THE

EDINBURGH NEW

PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

^'l^^S\

THE

EDINBURGH NEW

PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL,

KXHIBITING A VIEW OF THE

PROGRESSIVE DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS

IN THE

SCIENCES AND THE

CONDUCTED BY

ROBERT JAMESON,

REGIUS PHOFESSOR 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 ; Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy ; of the
Royal Society of Sciences of Denmark ; of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin ; of the Royal Academy of
Naples ; of the Geological Society of France ; Honorary Member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta ; Fellow of
the Royal Linnean, and of the Geological Societies of London ; of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, and
of the Cambridge Philosophical Society ; of the Antiquarian, Wemerian Natural History, Royal Medical, Royal
Physical, and Horticultural Societies of Edinburgh ; of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland ; of
the Antiquarian and Literary Society of Perth ; of the Statistical Society of Glasgow ; of the Royal Dublin
Society ; of the York, Bristol, Cambrian, Whitby, Northern, and Cork Institutions ; of the Natural History So-
ciety of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle ; of the Imperial Pharmaceutical Society of Petersburgh ; of
the Natural History Society of Wetterau ; of the Mineralogical Society of Jena ; of the Royal Mineralogical So-
ciety of Dresden ; of the Natural History 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 Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia ; of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York ; of the Natural History Society of Montreal ; of
the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanical Arts ; of the Geological
Society of Pennsylvania ; of the Boston Society of Natural History of the United States ; of the South African
Institution of the Cape of Good Hope ; Honorary Member of the Statistical Society of France ; Member of the
Entomological Society of Stettin, &c. &c. &c.

APRIL 1846 .... OCTOBER 1846.

VOL. XLI.
TO BE CONTINUED QUARTERLY.

EDINBURGH :

ADAM Sc CHARLES BLACK, EDINBURGH:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN & LONGMANS, LONDON.

1846.

Pni¥TED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH.

CONTENTS.

PAGR

Art. I. Is it possible, in the present state of our knowledge,
to foretel what Weather it will be at a given
time and place ? Have we reason, at all events, to
expect that this problem will one day be solved,?
By M. Arago, Perpetual Secretary of the French
Academy of Sciences, &c. &c. : —

State of the weather cannot be predicted — Limits of
the Mean Temperature of years, &c. — Effects of Arc-
tic Ice on the Climate of Europe — Temperature of
the Sea as affected by diminished Transparency —
Effects of Localities on Climates — Obscurations of
the Atmosphere — Effects of Woods on Climates —
Effects of Lakes on Climates — Atmospherical Elec-
tricity— Rain — Earthquakes — Kindling fires to pro-
^ duce rain, ..... 1

n . On the Ichthyological Fossil Fauna of the Old Red
Sandstone. By Professor Agassiz : —

Zoological Sytems — Geological Epochs — Development
of Animality — Real Affinities in the Animal King-
dom— Con temporary Appearance of the Classes of In-
vertebrate Radiata, viz., — Acephala — Gasteropods —
Cephalopods- — Articulata — Infusoria — Nothingness
of Material and Pantheistical Theories — Earliest
Fishes — Value of Geological Formations — Probable
Number of Fossil Fishes — Complete Fossil Fish
Fauna — Reign of Fishes — Embryonic state of the
Oldest Fishe8--<-No Vertebras in Old Red Sandstone

11 CONTENTS.

Pishes— Extraordinary Development of the Cuta-
neous System — Heterocercal Tail of the Old Red
Sandstone Fishes — Embryonic Age of the Reign of
Fishes — Cephalaspides — Dipterians — Acanthodi-
ans — Celacanthes — Placoides — Serial Classifications
to be renounced — Great Diversity of Species in the
Devonian System, . . . . 17

III. On the Classification of Birds, and particularly of the

Genera of European Birds. By John Hogg,
Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. Communi-
cated by the Author, 50

IV. Marine Deposits on the margin of Loch Lomond.

By the Rev, J. Adamson, . . . .72

V. Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the
Geological Society of London, on 20th February
1846. By Leonard Horner, Esq., V.P.R.S.,
President of the Society : —

Geology of Russia — Silurian Rocks — Devonian Rocks
— The Carboniferous Series — Theories of the For- .
mation of Coal — Permian System — Secondary Rocks
— Cretaceous Rocks — Tertiary Deposits — Metamor-
phic Rocks, . . . . . 75

VI. On the Surface of the Moon. By Captain Rozet, . 128

VII. Observations on the Principle of Vital Affinity, as il-

lustrated by recent discoveries in Organic Che-
mistry. By William Pulteney Alison, M.D.,
F.R.S.E., Professor of the Practice of Medicine
in the University of Edinburgh, &c., . 132

VIII. On the Constitution and Properties of Picoline, a new
Organic Base from Coal-Tar. By Thomas An-
derson, M.D., F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Chemistry,
Edinburgh, . . . .146

IX. Description of a Water-Wheel, with Vertical Axle,
on the plan of the Turbine of Fourneyron, erected
at Balgonie Mills, Fifeshire. By Joseph Gor-
don Stuart, Esq., F.R.S.S.A. (Communicated
by the Royal Scottish Society of Arts), . 166

CONTENTS. Ill

PAGK

X. On the Indian Tribes inhabiting the North-West
Coast of America. By John Scouler, M.D.,
F.L.S. (Communicated by the Ethnological So-
ciety), . . . . .168

XI. On the "Winds, as influencing the Tracks sailed by
Bermuda Vessels ; and on the Advantage which
may be derived from Sailing on Curved Courses
when meeting with Progressive Revolving Winds.
By Governor Reid of Bermuda, . . 192

XII. Origin of the Constituent and Adventitious Minerals

of Trap and the allied Rocks. By J. D. Dana, 196

XIII. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh : —

1. On Scottish Madrepores, with Remarks on the Cli-
matic Character of the Extinct Races. By the Rev.

Dr Fleming, ..... 203

2. On the Influence of Contractions of Muscles on the
Circulation of the Blood. By Dr Wardeop, . 204

3. On the Solubility of Fluoride of Calcium in Water,
and the relation of this property to the occurrence
of that substance in Minerals, and in recent and
Fossil Plants and Animals. By Dr G. Wilson, 205

4. Notice of Polished and Striated Rocks recently dis-
covered on Arthur Seat, and in some other places
near Edinburgh. By David Milne, Esq., . 206

XIV. List of Patents granted for Scotland from 23d March

to 22d June 1846, . . .208

Ebratum.

In page 111, second line from bottom, after the word anthracite, insert a
comma, and in place of Two — two.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Art. I. On the Ancient City of the Aurunci, and on the Vol-
canic Phenomena which it exhibits ; with some
Remarks on Craters of Elevation, on the distinc-
tion between Plutonian and Volcanic Rocks, and
the theories of volcanic action which are at present
most in repute. With two Plates. By Charles
Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry
and Botany in the University of Oxford. Com-
municated by the Author, . . . .213
II. Miscellaneous Observations, chiefly Chemical. By
John Davy, M.D., F.R.S. , Lond. and Edin.,
Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. Commu-
nicated by the Author, . . . .265

III. Origin of the Constituent and Adventitious Minerals

of Trap and the Allied Rocks. By James D.
Dana, 263

IV. Observations on the Principle of Vital Affinity, as

illustrated by recent observations in Organic Che-
mistry. By William Pulteney Alison, M.D.,
F.R.S.E., Professor of the Practice of Medicine
in the University of Edinburgh, . . . 272

V. On the Constitution and Properties of Picoline, a new
Organic Base from Coal-Tar. By Thomas An-
derson, M.D., F.R.S. E., Lecturer on Chemistry,
Edinburgh, ...... 291

VI. On the Cause of Induration of some Siliceous Sand-
stones. By John Davy, M.D., F.R.S,, Lond.
and Edin., Inspector of Army Hospitals. Com-
municated by the Author, .... 300

U CONTENTS.

