in birds, for example, of the lumbar portion, and that of
the lumbar and costal portions in quadrupeds.

_ Thus, therefore, 1. There may be destroyed, without detri-
ment to the circulation, all the parts of the spinal marrow,
which may be destroyed without detriment to respiration ; and
when the spinal marrow may be entirely destroyed without in-
juring the latter, as in fishes, it may be entirely destroyed with-
out injuring the former.

2. The spinal marrow has therefore but a relative and vari-
able action upon the circulation as upon the respiration.

3. It is therefore especially because it exerts an influence
upon the respiration, that the spinal marrow influences the cir-
culation ; and it is by the same parts that it acts upon each.

4. It is not in it, therefore, that the sole principle of the cir-
culation exists. :

¥

a
ery

340 M. Hilaire on the Vision of the Mole.

Where, then, does this principle reside? “The author in-
tends, in a future memoir, to point out the parts in’ which his
experiments have led him to place it, and to’ et ac-
cording to which it is eeeaguczaigody in them. At SL vd

; : : ii oe 6 7; a
ny :

; tina vae | ty
On the. Vision of the Mole. By M. Grorrroy Saint

m HILarreE. vy ital yaa)

bode
Dors the mole see? Aristotle and all the Greek philosophers
believed it to be. blind. Galen, on the contrary, maintained
that it sees, affirming that it is possessed of all the means of vi-
sion. The question has again been taken up in our days:
naturalists have disgovered the eye of the animal. . It is very
small, being at the most not larger than a grain of millet-seed.;
its colour is deep black ; it is hard to the touch, and is with
difficulty depressed. by squeezing it between the fingers. Be-
sides the eyelid which covers it, it is defended by long hairs,
which, crossing each other, form a thick and close fillet. Such
an eye ought to be destined for seeing, but, anatomists have

-found no optic nerve in it. What could be the purpose of an

eye destitute of the nerve which, in the other animals, transmits
the visual sensations to the brain? |'This consideration natural-
ly leads back to the opinion of Aristotle and the Greeks, and
would induce us to think that the mole, although it has an eye,
does not see with it, and that, consequently, this eye is nothing
but a rudimentary point without use.

Direct experiments, however, made at the request of M.
Geoffroy St Hilaire, demonstrate, in the most incontestible man-
ner, that the mole makes use of its eyes, since it turns aside’ to
avoid the obstacles that are placed in its way. But, if the mole
sees, how happens it to have no optic nerve? M. Serr
thought that the optic nerve was supplied by an upper twig a
the fifth pair, that which may be ebbaidderes as prety wh.

- _ophthalmic branch of Willis.» K

According to M. ‘Geoffroy St Hilaire, the ivtnakanuelat
function to a nerve which is not naturally destined to perform
it, does not exist. ‘The mole sees by means of a particular nerve ;
but this nerve not being able, on account of the too great ex-

ea

—e

Me Hilaire on the Vision of the Mole. 341

tension of the olfactory apparatus, to follow the course along
which it directs itself, in the other animals, to the tubercula
quadrigemina, follows another direction, and anastomoses 0%
the nerve of the seventh pair.

The observation of certain monstrosities furnishes manatee
of anomalies of precisely the same nature.

It ista fact well known in science, elnde ehely orphan td wont 4s
necessarily provided with two kinds of nervous systems, a spe-
cial and principal nerve, which imparts life to the apparatus,
and ‘maintains it, and an accessory nerve. These nerves are,
fur the sense of smell, the olfactory and nasal nerves; for that
of sight, the optie and ophthalmic ; and for that of hearing, the
acoustic nerve and the branch of the cochlea.

’ The mole also possesses its two ocular nerves, the principal
and accessory, that is to say, the optic and ophthalmic. For the
two nervous actions attributed to these two nerves, being con-
trary in direction, and yet simultaneous, could not be accom-
plished by a single branch. Now, in the mole, independently
of ‘the nerve which occupies the bottom of the eye, and which
this position ought to induce us to consider as the optic nerve,
there is another which occupies at its commencement a point of
the circumference of the eyeball. This latter seems to come
from a mucous or glandular tissue; or, perhaps, it even issues
from @ true lacrymal gland. The two nerves of the eye of the
mole are inclosed in a common sheath, in the same neuri-

¢ Me

Colours which different Substances communicate to the Flame of
oy 6» the Blowpipe.. By M. Buzenceicer.

‘Doase alamp constructed after the model indicated by Berze-

lius in his Treatise on the Blowpipe. It is of great importance
that one see in a distinct manner the conical blue flame, and the
transparent blue vapour which envelopes and terminates it. - I
produce this effect by cutting the wick obliquely, the highest
part being to the right, and opening it longitudinally, in or-
der to introduce the point of the blowpipe, I made use of

342 M. Buzengeiger on the Colours which different

common lamp-oil. Oil that has been purified by sulphuric
acid ought to be reyected for experiments with the blowpipe, as
it always retains a little of the acid, and then deteriorates the
wick, and changes the colour of the external vapour. » This oil
is immediately known, because one is obliged to cut. the wick
frequently, on account of its becoming transformed into a dirty
matter, presenting the reaction of sulphur. The wick ought to
be formed of raw cotton thread, because the bleaching i is often
performed with chloride of lime, which communicates a reddish-

yellow tint to the external vapour, which must be avoided, as
the blue colour is necessary to the success of the experiments.

As to the manner of blowing, it is necessary to acquire the
power of keeping up the blue conical flame well developed and of
constant length, without the yellow flame becoming mixed with
it. ‘The external blue vapour is then perceived, at least when
the daylight is not too strong. The experiments shanth there-
fore be made in the evening in a dark room.

To make the experiments, the assay piece is pow wid a
platina forceps; and, when the flame is in a suitable state, it is
introduced from beneath upwards, within the external vapour,
before the blue point. The form of the assay piece depends
upon particular circumstances. It may be in. bits of various
sizes, wedge-shaped, acicular, or in small lamine.

It is often necessary to pulverize it. It is then made up: in-
to paste in the hollow of the hand, spread out upon a bit of
charcoal, properly shaped ; and, lastly, heated until it acquires
sufficient consistence to be held with the platina forceps,

The followmg phenomenon is what usually takes place.
When the assay piece is immersed in the blue vapour before
the blue cone, the former is immediately replaced by a red-
dish-yellow atmosphere, the extent and intensity of which de-
pend upon the nature of the body submitted to trial. By de-
grees the atmosphere diminishes and disappears. Another phe-
nomenon is then produced : the blue vapour bathes the body
without being altered, and remaining hardly visible, or it as-
sumes a colour which varies with the nature of the body which
is volatilized-at this stage of the experiment.

Only three substances are yet known which present the red co-

l ey

i

Substances communicate to the Flame of the Blowpipe. 343
Jour, these are Strontian, rate lithion. airietinintis
of deep carmine. mae

‘Carbonate and sulphate of Strotrian dissalewntinadediase-
ment’‘@ feeble atmosphere, which is presently replaced by a
beatitiful red; which is permanent. ‘The mixture of met
makes the reaction of the Strontian disappear.

‘Iceland’ spar and arragonite give’ a colour somewhat lest
tense ‘than ‘that produced by Strontian, as soon as the carbonic.
acid is €xpelled. ‘The impure limestones and dolomites do not
colour'the flame red, or colour it but very feebly. Fluorspar
gives ani iritense red colour; sulphate of lime produces but a
weak one; and phosphate and borate of lime do not give rise
to it.

_ When there is barely introduced into the blue flame an aci-
cular fragment of a substance which contains lithion, immediate-
ly after fusion, their appears a purplish red streak of great in-
tensity ; but the colour quickly disappears, and does not recur
unless there be introduced into the flame a particle of the assay
piece which has not yet been heated. The petalite of Uto,

i contains much lithion, yields, however, but a very feeble
ret 3?

‘The outer flame of the blowpipe is rendered pale blue by
arsenic ; a little deeper by antimony ; and beautiful sky-blue by
lead: With antimonial galena, the blue is at first pale, and af-
terwards becomes sky-blue.

T am acquainted with only three substances which give a
green colour to the flame : they are boric acid, barytes, and
oxide of copper.

Boric acid, natural or artificial, yields a fine green. Borate
of lime, datolite, and botryolite, give a less distinct green co-
lour. Borax produces a strong reddish atmosphere, and only
shews the green colour when it has Fersnaey Gare sprinkled
with sulphuric acid.

To discover the preserice of boric acid, I have tried the flux
described by Dr Turner, which is composed of fluate of lime
and bisulphate of potash ; but these trials did not sueceed, pro-
bably from want of habit. Be this as it may, all the minerals
mentioned by Dr Turner, as colouring the flame green on being
mixed with his flux, have yielded me, the same re-action on be-

344 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants.

ing introduced with some caution into the blue flame, without
being previously mixed with any re-agent. Sa Aa
All the minerals which contain barytes colour the flame pale
green, tinged with white; the re-action is very distinct; the,co-
lour only shews itself when the matter begins to melt, but it
gradually becomes more beautiful, and lasts a long time. —
Most minerals which contain copper, even in very »small

quantity, yield a beautiful green colour at the point of the blue.

cone. The lead ores, which contain a little copper, produce a
flame of a beautiful blue colour, with the extremlty green...
: Annales des Mines, t. v. p. 36.

valid

Description of several New or Rare Plants which have lately
flowered in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in
the Royal Botanic Garden. Par ane

10th Sept. 1829.
Alstroemeria pallida. Yiu poe

A. pallida ; caule erecto-flaccido ; foliis lanceolato-linearibus, denticula.
tis, subamplexicaulibus ; petalis exterioribus obovatis, ibus la.
tioribus, interioribus longioribus, lanceolatis ; pedunculis S.

Description.—Stem simple, slender, flaccid, round, as well as the-leaves

a 8 several rising from the same root. Leaves sca ‘ses-

sile, half stem clasping, sparingly denticulate, lanceolato-linear, flat above,
keeled seg on pw several aero ny which one on each side
is stro’ the others. Flower, in the only specimen which he
eee solitary, terminal; the leaves are, however, crowded nate
the base of the peduncle, and there seems little reason to doubt, that,

. from the axils of these, in a more vigorous state of the plant,
flowers will spring. Perianth of six unequal segments, aerate tac.
culent, and bate: elled and nectariferous at the base; four outer seg-
ments of uniform, very pale rose colour, much reticulated, of
equal length, obovate, the lowest the narrowest and most and
much the least attenuated at the base, the two lateral the den-
ticulated, all slightly acuminated in the middle; the two _seg-
ments longer than the others, lanceolate, having’ to-
wards their bases, of the same colour as the outer segments at th sap
ces, lower down with reddish veins, above the middle on a yellow, Ww
it on a pink ground, at the lower part of which there are a few oblong
orange spots. Stamens six ; filaments as long as the outer ts of
the perianth, and of a similar colour, flattened, at the base tri:
and glanduloso-pubescent, twisted when decaying ; anthers ; Be,
cordate, flattened, mucronulate; pollen pale brown, pret ta as
we Stigmata 3, revolute, pink ; style 3-cornered, tapering up-
wards from its greenish persi base, colourless below, becoming pink

towards the stigmata ; germen as foe 4

This remarkably beautiful species, the colours of which harmonize more
than in any other in cultivation, flowered in the-collection of Mr Neill
at Canonmills in July last. We have the same species at the Botanic
Garden, raised from seeds sent by Dr Gillies from South America, but
it has not yet flowered.

+

Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 345
Mr Neill has a plant which in habit very much resembles this, but has

leaves, which are rather less stem and
havea number of nerves. It is probable that when it
| to be a variety of this. f ry als
A jt frac . ' * ;
(ee pee EET Peg is basi
tis, i ; spathulato-linearibus, superiori acutis ; ellis

edges,
the lower leaves most ‘and ie
only, spathulate linear

top subulate, entire, and
Raceme

” « Drabia nivalis, Lifjebl. Vet. Acad. Hanbl. 1793, p. 208.; Ibid. Nov.
dete oe TE Fa Fid. Wahlenb.
hes hirta, . FL Dan. t. 142.
muricella, Wahlenb. FI. n. 318. £. 11. f. 2.; Ibid. FL Suec.
400.—De Cand. Syst. ii. 340. ; Prodr. i. 168.—Br. Ross’s Voyage,
ae exliii Franklin's Narrative, App. p. 16.
Draba Liljebaldii, Wailm. Sprengel Syst. 2. 874.

ovate, naked.
Plant raised at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden from seeds presented by

346 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare’ Plants.

Mr Drummond in February 1828, after his return fromthe ee.
dition under the command of Captain Franklin. A =
by Dr Richardson to Professor Jameson shews nary iti
he ered in the first expedition, in the barren Point
e and the Arctic Sea, under the name of D. muricella. Flowers in
April. f sephert ts i ‘tis i
sy ; © wtanedlararset ts
Eryngium comosum. sivecd ads
E. comosum; foliis pumiblie yee aoe no sor ay reflexis laciniis sub-
involucris

trifidis spinosis, proximis min trichutomo 3,
trifidis patentibus ; capitulis: oplindicie aanodoemiany folio inciso co-
rinatis. s” Tits
‘Eryngium comosum, De la Roche. :.. inde
Descriprion.—Stem (14 foot high)’ erect, sbbbetinelyy 's een age
sph a nse at
a pair of opposite leaves. Radical leaves with
ole 6 inches long), spreading, pale , and on the back
with white shining ribs, which are parall and rarely twice
pinnatifid, welsh at the apex ; rachis and petiole br n
segments awl-sha rigid, nat erect, smaller is the plant,
petiole red on the inside towards the base. Stem ys 22 eT

PV ta ge me Nato t arent Ph
above the middle, Sete erste lines ang and ay

green, and crowned by a green i

erect. Chaffs ies concave payee» poy winged at

the base, subexserted. guts erect, ovate, blue, termina-
etals lanceolate, cleft at the apex,

ted with a es white prickle
ong the middle, strongly keeled on the in

This species was raised from seed sent from. eee p

Esq., and flowered in the open air in the, e
month in his singularly interesting collection at Can » and also
in the Royal Rear erry tags seething plant bovine Neer received from
Mr, Neill. ois a ae eek
Mitella pentandra. Se ant ee
M. pentandra ; scapo erecto as floribus pentandris, tae) sae
tis ; foliis cordatis, lobatis crenato-serratis, setaceo-put ntibus. |
Mitella pentandra, Bot. Mag. 2933. ati

Description.— Root perennial, fibrous. erect, elongated;
hispid, more so towards: the top. Leaves walt radical Sagal span!
lobed, serrato-crenate, s y hispid, de ‘behind 3 pes longer than
the a breria more pr come se ~ “ ~ :
scarcely ex a quarter engt scape. a loose

. ptt ery short, at first spreading, after erandaietoeas Calyx 5-
ent,

tals, and alternate with the fo era of the eal om rt,
adnate with the inner surface of the calyx, Gaanions trom base
of the petals ; anthers short, blunt, cordate, bilobular, yellow, the lobes