PAGE

VII. Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the
Geological Society of London, on 20th February
1846. By Leonard Horner, Esq., V.P.R.S.,
President of the Society : —

Metallic Products — Changes in the Relative Level of
Sea and Land — Boulder Formations and Erratic
Blocks — Palaeontology — Conclusion, . .303

VIII. On certain Phenomena presented by the Glaciers of
Switzerland. By M. Escher de la Linth.

With a Plate, 344

IX, An Account of Thermo-Electrical Experiments. By
Mr R. Adie, Liverpool. Communicated by the

Author, 352

X. Account of a Remarkable Cave in the Island of Bar-
badoes, commonly called '* Cole's Cave." By.
John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., Lond. and Edin., &c.
&c. Communicated by the Author, . .355

XI. On the Natives of Guiana. By Sir Robert Schom-
BURGK. With a Plate. Communicated to the
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, by the •
Ethnoloigical Society of London. With a Plate, 361
XII. On the Limits of the Atmosphere, and on Compensa-
tion Pendulums. By Henry Meikle, Esq.
Communicated by the Author, . . .385

XIII. Analysis of the American Mineral Nemalite. By

Arthur Connell, Esq., Professor of Chemistry
in the University of St Andrews. Communi-
cated by the Author, 387

XIV. General Considerations on the Organic Remains, and

in particular on the Insects, which have been
found in Amber. By Professor J. Pictet, . 391

XVII. Remarks on Ancient Beaches near Stirling. By
Charles Maclaren, Esq., F.R.S.E. Communi-
cated by the Author, .... 402

XVIII. On the Great Thunder Storms and Extraordinary
Agitations of the Sea, on the 5th July and 1st
of August 1846. By Richard Edmonds jun.,
Esq. Read at the Penzance Natural History, on
the 11th August 1846, .... 412

XIX. Eleventh Letter on Glaciers ; Addressed to Professor
Jameson. (1.) Observations on the Depression
of the Glacier Surface. (2.) On the Relative
Velocity of the Surface and Bottom of a Glacier.
With a Plate. By Professor J. D. Forbes, 414

CONTENTS. Ill

PAOK

XX. Scientific Intelligence i —

METEOROLOGY AND GEOLOGY.

1 . Sulphur in the Atmosphere. 2. On the Cleavage of

Slate-Strata. 3. Earthquake in Tuscany, August 19, 421

PALAEONTOLOGY.

4. Discovery of New Species of Fossil Frog in the Ter-
tiary Formations of Osnabruck. 5, Two New. Spe-
cies of Fossil Bat in the Tertiary Formation of
Weisenau, . . . . -424

ZOOLOGY.

6. The Lion, as an article of Food. 7. On a Gigantic
Stag, Cervus Euryceros, Aldr. ; Megaceros, Hart.;
Oiganteus, Galde. By Dr E. EiCHWALD. 8. On
the Respiratory Apparatus of Birds. By M. Na-
TALis GuiLLOT and M. Sappey. 9. On the Com-
parative Anatomy of the Vocal Organs of Birds.
By Professor Muller. 10. Physiological Remarks
on the Statics of Fishes. 11. Red Colour of the
Blood in the Planorbis imbricatus. By M. DE
QuATREFAGES. 12. On the Development of the
Annelides. By M. Sars. 13. On the Development
of the Hearing Apparatus in the Mollusca. By Dr
H. Frey, . . . . 425

XXI. New Publications received, . . . . 431

XXII. List of Patents granted for Scotland from 23d June

to 22d September 1846, . . . 434
Index, 437

LIST OF PRIZES OFFERED BY THE ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY
OF ARTS FOR SESSION 1846-47.

The ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARTS proposes to award Prizes of
different values (none to exceed Thirty Sovereigns), either in Gold or Silver
Medals, Silver Plate, or Money, for approved Communications relative to In-
ventions, Discoveries, and Improvements in the Mechanical and Chemical Arts
in General, and also to means by which the Natural Productions of the Country
may be made more available ; and, in particular, to —

I. Inventions, Processes, or Practices from Foreign Countries, not generally
known or adopted in Great Britain — such as the Manufacture of Glass Pipes
for conveying Water, Gas, &c.

II. Notices of Processes in the Useful Arts practised in this Country, but not
generally known.

III. Experiments applicable to the Useful Arts.

IV. Practical Details of Public or other Undertakings of National Import-
ance, not previously published.

V. Discovery of Substitutes for Hemp and Flax, &c.

VI. Inventions, Discoveries, or Improvements in the Useful Arts, includ-
ing the Mechanical and Chemical; and in the Mechanical Branch of the Fine
Arts ; such as the following, viz. : —

1. Mechanical Arts.
1. Methods of rendering large supplies of Water available, for the purpose
of extinguishing Fires ; and the best application of Manual, or other Power,

( iv )

to the working of Fire-Engines — of Filtering Water in large quantities — of
Kcouomising Fuel, Gas, &c. — of Preparing Superior Fuel from Peat — of Pre-
venting Smoke and Noxious Vapours from Manufactories — of Warming and
Ventilating Public Edifices, Private Dwellings, &c. — of Constructing Econo-
mical and Salubrious Dwellings for the Working Classes, especially in Towns
— of Making Cheap and Wholesome Bread from Maize, or Buckwheat, or
from Mixtures of these with other Substances.
2. Inventions or Improvements in the Manufacture of Iron and other Me-
tals, simple or alloyed — in the Manufacture of Writing and Printing Paper
— in Tuyeres for Blast Furnaces — in the Making and Tempering of Steel —
in Gilding Brass equal in Colour to the French — in Artificial Pavement — in
Balance, Pendulum, or Electro-Magnetic Time-Keepers — in Screw-cutting —
in Printing-Presses — in Stereotyping, and in cleaning the plaster from the
Types — in Furnaces and other Apparatus used in Stereotyping — in Type-
Founding — in the Composition of Printers' Rollers^ — in Ship-Building, with
regard to Ventilation, both for the Crew and the Timbers — in Currying and
Tawing of Leather — in Preparing Black Polished Leather equal to the French
— in Stationary and Locomotive Engines — in Railway Wheels and Axles —
in Railway Telegraphs and Signals — in Smith- Work and Carpentry — in
Tools, Implements, and Apparatus for the various trades — in Electric, Vol-
taic, and Sfagnetic Apparatus.

2. Chemical Arts.
Improvements in Fine Glass for Optical Purposes, free from Veins, and of a
Dense and Transparent quality, equal or superior to the best Continental
Glass — also in hard Infusible Glass for Chemical Purposes — in the Annealing
of Glass — in the Manufacture of Writing Inks, both Common and Copying,
so as to flow freely from Metallic Pens — in the Dissolving of Caoutchouc, and
applying it to useful purposes.

3. Relative to the Fine Arts.
Improvements in Patterns of Porcelain, Common Clay or Metal, of Domestic
Articles of simple and beautiful Forms, without much Ornament, and of one
Colour — in the Preparation of Lime and Plaster for Fresco Painting, and in
appropriate Tools for laying the Plaster with precision — in Calotype, Da-
guerreotype, and Electrotype — in the Production of Artificial Light as nearly
of the quality of Day-Light as possible — in Engraving on Stone — in the ap-
plication of Daguerreotype and Calotype to the Stone for Lithographic Print-
ing— in Die-sinking — in Wood-cutting and other methods of illustrating
Books to be printed with the Letter-Press — in Printing from Wood-cuts, &c.
— in Ornamentel Metallic Casting' — in Constructing Buildings on the most
correct Acoustic Principles.

The SOCIETY also proposes to award the KEITH PRIZE, value Thirty

Sovereigns,
For some important " Invention, Improvement, or Discovery, in the Useful
Arts, which shall be primarily submitted to the Society," betwixt and 1st
April 1847.

By order of the Society,

James Tod, Secretary.
Edinburgh, 13tA April 1846.

THE

EDINBURGH NEW

PHILOSOPHICAL JOUENAL.

Is it possible, in the present state of our knowledge, to foretel
what Weather it will be at a given time and place ? Have
we reason, at all events, to expect that this problem will one
day be solved ? By M. Arago, Perpetual Secretary of the
French Academy of Sciences, &c. &c.

Engaged as I am, both from inclination and duty, in
meteorological studies, I have often asked myself if we should
ever be able, by a reference to astronomical considerations,
to determine, a year in advance, what shall be the state, in
a given place, of the annual temperature, the temperature of
each month, the quantities of rain compared with the ordi-
nary mean, the prevailing winds, &c.

I have already laid before the readers of the Annuaire the
results of the investigations undertaken by natural philoso-
phers and astronomers, regarding the influence of the moon
and of comets on the changes of the weather. These results
clearly shew, in my opinion, that the influences of both these
bodies are almost insensible, and, therefore, that the predic-
tion of the weather can never be a branch of astronomy, pro-
perly so called. And yet our satellite and comets have, at
all periods, been considered as preponderating stars in meteor-
ology.