Dr Graham's Description of New or Rare Plants. 347

: ‘on their outer edges. Stigmata two, sessile, , bilo-
nel wT . Germen obconical, almost 0 to
ost unilocular, bivalvular above, opening and wide as
inM so asito shew the ovules long before they have at-

tained size. Seeds brown, shining, crowded upon two pa-
— this genus is described as bivalvular, but certain-
ips iin nd tlre tc pc the
is u er an

Dee iitaen, in the Gontte Ptantoren, calls ead,

easily distinguished from our plant by its ten stamens, rather
procumbent stem, and rounder less acutely-jagged
plant smaller. ;

ing to received the number of the Bot.
the plant is admirably figured; and I readi-
of my friend Dr Hooker, though equally ap-
to which indeed I was about to y it when this
prevented me at the time giving it to

d

iia
ae
Licaee

either. M. pentandra flowered with us during June. I entirely
with Dr Hooker that this Pitas te caemadeaaie 9
nus Mitella. Its habit structure so exactly to. that genus,
that the number of the the chief in which they differ,

form an arti character, quite sufficient, however, to form

g the capitulum, are many ciliated, bractew.
> Seaman peach ner A ~ Calys tubular, slightly curved,
nerved, smooth, except at the base of the teeth there is a whorl
_of hairs; teeth short, acute, equal. C lilae ; tube cla-

vate, curved, very slender colourless smooth at its origin, every
where else on the outside covered with short dense tomentum, smooth

_'verse, flat, their upper edge deep purple, closely app ed to cach other,

“The species of Monarda are certainly in t confusion, and it is afte
some hesitation that I Save ventured th leactibe tite 4 da fut 1 do

y
same. It is nearly allied to M. oblongata, but ae
a) fea ad Aire Watiry ‘sees, its Barer hoa tele e leaves, and

petioles. It was raised in the Botanic Garden, and in the gar-

!
3
:
g
i
F

348 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants.

den of Mr Neill at Canonmills, from seeds collected by Mr Drummond
between Norway House and Canada, and flowered

When a —— ~ ce reed ~ stem is.

hairy, very rarely it is continu rough the captulin E
the native specimens vary in the degree of hairiness and the as.
ber and depth of the serratures of the leaves, which al also differ in their
breadth at the base, and are more or less elongated. The appearance of
the less vigorous cultivated plants exactly resembles the few “ns are
in Mr Drummond's herbarium,

Pentstemon glaucum.

P. glaueum ; caule herbaceo, subglabro; foliis glabris, glaucis, radicali-
bus lanceolatis in petiolam sieetisniite in “ plc, lineare
+ em claeseutin ree serrulatis : pedunculis elongatis, decussa-
tis, m oris, icellisque compositis calyce ue
dilamento sterrilo barbato. aE? 9 corolag —.”
DescripTion.—Siem erect, glabrous below, slightly pubescent towards
the top. Leaves all glabrous, glaucous; root-leaves lanceolate, atte-
nuated at the base into petioles shorter than themselves, ve entire ;
stem-leaves ovato-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acuminate, at the
base, and stem clasping, distantly serrulate, smaller u haem
into ovato-acuminate entire bractes at the base of the peduncles. _ ae
rescence, as is common in the genus, axillary peduncles collected in form
of a panicle at the extremity of the stem, peduncles elongated, as well
as the compound filiform pedicels calyx and corolla glandul .
lent. Bractee ovate, acuminate, gradually becoming smaller the
leaves, bag two placed opposite to each efi at each subdivision of the
uncle. Calyx 5-pa segments ovate, acute, , the
en the broadest and shortest. Corolla rather pale above, and at
the apices of its lobes, yellow with purple veins below; u lip of two,
lower lip of three segments ; upper surface of lower lip wi wih eau,
ish hairs. Stamens included ; * filaments ascending ; anthers Agate
spreading, purple on the outside, whitish within ; barren filament
at its base, and adhering to the upper side of the corolla, above which
it dips to the lower side of the corolla, along which it is laid, densel
covered with yellow hairs on its upper side for more than half a eth
sews — shorter than the barren filament ; phic le
small, entire.
The mete of t ‘species, which flowered at the Botanic Garden

part of the summer, were received from Mr Dine’
pony — vpn from the second journey to British North America.

Pentstemon procerum.
P. procerum ; caule herbaceo, ramoso, » pia labro ; foliis ovato-oblongis, in-

tegerrimis, pedunculis glabris, multifloris, ranean
floribus congestis : calyce glabro, segmentis subulatis membrano
rato alatis.
Pentstemon procerum, Douglas, MSS.
Dene er ere perennial. Stem (a foot su
at the base often red bran angular.

wnat erent the ase often re rach t green, quite en-
tire, decurrent upon Holes half their me see opposite, decus-

sating, folded forw. at the middle rib, which is strongly keeled
behind, glabrous, shining, veined, veins oblique. U; leaves (24
inches long 9 inches broad) similar to the lower, but , less -at-

tenuated at the base, sessile, stem stan) sdecanl ak cham. lower 2
inches long, the upper almost awanting)

beco ually shorter upwards, and Mag ata leaves
benches fie while inflorescence acquires the appearance Lea
nal spike, slightly verticelled. Flowers purple, striated,

i
m goStest seyeniicde 22 «24e
: i Taha ll teh
a ihe Ae

Heater tte
jailed! uty
La
[iain | ill |
+ ent eT

2 Hateortbus
iol talie ealyepes ‘ou
°
Eas
Seyi
Panicle <
‘ tr, with ae
> * Tes sides _ at
ive oe
faintly wark ‘
7
iz
son in 1
its flowers in a capitulum,

ee ag ASTM etYT a], ©
a Walia
alana
teh ani
lea
dunciir iia
+> EI _ fe? +f
Hf fn ably

te lobatis, dentatis, ciliato-mu

uct

cordat
| vente ih pana

4 : >
atis; cau-
‘ment
P ney
5 Linch

i

Aa

fi 2 rect, filiforni,’

perennial, fibrous: © Stem’ erect,
yatthe tup. Radical leaves (1} inch

~~ Jury—ocrosEr 1829.

foliis
yllo ;

350 Dr Graham’s Description of New or Rare Plants.

broad) bright green, rete with red when fading, cordate, acu

bpubescent: con 3 5-lobed, sharply inise-serra
a arstt id tenictateee ‘nerves and: reinvent

ent on the back, serratures mucronate. wes ru, a

as the leaves; = oe reddish, auricled ‘at the base ;™
ciliated, part. wemmpenatiyrrirr ori ‘sessile,
“similar to

alternate, Janceo! subdentate, ‘auricled, |

those on the root root my and rere 9 exist vee the eauline:leaf is
awanting’; up, the auricles near the cau-
line ra ah pant into small, red, inabeanene: "cilia bracteze, placed

at each subdivision of the panicle, and'at the base of the

: Pe.

dicels spreading, pubescent. Flowers » Calyx were ne

having 5 connivent, pointed teeth, y

late, unguiculate, revolute, white, inserted into the’ in of oadlys,
alternate with the teeth. srcadaths umeanieaae the base of
co

the calyx, opposite to its segments; filaments

3 an-

thers cordate, ora’ Germen bivalvular; unilocular, Styles 2,

colourless, longer t n the germen, straight, tapering. —

ovules very numerous. Seed
This tt eA tle plant flowered in the open border at the Botanic Garden
une and July, having been raised from seeds collected by Mr Drum-
mand in the Roc y Mountains, probably on the west side; for Dr Hooker

informs me he has it from thence by Menzies, Scouler,

differing from our cultivated plant only in much ‘larger. °

Mr

las considered it 7. Menziesii, Pursh, which I had at first marked
it; but the expression “ racemo filiformi subspicato,”' in the definition

of this writer, afterwards induced me to consider it distinct.

Turritis patula. By opt

T. patula ; caule erecto, glabro; foliis radicalibus utringue pilis ramosis
aspersis, petiolatis ; petiolis pilis simplicibus ciliatis; siliquis secundis

patentibus, pedicellum octuplicatum sequantibus.

DeEscriptTion.—Stem erect, branched, smooth, shining, Radical
leaves (74 lines long, 34 lines bred) lanceolato-ellipti Remon ag a ser-

pe Penge OF om etrvith, beach ed heirs 0p: yoaren

tio with simple spreadi airs longer

leaves. Cauline leaves entire, near lgndsoleke smooth, ease the at the
base, and stem clasping. Raceme terminal, greatl while flow-

ering. Pedicels of the my bk erect, green, smoo ls of the fruit
epreatiing, elongating from the bud, but not my e flowers are fully
expan Calyx shorter than the pedicel, smooth, edges of the
leafets colourless and transparent. Corolla scarcely than the ca-
lyx; petals spathulate, white, slightly notched, toa somewhat oblique

coe the apex. Pistil equal to the longest stamens; germen linear,

t-

tened ; style awanting ; stigma very small, glandular only on the
surface, and pitted in the centre. Silique (14-2 inches eect
valve.

wide, almost straight or bent a little near the apex, linear.
with a strong’ central rib, and several smaller ones nae

Seeds in two rows in each loculament, flat, bordered, —

applied to the edges of the cotyledons.

The seeds of this species were gathered in Captain Franklin’s
at Hudson’s Bay, in Canada, and on the Rake a Mountains ;
Scouler and Mr Douglas at Fort Vancouver. It flowered im: the

Botanic Garden in May.
Turritis stricta.

Ma

T. stricta ; caule erecto, glabro; foliis omnibus ry subintegesini,

radicalibus in petiolam attenuatis, caulinis amp anicelibu
siliquis strictissimis, pedicello stricto, glabro, quadruplo

Descrietion.—Root branching, fibrous. Stem erect, smooth, branched,
leafy. Leaves erect, all smooth, lanceolate, entire, or, oftener, very spa-

a at a.

Celestial. Phenomena, from Oct..1. 1829 to Jan. 1.1830. 351
the
into
ciliated with

from

SS
many-seeded.
ledons
perfectly erect on all

bordered ; coty:

y Mr Driimmond in the
ay.

t, which in the first

i along
erect

|
peesetiie [diets
pie ane
AE es ee
dee
i ae oe re
eeulbnti:
tag F

of!
the
tapering.

merve more

stretched

ring

petiole
The
my Me

cach ate
gee

and are secund, ‘but in the second are
inay
but glabrous

., .* -_

'

calculated for the Meridian of Edinburgh, Mean Time.

By Mr Georce Iwnves, Aberdeen.

Celestial Phenomena from October 1. 1829 to January 1. 1830,

OCTOBER.

“Om Aa oat

er - a eet.
Ee eS SESE oF ain Stadas °
OA ana tannanakancy AARAO ¢

00 ~ 00 0H 000 0H 005 D000

SARARAARRARHKRRARRRR RS

meri | Tir
Hcettubetdazze

ah op xB ode Kaa e
AHA AADA AA Aor Aor dg RAAT
707070070700: 700-0 70-0 D0 “O00 70-0

“SSA UASS RO SSIAAR RRS S *
SS *SR as ROARS ess Saeaa
geo aM ates ReQSeramsosneaas
| r 4 $ os

Ascddt edd Brera saad ye yssss

ee

— OO.

352

.

Celestial Phenomena from Oct. 1. 1829 to Jan. 1. 1830.

a
1l 52 26
15 24 7
17 26 34
9 30 13

» (Ah

19 5 50
1l 24 23
22 10 22
1 24 32
2 21 45
3 38 0
’ 4 3 20
8 51 19
9 50 43
4°27.
2 914
19 26 51
O 4 48
8 32 6

HH.

13 37s
23 41 6
18 18 35
21 32 22
18 37 =
1341 -
19 52 29

» «12.230

13 37. 8
14 5 48
14 45 53

18 57 56 -

13 26 50
} 37 46
41 8
8 34 10
2 50° -
5 59 46
643 0
18 30. -
15 28 54

NOVEMBER.
$9 BOph |.18.
é)en 18
dP 19.
) First Quarter. | 20
d) See 20.
6g omy 21.
56 pox 22.
Im. ITI. sat. 7/ | 22.
© Full Moon. | 22.
56 Dvd 23.
d)13¥4 23.
d)23y 25.
d)as 25.
59at 26.
% greatest elong. | 27.
d Ox 30.
Im. III. sat. 2/ | 30.
SDER 30.
SDON 30.
( Last. Quarter.

DECEMBER.

D.

6% act 18.
ro) ae 18.
) First Quarter. | 18.
dd ay 18.
So16M 19.
56 S26 21.
d)oxX 22.
“dD B: 22.
Spray 22.
d)238 23.
é6¢H 24.
d)aes 24.
© Full Moon 25.
oD) h 25.
SDVER 26.
d )oQ 26.
d $3 Oph. 26.
Bd oSn 28.
6g %ax 28.
d % @ Oph. 29.
fo manta 30.

He... gerry
12 15 42.

17 3:18
616 2
7 41 13
19 45 55
1) 27 44
12 17 25
12 26 32
13 56 49
13 38 47
22 22 49
246 .
14 43 32
12 14 41
21 7 10
6 19 31
18 36 -
20 48°10
23 42 16

ie yk 2 ©
3 30 49
5 56 49
14 21
19 12 19
21 48 44
6 26 39
1 4 58
1F 13 27
22 59 37
733 6
042 5
ll 48 10
057 -
16 25 41
3 32 46
4°32 --
315 36
8 50 14
19 14 -7
5 3 54

OOOO 040

ARAKA@Oa FOAGAAAGACA

: -
>»

ayvUYRY
C4. Pi lee
HaEPS

2°
EB

wvuvvyv
2 +x® Q
Jf 8 F

:

AWAWAOQGAXLO00.0@
> ah)

wvtvy
a Oe oR

QOAQ
OFS
| .

. 2s
ag3*

aS
a

RV BYRD
ohh

i=

lor
xx

i

Zz
)
mE §

wuyvey
- 7

40.

aii | ee

_" =

Celestial Phenomena from Oct. 1. 1829 to Jan. 1.1830. 358

Times of the Planets passing the Meridian.

OCTOBER.

Mercury. Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Georgian.
D) BY nH , Bg. 4, He, He. , a 86,
HE od 4 2 10 58 15 56 8 32 19 39
6) 13 14 4 10 51 15 42 817 19 22
10) 13:17 4 9 10 43 15 26 8 0 19 3
1 13 6 14 4 10 36 15 10 7 43 18 43

42 45 14 19 10 28 14 55 7 24 18 24

12 12 14 25 10 19 14 39 75 18 4
nT NOVEMBER.
_ | Mercury. Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Georgian.
D| Be, ily H. H , molt, Bod,
l} 1b 14 34 10 10 14 18 6 40 17 38
5} 10 52> 14 39 10 3 4 5 6 24 17 22
I 10 36 14 45 9 55 13 50 6 5 17 3
15} 10 32 14 51 9 47 13 35 5 47 16 44
20; 10 36 14 58 9 40 13 20 5 28 16 25

‘10 44 15 3 9 33 138 5 5 8 16 6

DECEMBER.

Mercury. Venus. Mars. Jupiter. Saturn. Georgian.
i ae mai y mu. 3 iS. Af H. met
1) 10 56 156 8 9 24 12 47 4 44 15 43

ll 6 15 12 9 18 12 35 4 29 15 28
10; 11 18 15 15 911 12 20 4 9 15 95
15} 11 32 15 18 9 5 12 5 3 49 14 51

11 47 15 19 8 58 ll 51 3 29 14 32

ll 58 15 20 8 5l ll 27 3 8 14 13
On the 15th of October there will be an occultation of Aldebaran by the
Moon. :

DH; 4

Immersion, 15 21 13 28, at 46° to the Left :
Emersion, - 21 35 14, at 8 ta the Loft} of the Moon’s centre.

Moon.
. D. H. ‘ “
Immersion, 9 17 39 57, at 89° to the Left a
Emersion, - 18 31 19, at 40° to the Right of the Moon’s centre.

nO sApgaR poor’ ssrmccomeil i

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.
- NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. _. ier

1. ton of Electricity i in the formation of certain imor-
ganic bodies.—M. Becquerel read lately to the French Academy
a memoir on the part which electrical phenomena perform in.
various sghemical combinations. The envelope of the earth,
from its surface to the greatest depth that man has attained,
consists of four Sistine formations, whit have been Sxeined
ganic. bodies which they contain. The ainerah su stances con-
tained in the great masses have crystallized at the yery moment
when’ the latter'were in a’state of liquefaction. Theyaré con-
sequently of contemporaneous origin, and nothing can be known
respeéting the tauses which’ produced them: But thesé same
substances have been again dissolved and suspended in the wa-
ters,’ then deposited along with metals which inust have since
exercised electrical.actions, whence probably may have resulted
new compounds. The natural philosopher may, therefore, om
greatly to our ‘knowledge of the history of ‘the earth, b
tempting to determine the forces which have Lidia Acs
these changes. " Whatever be the origin of most of these sub-
stances, if it be proved that similar substances can be formed
by the employment of very weak electrical forces alone, i it will
be rendered probable that the others have a similar origin.
Now, this is .precisely what M. Becquerel has done. To ar-
rive at the object which he has in’ view, the author examines
the electrical effects which are manifested in the chemical action
of bodies in contact with each other, chiefly among fluids, and
carefully analyses the nature of these effects. His ‘memoir is
divided into two parts. In the first, the author occupies him-
self with electro-chemical effects, chiefly produced in consequence
of the contact of fluids with each other, or by the contact of
these bodies with metals. The second part is devoted to the
applications which may be made of the results obtained by the
first. When a metal is attacked by an acid or a liquid, heat is
disengaged. Then the formation of a compound takes place,
which exercises a reaction, not only upon the metal, but also

Scientific Intelligence.— Natural Philosophy. 355
upon the liquid which surrounds it, and with which it mingles.
There are thus (including chemical action), four causes which
concur in the production of the electrical effects, of which the
result is shewn by the galvanometer. The action of saline solu-

_ tions upon each other, or upon acids, being often one of the pre-

ponderating causes, when the chemical action is feeble, it is
upon its examination that M. Becquerel first enters. He then
gives an’easy means of observing the electrical effect which re-
sults from the action of an acid or a liquid upon a metal, the
reaction of liquids not being considered. The author then ex-
amines the effects which take place in a voltaic element, in con-
sequence of the chemical action of liquids on each of the metals.
To appreciate these effects, he takes a glass vessel, in the inte-
rior of which he places two leather partitions, to retard the mix-
ture of the liquids contained in each of the cases. On trying
different liquids, it is found that the maximum of intensity of
the current takes place perceptibly when copper is immersed in
@ saturated solution of nitrate of copper, and zinc in a sa-
turated solution of sulphate of zinc. From this he deduces
a process for having in a voltaic couple electrical effects which
exhibit very little variation during an hour. Several voltaic
couples united lead to the same result. The electrical forces
developed in the chemical action of liquids have been employed
by M. Becquerel to produce combinations. Carbon, which is
one of the most extensively diffused simple bodies in nature,
and which performs a conspicuous part in its phenomena, is
first submitted to investigation. The property which this body
possesses of combining in various proportions with hydrogen, has
enabled him to form chlorurets and insoluble metallic iodurets.
If, for example, some hydrochloric acid, a plate of silver and car-
bon, are put into a tube, the silver being positive, the pole attracts
the chlorine, with which it forms chloruret of silver, which crys-
tallizes in octahedrons ; the hydrogen prevails over the carbon,
combines with it, and the gaseous product is disengaged. To
form double chlorurets and double iodurets, a tube is taken,
bent in the form of the letter V, and filled at its lower part with
‘sand or clay impregnated with water. A solution of nitrate of
copper is poured into one of the branches, and into the other
a solution of an alkaline or earthy hydrochlorate. The commu-
nication is then established with a plate of copper. The end,

356 Scientific Intelligence.—Natural Philosophy.
immersed in the nitrate solution, and which is the positive pole of
the pile, becomes covered with copper in the metallic state;, the
nitric acid remains in the solution, and the oxygen alone goes to
the other end to oxidize'the metal. There are then formed on
this side crystals.of double chloruret. These crystals have been
carefully analyzed... The hydrochlorates of ammonia, lime,
potash, barytes, &c. yield, with oxichloruret of copper, crystals
which belong to the same system of crystallization, and these
salts have precisely the same atomic. composition... This result
affords a verification to the law discovered by Mitscherlich.
Other metals were substituted for copper, and_ the ‘solutions
changed. At the first moments of crystallization, the crystal is
complete; but, when the apparatus has wrought for a long
time, truncations begin to appear on the angles and edges... To
obtain the metallic oxides crystallized, another method is adopt-
ed. For the protoxide of copper, for example, there is poured
into a tube.a solution of nitrate of copper, in the bottom of
which is placed. deutoxide of copper; a plate of copper is then
immersed in it; cubical crystals of protoxide of copper gradual-
ly form on the part of the plate which does not touch the deu-
toxide. ‘The action which determines the formation of this sub-
stance has been developed with much detail, .as well as the va-
rious. circumstances which accompany it. The influence of
light and the earth’s magnetism are sometimes remarked in the
above mentioned effects, notwithstanding its feeble intensity.
M. Becquerel related an experiment which leayes no. doubt on
this subject. The author mentioned that the facts exposed in
his memoir were the result of two years’ experiments.

2. Metallic Electricity.—M. Auguste Delarive of Geneva,
has constantly observed, that the action produced by: the ‘ele-
ments of a pile ceases completely when these elements are placed
either. in a vacuum or in a medium which exercises no chemi-
cal action upon them. On the other hand, M. Delarive has
repeated with success the experiments of an English chemist,
who produced electricity by means of a pile composed solely of
zinc. Of the two surfaces of, each plate, the one is rough and
the other polished. These plates, which, when placed at a dis-
tance from one another, only communicate by means of the
ambient air, yet develope an appreciable electricity even with-

Scientific Intelligence.—Natural Philosophy. 357
out the assistarice of the condenser. The consequences which
result from these two,series. of experiments, with respect to the
idea to be formed of the principal cause of the development of
electricity in the pile, are evident, and appear to us to be of a
nature to modify the ideas of the learned world respecting one
of the most.important facts in natural philosophy.

+ 8: Influence of Meteorological. Phenomena on Dry Piles.—
M. Donné lately read to the Academy of Sciences, a memoir,
cal Phenomena exercise on Dry Piles. The dry piles invented
by M. Zamboni had not hitherto been sufficiently studied with
referetice to the variations which their tension undergoes from
the influence of meteorological phenomena. It was therefore
of importance .to determine, by experiments directed toward
this object, what is the particular action of humidity, tempera-
ture, atmospheric weight, and electricity, upon that instrument,
and then to observe it during a long period when under the in-
fluence of all these causes together. The first part of this me-
moir comprehends the result of these experiments: in the second
it {is inquired whether the dry piles may be compared to the
voltaic pile, and if it is possible to make it produce some che-
mical action.— Humidity. Humid air acts only as a conduct-
ing body, by carrying off more or less electricity, and not by
modifying the function of the pile-—Atmospheric weight. There
is no relation between the variations of tension of the dry piles
and the barometric heights. If a pile is placed under the bell
of a pneumatic machine, and a vacuum is made, it experiences
no diminution in its tension, even when the vacuum is kept up
as exactly as possible for several days. This is in contradiction
to the well known experiment, which tends to prove that air
is necessary for forcing the electric fluid into the conductors ;
but-the fact is constant, and has been verified by repeated ex-
periments.— Temperature. Of all the atmospherical circum.
stances this acts in the most diversified and most immediate
manner upon the dry piles, and its action is extremely compli-
cated. In fact, experiment and observation have demonstrated,

Ist, That its effects are different according as the variations are
quick and instantaneous, or take place slowly and progressively.

In the former-case, the tension of the pile is considerably dimi-

358 Scientific Intelligence-—Natural Philosophy.

nished, and ‘may even be reduced to 0°; in the latter, this
action is much more moderate. 2dly, Temperature acts mecha-
nically in dilating or contracting the pile, and corisequently in
augmenting its energy'by the greater pressure which the ele-
ments undergo when the pile elongates, or in diminishing: it,
when the contrary effect takes place. It also acts upon the
function of the pile, by favouring the chemical action which
electricity produces. Sdly, Temperature does not produce its
effects ‘suddenly, but only after a certain time. It does not act
in an absolute manner ; in other words, such a degree of tension
does not answer to such a degree of the thermometer, but its
action has relation to the temperature which has existed some
hours before. 4thly, Heat frequently only increases the rapi-
dity of the current, and not the quantity of the electricity pro-
duced.—Atmospheric Electricity. The question whether the
electric state of the air and the other meteorological. phenomena
have a direct influence upon the tension of dry piles, is un-
doubtedly the most interesting and the most difficult to be: sol-
ved. It is evident that the causes hitherto preferred are incap-
able of accounting for all the variations that are observed in
the tension of the piles. It is in the electrical influences then
that we are to seek the explanation of the anomalies which their ©
action presents ? On this subject experiment gives the follow-
ing results: If, by means of the electric machine, positive elec-
tricity is made to arrive at the negative pole, the tension aug-
ments considerably at the positive pole, while, if it is at the posi-
tive pole that positive electricity is made to arrive, the tension
is reduced to 0° at the negative pole. In a word, electricity
arriving at the pole of the same name, reduces the tension of
the other pole, and electricity arriving at the pole of the ¢ontrary
name, augments the tension of the other pole. Now, the piles
which are observed being commonly placed under a glass globe,
and communicating by one pole with the reservoir, and the other
being isolated in a medium little accessible to humidity, it is not
therefore to the latter that the electricity can be transmitted, and
its action can only be conceived by supposing that it comes
from the earth. But does it not in fact happen, that when an
electric cloud approaches the earth, a certain quantity of the

natural fluid of the common reservoir is decomposed, and at-
3

Scientific Intelligence-—Natural Philosophy. 359
tracted by the opposite electricity? The earth's surface must
thus present, at the place where a thunder-storm exists, a positive
or negative fluid, which recomposes itself with the electricity of

‘ the»clouds, whem the rain furnishes it with a conductor. This:

fact may be verified by direct experiment, since it is sufficient,
during ‘a thunder-storm, to put a very sensible electrometer in
connexion with the common reservoir, to obtain signs of elec-
tricity: It is true, that it is not during thunder-storms that —
the great changes take place in the variations of the tension
of dry piles. But is it not possible that there may be thun-
der-storms’ in the bowels of the earth, as there are inthe
atmosphere ? That in earthquakes especially, great decomposi-
tions of electric fluid take place, which respond at great distan-
ces, and which act upon our instruments much more powerfully
than ‘the thunderstorms of our atmosphere! But it will al-
ways be very difficult to arrive, in this matter, at a sure result,
seeing it is impossible for us to know how the electric fluid is pro-
pagated and distributed in the strata of the earth, which are so
diversified, and since an effect which is produced here may be
very imperceptible elsewhere, besides that it must often happen
that the’effects of temperature are confounded with others. It
appears’ demonstrated, however, that the earth being capable of
furnishing electricity to the dry piles in certain cases, their ten-

_ sion’ may be augmented or diminished. May Zamboni’s appa-

ratus produce some chemical action, and may its action be eom-
pared''to that of the Voltaic pile? A string formed of fifty-two
dry piles, of a thousand plates each, gave strong sparks, but its
cheniical action was absolutely null. It was even impossible,
by employing Wollaston’s method, to decompose water, or change
the colour of the weakest tinctures. It is not here that force is
wanting to act chemically upon the bodies; it is that there is
no current in the dry piles, as is understood to be the case with
Voltaic electricity : their action is entirely that of tension, and
not at all galvanic. ‘To form a proper idea of the dry piles,
they must not be compared to the Voltaic pile, but to an elec-
trical machine, which is recharged of itself. The current which
it produces is but a series of discharges, a series of sparks which
follow each other, at very short intervals, and which, for this
very reason, cannot produce any chemical effect.

360 Scientific Intelligence.—Meteorology.
METEOROLOGY.

4. Remarkable Coldness of the late Spring: —The cold tne
backward spring which we have had in this country has been
the subject of general remark. Dr Forster, who has lately re-
turned from the Continent, has made a corresponding remark
abroad. The crops, and particularly the garden productions
and flowers, have been nearly a fortnight later than usual, al-
most all over Germany and the northern parts of France. At
Spa, the season was so cold and unpleasant that most of the
visitants had left it to travel elsewhere, till there were some
_ signs of summer ; and there was ice on the water near Liege on
the morning of the 8th of June. The thermometer during the
day did not rise higher than 58° of Fahrenheit; and a cold dry
wind seemed to threaten a total destruction of . vegetation,
Paris, however, we understand, was comparatively warm, and
the climate seemed to change for the better on passing Arras
into France.—Annals of Philosophy, Sept. 1829.

5. Changes of Climate at Shiraz.—Since the last earthquake,
the climate of Shiraz has very much changed from its former
salubrity. ‘The water in the wells has risen very near the sur-
face. Where formerly there were ten and fifteen yards of line,
there are now only three or four; therefore the increased eva-
poration has, it is supposed, been the cause of a deleterious at-
mosphere in the plain.— Alexander's Travels, p.125.

6. Effects of the Aurora Borealis on the Magnetic Needle—
When I first observed the luminous appearances of Tuesday,
August 28th, at 10 p. m., I placed a horizontal needle, deli-
cately ‘mounted, in the window of my room, which was in the
northern side of the house, and a dipping-needle about ten feet
distant in another window, On examination, I found that nei-
ther would come to a state of rest. The mean of the extremes,
in the horizontal needle, was at least 5° west of the magnetic
meridian, After marking the extremes on a paper card, fixed
in the window for the purpose, I left it, The dipping-needle,
which oscillated from 64° to’'75°, was in constant agitation, and
very irregular in its motions ; sometimes rising to nearly 60°,
and remaining for a moment with a tremulous motion, and then
sinking back to 75° or 76°, having a mean dip of -694°, which

is, Ibelieve, according to the best needles I have. seen,’ 24°
above the true dip of this latitude. The greatest variation of
the needles was at 10 p. m., when I first placed them: in the
window, and it constantly decreased. The brilliancy of the
aurora increased till 10 o’clock 30 minutes, when. its luminous.
ness had entirely disappeared ; though there was a bright aurora
in the northern horizon. On examining the horizontal needle,

I found it constantly in a tremulous motion, though it did not
dpi more than 2°, or perhaps somewhat less.’ On setting it

‘to oscillating, however, a second time, it came to rest at 71°;
the same was repeated with the same result, viz. 71°; whereas
its ordinary dip is 72°. The luminous appearances of the 29th
and 81st were less brilliant ; and though I examined the needles
to see if any effect was produced, nothing remarkable appeared
during the aurora, except that the needles were seemingly a
little longer than ordinary in coming to rest.—Stliman’s Jour-
nal, New York, 2ist April 1828.