Since the publication of these opinions, I have regarded
the problem in another aspect. I have considered whether
the operations of man, and occurrences which will always re-
main beyond the range of our foresight, might not be of such

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. A

2 State of the Weather cannot be Predicted,

a nature as to modify climates accidentally, and in a very
sensible manner, in particular with regard to temperature.
I already perceive that facts w^ill answer in the affirmative.
I should have wished, however, not to publish this result till
after I had finished my investigations ; but I must frankly
own, that I wished to have an oppoHunity of protesting
decidedly against the predictions which have every year been
attributed to me^ both in France and in other countries. Never
has a word escaped my lips, either in private or in the
course which I have delivered for upwards of thirty years ;
never has a line published with my consent, authorised any
one to imagine it to be my opinion that it is possible, in the
present state of our knowledge, to announce, with any degree
of certainty, what weather it will be a year, a month, a week,
I shall even add, a single day, in advance. May the indigna-
tion I have felt at seeing a multitude oi ridiculous predictions
appear under my name, not constrain me, by the force of re-
action, to give an exaggerated degree of importance to the
disturbing causes I have enumerated ! At present, I believe
that I am in a condition to deduce from my investigations the
important result which I now announce ; Whatever may be
the progress of the sciences, NEVER ivill observers who are trust-
worthy^ and careful of their reputation^ venture to foretel the
state of the weather*

* This explicit declaration may give me a right to expect that I shall no
longer be compelled to play the part of Nostradamus or Mathew Laensberg ;
but I am far from indulging in any illusion on this subject. Hundreds of per-
sons who have gone through a regular course of university studies, will not
fail, in 1846, as they had done on former occasions, to ply me with such ques-
tions as the following, which it is truly pitiable to hear in the present day :
Will the winter be severe ? Think you that we shall have a warm summer, a
humid autumn ? This is a very long and destructive drought ; do you think
it is near an end ? People think that the April moon will produce great mis-
chief this season — what is your opinion ? &c. &c. In spite of the little confi-
dence 1 have in predictions, I affirm that in this case the event will not deceive
me. Nay, for some years past have I not been put to a still severer proof?
Has not a work been published, entitled " Lectures on Astronomy, delivered at
the Observatory by M. Arago, collected by one of his Pupils ? " I have protested a
dozen times against this work ; I have shewn that it swarms with inconceivable
errors ; that it l9 beneath all criticism whenever the author ceases to employ
ills scissors on the notices of the Annuaire, and is reduced to the necessity of

Limits of the Mean Temperature of Years, §fc. 3

I repeat, that the readers of the Annuaire ought not to
expect to find here a complete investigation of the problem
which I have taken up. My sole intention is to lay before
them a few facts, which, taken in connection with those which
I shall analyse in a second notice, appear to me to lead to
this conclusion.

Between what limits the mean temperatures of years and months
vary in our climates.

The meteorological state of a given place, is much less
variable than those would be led to believe who judge of it
by their personal sensations, by vague recollections, or the
condition of the crops. Thus, at Paris, the mean tempera-
ture of years ranges witiiin very narrow limits.

The annual mean temperature of Paris, from 1806 to 1826
inclusive, has been + 10°*8 centigrade (54°*4 Fahr.) The
greatest of 21 annual means does not exceed the general mean
by more than l°-3 (2°-3 F.) ; the lowest of the mean annual
temperatures has been found below the general mean only by
1°*4. (2°-5 F.) As far as relates to mean annual temperatures,
systematic meteorologists have, therefore, no need of foresight
to predict only slight perturbations. The causes of distur-
bance will satisfy all the phenomena, if they can produce,
more or less, l°-5 of centigrade variation (2°-7 F.)

It is not the same with regard to the months. The differ-
ences between the general means and the partial means
extend, in January and December, to 4 and 5 centigrade
degrees (7° to 9° F.)

drawing a few lines from his own resources. Vain efforts ! These pretended
Lectures on Astronomy at the Observatory have, however, reached no less than
a fourth edition. The laws have made no provision against what I shall call
this scientific calumny. What must be done when the law is silent ? Submit with
resignation ? A sensitiveness which will not appear surprising to any who have
seen the book in question, will not allow me to be satisfied with resignation.
My position having become intolerable, I have made up my mind to publish
myself the Lectures which have been so outrageously disfigured. Since it has
become necessary, I shall abandon for a time the plans for original investiga-
tions which I had formed, and devote the time I wished to employ in delicate
experiments, fitted to illustrate points of the science still enveloped in great
obscurity, to the preparation of a work intended to popularise astronomy.
May this work be in some degree useful.

4 Limits of the Mean Temperature of Years.

In consequence of these variations, if we compare the ex-
treme temperatures of each month with the mean or normal
temperatures of all the rest, we shall find : —

That the month of January is sometimes as temperate as

the mean of the month of March.
That the month of February sometimes resembles the

mean second fortnight of April, or the mean first fort-
night of January.
That the month of March sometimes resembles the mean

of the month of April, or the mean of the second fort-
night of January.
That the month of April never reaches the temperature of

the month of May.
That the month of May is pretty frequently, in the mean,

warmer than certain months of June.
That the month of Jurie is sometimes, in the mean, warmer

than certain months of July.
That the month of July is sometimes, in the mean, warmer

than certain months of August.
That the month of August is sometimes, in the mean,

slightly colder than certain months of September.
That the month of September is sometimes, in the mean,

colder than certain months of October.
That the month of October may be, in the mean, nearly 3^

(5°'4 F.) colder than certain months of November.
That the month of November may be, in the mean, about

5°-5 (about 10° F.) colder than the warmest months of

December.
That the month of December may be, in the mean, 7°

(12°-6 F.) colder than the month of January.

Disturbing causes of Terrestrial Temperature which cannot be
foreseen.

The atmosphere which, on a given day, rests upon the sea,
becomes in a short time, in mean latitudes, the atmosphere
of continents, chiefly from the prevalence of westerly winds.
The atmosphere derives its temperature, in a great measure,
from that of the solid or liquid bodies which it envelops.
Every thing, therefore, which modifies the normal tempera-

Effects of Arctic Ice on Climate of Europe. 5

ture of the sea, produces, sooner or later, perturbations in
the temperature of continental atmospheres. Are those
causes, which may sensibly modify the temperature of a con-
siderable portion of the ocean, placed for ever beyond the
foresight of man \ This problem is closely connected with
the meteorological question I have undertaken to consider.
Let us endeavour to find the solution of it.

No one can doubt that the ice-fields of the Arctic pole —
the immense frozen seas — exert a marked influence on the
climates of Europe. In order to appreciate in numbers the
importance of this influence, it would be necessary to take
into account at once the extent and position of these fields ;
but these two elements are so variable that they cannot be
brought under any certain rule.

The eastern coast of Greenland was in former times
accessible and well peopled. All of a sudden an impene-
trable barrier of ice interposed itself between it and Europe.
For many ages Greenland could not be visited. About the
year 1815 this ice underwent an extraordinary breaking up,
became scattered in a southerly direction, and left the coast
free for many degrees of latitude. Who could ever predict
that such a dislocation of the fields of ice would take place in
such a year rather than in another \

The floating ice which ought to act most on our climates,
is that known by the English name of icebergs. These moun-
tains of ice come from the glaciers, properly so called, of
Spitzbergen or the shores of Baffin's Bay. They detach them-
selves from the general mass, with a noise like that of thun-
der, when the waves have undermined their base, and when
the rapid congelation of rain-water in their fissures produces
a sufficient expansion to move these huge masses and push
them forward. Such causes, and such eff\jcts, will always
remain beyond the range of human foresight.

Those who remember the recommendations which the
guides never fail to give upon approaching certain walls of

6 Effects of A rciic Ice on Climate of Europe,

ice, and the huge masses of snow placed upon the inclined
ridges of the Alps; those wlio have not forgotten that, accord-
ing to the affirmations of these experienced men, the report
of a pistol, or even a mere shout, may produce frightful cata-
strophes, will agree in the opinion I have just expressed.

Icebergs often descend without melting, even to pretty
low latitudes. They sometimes cover immense spaces ; we
may therefore suppose that they sensibly disturb the tempera-
ture of certain zones of the oceanic temperature, and then,
by means of communication, the temperature of islands and
continents. A few instances of this will not be out of place.