%. A Storm in the Mediterranean accompanied with Castor
and Pollux Lights——On Friday the green shores of Sicily came
in view, but the breeze was light, and we advanced slowly. On
Saturday it left us altogether, and, when I turned in at night,
the sea was smooth and bright as a mirror; the vast firmament
seemed to descend below us; the ship appeared suspended in
the centre of an immense sphere, and, if I may say so, one felt
in awe and silence the majesty of space. About midnight I

*was awaked by a heavy swing of my coat, succeeded by a sud-

‘den dash to the other side: the water was pouring into our
room, and I could hear it’ rush across the upper decks, where
all was noise and rapid motion. © I hurried on my clothes, and
‘ran up. The gun-deck was clear ; hammocks had already been
lashed up and stowed ; it was lighted up, and the lamps shewed
it flooded in its whole extent. I ascended to the next. The rain
came down in torrents, but I did not feel it, so deeply absorb-
ing was the scene. The sky was in a constant blaze: the’ sea
was not high, but the waves were broken, confused and foam-
ing, and taking from the lightning an unnatural hue. Above
me were the yards covered with human beings, thrown by each
flash into strong outline, struggling hard to seeure the canvas,
and to maintain their precarious footing. ‘The ship rolled tre-

362 Scientific Inteligence.— Meteorology.

mendously. And now, add. the wild uproar of the elements,
** the noise of many waters,” the deep and constant roar.of the
winds, the cries of men aloft, the heavy and. rapid. tread of
those below, the reiterated orders. of officers, and the sounds.of
the trumpet rising above all; and then, add to this, the:heavy
rolling of thunder, at times drowning all these sounds: »'The
first lieutenant had the deck ; he had sprung to it at the: first
alarm, and seizing the trumpet, had. called for Black, his
favourite helmsman. The ship was soon under snug sail, and
now dashed forwards at a furious rate, giving to the gale a yet
wilder character. All at once a rocky island seemed to start wp
from the waters—but the next broad flash shewed a good off-
ing, and we were safe; when suddenly came a loud shout from
the forecastle, “ A sail on the starboard bow,”—and then an-
other, ‘¢ A sail close on the larboard bow.” I trembled. then,
not for ourselves, for we should have gone over them, and have
scarcely felt the shock,—but for the poor wretches, whom it
would have been impossible to save. The helm was put hard
down; we shot by, and. I again breathed. freely,..when some
one bade me look up to our spars. I did so, .and) found every
upper. yard-arm and mast-head tipped with: lightning. » Each
blaze was twice as large as that of a candle, and: thus we flew
on with the elements of destruction playing above our heads.—
In about thirty minutes, the wind, which was from -the south-
west, changed suddenly to the south-east, and became. as hot:as
air from the mouth of an oven. It was the Sirocco, and brought
with it a quantity of fine sand. | It lasted half an hour, and»was
a stiff, smacking breeze, but not near so strong as the one it
had _ succeeded, A similar electric phenomenon. occurred
to the ship in which Castor and Pollux sailed, in the Argo-
nautic expedition, only the light appeared ..on: the caps of the
two heroes: the storm subsided, and they were received as pa-
trons of sailors. In this way, too, they often, appeared to the
Roman armies, and were supposed to be leading them to vic-
tory. This was nothing more than the electric fluid on their
spears. The late Mr Whitney of Newhaven, when riding on
horseback, near East Rock, in the vicinity of that town, during
a night thunder-storm of great severity, was astonished to find,
all at once, his horse’s ears tipped with-fire. He alighted, but

now discovered the same phenomenon at the end of his whip,
stirraps, and every prominent object. His own person and that
of an attendant were tipped m the same manner. Similar ap-
pearances, probably, suggested to Virgil the fiction of the flame
about the head of Ascanius, the mght on ee
——— 7

¢ CHEMISTRY.
ti Tw,

8 bsjsestena Barth DE: SiasdiininMes daily dieenest

ed a new earth, possessing all the properties of that which bore
the name of Thorine, and which was only a phosphate of yttria.
On account of this great similarity, he retains the name of Tho-
rine for the new substance. It is white, and incapable of being
reduced by charcoal and potassium. After being strongly cal-
eined, it is no longer attacked by acids, excepting by concen-
trated sulphuric acid. Even after being treated by the caustic.
alkalies, the sulphate of thorine is very soluble in cold water,
but nearly insoluble in boiling water, so that it cannot be freed
from several other salts by washing the mixture with boiling.
water. Thorine dissolves very well in carbonate of ammonia.
Elevation of temperature determines the precipitation of \a part.
of the earth; but on cooling the precipitate disappears. .All the:
salts of thorine have a very pure astringent taste,. almost like
that of tannin. The chloride of thorine treated by potassium, :
decomposes with a triple deflagration. There results a grey

metallic powder, which not decompose in water, but which.
above a.red heat burns with a brightness which nearly equals’
thatof phosphorus in oxygen. Thorine is feebly attacked by:
sulphuric acid or nitric acid. Hydrochloric acid, on the con-

_ trary, dissolves it with a keen effervescence. The oxide of tho-:

rine contains 11.8 percent. of oxygen. Its specific gravity is
9.4. Thorine exists.in a new mineral which has been found in
very pe gr at Brevig, in Norway.

7 - MINERALOGY.

9. Nichia cierensagh Wicachebite de a Platts
Clay of Auteuil, near Paris ; by M. Bronentant.—The author |
commences his notice with some reflections on a remarkable phe-
nomenon which the geological history of a great number of mine-

364 Scientific Intelligence.—M ineralogy.
ral substances, and in particular‘of Websterite, presents, that of
the repetition of the same geognostical circumstances in deposites
which are considered as'being of the same formation, although
situated at considerable distances from each other, even in those
which are feebly and irregularly developed, as the deposite of the
plastic clay. He then mentions all that is known of the minera-
logical history of Websterite, and shews that the three varieties
as yet known, those of Halle, Newhaven, and Epernay, agree in
the two classes of characters which essentially constitute the mine-
ral species, the composition and form, and in their geological rela-
tions; for they always occur in veins or nodules ‘in the:plastic
clay, accompanied with gypsum and lignite, and lying above the
chalk. It is also in the plastic clay of Auteuil, but in the upper
part of the deposite, where the clay is yellowish and sandy, that
the new variety occurs, rather in nodules than in veins. It is
composed of a multitude of small rounded. grains, ‘closely com-
pacted, although not to such a degree as not to leave interstices
filled with greyish clay. These nodules present internally the
appearance of an oolite, with very close white grains in a grey-
ish paste or cement. M. Dumas’s chemical analysis leaves no
doubt respecting the true nature of this mineral. | He found it
formed of 23 parts of sulphuric acid, 30 of alumina, and 47 of
water. It is therefore a variety of Websterite, to which the
name of oolitic may be given.— Annales des Sciences Naturelles.
10. Tale and Mica.—Von Kobell, on examining,» by means
of polarized light, a specimen of large foliated chlorite; from:
Greiner, in the Zillerthal, found that it exhibited the coloured.
rings with the black cross, and consequently belongs to the rhom-.
bohedral system. He also examined some newly discovered va-
rieties of talc from Greiner, and of lithion mica from Zinnwald :
and Elba, and found them all have the double axis. ©
11. Native Sulphuric Acid—M. Egidi, apothecary at As”
coli, observed a violent disengagement of sulphuretted hy-.
drogen in a spacious natural cave of the commune of Acqua-
santa. ‘This gas, in contact with atmospheric air, gradually
decomposes, ‘gives rise to water; and to sulphur, which latter is
deposited on-the walls of the cave, and quickly forms, with ‘the
salifiable bases, ‘sulphites, and) subsequently sulphates, :princi-
pally crystallized sulphate of lime; and,» lastly,:to sulphuric ’

Scientific Intelligence.— Mineralogy. 365
acid, which flows upon the walls, carrying with it lime and
other oxides which occur in its way. Several other examples
are known of the daily formation of sulphuric acid, and conse-
quently of the decomposition of hydro-sulphuric gas.

12. Discovery of Iodine in an Ore of Zinc.—It is well known
that. M. Vauquelin..was the first who. discovered iodine in the
mineral kingdom... He found this simple substance in argenti-
ferous ores of the neighbourhood of Mexico ; and, according to
M. Del. Rio, these ores come from the provinee of Zacatecas.
M. Bustamente afterwards found indications of it. in a lead ore
of a greyish-white colour, from the mines of Catorce. In the
last place, M. Mentzel has just determined its presence in an

_ ore of caduciferous zinc from Upper Silesia.

13. Inquiries into the structure of Bodies which crystallize

_ regularly ; by M. Savart.—In this investigation, the author has

had in view to determine, by means of the sonorous vibrations,

_ the elastic. state of rock-crystal and carbonate of lime. As it
_ would. oceupy too much time to expose the mode of experiment
_ which M. Savart has employed to attain this object, we shall

only say, that he has discovered in. these two substances three
systems of axes of elasticity, which refer to the primitive form
of each of them. Thus, in rock-crystal, the small diagonals
of the three rhomboidal faces which form the obtuse solid angle
of the primitive rhomboid possess the same degree of elasticity ;
and each of these.lines is the axis of greatest elasticity of each
system, while the other diagonals of the same faces of the crys.
tal are the intermediate, axes, and the edges themselves of the
rhomboid (parallel four to four, consequently reducible to three,
as they are twelve in number), are the directions of less elasti-
city... M.. Savart laboured particularly to bring out the diffe-
rences and approximations which: exist between the results to
which his method leads, with respect to the intimate structure
of bodies, and those to which the inquiries respetting light had
led. the observers who have preceded him. Thus, he shewed
that the disposition of the nodal lines of a circular lamina of »
rock-crystal, inclined in a given manner with respect to the op-
tical axis, is always intimately connected. with the direction it-

self of. that axis, or of its projection upon the plane of , the la-

|. JULY—ocToBER 1829. 1 feds, ."4

366 Scientific Intelligence.— Mineralogy.

mina, while, on the other hand, he shewed that all the laminsz
parallel to the axis do not possess the same properties with rela-
tion to sonorous vibrations, although they appear to act ‘simi-
larly with relation to light—Memoir read to the French Aca-
demy,—not published. —

14. Glassy Felspar, now called Ryakolite-—It results from
some late measurements of G. Rose, in Poggendorf’s Annals,
that the angles of this mineral are different from those of adu-
laria and the other species of felspar ; that the specific gravity is
2.576, and its optical proportion different from those observed
in adularia. ‘This mineral occurs, as is well known, in Vesu-
vius, and in the lava of the Lacher Lake, &c.,—hence, from
its occurrence in lava, Rose names it Ryakalite, from evet lava,
and a9, stem.

GEOLOGY.

15. Discovery of Iodine and Bromine in certain salt-springs
and mineral waters in England.—Dr Daubeny, in the number
of the Annals of Philosophy for September 1829, announces,
that he has found bromine in a separate state in the Cheshire
salt-springs, and also iodine in two or three of them. He has
also detected iodine in the springs of Cheltenham, Leamington,
Gloucester, and ‘Tewkesbury.

16. Examination of a Limestone Deposite, by M. Vauquelin.
—In digging the foundations of a spinning establishment, in
the parish of St Maclou, arrondissement de Pont-Audemer, de-
partment of the Eure, there was found a large deposite of lime-
~ stone, having a porous texture, and presenting in some of its
parts ramifications in the form of stalactites, more than a foot
long, and of different diameters, hollow in the centre, and closed
at one of their extremities. The colour of these stones is yel-
lowish internally, and of a shining brown externally, like cer-
tain varieties o sib duinebe: M. Vauquelin, on analyzing them,
found products which satisfied him that this substance contain-
ed a great quantity of animal matter. The stalactites and
other rudiments of crystallization which it presents, ‘induce the
author to suppose that it has been dissolved i in water with the
aid of carbonic acid. But what appears to him remarkable is,
that the organic substance could have been preserved so long,

Scientific Intelligence.—Geology. 367
inthe midst of water, with all its properties; for which he ac-
eounts by its not being in contact with the air. This difficulty
_ offers nothing remarkable, as it equally occurs with respect to
_ all the) sparry fossils, and with respect to certain clays, which
_ contain’a sufficient quantity of animal substance to yield ammo-
_ nia by analysis. It would have been desirable to have ascer-
| tained whether these supposed stalactites are not polyparia, for,
in that case, the difficulty would vanish, as it is known that
_ polyparia, aswell as all calcareous envelopes, contain animal
_ substance, even after the longest residence in water. The ani-
_ mali pellicle, in these substances, not only is combined with the
_ lime, but is also encrusted and hermetically imprisoned by car-
_ bonate of lime, which lines its walls in a compact manner.
From this moment the substance in question is guarded against
_ all theagents of fermentation, in the same mamner as an orga-
_ ni¢ substance, cloth for example, becomes incombustible, when
_ all its particles have been invested with phosphoric acid or phos-
_ phate of ammonia. It is for this reason that animal matter
_ (membranes) ‘remains incorruptible, not only in the shells of
mollusca or zoophytes, which continue to grow in the waters,
but also in the fossil shells, which have lain buried in the moist
earth for ages.— Ann. de Chimie et de
17. Bones of Palaotheria discovered in a bed of the Calcaire
_ grossier or coarse Limestone formation, near Paris.—M. Cordier
_ communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris a fact connect-
ed with the theory of the geological formations in the vicinity of
Paris. This gentleman, on being informed by Mr Robert, that
bones of mammifera had just been exposed in some beds belong-
_ ing tothe coarse limestone formation, went to the place. It is
; _ one of the Nauterre quarries, known by the name of Carriere des
_ Moulins, the third of those that occur in going to Nauterre by
; the Paris road. It is worked by M. Nerot, to whom it belongs.
“ "The bed which contains the bones is situated at the depth of
_ five and a half metres, and from four to five decimetres thick.
Nothing's more easy than to examine it, as it is worked from the
») ‘The bones are so brittle, and besides so firmly fixed in
_ their matrix, ‘that it is almost impossible to detach them with:
ihe breaking them. Specimens of the rock have been submit-
“ted to the inspection of M. G. Cuvier, who has determined the
tH Bb2

368 Scientific Intelligenve.—Geology.

bones to belong to a large species of palzotherium. It appears
that the quantity of bones is very great. The bed in which
they occur already extends along a space of more than twenty
metres, and there is no reason to think that it is nearly exhausted.
From the facts which M. Cordier communicated to the Aca-
demy, he concludes, 1st, That the mammifera belonging to ex-
tinct species, of which so many remains have been found in
the gypseous formation in the neighbourhood of Paris, and of
which some bones have been recognized in a deposite of quartzy
sandstone, which is intercalated between the siliceous limestone
formation and that of the calcaire grossier, descend, moreover,
into the calcaire grossier itself. 2d, That, consequently, these
animals have lived at no great distance from the Paris basin, at
a period more remote than is commonly supposed; Lastly,
That the circumstances which have caused to vary in so re-
markable a manner both the mineralogical nature of the diffe-
rent formations which compose the Paris basin, and the nature
of the mollusca, whose remains these formations contain, pro-
bably exercised no considerable action upon the continental sur-
faces which surrounded that basin, since the palosetheria and
the other mammifera belonging to similar genera, continued to
propagate without any modification, at a time when the for-
mations of the basin were undergoing the most remarkable
change.

18. Caves containing Human Remains.—M. Cordier, in
June 1829, read to the Academy of Sciences, part of a memoir
_ addressed to him by M. de Christol, Secretary of the Natural
History Society of Montpellier, relating to two newly discover-
ed caves containing bones in the department of the Garde. —
These cases were discovered by MM. Dumas and Bonause,
they are situated, the one at Pondre, the other at Jouvignargue,
near Sommiéres. M. de Christol, after examining them with
the greatest care, as well as the specimens obtained by digging,
is convinced that they present the proof of an incontestible mix-
ture of human bones with bones of mammifera belonging to
extinct. species. The remains of animals mixed with those of
the human species belong, according to the author, to the
hyena, the badger, the bear, the stag, the aurochs, the ox, the
horse, the wild boar and the rhinoceros. Some of the bones

an

ee ee eee “A ee eae ae

Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology. 369
bear evident marks of the teeth of hyenas. Excrements of
these animals were also found in the caves. The facts announ-
eed by M. de Christol appeared to M. Cordier to be of the
greatest importance. If they are correct, they must be con-
sidered as more conclusive in favour of a mixture of human
bones with remains of antediluvian animals, than those fur-
nished by the examination of the Bize caves. It is in fact well

known, that the inferences drawn from the examination of these

latter have been contested.
we

ZOOLOGY.
19 Revepeen: Bosworth interesting account of a colony
of European beavers has lately appeared in the Memoirs of the
Society of the Friends of Natural History of Berlin. This colony
occurs in the forest district of Gruneberg, in Magdeburg, in Prus-
sia. The habits and manners of these animals agree with what
has been related by Hearne and Cartwright of the beavers of
America. Like the beavers of the New World, they build dams,
live on vegetable food, are deadly enemies to the otter,—henee
useful in rivers in preserving fishes. They have been almost
entirely extirpated from Eastern Prussia, but in Western Prus-
sia, as at the Mone, near Arensberg, there are still considerable
colonies of them.
_ 20. Original of the Cat and Deg.—In Riippell’s interesting
atlas to his Travels in Northern Africa, we find a description of
several new species of cat and dog. Of the genus Felis, two
species are figured and described; the F. maniculata and F.
chaus, Liild. For the discovery of the former of these, we are
indebted to M. Rippell, who regards it as the original stock
from which the domestic cat of the Egyptians was derived, and
whence probably also sprung the house cat of Europe. In this
opinion he has been followed by M. Temminck. The character
of the species, as given by Dr Cretzschmar, is as follows:
“< Felis colore griseo-ochraceo ; genis colloque antico albis, hoc
lineis ochraceis duabus cincto ; planta pedum, metacarpi et. me-
itatarsi parte posteriore nigris ; cauda gracili, equali, ad apicem
annulis nigris duobus.” It was obtained in Nubia, onthe

__ western side of the Nile, at Ambukol. Not less than seven spe-
: 3

370 Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology.

cies of Canis have been collected by M. Riippell, the whole of
which are here figured and described. Of these we’shal! men-
tion two: Canis famelicus. ‘ Canis capite oehracceo ; fascia
dorsali castanea ; corpore supra ex griseo-flavescente, infra ex
subflavo-albescente; auriculis permagnis erectis.”\ ‘This ‘cha-
racter is derived from the examination of seven specimens, ‘col-
lected partly in the deserts of Nubia, and partly in Kordofan.
The species is nearly related to the Fennec, which it resembles
also in its habits. It is probably the fox-like animal represent-
ed on the monuments of ancient Egypt; as the jackall, Canis
aureus, Linn. does not appear to exist there or in the immediate-
ly adjoining countries. Canis Anthus, F. Cuv. « Canis ca-
pite crassiore; auriculis erectis, curtis; gutture et collo infra
sordide albidis; corpore supra ex fulvo, albido, nigro et ochra-
ceo vario, infra albido; cauda nigra, basi tantummodo inferne
albido ; pedibus ex fulvo ochraceis.” This differs'in some re-
spects from the figure given by M. F. Cuvier; but M. Tem-
minck, who has seen both specimens, considers them as

ing to the same species. It may be regarded as the wolf of
Egypt and Nubia, where it is very rare, and resembles in the
colour of its fur the European wolf. Dr Cretzschmar appears
disposed to believe that from it is sprung the passione 9
Sused house-dog.

21. On the prickle which exists in the tail of the Lion Two
lions which died some months ago in the menagerie of the King’s
Garden at Paris, have furnished an occasion of verifying a cu-
rious fact, mentioned in some old works, but which modern au-

‘thors have generally omitted ; it is, that there exists at the ex-
tremity of the lion’s tail a small claw, concealed in the midst of
the tuft of long black hairs which occurs there. It is a horny
production, about two lines in length, which presents itself un-
der the form of a small cone a little curved, and adhering by
its base to the skin only, and not to the last vertebra, which is
separated from it by a space of two or three lines. ‘This small
claw exists in both sexes: The commentators of Homer thought
they could explain, by the presence of this claw, a curious and
correct remark made by the author of the Iliad; which was,
that the lion is the only animal which, when irritated violently,

woof

I a

Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology. 371
agitates its tail, and strikes its sides with it, They imagined
that the lion sought to excite himself by pricking his sides with
the horny production in question. Blumenbach, some years
agoy verified the existence of this prickle; but the pamphlet
inywhich his observations were contained, has remained unno-
ticed by naturalists, and the curious fact of which we speak,
mighit,long have remained unknown, had not M. Deshayes hap-
pened to see the pamphlet in question, and engage the natu-
ralists who more particularly study the department of mamma-
logy; to make some observations on the subject *.__ This prickle
or spur, adhering only to the skin by the circumference of its
base, is very easily detached. In general, no traces of it re-
main in stuffed individuals. It has not yet been observed whe-
ther it exists equally in the other large species of the genus
Felis aro
_ 22. Insufflation of Animals.—M. Leroy has discovered that
atmospheric air, strongly impelled into the trachea of certain
animals, such as rabbits, goats, sheep, foxes, &c. causes sud-
den, death. . Other animals, dogs, for example, in which the
pulmonary tissue is less delicate, resist this operation, but are
more,or less incommoded by it. Goats and sheep died under
the eyes, of. persons appointed by the Academy to report upon
the discovery, after air had been impelled into their lungs
without the aid of a machine, but merely by the mouth of the
experimenter. It would appear, that most commonly the air
blown in lacerates the delicate tissue of the lung at the upper
part. Insufflation being recommended as an efficacious means
of restoring drowned persons to life, it is of the greatest im-

ce to know if, human. lungs are similar to those of the

and goat in this respect, or if they are possessed of a
power of resistance equal to that of the dog. If the former be
the case, insufflation would prove mortal to suffocated persons. -
Direct experiments are wanting on this subject ; but trials made
on the dead body, shew that the human lung may be ruptured
by insufflation. ._The lungs of very young children, on the con-
trary, resist the action of a very strong insufflation.—Ann, de
Chim. et de Phys. , ;

-* A translation of the memoir shstahanindibiaetsinnaiiattiee Meee
Sie ail Gahran

372 Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology.
- 23, Notice respecting a Pigeon which continued to live two
days without Brain and upper part of Spinal Marrow.—M.
Desportes, a physician, lately sent to the Academy of Sciences
of Paris an account of an observation in which he saw a young
pigeon live for two days in its shell, of which it could not rid
itself ; as well as some time after, although the brain and upper
part of the spinal marrow were wanting. The author of the
letter, deceived by the accounts given in some journals, had ima-
gined this observation to be in contradiction to what M. Flou-
rens had announced with respect to the influence of the spinal
marrow upon respiration. M. Flourens remarked, that the im-
portant fact observed by the author is in no degree opposed to
the inferences deducible from his experiments. A report is to
be made to the Academy respecting M. Desportes’s observations.

24. The Sprat not the young of the Herring and. Pil-
chard.—Mr Yarrell remarks in the Zoological Journal, No. xvi,
that on comparing a sprat with a young herring of the same
length, the sprat will be found to be considerably deeper, and
the scales much larger; in-this latter circumstance the sprat
resembles the pilchard ; but the pilchard, on the other hand, is
not so deep a fish as the herring. The sprat and herring dif-
fer also in the number of rays in three of the fins out of the
four they possess, and also in the tail, as the wr numbers
exhibit.

Dors. Peet. Vent. An. Caud.

Sprat, : 11 15 17 18 196

Herring, - ~—=-:17 ls 9 14.5)... 20
There is also one other most material difference, the verte-
bree in the sprat are 48 in number; in the herring ‘there
are 56.

25. White Bait not the young of the Shad—Mr Sem)
has shewn in the Zoological Journal, that the white bait is: not
the young of the shad, or Clupea alosa, but a well-marked and
distinct species, which he names Clupea alba. ‘We have now
five British species of clupea, viz. 1. Cl. Harengus (Herring) ;
2. Cl. Pilcardus (Pilchard) ; 3. Cl. alba (White Bait) 54. i
Alosa (Shad or Mother of Herrings), Cl. Spratus. . vi

26. On Squalus Maximus.—Mr De Kay read. in the i
ceum of Natural History, York, a description of a lange species

Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology. 873

' of squalus lately captured on the American coast. The author
salighveds that the first descriptions of the S. maximus were so
that modern naturalists have considered it a doubtful
“species, and have accordingly described several large individuals

ofthis genus.as new species. Dr De Kay considers the S. pelerin,
. S. gunnerianus, S. homianus, S. elephas, and S. rhinoceros,

as'all belonging to the S. maximus, to which also he refers the
individual under consideration. The S. peregrinus, Pinna
anali-nulla, is certainly a distinct species. The most striking
peculiarity observed in this specimen, was the presence of true
baleen. Each branchial opening was furnished with a fringe of
baleen four inches in length. This was composed of a great
number of distinct flattened fibres, a tenth of an inch wide at
their origin, and tapering gradually to minute threads at their
extremities. In colour, texture, and flexibility, this resembles
very much the baleen of the Balena mysticetus. ‘The lamine
are extremely regular in their position ; thirty of them are in-
cluded within the space of an inch, and they extend the whole
length of the branchial apertures. ‘The author concluded by
remarking, ‘* That all inferences respecting the size of a shark,
founded on the magnitude of the fossil teeth alone, must be er-
roneous, as the individual just mentioned was 28 feet long, and
its'teeth were only half an inch in length. There are fossil
sharks’ teeth in the cabinet of the Lyceum four inches long,
which, by parity of reasoning, belonged to an animal 220 feet
in length.—Silliman’s Journal, Jan. 1829.

27. On Killing Molluscous Animals.—The difficulty of pre-
venting mollusca from shrinking and withdrawing their organs
when thrown into spirit, is scarcely removed by quickly dash-
ing boiling water over the specimens; and in the testaceous ge-
nera the process is not sufficiently sudden to secure the object
aimed-at. Perhaps some zoologist residing on the coast, who
has a good electrical machine, will make some experiments, with
the view of killing the animals while in their natural attitude of
creeping. A wire might be made fast round the shells, and
the favourable moment easily seized for communicating the
shock. The spire should be cracked or perforated to prevent
putrefaction before the animal is preserved in spirit—L, Guild-

ine, Zool. Journal, No. xiv.

314 Scientific Intelligence: Zoology.

28. Terrestrial Shell Animals may be carried alive great
distances. — The Mucroceramus signatus was sent me by a
friend who has taken great pains to put me in possession of the
mollusca of the Virgin Islands, that I may examine them for
publication. I find that the terrestrial testaceous mollusea will

travel to a very great distance in a living state, even in the tro- .

pics, if packed in saw-dust. I have also lately dispatched tin
boxes perforated on all sides, and filled with wet moss and mud,
in which I hope soon to obtain alive the aquatic mollusea which
swarm in the waters of the mighty Oronooko, and the canals
and ponds of the neighbouring colonies—L. Guilding. Zool.
Journal, No. xiv.

29. Formation of the shell of the Cyprea. —Mr Samuel
Stutchbury, who had an opportunity of examining many indi-
viduals ef C. Tigris at the Pearl Islands, informed me that
those cowries lived there in very shallow water, and always under
rolled masses of madrepore. ‘They never were to be seen ex-
posed to the sun’s rays. On lifting one of these masses, a tiger
cowry was generally observed with its shell entirely covered by
the large mantle, which was mottled with dark colours, the in-
tensity of which the animal seemed to have the power of chang-
ing, for the colours varied in the same light in the same me-
dium, after the manner of the spots on the Cephalopodous Mol-
lusca, or, to use a more familiar instance, somewhat in the same
way that the hues of a turkey’s wattle vary. On touching the
mantle, it was immediately withdrawn within the shell, which
became exposed in all its brilliancy. So firmly did the soft
parts adhere to the shell, that, in no instance (and the experi-
ment was often made), did Mr Stutchbury succeed in extract-
ing them by force, either during life or before decomposition
took place. He was obliged to let the animal die, and suf-
fer the soft parts to decay, in order to remove them.—Zool.
Journ. No. xiv.

30. On the Tape-Worms found m Water ty Linnaeus.
—In an excursion with the late Eysenhandt, in search of
water-plants, says Dr Baer, we sailed up the Pregel, and Jand-
ed on the north bank of the Frishe Haaf, at Margen; nine
miles from Konigsberg. The first object brought to me was.a
tape-worm : we searched further, and soon found nearly a do-

i aren ms

Scientific Intelligence.— Botany. 875
zen was collected in the water. Four of them were alive, the
athérs dead, or nearly so: This brought to my recollection
Linneus’s ‘Tenia; found in water. With exception of vast num-
bers of Gasterocetis pungitius, scarcely any other animal was ob-
served in the water. Many of these fishes were taken, and, in
all of them, the belly was much swollen. On opening them, a
Bothrioeephalus solidus was found, which, when extended, was
longer than the fish in which it was contained. Every speci-
men of fish we opened contained a worm, and the fishermen as-
stired us, that they were rarely met with without them. | It is
understood that these worms escape, or are forced from the fish
into the water, in which they will live for a considerable time.
Thus the observation of Linneus, that tape-worms, which are
true intestinal “ayarsg sometimes occur ey as in water,
is he wie

$1. U eppaviias ° nciite of “lle Bones of’ the different
Classes of Animals. By Frrnanp¥s De Barnos.—De Barros
found, in a thousand parts of bone, the following proportions of

yen pti genera

Sheps’ Bones, Carbonateoflime, . . . -. 193
: Phosphate oflime, . 9... 800
| Hens’ Bones, Carbonate oflime, . 3 Gi ..2DHOe
off encores Phosphate oflime, «+. + +) 886
_ Fishes? Bones, Carbonate oflime, . ..+ «=. 88
_.. Phosphateoflime,, - - - + 919
' Frogs’ Bones, Carbonateoflime, - . . . 24
© ‘(Phosphate'oflime, 04 6 2 6 Yo 982!
Lions’ Bones, Carbonate of lime, i ‘ at shod 25
) Phosphate oflime, ... « « .. 950

wae , “borany.