On the 4th October 1817, in the Atlantic Ocean, 46° 30'
north latitude. Captain Beaufort fell in with icebergs advan-
cing southwards.

On the 19th January 1818, on the west of Greenspond, in
Newfoundland, Captain Daymont met with floating islands.
On the following day, the vessel was so beset with ice that
no outlet could be seen even from the top-masts. The ice,
for the most part, rose about 14 English feet above the water.
The vessel was carried southwards in this manner for
twenty-nine days. It disengaged itself in 44° 37' latitude,
120 leagues east of Cape Race. During this singular im-
prisonment. Captain Daymont noticed upwards of a hundred
icebergs.

On the 28th March 1818, in 41° 50' north latitude, 53° 13'
longitude west of Paris, Captain Vivian felt, during the whole
day, an excessively cold wind blowing from the north, which
led him to suppose that ice was approaching. And, in fact,
on the following day, he saw a multitude of floating islands,
which occupied a space of upwards of seven leagues. " Many
of these islands,'' says he, " were from 200 to 250 English
feet high above the water.''

The brig Funchal^ from Greenock, met with fields of ice on
two diflierent occasions, in her passage from St John's, New-
foundland, to Scotland ; first on the 17th January 1818, at the
distance of six leagues from the port she had left ; and after-
wards, in the same month, in latitude 47° 30'. The first

Temperature of Sea Affected by Diminished Transparency. 7

field was upwards of three leagues broad, and its limit in a
northern direction could not be seen. The second, likewise
very extensive, had an immense iceberg in its centre.

On the 30th March 1818, a sloop of war, The Fly, passed
between two large islands of floating ice in 42 degrees of
north latitude.

On 2d April 1818, Lieutenant Parry met with icebergs in
42' 20' of north latitude.

This year (1845) the English vessel Bochefort continued
enclosed, at the end of April and beginning of May, for
twenty-one consecutive days, in a mass of floating ice, which
ran along the bank of Newfoundland, advancing to the south.

The sea is much less easily heated than the land, and
that, in a great measure, because the water is diaphanous.
Every thing, therefore, w^hich causes this diaphaneity to vary
considerably, will produce sensible changes in the tempera-
ture of the sea, immediately after in the temperature of the
oceanic atmosphere, and, somewhat later, in the temperature
of the continental atmosphere. Do causes exist, indepen-
dently of what science discovers to us, which may interfere
with the transparency of the sea to a great extent ? Let
the following be my answer : —

Mr Scoresby has shewn, that, in northern regions, the
sea sometimes assumes a very decided olive-green colour;
that this tint is owing to medusae and other minute animal-
culse ; and that wherever the green colour prevails the water
possesses very little diaphaneity.

Mr Scoresby occasionally met with green bands, which
were from two to three degrees of latitude (60 to 80 leagues)
in length, and from 10 to 15 leagues broad. The currents
convey these bands from one region to another. We must
suppose that these do not always exist ; for Captain Phipps,
in the account of his voyage to Spitzbergen, makes no men-
tion of them.

As I have just stated, the green and opaque portions of
the sea must become heated in a manner difi'erent from the
diaphanous parts. This is a cause of variation in the tem-

8 Temperature of Sea Affected bfj Diminished Transparency.

perature which can never be subjected to calculation. We
can never know beforehand whether, in such and such a
year, these countless myriads of animalculae will be more or
less prolific, and what will be the direction of their migration
southwards.

The phosphorescence of the sea is owing to minute animals
of the medusa kind. The phosphorescent regions occupy
very large spaces — sometimes in one latitude, sometimes in
another. Now, as the water of the phosphorescent spaces
is quite turbid, and as its diaphaneity is almost entirely
destroyed, it may become, by its abnormal heating, a cause
of notable disturbance in the temperature of the oceanic
and continental atmospheres. Who can foresee the intensity
of this cause of thermic variation ? who can ever know be-
forehand the place which it occupies ?

Let us suppose the atmosphere immobile and perfectly
clear. Let us suppose, moreover, that the soil has every-
where, in an equal degree, absorbhig and emissive properties,
and the same capacity for heat; we should then observe
throughout the year, as the effect of solar action, a regular
and uninterrupted series of increasing temperatures, and a
corresponding series of decreasing temperatures. Each day
would have its invariable temperature. Under every deter-
mined parallel^ the days of the maximum and minimum of
heat would be respectively the same.

This regular and hypothetical order is disturbed by the
mobility of the atmosphere ; by clouds more or less exten-
sive, and more or less permanent ; and by the diverse pro-
perties of the ground. Hence the elevations or depressions
of the normal heat of days, months, and years. As disturb-
ing causes do not act in the same way in every place, we
may expect to see the primitive figures differently modified ;
to find comparative inequalities of temperature where, from
the nature of things, the most perfect equality might have
been looked for.

Nothing is better calculated to shew the extent of these
combined disturbing causes, than the comparison of mean

Effects of Localities on Climates. 9

epochs, indicating the maxima and minima temperatures in
different places. The following are some of these results : —

St Gothard, )
(10 years.) ]

Home,
(10 years.)

Jena,
(18 years.)
Petersburg,
(10 years.)

Paris, \
(21 years.) j

Maximum.
11th August.

6th August.

1st August.

22(1 July.

15th July.

Minimum.
24th December.

8th January.

3d January.

8th January.

14th January.

{51 and 3 days after
the solstice,
f 46 and 18 days after
I the solstice.

and 14 days after
the solstice.

I 31 and 18 days after
\ the solstice.

I 25 and 25 days after
\ the solstice.

These differences belong to the localities. But when con-
cealed local circumstances exert so much influence, is it not
natural to think that the modifications which they receive
from the hand of man may sensibly alter, in the interval of
a few years, the meteorological type of every town in Europe ?

1 have shewn that local circumstances which are latent,
or at least faintly characterized, may exert sensible and con-
stant influences on the manner in which the maxima and
minima of temperature are distributed in the year. When
science shall be put in possession of exact and comparable
meteorological observations, made simultaneomly in different
places ; when these observations shall be scrupulously and
judiciously digested, we shall very probably find that circum-
stances of locality will occupy a much more prominent place
in science than natural philosophers seem now disposed to
attribute to them. It would not be difficult for me, at this
moment, to mention circumscribed districts which have com-
pletely escaped the severe colds to which the surrounding
countries were subjected. The Sables d'Olonne, for example,
and the neighbouring districts, six leagues in circuit, formed,
during the winter of 1763 and 1764, a kind of thermal oasis.
The Loire was frozen near its mouth ; an intense cold of — 10
degrees centigrade (14° F.), interrupted all agricultural ope-
rations in the districts which the river traverses. In the Sables
the weather was mild : this little canton escaped the frost.

The following is a still more extraordinary fact than the
preceding, for it takes place every year.

10 Obscurations of the Atmosphere.

There is in Siberia, M. Erman has informed us, an entire
district, in which, during tlie winter, the sky is constantly
clear, and where a single particle of snow never falls.

I am willing to overlook the perturbations of the terres-
trial temperatures which may be connected with a greater or
less abundant emission of light or solar heat, whether these
variations of emission depend on the number of spots which
are found accidentally scattered over the sun's surface, or
whether they originate in some other unknown cause ; but it
is impossible for me not to draw the reader's attention to the
obscurations to which our atmosphere is from time to time
subject, without any assignable rule. These obscurations,
by preventing the light and solar heat from reaching the
earth, must disturb considerably the course of the seasons.

Our atmosphere is often occupied, over spaces of consider-
able extent, by substances which materially interfere with
its transparency. These matters sometimes proceed from
volcanoes in a state of eruption. Witness the immense
column of ashes which, in the year 1812, after having been
projected from the crater of the island St Vincent to a great
height, caused at mid-day a darkness like that of night in
the island of Barbadoes.

These clouds of dust appear, from time to time, in regions
where no volcano exists. Canada, in particular, is subject
to such phenomena. In that country recourse has been had,
for an explanation, to the burning of forests. The facts do
not always appear to agree exactly with this supposition.
Thus, (m 16th October 1785, at Quebec, clouds of such ob-
scurity covered the sky, that it was impossible, even at noon,
to see in what direction one was going. These clouds covered
a space of 120 leagues in length by 80 broad. They seemed
to come from Labrador, a country very thinly wooded ; and
they presented none of the characters of smoke.

On the 2d July 1814, clouds similar to the above sur-
rounded some vessels in the open sea on their way to the
River St Laurence. The great obscurity lasted from the
evening of the 2d till the afternoon of the 3d.

With regard to the object we have here in view, it is of little

Effect of Woods on Climates. 11

importance whether we ascribe these clouds, capable as they
are of completely obstructing the solar rays, to the burning
of forests and savannahs, or to emanations from the earth.
Their formation, and their arrival in a given place, will remain
equally beyond the predictions of science ; the variations of
temperature, and meteors of every kind which may be caused
by these clouds, will never be pointed out beforehand in our
meteorological almanacs.

Tlie accidental darkening of the air, in 1783, embraced so
extensive a space (from Lapland to Africa), that it was as-
cribed to the matter belonging to the tail of a comet, which,
it was alleged, had mingled with our atmosphere. It is out
of the question to maintain that an accidental state of the
atmosphere, which enabled us, for a period of nearly two
months, to look at the sun at mid-day with the naked eye,
was without influence on terrestrial temperatures.

Forests cannot fail to exercise a sensible influence on the
temperature of the surrounding regions ; because, for ex-
ample, snow remains there for a much longer time than in
the open country. The destruction of forests, therefore,
ought to produce a modification in our climates.

In given instances, what is the precise influence of forests,
estimated by the centigrade thermometer \ The question is
very complicated, and has not hitherto been solved.

In all very mountainous regions, the valleys are traversed
by periodical diurnal breezes, particularly sensible in May,
June, July, August, and September. These breezes ascend
the valleys, from seven or eight o'clock in the morning to
three or four in the afternoon, the time when they reach their
greatest force, and from four o'clock to six or seven in the
evening. For the most part they blow with the force of a
decided wind, and sometimes with that of a violent wind ;
they must, therefore, exert a sensible influence on the
climates of the countries which lie around these valleys.

What is the cause of these breezes \ Every thing concurs
to shew that the cause is to be found in the manner in
which the solar rays warm the central mass whence these

12 Effect of Lakes on Climate

valleys radiate. Suppose this mass to be naked, then you
have a certain effect ; substitute tufted forests for arid rocks,
and the phenomenon w^ill assume another character, at least
with regard to intensity.

This is one of the twenty ways in which the clearing of
woods affects climates. Before putting his hand to the task
of arranging his predictions, the manufacturer of almanacs
ought, therefore, to enter into a correspondence with all the
wood-cutters of every country.

In North America, the interior of the continent does not
enjoy, in the same latitudes, the same climate as the coasts.
By the influence of lakes, this difference disappears with re-
spect to all the points where the distance from these great
masses of water is not considerable.

We must, therefore, expect that the drying up of a lake
will modify the climate of the neighbouring region ; and that
a vast inundation, arising from the unexpected rupture of a
barrier, will produce for a time an opposite effect.

If any one should exclaim against me on seeing me regis-
ter causes, each of which, taken by itself, does not seem capa-
ble of producing a very great effect, my reply would be, — ^We
have to consider an influence as a whole, and in every case
the perturbations which it is our object to explain, are far
from being so extensive as the public supposes.

According to Howard, the mean temperature of London
exceeds that of the neighbouring country, about a centigrade
degree (V'% F.)

The difference between the two tempe|*atur^s is not the
same at all seasons.

Eiectridty,

We could not well avoid arranging electricity among the
causes which have a striking influence on climatological phe-
nomena. Let us go farther, and inquire whether the opera-
tions of man may disturb the electrical state of an entire
country.

Clearing the wood from a mountain is the destruction of a

Atmospherical Electricity/. 13

number of lightning-conductors equal to the number of trees
felled ; it is tlie modification of the electrical state of an en-
tire country ; the accumulation of one of those elements in-
dispensable to the formation of hail, in a locality where, pre-
viously, this element was dissipated by the silent and inces-
sant action of the trees. On this point, observations sup-
port theoretical deductions.

According to a detailed statistical account, the losses oc-
casioned by hail in the continental states of the king of Sar-
dinia, from 1820 to 1828 inclusively, amount to the sum of
forty-six millions of francs. Three provinces, those of Val
d'Aoste., the Vallee de Suze, and Haute Maurienne^ do not ap-
pear in these tables ; they were not visited with hail storms.
The mountains of these three provinces are the best wooded.

Of the warmest provinces, that of Genoa, the mountains
of which are well covered, is scarcely ever visited by this
meteor.

Atmospheric electricity gives rise to phenomena, which
are immense from their extent. They seem, however, to owe
their origin to causes purely local. Their propagation like-
wise takes place under circumscribed influences, in particu-
lar zones, and these sometimes rather narrow.

On the 13th July 1788, in the morning, a hail-storm com-
menced in the south of France., traversed, in a few hours, the
whole length of the kingdom, and thence extended to the
low countries and Holland.

All the districts in France injured by the hail, were situated
in two parallel bands, running south-west and north-east.
One of these bands was 175 leagues long ; the other about
200.

The mean breadth of the most western hail band was 4
leagues, the other only 2 leagues. On the space between these
two bands, rain only fell ; its mean breadth was 5 leagues.
The storm moved from the south to the north with a rapidity
of about 1 6 leagues an hour.

The damage occasioned in France, in the 1039 parishes
visted by the hail, appeared, from official inquiry, to amount
to twenty-five millions (one million sterling.)

14 Atmospherical Electricity.

This, certainly, must be regarded as a considerable at-
mospheric commotion, whether we regard the material de-
vastation it produced, or the influence which the displace-
ment of the air, and the mass of hail deposited on the sur-
face of two long and broad bands of country, must have ex-
ercised on the normal temperature of a great number of
places. Could meteorologists, however skilled, have been able
to foresee it?

The origin of the two bands was in the district of Aunis,
and in Saintonge. Why there, and not elsewhere ? Why
did not the storm commence at another point of the parallel
of latitude, passing by its meridional extremities % Because,
it will be answered, in Aunis and in Saintonge, on the 13th
July 1788, the conditions of electricity and temperature were
eminently favourable for the production of a hail-storm, and
an accompanying hurricane directed from the south-south-
west to the north-north-east. Admitted ; but were not these
thermal and electrical conditions favourable to the produc-
tion of a storm, ultimately connected with agricultural oper-
ations, with the existence of such and such a mass of trees,
with the state of irrigation, with circumstances varying ac-
cording to the wants and caprice of men ? With regard to
temperature, no one can hesitate in his reply. In the other
particular, the connection will appear not less evident if I
bring to mind that evaporation is a fertile source of electrici-
ty, and that various natural philosophers have even included
vegetation among the causes which generate this same fluid
in the atmosphere.

If it be true, as has been alleged, that, in certain cases, the
flame and smoke which issue from the mouth of a furnace,
or from the chimney of a manufactory, may deprive the atmo-
sphere of all electricity for many leagues around, the prophets
in meteorology, will be placed in an additional difficulty. It
will be necessary that they should know beforehand all the
plans of the masters of forges and proprietors of manu-
factories.

According to all that we most certainly know respecting
the physical cause of water-spouts, and according to M.

Bain — Earthquakes. 15

Espy's theory, sometimes no more is necessary than an as-
cending current produced by the chimney of a manufactory,
to give rise to one of these formidable meteors.

Bain.

It is said to have been remarked in Italy, that, in propor-
tion as rice-lields multiply, the annual quantity of rain has
gradually increased, and that the number of rainy days has
augmented in proportion.

Can it be imagined, that such circumstances as these can
ever be taken into account, in the combinations of the alma-
nac-manufacturers ]

In the tropical regions of America, the natives regard re-
peated shocks of earthquake, as veelcome precursors of ferti-
lizing rains. Humboldt even relates, that violent shocks sud-
denly brought on the rami/ season, a considerable time before
the ordinary period.

It is not probable that the influence of earthquakes is ex-
erted only in the vicinity of the equator. The povt^er of
predicting rain must, therefore, suppose an anticipatory know-
ledge of the number and strength of the shocks, which are to
be felt in the region for which the astrologer works.

The following passage occurs in Bacon's works : — " Some
historians allege that, at the time when Guyenne was still
in the power of the English, the inhabitants of Bordeaux and
the neighbouring cantons made a request to the king of
England, to induce him to prevent his subjects of the coun-
ties of Sussex and Hampton, from burning the heaths in the
end of April, as they usually did ; because they thereby gave
rise, it was affirmed, to a wind which proved very hurtful to
their vines."