“82 sii erin is the pith of the Tong-t-sao
(Calamus petreeus; Loureir), as M. Vallot has demonstrated in
the Memoires de [ Academie de Dijon, 1820, p. 187-190, where
he has given a full:account of this substance.
+: $8: Method of Preserving Funguses.—Mr Cooke, surgeon,

Trinity. Square, ‘Tower Hill, having been very successful in his
endeavours to preserve anatomical preparations in salt and wa-
ter, was requested to try to preserve, in the same way,,a speci-
men of Clavaria muscoides, supposing that it might answer for

376 Scientific Inteligence.— Botany.

funguses of some kinds. Mr Cooke, in a written account, says,
“« I put it into brine a little below saturation, suspending it by
a delicate thread of silk, and closing the bottle by means of
glass. Since that time it has remained in the solution, and,
with the exception of having become a little deeper in colour, it
is unchanged. As spirits are not only expensive, but usually
deprive plants of all colour, the discovery of a cheap and effec-
tual solution for the preservation of plants is a desideratum.”
The specimen was gathered at the latter end of October 1826,
and was presented to the Linnzan Society in May last, with
an account of the process. As many species of funguses may
be expected to appear at the latter end of this month, and in
the next, persons who are desirous of trying the before men-
tioned method of preserving such vegetables, will no doubt have
an opportunity of doing so.— Phil. Mag. Oct. 1828.

34. Germination.—M. J. Pinot addressed a letter to the French
Academy, containing the details of an experiment on germina-
tion. He stated, that in a memoir presented six months ago, to
the Academy, he had announced that the radicle of different
kinds of seeds, which he had made to germinate upon mercury,
had penetrated into the interior of that metal to a depth of eight
or ten lines.. These experiments were repeated by him at the
King’s Garden, -in presence of two of the commissioners ap-
pointed by the Academy. But, as the weight of the seed, and
the adhesion of the cotyledonary mass to the moist surface of
the mercury might present some motives of explanation, the
value of which it were important to determine, he made a new
experiment on this subject. “I implanted,” says he, “ upon
one of the extremities of a small silver needle suspended at its
centre upon an extremely mobile axis, a seed of Lathyrus odo-
ratus, of which kind of seed, as is well known, the cotyledons are
not developed in germination. I then balanced the needle by
means of a wax-ball, which I stuck upon the other end, and
which I could shift at pleasure. I then placed it in a bell sa-
turated with humidity, in such a manner, that the seed which it
bore should be suspended at a distance of about two lines above
a certain quantity of mercury, which was contained ina vessel
placed under this part of the apparatus, and of which I) had
taken care to moisten the surface. Germination took place, but

Scientific Intelligence.—Statistics. 377
more slowly than in ordinary circumstances, on account of the
seeds being placed in an entirely gaseous medium; and the
radicle, when it came to touch the surface of the mercury,
pierced it and sunk into it, as in the case when the seed rests
upon that metal.

35. Notice by Mr R. Spittal, of a specimen of Bovista gi-
gantea, remarkable for its great size—Through the kindness of
my friend Miss Macdonald, Powderhall, I am enabled to give
the following account of a remarkable specimen of the Bo-
vista gigantea, found by that successful and zealous botanist.
Along with the plant, which she kindly presented me with, I
received a short history of it, in which Miss Macdonald states,
that she found the specimen, 9th August last, on the borders of
Plora wood, about a mile and a-half from the village of Inner-
leithen, Peeblesshire. When found, it was of a cream colour,
shaded with brownish-yellow on the top. Apparently it had
not attained its full size, and unfortunately the plant was pulled
at that time. It lay for about two days after this, exposed to
the wind and rain, before being measured, having, during that
time, evidently lost considerably in size; its average diameter,
however, was then upwards of eleven inches, the greatest cir-
cumference being three feet one and a-half inch, the least three
feet. The plant was nearly globular in shape. Dr Hooker, in
his Flora Scotica, and Dr Greville, in his Flora Edinensis, both
refer to Lightfoot, who mentions that this plant has been found
in the King’s Park, Edinburgh; and also says, that it has been
found in England “ as large as a man’s head.” Dr Withering,
in his Arrangement of British Plants, says, “ sometimes as
much as twelve or fifteen inches in diameter,” and specimens of a
much greater size are mentioned as having been found in fo-
reign countries. The specimen described, then, is nearly as
large as those of greatest diameter found in England, especially
if the greatest diameter of these be that mentioned. It is the
largest on record found in Scotland ; and this fact, along with the
new habitat which Miss Macdonald has discovered, may per-
haps be interesting to the botanist.

378 Scientific Intelligence.—Statistics.

36. The Dahlia.—It is not above twenty years since the name
of Dahlia (or Georgina, as it is universally called on the'Conti-
nent), was first heard of in thiscountry as an ornamental flower.
Being a native of Mexico, it was at first consideted as a very
tender plant, and its cultivation was regarded as troublesome
and difficult. At this day it has become a common border and
shrubbery flower, and a clump of the fine double flowers form
one of the ornaments of every good garden. Its cultivation. is
now found to be comparatively easy; it being only necessary to
keep the tubers among dry sand, and secure from frost during
winter, and to cause thetn to vegetate slightly in a hot-bed, like
sets of early potatoes, in the spring, before planting them out.
There are, botanically speaking, two species of Dahlia; the se-
perflua and the frustranea ; all the varieties having. large dou-
ble flowers belonging to the former, and all the small brilliant
orange-coloured single flowers to the latter. It has, within
these very few years, become common among the curious to
raise Dahlias from the seed of fine semi-double flowers in’ our
Scottish gardens, and thus to procure numerous new Varieties.
Here, then, will be a good opportunity for observing whether
the Dahlia, i in the course of successive generations, or reproduc-
tions from Scottish seed, shall, according to the theory suggest-
ed by Sir Joseph Banks regarding the Zizania aquatica, ac-
quire a somewhat more hardy character, better wee: to thie aad
mate of Scotland.

37. Caprification.—Tournefort, in his Travels: m mentions’ lai
in Provence, the maturation of figs was hastened by pricking
them at the open end. with a straw dipped in olive oil. Colonel
Thackery informs us that a similar’ practice prevails at Malta,
and at other places in the Mediterranean; and he adds; what
is of some importance in so precarious a climate as ours, that he
has successfully followed the’ practice m Scotland, = > 1"

7 STATISTICS.

38. Influence of Indigence on the Mortality of Men in the
different Countries of Europe} from the commencement of’ the
Nineteenth Century.—M. Dumeril made two reports to the
French Academy, on two memoirs by M. Benoitson de Chau-
teauneuf, relative to questions in statistics. ‘The author has

Scientific. Intelligence.—Statistics. 379

proposed to-himself, in the first of his memoirs, to determine
whether poverty, which exercises so terrible an influence upon
human life at an early age, is equally fatal at an advanced age.
For this purpose, he has compared the mortality of six hundred
persons, placed in the highest classes of society, and already:at
an advanced age, with the mortality of persons immersed in the
greatest indigence. He has found that the mortality im the:lat-
ter was double what he found it to be in the former. M. de
Chateauneuf’s second memoir is upon the mortality in the dif.
ferent countries of Europe since the commencement of the nine-
teenth century. The author has made inquiries in the different
departments of France, England, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
and several governments of Russia. The constant result has
been, that of a hundred individuals, twenty-five only in these
different countries arrive at the age of sixty, and that it is after
the age of seventy that man declines most rapidly. _Moun-
tainous countries, in whatever latitude they may be situated,
are those in which the duration of human life is greatest.

39. On the Distribution, by Months, of Conceptions and
Births, in its relations to Seasons, Climates, &c.—M. Frede-
rick Cuvier, in May 1829, in the name of a committee, of which
he was a member, ‘together with MM. Fourier. and Coquebert
Montbret, made a report respecting a memoir by M. Villermé,
entitled, On the Distribution, by Months, of Conceptions and
Births, in its relations to Seasons, Climates, &c. (The author
has perceived that, to arrive at the general knowledge of the in-
fluence of the seasons on the phenomenon of conception, it was
necessary to obtain the precise dates of a very large number of
births, and this number amounts to nearly fourteen millions ;
that secondary causes might modify the influence of the sea-
sons, and that unless his calculations could be established on
the broadest basis, they would be liable to error. M. Villermé,
in order to obtain a term of comparison, first collected from :va-
rious parts of France, the births from 1819 to 1825, the num-
ber of which amounts to 7,651,437. He then brought them
together, month by month ; and, after reducing them to the'tos
tal number of 12,000, in order to be the better able to compare
them, he inferred, in an absolute manner, the proportional births
of each month, and consequently the conceptions; but these births

380 Scientific Intelligence.—Statistics.

not having all been obtained in thé same populations, or under
the same influences, and consequently yielding different results,
according to these various influences, their numbers mutually
change, and the means obtained from this heterogeneous mix-
ture cannot afford accurate terms of comparison. This. error
occurs in nearly all the questions which M. Villermé. treats,
when, for that purpose, he is obliged to unite the births of se-
veral populations ; and, in making up our report, we might
perhaps have stopped here, had we not considered that the re-
searches which we were examining, being all similar in this re-
spect, might, to a certain.degree, be compared together; and
that, in consequence, the results at which M. Villermé has arri-
ved, might be presented to the Academy, not so correct.as they
would have been had not this error existed, but as at least
pretty probable. Besides, we had also to consider that this
collection of fourteen millions of births formed the chief essence
of our author’s investigation, and that his calculations would. al-
ways be susceptible of rectification, when the very regular tables
which contain these dates should be published. .The. first. ge-
neral result obtained by M. Villermé is, that the six months in.
which there are most births present themselves in the following,
order :—February, March, January, April, November, and
September; which refers the conceptions to the months of May,
June, April, July, February, and March. Consequently, the
greatest. number .of conceptions will take place, but without
much regularity, during the six consecutive months, which com-
mence between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, and.
finish between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox 3
in other words, during the time when the sun approaches our
hemisphere, and rises upon our horizon. This: general: fact,
therefore, confirms a truth, which has become trivial, in conse-
quence of its being long observed, and which is the influence
exercised by the sun, light and heat together upon the impulse.
to propagate. The images under which spring presents; itself
have been among all nations emblems of the power which reani-
mates life. and renders it fecund. ; From. this first fact, one
might be led to. think, that the months in which the sun lowers
most upon our horizon, are the least favourable to conception ;
and yet this is not the case: the period of the smallest number

Scientific Intelligence.—Statistics. 381
of conceptions is the autumnal equinox. Is this to be attributed
to the rest which, in each system of organ, seems to be the im-

mediate consequence of a great activity? This we shall not de-

gE Ei Si Ee

cide, and would only remark, that'this period of diminution of
the generative faculty in the human species is precisely that in
which the ruminating animals exhibit most power in this re-
spect. ‘This anomaly, presented by the period of the smallest
number of conceptions, has naturally led M. Villermé to maka
inquiries respecting the other exceptions, and it was the in-
fluence of meteorological phenomena that first attracted his at-
tention; for he has found, by his dates of births, that the years
which have followed those in which the summers were cold and
rainy, do not present the period of the minimum of births as in
ordinary years, but that in them that period is retarded, and,
consequently, the conceptions. From these meteorological in-
fluences, M. Villermé passes to those of climates, which afford
him a full confirmation of the first. The minimum of births in
the northern parts of France, is always manifested later than
the mean term which we have mentioned above; and, in the
southern parts, it shews itself earlier. Foreign countries also
confirm the general fact. In Holland and Denmark, the pe-_
riod of the minimum of births is retarded, while in several cities
of Italy, and at Buenos Ayres, it is advanced. Sweden, how-
ever, forms a very remarkable exception to this particular rule,
and goes to confirm the general rule ; and it is to be re marked,
that, if the temperature of the summers exercises a great in-
fluence upon the conceptions, that of the winters does not ap-
pear to exercise any ; at least M. Villermé has made this infe-
rence, from his observations respecting the winters of 1740-1741,

-1775-1776, 1783-1784, and 1788-1789... It is in the delete-

rious influence of marsh air, that M. Vilerme finds the princi-
pal cause of the period of the minimum of conceptions, and of
its protraction in proceeding from south to north. In conse-
quence of this, he directly searches for the effects of this in-
fluence in the tables of births, which have been furnished him
by the departments and towns which are most exposed to it;
and he has found that in fact all the marshy countries are re-
markable for the small number of conceptions, at the period
JULY—ocToOBER 1829. ce

382 Scientific Intelligence —Geography.

when the marshes pour their dangerous miasmata into the at-
mosphere, that is to say, im autumn. Thus, Aiguesmortes,
which is situated in the midst of marshes, which render it very
unhealthy, instead of 884 births, at the periods of their smallest
number in France, in general, does not yield. more than 628,
which is the mean term of the minimum of births for thirty
years in that town. Consequently, the marshes, as our author
judiciously observes, do not diminish the population, by in-
creasing the number of deaths alone, but also by attacking the
fecundity ; and it is by supposing that the early period at which
the frosts commence in the north prevent the marsh exhala-

tions, that. he explains the exception which Sweden: has pre- -

sented to him in the delaying of the mivimum of births, From
the examination of natural causes, M. Villermé passes to that
of the influence of some of our institutions; marriages, hard
work, times of festivity, and abundant food, of scarcity of food,
and of lent; and it is always in the same manner that he pro-
ceeds, that is to say, by consulting the tables of births, month
by month. . His inquiries respecting marriage have led him to
this remarkable result, that very few women conceive during the
Jfirst weeks of their union, and the season appears to have no
influence in this case. On the other hand, the periods of hard
work, that of harvest, for instance, do not seem to be more wn-
favourable to conception than the other periods of the year ;
while the contrary is the case with respect to the periods of rest

and abundance of food, especially in the northern countries. -

But France, in one particular circumstance, has also afforded a
‘striking example. The number of births greatly increased, and
afterwards diminished, at the period of the revolution, when

several imposts were suppressed, and the national lands were’

sold. From this result it might be inferred, and the inference
has been confirmed by example, that the scarcity of food, as
well as the periods of privation and penitence, would restrict
the number of births. In fact, the years of dearth, and the
periods of lent, exercise the same influence upon the conceptions,
both being causes of diminution of strength. It is with these
considerations that the memoir, of which we have given an ac-
count, concludes.