I know not how far there were grounds for this request,
as the distance of Bordeaux from the county of Sussex is very
considerable ; but I must not fail to mention, that natural
philosophers are now disposed to assign a no less extraor-
dinary part to conflagrations. In the United States, a well
known philosopher, M. Espy, adopting the opinions prevalent

IG Kindling Fires to Produce Bain.

among the natives of the New Continent, from Canada to Pa-
raguay, has recently proposed to produce, in times of drought,
artificial rains, and his means of doing so is by kindling
large fires.* In support of his scheme, M. Espy mentions
the following : —

The opinion of the Indians of Paraguay, who, according to
the report of the missionaries, set fire to vast savannahs
when their crops are threatened with drought, and allege
that they thus produce even storms accompanied with thunder ;

The opinion of the colonists of Louisiana, and the success
from time immemorial of burning the prairies in that State ;

The opinion of the population of Nova Scotia, respecting
the consequences of burning forests ;

The opinion and practice of the colonists of the districts
of Delaware arid Otsego, &c., &;c.

M. Espy says, that he has assured himself, in various ways,
that the climate of Manchester has undergone gradual and
sensible modifications, in proportion as manufacturing indus-
try has increased. Since that city has become, so to speak,
a vast furnace, it rains there 7nore or less every day. Those
who pretend that the deterioration of the climate is not so
considerable, assure us that it does not rain at Manchester
more than six days in the seven !

Suppose these facts to be as averred. The predictions of
rain, in a given place, will often be overturned by accidental
fires, and by the fires of manufactories.

Space and time will not allow me to point out the multi-
tude of local causes which may exercise a great influence on
the direction and force of the wind. I shall discuss this de-
licate question in another notice. At present, I shall confine
myself to a remark well-fitted to enlighten those who, from
want of meteorological instruments, take for their guides the

* It has long been an opinion entertained by the peasantry in the south of
Scotland (we know not whether the belief prevails elsewhere), that muir-burn,
or the burning, in the spring, of old heather and other plants, in order to pro-
duce a more tender and nutritious vegetation, a practice which was once very
general, has a decided tendency to produce a change of weather, and to bring
on rain. — Ed.

Zoological Bystems. 17

state of the crops and of vegetation. It may be expressed in
the following formulary ; the wind exercises a direct action
on vegetables, often ^gv^ injurious, and which ought to be
carefully distinguished from climatological action. It is
against this direct action, that curtains of wood, by forming
a shelter, are especially useful.

The direct influence of the wind, on the phenomena of vege-
tation, is nowhere more strikingly exemplified than in the
Isle of France. The south-east wind, very healthy both for
man and animals, is, on the contrary, a perfect scourge to
the trees. Fruit is never found on the branches directly ex-
posed to this wind ; none is to be found but on the opposite
side. Other trees are modified even in their foliage ; they
have only half a head, the other has disappeared under the
action of the wind. Orange and citron trees become superb
in the woods. In the plain, and where they are without shel-
ter, they always continue weak and crooked.*

Ow the Ichthyological Fossil Fauna of the Old Bed Sandstone.
By Professor Agassiz.

The greater part of zoological treatises, which embrace
the natural history of the animal kingdom in its whole ex-
tent, represent animals as forming a continuous series, set-
ting out with the Zoophytes, and terminating in Man, pass-
ing through the intermediate types of radiata, mollusca, ar-
ticulata, and vertebrata. Sometimes they place the mol-
lusca, at other times the articulata, in the second or third
rank, according to the ideas their authors have formed of the
superiority of these types. Others, while they admit a gra-
dation of animals from the invertebrate to the vertebrate, do
not uniformly construct an ascending scale of the former
in order to reach the latter, but place the radiata in the in-
ferior degree of organization, and, by diverging in two dif-
ferent directions, pass to the mollusca and articulata, wiiich
they regard as parallel groups, afterwards converging to-

* Annuaire pour I'an 1846.
VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. B

18 Zoological Systems.

wards the vertebrata, as towards the culminating type of
animality. Others admit many series, whether parallel, or
diverging and variously combined ; each according to his own
views. Finally, there are others who consider the great
divisions of the animal kingdom, as well as the particular
classes, as equivalent groups, which do not admit of grada-
tion, and each of which represents a separate mode of exist-
ence, as perfect in its sphere as any other group whatever.
According to this mode of viewing the subject, there can be
no gradations in nature.

It is evident that if these systems are true, they ought to
be confirmed by the study of fossil animals, and their mode
of existence in anterior creations. Now none of these modes
of considering the subject appears to me to answer to the
primitive order of things, such as the study of fossils has
enabled me to observe in the relations which have existed
from the most ancient times between all the classes of the
animal kingdom.

The first important fact opposed to these systems being
regarded as a true and complete expression of the natural
relations which connect organized beings with each other, is
the certainty which we have acquired, for about a quarter of
a century, that the animals now living on the surface of the
globe constitute but a small proportion of those which for-
merly inhabited it. And if this be the case, must not any
attempt to unite all animals in the same plan, in classifica-.
tions founded only on the study of living species, be extremely
arbitrary, especially since it has been demonstrated that the
appearance and disappearance of extinct types correspond
to determinate epochs 1 Accordingly, the necessity of a more
complete system is felt more strongly every day, in propor-
tion as we discover a greater number of extinct genera, fami-
lies, and even entire orders. The systems which regard the
animal kingdom, viewed as a whole, as produced all at the
same time, as composed of contemporaneous types, and ca-
pable of being placed in the same rank, with regard to their
natural value, evidently do violence to primitive relations, and
to the chronological order of creation. Before proceeding to
classify organized beings, it is neccessary, in our day, to

Geological Epochs. 19

form, in the first place, a correct idea of the period of their
appearance. This manner of viewing biological questions has
become as essential as the organization itself of living be-
ings, taken as the basis of their systematic arrangement. In
order to acquire a truly philosophical knowledge of animals
in general, we ought, therefore, to endeavour, before every
thing else, to determine the state of the animal kingdom at
the time of its first appearance on the surface of the globe ;
then to study the organic changes it has undergone in the
different epochs which have preceded the establishment of
the present order of things ; and, lastly, to specify, as far as
possible, the geological limits of these intermediate changes.
At no period have geologists made greater and more constant
eff'orts than in our own day, to determine the relative ages of
the diff^erent formations which constitute the stratified crust
of our globe, and the rigorous limits of formations. These
investigations have naturally led to a greater subdivision of
the epochs hitherto admitted as distinct. As the study of
fossils has been pursued with an always increasing accuracy,
so it has furnished means of characterising them, always in-
creasing in precision. To such a degree has this been the
case, that the opinion which admits many distinct and inde-
pendent creations, is always obtaining more and more in-
fluence in the minds of palaeontologists. It is even easy to
foresee that in a little we shall be obliged to circumscribe
the limits of geological formations more and more, in pro-
portion as the knowledge of characteristic fossils, peculiar
to the different stages of the formations actually admitted,
shall more evidently represent them to us as independent
systems, differing at once from those that have preceded and
followed them. We shall thus be led to admit a very con-
siderable number of independent creations, each character-
ised by a particular assemblage of peculiar vegetable an4
animal species, imbedded in a system of strata deposited dur-
ing the existence of these organized beings, or in conse-
quence of the cataclysms which attended their destruction.
Ere long we shall have to do, not merely with primary, se-
condary, or tertiary epochs, nor even simply with palaeozoic,
triassic, Jurassic, or cretaceous periods, but rather with cam-

20 Development of Animality.

brian, silurian, devonian, coal, permian creations, &c., ad
assemblages of organized beings equivalent to the whole liv-
ing beings now on the surface of the globe, or as geological
epochs which, from their importance, admit of comparison
with that to which we belong, and which goes back to the
establishment of the order of things which prevails on the
earth in our own day. Indeed, I have no doubt that the
truth of what I now affirm will, in a few years, be generally
admitted, and that the greater part of the subdivisions of our
present classification of geological formations, will be regard-
ed as independent formations, and the fossils which they
contain as representatives of distinct creations. To be con-
vinced of this, we have only to follow the progress of the
most recent discoveries in palaeontology. I need only refer
to the works which have been published within the last fif-
teen years. The examination of genera, in countries the
most remote, confirms these anticipations. I require no other
proof than the beautiful discoveries of M. Lund respecting
the fossil bones of Brazil, and the no less important researches
of Messrs Falconer and Cautley on those of the sub-Hima-
layan hills. Everywhere, in the end, we discover, within
very restricted vertical and horizontal limits, assemblages of
fossil species as considerable as those with which we become
acquainted by the study of the richest living faunas within
similar geographical limits.