Scientific Intelligence —Geography. 383

40. Berlin Geographical Society—At the commencement of
the present year, ‘there was founded at Berlin a Geographical
Society, which, however, is not yet so flourishing as that of Pa-
ris. Tt does not yet give prizes, nor publish a journal, but con-
fines itself to its meetings, which, agreeably to the custom of the
country, are concluded by a jovial banquet. ‘The institution,
however, is one that cannot but be productive of good, in stch
a country as Germany, where geography has hitherto only been
cultivated by isolated individuals. Without doubt, the residence
of M. Humboldt in his native country has been one of the prin-
cipal causes of this establishment. At the head of its founders,
and in the capacity of director, is Professor Charles Ritter, a
gentleman whose works are well known in the learned world.
He has already, for several years, lectured with great success at
Berlin, upon general geography. His maps and his work on
Europe, have long ago attracted the public attention towards
him; but his more remarkable productions are the treatises
which he has devoted to Africa and Asia. In place of reducing
geography, as most of his predecessors did, to a mere list of
technicalities, he has made it a complete and philosophically con-

structed science. The Society possesses other very distinguished
members, who deserve praise for uniting their efforts in the

cause of science *.

* A French translation of Ritter’s two principal works is announced.
The Professor is to furnish to the translator additional information ; and
Messrs Abel-Remusat, Klaproth, and Jomard, and other distinguished geo.
graphers, are to contribute illustrations. We have always considered the geo-
graphy of Ritter, from its high merits, as deserving of being known by trans-
lation, to the geographers, and in the schools of this country.

ect:

| (884)

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

L Elements of Keteriaaty Pathology, and Theoretical nov Practical
View of the Medical and Surgical Treatment of the brinaine!
Domestic Animals. _ Paris, 1829. vegliters

In recommending this work to the attention of our act
we may express our opinion respecting the immense advantages
which might result to the study of the diseases of man; from
observations and experiments made upon the diseases of ani-
mals. The most happy results would probably be derived from
a union of medicine and the veterinary art in schools.: The
important advantages which have of late years resulted to phy-
siology from the study of animals, may serve to shew how like
advantages may be derived by medicine. It is not from human
physiology alone, nor from veterinary physiology considered by
itself, that these advantages have been obtained, but from general
physiology. As there is but one physiology, so ought there
also to be but one pathology ; and it is upon this general and
comparative pathology alone that the progress of veterinary
medicine, and especially of human medicine, must, henceforth
depend.

Il. The Journal of a Naturalist, Second Edition, 8vo. tn

Tuis delightful volume, which may be placed alongside
White’s Natural History of Selborne, one of the most agreeable
works: of the kind in our language, having already made a
triumphant round of the different reviews and journals, requires
no particular notice from us. We cannot, however, refrain
from extracting the following observations on Natural History,
which we are sure will be read with pleasure :— It is rather a
subject of surprise, that, in our general associations and com-
mixtures in life, in times so highly enlightened as the present,
when many ancient prejudices are gradually flitting away, as
reason and science dawn on mankind, we should meet with so
few, comparatively speaking, who have any knowledge of, or
take the least interest in, natural history ; or, if the subject ob-
tain a moment’s consideration, it has no abiding place in the

New Publications. 385
mind, being dismissed as the fitting employ of children and in-
ferior capacities. But the natural historian is required to at-
tend to something more than the vagaries of butterflies, and the
spinnings of caterpillars; his study, considered abstractedly
from the various branches of science which it embraces, is one
of the most delightful occupations that can employ the attention
of reasoning beings. A beautiful: landscape, grateful objects,
pleasures received by the eye or the senses, become the common
property of all who can enjoy them, being in some measure ob-
vious to every one ; but the naturalist must reflect upon hidden
things, investigate by comparison, and testify by experience ;
and, living amidst the wonders of creation, it becomes his occu-
pation:tonote and proclaim such manifestations of wisdom or
goodness as may be perceived by him. And perhaps none of
the amusements of human life are more satisfactory and digni-
fied than the investigation and survey of the workings and ways
of Providence in this created world of wonders, filled with his
never absent power: it occupies and elevates the mind, is inex-
haustible in supply, and, while it furnishes meditation for the
closet of the studious, gives to the reflections of the moralizing
rambler admiration and delight, and is an engaging companion
that will communicate an interest to every rural walk. We
need not live with the humble denizens of the air, the tenants
of the woods and hedges, or the grasses of the field; but, to
pass them by in utter disregard, is to neglect a large portion of
rational pleasure open to our view, which may edify and em-
ploy many a passing hour ; and, by easy gradations, will often
become the source whence flow contemplations of the highest
orders. Young minds cannot, I should conceive, be too strong-
ly impressed with the simple wonders of creation by which they
are surrounded... In the race of life they may be passed by, the
occupation of existence may not admit attention to them, or the
increasing cares of the world may smother early attainments,
but they can never be injurious, will give a bias to a reason-
ing mind, -and tend, in some after thoughtful sober hour, to
comfort and to soothe. The little insights that we have ob-
tained into Nature’s works, are, many of them, the offspring of
scientific research ; and, uncertain as our labours are, yet a brief
gleam will occasionally lighten the darksome path of the humble
inquirer, and give him a momentary glimpse of hidden truths.

386 New Publications.
Let not, then, the idle and the noneaee scoff at A eon
SS Le oe ihomgao 1
“No calling left, i ad obey ifiiomoe ot
to investigate a moss, a fungus, a ie or a shell, in ** sips o
pleasantness, and in paths of peace.” They : are all the forma-
tion ‘of Supreme intelligence, for a wise and a worthy end, and
may lead us, by gentle gradations, to a faint conception of the
powérs’ of infinite wisdom. They have calmed and amused
some of us worms and reptiles, and possibly bettered us for our
change to a new and more po order of keaes o

Ill. An Baeyoloperiia - Plants; comprising the scrip Spe-
cific Character, Culture, History, Application in the Arts, and
every other desirable particular respecting all the Plants indi-
genous, cultivated in, or introduced to Britain ; combining all
the advantages of a Linnean and Jussieuan Species Planta-
rum, an Historia, Plantarum, a Grammar of Botany, and a
Dictionary of Botany and Vegetable Culture. The whole in
English ; with the Synonyms of the commoner plants in the
different European and other Languages ; the Scienti ific Names
accentuated, their Etymologies explained, the Classes, Orders,
‘and Botanical Terms illustrated by Engravings ; and with
‘Figures of nearly Ten Thousand Species, exemplifying several
individuals belonging to every Genus included in the Work.
Edited by J. C. Lovpon, F. L. S. H.S. &e. wp yl
one large Volume 8vo. Price L.4: 14:6.)

‘Botany, as well as other branches of study, and of intellectual
‘employment, is making rapid strides. Hitherto, however, it
must be confessed that this delightful branch of natural history
has, in consequence of the more valuable books on the subject
being published in a dead language, been a sealed study to a
very large portion of mankind. As far as the plants of our
own country are concerned, the labours of Smith alone, ‘by his
introductory works, by his English Botany and his English
Flora, have brought botany within the compass of the humblest
capacity, without, at the same time, detracting from its scientific
character, But if any one unacquainted with the Latin Tan-
guage, had wished to become conversant with the characters and
properties of the plants that are cultivated in our gardens, there
was no book that would aid him in so laudable a pursuit.. We

New Publications. 387

have, then, seen announced, with more than ordinary pleasure,
an Encyclopedia of Plants, under the general direction of an ac-
tive and enterprising gentleman Mr Loudon, whilst the determ-
ing the characters of the genera and species, and what number of
them was to be introduced, were promised from the pen of Pro-
fessor Lindley. \ Under such auspices, the execution could not
fail to be such as would meet the wants and wishes of the bota-
nical public; and its appearance we have now to announce.
It must ‘not be supposed that the work includes all the species

of*plants known to exist, whether in gardens or herbaria; for

that would have extended it to a size, and incurred a cost,
which would have precluded many for whose use the publica-
tion is intended, from becoming the purchasers. But, as the
title-page expresses, it contains “ the description, specific cha-
tacter, culture, history, application in the arts, and every de-
sireable particular respecting all the plants, indigenous, culti-
vated in, or introduced to Britain.” Yet even this is circum-
scribed to the vegetable productions of the fields and the gar-
dens, for such has been the vast addition to our collections, con-
sequent upon the peace, and such our communications with all
parts of the world, that the number has extended to 2409 gene-
ra, and 16712 species. Now, if from these we deduct 2254, for
the British Cryptogamia, which cannot be cultivated, we have

_ the result 14,458 as the number at present actually ina state of

'
j

}

cultivation, or which has been grown in our gardens. Yet, with
the exception of such as are of British origin, and such as have
appeared in the costly periodical botanical publications of this
country, where, perhaps, upon the average, 4000 species may be
included, there has existed scarcely a work in the English lan-
guage in which they have been systematically arranged ; with-
out which method, all the endeavours of the student to deter-
mine any given species must often be in vain. We have stated
above the number of plants which have been introduced to our
gardens, as amounting to 14,458 known species. It is worth
while to mark the progress of our collections within the space of
thirty years; for no longer time has elapsed since the first edi-

_ tion of the Hortus Kewensis appeared ; from which period we

may date a desire in botanic gardens to cultivate plants generally,
without reference to their variety or beauty; and the Hortus

388 - New Publications.
Kewensis,as well as the Hortus Cantabridgensis, are considered
to indicate, not merely the plants of their own respective esta-
blishments, but those of ‘the gardens throughout the British
empire. | The first edition of the Hortus Kewensis (1'789), un-
der the direction of the elder Mr Aiton, contained 6600 species.
(The first edition of the Hortus Cantabridgensis, published in
1796, includes, however, only 3809 species.) We have then,
since 1789, an increase to our gardens of 8858 species. But
even this, brought down as it is, to the period of appearance of
the subject of ‘this article, the Encyclopaedia of Plants does not
give a fullvand correct idea of the acquisitions that our collec-
tions have recently made ; for, if we understand rightly a pas-
sage in the preface, the Kncyclopedia of Plarits' embraces the
state of the science, as connected with Horticulture:and British
Botany, ‘so far down only as the year 1822, when the: present
work was commenced. Another publication is announéed as in
progress, under the charge of the same indefatigable editor, with
the ttle of Hortus Britannicus, and which will contain a list of
the names of cultivated ‘and British plants, brought down to the
year 1828. We should convey a very imperfectidea of the-na-
ture of the Encyclopedia of Plants, were we only to: mention
‘that it contained the generic and specific characters of 16,712
‘species of plants which have grown on British soil.» These cha-
racters are accompanied by figures of nearly 10,000 of the
plants engraved on wood. When we say that these are exe-
cuted from drawings by Mr J.D. Sowerby, expressly for the
‘work, it will be at once conceived that their execution is good.
“It is indeed excellent ; and, considering the necessary smallness
of the figures, they are highly characteristic. . About one-fourth
of every page is thus occupied with engravings; and, though
many of them are so minute that, in the more difficult tribes,
such as'the Heaths, the Labiate, the Umbellifere, the Mosses,
and the Fungi, there must be great difficulty in recognizing
the identity of the species intended to be represented; yet, upon —
the whole, they cannot fail to be of great utility to the student,
-to further the cause of botany in a very eminent degree; and,
by the very facilities'which they afford to the pursuit, to create
a desire for a more intimate acquaintance with the species and —
properties of the plants thus beautifully represented. -Magni- —

New Publications. 389

fied dissections are, of course, incompatible with a work where
it is intended ‘to give as much useful information as possible, in
as small a compass ; yet, for the better illustration of the
Grasses. they are accompanied by analyses of the flowers. _The
parts that struck. us as being the least significant, and. the least
useful, are the figures illustrative of the Classes and Orders of
the Linnaan System, for these marks are confessedly artificial ;
and to him who knows what a stamen and what a style are, it is
equally easy to call to mind the presence of one or ¢wo stamens,
or of one or two styles, as to form the idea from their represen-
tation. The Tables of Abbreviations and References require

too much study ; and the old and highly characteristic
signs of Annual and Biennial, &c. are. sacrificed, we think,
without any advantage being gained in their room. Both, we
allow, require explanation ; but many persons are acquainted
with the old figures ; and innovations, except arising from some
adequate or superior motive, should be avoided. The arrange-
ment of the whole genera and species is aceording to Linnzus.
Following the characters of the genera, are the enwmerations
and characters of the species: the former (the enumeration)
occupying the left hand page, accompanied by the initials of its
author; the English name, duration, period of flowering, name
of the natural order to which it belongs, station, date of intro-
duction, reference to figures, &c. &c. the latter occupying the
same line, and headed by the same number on the opposite page.
Below the figures, a space is devoted to the culture, uses, his-
tory, derivation of the name, and a vast mass of useful obser-
vation and research, collected with great labour and no incon-
siderable judgment. A sketch of the Natural Arrangement,
also we presume from the pen of Professor Lindley, and a
Glossary of Terms, conclude the work...The whole, we may
confidently assert, form a book perfectly..sui generis. The
quantity of matter is truly astonishing ; and the entire publica-
tion is offered at a price so moderate (four and a half guineas),
that we can hardly dare to hope it will do more than cover the
expenses of the public-spirited booksellers, who have spared no
cost to render it, what we confidently pronounce it to be, the
most useful and the most popular botanical work that has ever
appeared in the English language.

( 390.)

List of Patents granted in England from 30th March to 19th
June 1829.

1829. ;

Mar. 30. To J. Lampert, Esq. of Liverpool Street, London, for “ an im.
provement in making iron, applicable to the smelting of the ore,
and at various subsequent stages of the process, up to the comple-
tion of the rods or bars, and for the improvement of the quality
of inferior iron.”

April 11. To W. Prior, of Albany Road, Camberwell, for “ improvements
in the construction and combination of machinery for securing,
supporting, and striking the top-masts and top-gallant masts of
ships.” :

14 To J. Linon, of Guernsey, but now residing at the Naval Club-
House, Bond Street, a Commander in our Royal Navy, for “ an
improved method of constructing ship’s pintles for hanging the
rudder.”

28. To H.R. Parmer, for “ improvements in the construction of ware-
houses, sheds, and other buildings, intended for the protection. of
property.”

To B. Coox, Birmingham, for “an improved method of making
rollers or cylinders of copper and other metals, or a mixture of
metals, for printing of calicoes, cloths, and other articles.”

To J.. Wricut, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for ‘“‘ improvements in
condensing the gas or gases produced by the decomposition of
muriate of soda, and certain other substances, which se
ment may also be applied to other purposes.”

To. P. PrcxertnG, Frodsham, Cheshire, and W. Demme, Li
verpool, merchants, for ‘“‘ having invented an engine, or machi-
nery to be worked by means of fluids, gases, or air, on shore or
on sea, and which they intend to denominate ‘ Pickering’s En-
gine.’ ”

To J. Davis, Lemon Street, sugar-refiner, for ‘¢ a certain improve-
ment in the condenser used for boiling sugar in vacuo.” ,

May 2. b G. W. Lex, Bagnio Court, Newgate Street, merchant, for

“certain improvements in machinery for spinning cotton and
other fibrous substances.”

To H. Bock, Esq. Ludgate Hill, for “ improvements in machinery
for embroidering or ornamenting cloths, stuffs, and other fa-
brics.”’

19. To J. Durron junior, Wotton Underedge, Gloucester, clothier,
for “ certain improvements in propelling ships, boats, and other
vessels, or floating bodies, by steam or other power.”

21. To M. Dicx Irvine, Ayr, for “an improved rail-road, and for
propelling carriages thereon by machinery, for conveying passen-
gers, letters, intelligence, packets, and other goods, with great

velocity.”

Listof English Patents. 391

1829.
May 28. To T. R. Wirt1aMs, Esq. Norfolk Street, Strand, for “ improve-
ments in the manufacturing of felt, or a substance in the nature
beset iapgtinntto to covering the bottoms of vessels, and other

_ 26, To T. Anwoxp, Hoxton, tin-plate worker, for “ an improved ma-
chine or gauge for the purpose of denoting the quality or strength
_ of certain fluids, or spirituous liquors, withdrawn from the vessel
; _. in which the same are contained; and which machine or gauge
a% aye 20 constructed’ abito eMect either ofthe ‘above objects
+ hs without the other, if required.”
NEU W Poors, St Michael on the Mount, Lincoln, smith, for
“improvements in machinery for propelling vessels, and giving
motion to mills and other machinery.”
To C. T. Sturtevant, Hackney, for “ improvements in the ma-
nufacturing of soap.”
To J.C. Danrett, Limpley Stoke, Bradford Wilts, clothier, for
_ “improvements in machinery applicable to the dressing of wool-
len cloth.”

28. To R. Wryans, Vernon, Sussex, State of New Jersey, North
America, resident in London, for “ improvements in diminishing
friction in wheeled carriages to be used on rail and other roads,

and which improvements are applicable to other purposes.”

ion 1. To W -Maywy, gent. Effra Road, Brixton, for “ having discovered
that, by application of compressed air, power and motion can be
communicated to fixed machinery, and to carriages, and other
eee, And 0.chipe,. vemea. aedivtier feating
bodies.”
To A. Gorrties, Jubilee Place, Mile-end Road, for “ improve-
ments on, or additions to, locks and keys.” |

4. To J. Smit, Bradford, York, for “ improvements in machinery
for dressing flour.”

To C. Broox, Meltham Mills, near Huddersfield, York, for “ im.
Sees 7 poe Oke eae oom

13. © seaman Cislieln, Cotabato; omi-daveetammenta in the
manufacture of iron heels and tips of boots and shoes.”

_ 19. To F. Day, Poultry, optician, and Avcuste Muncu, mechanic,
of the same place, in consequence of a communication made to
them by a certain foreigner residing abroad, and inventions by
themselves, for “‘ improvements on musical instruments.” ;

To C. Wueatstong, Strand, for “ improvements in the construc-
tion of wind musical instruments.”

To M. Poors, gent. Lincoln’s Inn, in consequence of a communi-
cation to him, made by a certain foreigner residing abroad, for
“ improved machinery for preparing or kneading dough.”

( 392)»

List of Patents granted in Scotland from 1st July to Tth Sep-
tember 1829.

oo!

1829.

July 1. To Ontaypo Harris Wittiams of North Nibley, in the county
of Gloucester, Esq. for an invention of “ certain improvements i in
machinery or apparatus for propelling ships or other vessels on
water, and which are also applicable to undershot water wheels.”

1. To Jonnw Bratruwarre and Joun Ericsson, engineers, of New
Road, Fitzroy Square, in the county of Middlesex, for an in.
vention of “ a mode or method of ch verting iqalay’ into vapour
or steam.”

8. To Jouy Linon of Guertisey, but now residing at the Naval Club

“| House, Bond Street, in the county of Middlesex, Commander
in his Majesty’s Navy, for an invention of “ an improved me-
thod of constructing ships’ pintles for hanging the rudder.”

Aug. 4. To James MiLwe of Edinburgh, architect, for an invention of “a
machine or engine for dressing of stones used in masonry, by
the assistance of a steam-engine, a wind, a ‘horse, or @ water
power, whereby a great quantity of manual labour will be
saved.”

14. To Ricuarp Witttams of Tabernacle Walk, io the county of
Middlesex, civil engineer, for an invention of * certain improve-

ments in the application of elastic dense fluids tothe propelling
or giving motion to Machinery of various descriptions.”

28. To Barnarp Henry Broox of Huddersfield, in the county of
York, civil engineer, for an invention or “ improvement in the
construction and setting of ovens or retorts for carbonizing
coals for the use of gas works.”

28. To Moses Poote of the Patent Office, Lincoln's Inn, Gent., in
consequence of a communication made to him by a certain fo-
reigner residing abroad, for “an invention te oete pestered

¢ machinery for preparing or kneading dough.” —_.

28. To Peter Ricsy Mason of the Middle Témple, Es. Sadler.
. at-law, for an invention of “ a certain Segre the article
commonly called stick sealing wax.’””

Sept. 2. To Wiit1am Ramszorrom of Manchester, inthe Coty! ie nies

_ caster, journeyman iene :nnin the eae
improvements in power looms for weaving cloth”

2. To Joun Boast of Albany Street, Gent. and Tuomas Smiru of
Augustus Street, both in the Regent’s Park; for an invention of
“‘ certain improvements’on machines or machinery for scraping,
sweeping, cleaning and watering street-roads and other ways,
which mye or 7 uy be ‘applied’ to” other pur-

ty oben”

7. To Joun Lavin 4 the town of Nottingham, machinist, for an in-
vention of “‘ certain improvements on machinery for making lace,
commonly called bobbin net.”

( 393 )

INDEX.

Alligators of Guiana, Dr Hancock's account of the, 303
Anatomists, hints to, 195
Animal kingdom, remarks on its syrsy td sol amit 152

Astronomy, notices in, 193
Aurora borealis, its effects on the magnetic needle, 360

Barclay, Alexander, Esq. his account of the land-crabs of Jamaica, 280

Beavers, colony of, discovered in Prussia, 369
M., his remarks on the inflaence of dlncéticity del thie Soren
of inorganic bodies, 354
Bicephalous child, account of one, 197
Blowpipe, colours communicated to the flame of the, 341
Bones of ia discovered in calcaire grossier, 367
——— of different classes of animals, analysis of, 375
Bose, M. Cuvier's biographical account of, 274
Botany, notices in, 199, 375
Bovista gigantea, notice respecting a specimen of, $77
Bromine in salt springs, 366
, M., his remarks on colours communicated by the flame

ner oF

Cat, supposed origin of, 369 ; inquiries the, 309
Caves ic remains, 159, 368
Cavities fluid in rock salt, 111

ities containing
ox pdm olla abd wor Pur A
i from July 1. to October 1. 1829, 189 ; from Oc-
tober 1. 1829 to January 1. 1830, 351
Chamzleon, Mr Houston's observations on the tongue of the, 161
peer dient 363
two heads, 197 -
Christie, Dr A. This sccount ofthe Southern Mabratta country, 49
Climate of Sennar, 96 ; of New South Wales, 93
Clinkstone, C. G. Gmelin’s account of, 68
Coalwork, account of the inundation of one, 237
Collections of rocks and minerals in Great Britain, 113
Collier, Mr Charles, his observations on univalves, 225
Coldness of the late spring, 360
Conybear, W. D., Esq., his answer to Dr Fleming’s view of the evi-
dence as to the former temperature of the northern regions, 142
Comet of Encke, observations on the, 193
Continuity of the animal kingdom by generation, 152

394 INDEX.

Crabs of Jamaica, Mr Barelay’s account of the, 280

Cruickshank, Prof., his account of an | extraordinary case of se
refraction, 254

Crystallization, remarks on, 365

Cuvier, Baron, his account of the state of Natural. History, 1 ; biograh
of M. Pinel, 205; of M. Bosc, 274. a ,

Cypreea, formation of the shell of, 374

Dahlia, notice respecting the, 378 Qonos!
Darwinia, Brunsfelsia, &c., Mr Don's remarks on, 83.
Dekay, Mr, notice by him respecting Squalus maximus, 372
Dog, supposed origin of the, 369

Domestic animals, researches into the natural history of the, 309
transported from the Old to the New Continent, 326, ..
Don, Mr David, his observations on Darwinia, &e.t3 Ma Palen
Doornik, Dr, his remarks on organic remains, 72 ps
Dry pile, influence of meteorological phenomena on the; 357

Earthquakes on the Mississippi, Mr Flint’s account of, 262
Electricity, its influence on the form of certain inorganic bodies, 354
Electricity, metallic, notice respecting, 356

Elements of vegetable pathology, notice respecting, 384 hodlte
Encyclopedia of plants, Loudon’s, notice of, 386 wae
Ergot in maize, M. Roulin’s remarks on the, 207

Fleming, Dr, Mr Conybeare’ s answer to his view. of the, soikenine as, a.t0:

the former temperature of the northern regions, 142.
Flint, Mr, his account of earthquakes on the Mississippi, 262
Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, notice respecting it, 200 |
Flourens, M. his account of hibernation, 219
on the action of the spinal marrow in respiration, 388 aay
Fossil organic remains in the Caves of Bize, 159
Dr Doornik’s remarks on, 72
Werner’s views of, 72
Forbes, J. D. Esq. his account of a greenstone boulder, 259

- Forest, submarine, Rev. Mr Smith’s account of one in Tires; 125

Fungi, method of preserving, 375
Galena from Castleland Hill, Mr Robertson’s analysis of, 257.
Geographical society of Berlin, 383

Geology of the Meywar district, Mr Hardie’s account of the, 16. r

Geological collections in Great Britain, 113

Germination, notice respecting experiments on, 376)

Giraffe, remarks on the, 196

Gmelin, C. G. his account of clinkstone, 68

Graham, Dr, his account of new or rare plants in Edinburgh. Botanic
Garden, 178, 344 wsilte

Greenstone boulder, Mr Forbes’ s deseription of one, 259... wb

Hancock, Dr John, his account of the alligators of Guiiha, 303 —

of a red pigment, 283

Hardie, James, Esq. his account of the geology of the Méyivnt tie
trict, 116

ae

INDEX. 395

Herring and Mackerel, Major Maryioan\s, eleeryasions.om.thhe ssigner
tion of the, 317 ys EP
Hibernation, and the action of cold on animals, 219
Houston, John, Esq. his account of the tongue of the chameleon, 161
Human remains discovered in caves in France, 368
Hydrography, notices in, 194,
its influence on mortality, 378
Innes, Mr George, celestial phenomena calculated by, 189, 351.
ef climate, Sc. notice of, Dr. Clark's, work, so. called; 202...
Insufflation of animals, experiments on the, 37!
Inundation of a coal-work at Beaujone, 237
Todine in salt springs, 366

Journal of a Naturalist, notice respecting it, 384
Jungfrau, account of an ascent to the summit of the, 14!

Land-crabs of Jamaica, 280

Limestone deposite containing animal matter, 366

Lyell, Charles, Esq. his remarks on the excavation of valleys, 15
account of the tertiary fresh-water formation of Aix, 287.

Mackerel, Major Morrison's observations on the migration of, 317
Mahratta country, Dr Christie’s account of the, 49.

Magnetic needle, influence of the aurora borealis on the, 193.
Malaria, M. Villermé’s remarks on its influence on human life, 193.
Metallic electricity, notice respecting, 356
Meteorological phenomena, their influence on dry piles, 357
Meteorology, notices in, 193, 360

Meywar district, Mr Hardie’s account of the geology of the, 116 ©
Mineralogical collections in Great Britain, 113

Mollusca, terrestrial, capable of being transported alive, 374 -
Molluscous animals, mode of killing, 373

Mohs, Sir Frederick, account of, 251

Mole, remarks on the vision of the, 340

Monsters, human, 196, 197

Mortality, influence of indigence upon, 378 ae
Mountains, relative age of, 299

Murchison, R. J. Esq. his remarks on the excavation of valleys, 15
account of the fresh-water tertiary formation of Aix, 287
Natural history, Baron Cuvier’s account of the present state of, 1
sg etek Esq. his description of cavities in rock-salt, 111

height of the, 195
Patents granted in England, 203, 390; in Scotland, 204, 392
remarks on their extent, 272
Palzotheria, bones of, discovered near Paris, 367
Pigeon without brain, 372.
Pinel, M. Philippe, Baron Cuvier’s account of, 205
Plante Asiaticz rariores, notice respecting, 200
Plants flowering in Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 178, 344
Polish for wood, 323
Prickle in the lion’s tail, 371
Publications, new, notice respecting, 200, 384

396 INDEX.

Rain, extraordinary, at Bombay, 194 ;

Red pigment called Carucru, Hancock’s account of the, 283

Refraction, atmospheric, extraordinary case of, 254

Rice-paper, made of the pith of a plant, 375

Robertson, Mr W., his analysis of a spring near Inverkeithing, 99—
analysis of galena from Castleland, 257

Roulin, M., his account of the ergot in maize, 217——of changes pro-
duced in domestic animals, 326.

Savart, M., his inquiries respecting the structure of bodies which crys-
tallize regularly, 365

Serres, M. Marcel de, his account of the circumstances which accom-
panied the deposition of the tertiary formation, 264

Shell, formation of that of Cypraa, 374

Shells, univalve, observations respecting,

Siberia, M. Kupfer’s journey to, 194

Sloane, Mr J. F., his remarks on thirst in snow-clad countries, 65

Smith, Reverend C., his account of a submarine forest in Tiree, 125

Sow, impression made by the foot of the, 285

Spinal marrow, M. Flourens on its action in respiration, 338

Spittal, Mr R., his account of the footmarks of the sow, 285-——notice
respecting a large bovista, 377

Sprat, notice respecting the, 372

Spring near Inverkeithing, analysis of the water of a, 99

ualus maximus, account of, 372

St Hilaire, M. G., on the vision of the mole, 340-——on the eontinuity
by generation of animals,

Stevenson, Mr R. junior, his account of the footmarks of the sow, 285

Storm in Mediterranean, with Castor and Pollux lights, 361

Sulphuric acid, native, 364

Tale and mica, notice respecting, 364

Tape-worms found in water, 374 -

Tapir, account of a new species of, 155

Thirst in snow-covered countries, 65

Tertiary formations, M. de Serres on the circumstances which have ac-
companied the deposition of the, 264

Thorine, a new earth, 363

Unicorn, remarks on the, 196

Univalve shells, Mr Collier's observations on, 225. _

Valleys, Messrs Lyell and Murchison on the excavation of, 15
Websterite in the plastic clay of Auteuil, 363

Werner's views on organic remains, 72

Wernerian Society, proceedings of, 192

Werner's advice to the students of geology, 72

Wood, account of the German polish for, 323

Zoology, notices in, 195, 369

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