The study of the fishes of the old red sandstone, will fur-
nish, I hope, a new argument in favour of the theory I advo-
cate.

In order to point out more distinctly the ichthyological
characters of the epoch during which these formations were
deposited, it will not be superfluous to pass rapidly in review
the phases of development in the principal types of animality
at the principal epochs of their metamorphoses, and then
shew in what manner these types were combined in the se-
ries of time. This will be the best introduction to the ge-
netic study of the affinities of the presently existing fami-
lies of the animal kingdom. Not wishing to bring forward
a complete system in this place, I shall confine myself to
laying before the reader the immediate consequences of the

Heal Affinities in the Animal Kingdom, 21

facts, both zoological and geological, which have of late been
most carefully studied ; for the agreement between the zoo-
logical affinities and the geological division of types in the
series of formations is so striking, especially in certain
classes which have of late been the object of particular study,
that I think it may now be laid down as a fact, that sytema-
tic classifications which are not, at the same time, the ex-
pression of the succession of families in the order of time,
can no longer be considered as expressing the real affinities
existing among the animals which they embrace. The most
fortunate approximations which naturalists have attempted
at different epochs, have really received a striking confirma-
tion by modern palaeontological discoveries, and that often
when those to whom we owe them were unconscious of it.
These results are so striking, that even now, in some classes
of animals, the knowledge of fossils, and their order of suc-
cession, may serve us as a guide to correct the zoological
system, just as, on the other hand, the advanced state of our
anatomical knowledge will lead us to a correct determination
of the geological age of certain deposits, even although v, e
should not discover in them any fossil species identical with
those of well-determined formations of the same era. I shall
even go further, for I can now foresee the time when these
results will equally harmonise with the laws of the geogra-
phical distribution of animals on the surface of the globe ;
but the facts relating to this order of connection are not yet
sufficiently known to induce me to enter upon the considera-
tion of them on this occasion.

The most important result of modern palaeontological re-
searches, in reference to the present question, is the fact, no
longer open to dispute, of the simultaneous appearance of
particular types of all classes of invertebrate animals, from
the most ancient periods of the development of life on the
surface of the globe. We find, in fact, in the palaeozoic forma-
tions, the fossil remains of radiata, mollusca, and articulata.
We may even admit that the first representatives of all the
classes of the three great branches are contemporaneous, for
we find Polypes, Echinoderma, Acephala, Gasteropods,Cepha-
lopods, and Testaceous and Crustaceous Vermes, in the most

22 Contemporary Appearance of Classes of Invertebrata.

ancient fossiliferous formations ; and if we have not hitherto
discovered any Medusae, it is much more natural to ascribe
their absence to their extreme softness, than to suppose that
they did not accompany, in ancient times, the types of the
other classes of invertebrate animals, with which we always
and everywhere find them associated in the presently- exist-
ing creation. Some of them, indeed, have been found at So-
lenhofen. With regard to insects, their existence has been
already ascertained in the coal-formation, which, in my opi-
nion, is much more intimately connected with the palceozoic
than with the secondary formations, by the whole of its or-
ganic characters. It is, therefore, now demonstrated, that
all the classes of invertebrate animals have appeared on the
surface of the globe at the same time, and that they go back
to the most ancient geological epochs; whence it follows, in
a manner the most unquestionable, that we can no longer
continue to regard them as forming a progressive series in
their appearance, as has been so long imagined. For the de-
tail of facts, and the nominal enumeration of species, I refer
to the important works of Murchison, De Verneuil, D'Archiac,
De Keyserling, and Roemer, on the palseozoic formations and
their fossils ; reserving for myself only a fevv observations on
the vertebrate series, when I come to speak of the fossil fishes
of the old red sandstone in particular.

Our actual knowledge of fossil Polypiers, taken as a whole,
not being yet so far advanced as that of the living species, and
the Acalephae not having hitherto been observed, except in
a few secondary deposits, I think I may dispense with speak-
ing of them in this place, without any apprehension of there-
by weakening the general results which flow from the par-
ticular examination of the other classes of invertebrate
animals.

The interesting researches of MM. Miller, Goldfuss,
D'Orbigny, Th. and Th. Austin, J. Miiller, and Leop. de
Buch, on living and fossil Crinoides ; those of MM. J. E.
Gray, J. Miiller, and Troschel, on the Asterise and Comatulse;
my own, and those of MM. Valentin and Desor, on the living
and fossil Echinidse, including their anatomy ; those of Profes-
sor E.Forbes, and my own, on the Echinoderms in general, and

Badiata. 23

those of M. Tiedemann and many modern authors on their
anatomy, have enabled us, of late years, to acquire a more
complete acquaintance with these animals, than with those
of any other division of the department of radiata, with the
single exception of living polypes. Accordingly, the relations
of the living and fossil types of the class of Echinoderms
now appear in the most evident manner. The Crinoides are
the prototype of the whole class. Not only does geology
shew this, but also what we know of the first states of some
species of this family {Comatula and Fentacrinus Europwus)
equally confirms it. We may even say that the Crinoides
present us with a kind of synthesis of all the families of this
class, by the different forms they assume ; for example, in the
Cystides which remind us of theEchinidse.or in theMelocrines,
which make a near approach to the Asterise. It is only the
Holothurise which seem to be exclusively confined to the pre-
sent creation, and this family is precisely that which occupies
the highest rank among the Echinoderms; while the Crinoides
which occur at the lower part of this series, would appear to
be the first ; then come the Asterise, already numerous in the
triassic formations; and, finally, the Echinidae, whose greater
development characterises the Jurassic, cretaceous, and ter-
tiary formations. But each of these formations has its par-
ticular forms, and even its own genera ; the Crinoides of
the palaeozoic formations are not the same as those of the se-
condary formations, and they disappear almost entirely in
the cretaceous and tertiary deposits, being no longer repre-
sented in the actual epoch, but by a few fixed species, and
by Comatulae, which go back, it is true, as far as the Jurassic
formations, but which approximate, in many respects, to true
Asteriae. The latter, in their turn, are represented in many
formations by particular genera, which are still imperfectly
known, with the exception of some types belonging to the
chalk, of which well preserved specimens have been found in
England. Lastly, the Echinidae, so abundant in the superior
secondary and in the tertiary formations, here everywhere
appear under new forms ; so that the genera of the existing
creation do not go back, for the most part, beyond the ter-
tiary formations, with the exception of the Cidaris, spe-

24 Acfiphala.

cies of which already ahound in the Jurassic formations.
The whole family of Spatangi, that is to say, the family
which approaches nearest the Holothuriae, does not go beyond
the cretaceous formations. The plates and spines of the
coal formation which have been assigned to Cidarites, do
not belong to this family ; they are the remains of particular
genera of Crinoides covered with spines. Yet, in our zoolo-
gical systems, all these types are placed upon the same level,
and if they are arranged one above another, it is without any
anxiety about the analogy which exists between their gra-
dation and the order of succession in which they appear in
the series of formations. So much is this the case, that
what M. de Humboldt says, in such a picturesque manner, in
his Kosmos, of the aspect of the sky which presents to us
every evening, as a real image, the assemblage of celestial
bodies, many of which have ceased to exist for myriads of
years, may be applied with equal truth to the idea generally
given to us by the frameworks of our zoological systems, which
likewise hold up to us these witnesses of bygone times as
existing realities. v

The Acephala afford us a not less striking example of these
relations between the organic characters of a well character-
ised zoological group, and the time of the appearance of its dif-
ferent types. In order to shew this connection more distinctly,
I may be permitted to premise a few general observations on
this class. Mr Owen was the first to shew that the Brachio-
pods ought not to be regarded as a separate class, but that
they may be conveniently arranged on the same line with
the Monomyaires and the Dimyaires. To prove this asser-
tion by new arguments, I have only to bring to mind that
these fundamental sections of the class of Acephala are closely
allied to each other by the connection of their principal forms,
and by their respective position in the midst of the ambient
elements, as I have shewn in my memoir, Sur Us moules de
Mollusques vivans et fossiles, to which I refer. I shall here
merely state that the Brachiopods exhibit an inverse sym-
metry when compared with that of the regular Dimyaires.
In the former, the right and left sides are of very different
conformation, and the animal is constantly lying on one of

Acephala. 25

its sides, and the sides have very generally and erroneously
been regarded as the dorsal and ventral regions. The ante-
rior and posterior extremities, on the contrary, are shaped
with the most perfect symmetry ; that is to say, in other
words, the front and the hinder part of the animal cannot
be distinguished, while its sides shew a marked difference.
In the Monomyaires in general, and among the Ostracea in
particular, we observe a conformation intermediate between
that of the Brachiopods and that of the Dimyaires ; the sides
are still very different, but now one of the edges appears as
the anterior extremity of the body, and the animal, still ad-
hering in the case of oysters, has no longer, in all the genera,
the absolutely lateral position of the inferior types ; wit-
ness the Pectens, which swim freely. Lastly, among the
Dimyaires, the bilateral symmetry attains to full perfection,
and, at the same time, one of the extremities of the body is
sensibly characterized as the anterior. The animal then as-
sumes a position more or less vertical, the head in advance,
and the relation of its organs with the surrounding media are
analogous to those of other symmetrical animals.

These connections are fully justified by the order of the
succession of the Acephala in the series of formations. Of
all modern palaeontologists, M. de Buch is the individual who
has studied the fossil Brachiopods with the greatest care ;
and it is to his works above all others that I refer for the de-
tailed study of the facts, the principal results of which I am
about briefly to state. In the most ancient formations, we find
nothing but Brachiopods, but in such profusion, and in forms
so varied, that in their abundance and diversity, they scarcely
yield to the Acephala of the tertiary formations, in which the
brachiopods have almost entirely disappeared, to be replaced
by an innumerable quantity of species of different genera,
belonging, for the most part, to the order of Dimyaires. To
make up for this, the intermediate formations afford a re-
markable assemblage of Brachiopods, Monomyaires, and Dim-
yaires, the more interesting from this, that the Dimyaires
with non-symmetrical sides still exceed in number those
which are perfectly regular, and thus become connected with
the Monomyaires and Brachiopods which, at the era when

26 Acephala.

they existed alone, gave to the acephalous faunas the singu-
lar character of want of symmetry in the sides, combined
with a very remarkable symmetry before and behind. The
facts of detail to which I here refer, are scattered throughout
all modern works on palaeontology and geology. If, however,
it be objected to me, that, by recapitulating these facts, I have
generalised too much, I may remark, that even though some
species form exceptions to the rule, the general character and
fundamental relations of these great divisions are not less
of the nature I have indicated ; then we must not forget
that certain fortuitous or obsolete determinations, collected
at hap-hazard from books, cannot from any case be taken into
consideration in examining the questions with which we are
now occupied.

As we have already seen in the case of the Echinoderms,
the Acephala likewise present very marked modifications in
their representatives, from one formation to another ; and,
notwithstanding assertions to the contrary, I here repeat
what I have long since afiirmed in regard to fishes and
Echinoderms, and which the comparative study of a great
number of fossil shells has likewise demonstrated to my
satisfaction in reference to the mollusca, namely, that the
species, viewed in the mass, differ from one geological epoch
to another, in the restricted limits of the subdivisions of our
great geological formations. No one has hitherto brought
forward this result in a more general manner in regard to
the mollusca of the cretaceous and Jurassic epochs, than M.
D'Orbigny, in his French palaeontology. On my own part, I
have pointed out results in every respect similar, in my cri-
tical studies on fossil molluscs. Even before that time Mr
Williamson had announced, in a short notice of the fossils in
the vicinity of Scarborough, that the species differ completely
from one formation to another, in the oolitic series. I am
not aware, however, that this fact led Mr Williamson to
enter into a critical examination respecting these fossils.
But it is above all in the tertiary formations that repeated
identities in the different formations have been enumerated
in the greatest number. Yet, in a memoir which I published
on tertiary shells, the final result of which I had long since

Gasteropods. 27

announced in other publications, I have demonstrated, in re-
gard to a pretty considerable number of species, that these
identifications are merely exaggerated approximations of
species often very much a.like, but, notwithstanding, specifi-
cally distinct.

The Gasteropods do not seem at first sight capable of af-
fording much interest in the point of view in which we are
now considering the different classes ; in fact, the Gastero-
pods of the palaeozoic formations, and even those of the se-
condary formations, with the exception of a portion of those
belonging to the chalk, have not yet been sufficiently studied
to admit of being compared, with an entire knowledge of
causes, with the living species. I shall, therefore, merely
remark, that the two types of shells, which we distinguish in
the living state, that with the opening entire, and without
canal or notch for the respiratory tube, is the most ancient,
and is alone met with in the palaeozoic and in the ancient se-
condary formations ; while that which has a siphon, does not
make its appearance along with the former till after the lias,
when it assumes a preponderance, always becoming more
marked, in the tertiary formations and in the actual creation.
It is a rather singular connection that these ancient Gaster-
opods have a greater resemblance in certain respects to our
terrestrial and fluviatile shells than to marine species ; wit-
ness those numerous species belonging to the Jurassic and
triassic formations, which have been referred without suffi-
cient cause to Melania or the neighbouring genera. We
perceive in this fact something analogous to what I pointed
out many years ago with regard to the fossil fishes of the
secondary formations, which, although belonging to extinct
genera, have a greater resemblance to certain fresh-water
fishes of the present day than to any marine fish.

The numerous special works which have been published on
the Cephalopods, living and fossil, from the monographs of
MM. de Ferussac and D'Orbigny, down to the most recent
productions of MM. de Buch, Miinster, Voltz, Owen, D'Or-
bigny, Valenciennes, and others, have made this class well
known, and it is one of the most carefully studied of the ani-
mal kingdom. It is not, therefore, difficult to seize the na-

28 Cephalopods,

tural relations of its families along with the phases of their
progressive development in the order of time. The types of
the Ammonites and Nautili are the most ancient ; they even
appear very nearly contemporary in all their development,
and in this we may find a new proof of their value as zoolo-
gical groups ; however, they do not possess altogether the
eame importance. The family of the Ammonites, more nu-
merous and varied in the most ancient epochs, disappears
also sooner ; for it does not come further than the cretaceous
epoch. The researches of MM. De Buch and De Miinster
have made us too well acquainted with the order of succes-
sion of these fossils to render it necessary to refer to it here,
I shall merely remark that the genera, so curious and nu-
merous, which M. D'Orbigny has distinguished in the chalk
formations, where they appear in astonishing diversity, at
the very point where this family is about to become extinct,
furnish us with a very correct example, and certainly one
well worthy of fixing our attention, of the irregular, and, in
some degree, convulsive movements to which the ammon-
itigenic idea has been subjected in its expiring agony, with-
out reaching the tertiary epoch or the existing creation.

The Sepiae, &c. form a third type of this class, and that
which occupies the highest rank in it ; its existence does not
appear to go beyond the lias, where the Belemnites, the Teu-
dopsis, and Celaenos have been the precursors of the Sepia?,
the Calmars, and the Onychoteuthes of our era.

The department of the Articulata, like that of the mollus-
ca, and that of the radiata, contains only three classes,
namely, Crustacea, Insects, and Vermes. The other primor-
dial sections, which there has been an attempt to distinguish,
ought to be united under these three heads. Thus, the Cir-
ripedia can no longer be separated from the Crustacea, whose
organisation and mode of development they share. It is
likewise to the class of Crustacea that we must refer the
Lerneae, Rotiferas, &c. The Arachnida and Myriapoda are
true insects, or rather they are connected with winged insects
by intermediate types, so closely united that it is impossible
to separate them. We must not neglect, in these connec-
tions, the characters of the larvas and those of the species

Articuiata. 29

which continue apterous. Many of the so-called Aptera
ought to be withdrawn from this ill-digested group, in order
to be placed in their respective families. With regard to the
vermes, it appears to me impossible to separate, as classes,
the Annelida, the Turbellariae, and the Helminthes ; too many
characters unite them, and the analogy in their embryonic
development, as far as it is known, is too striking to author-
ise the continuance of these classes. It can no longer be a
question, then, henceforth, that we ought to leave the intesti-
nal worms in the department of the radiata, any more than
that the infusoria, at least by far the greater number, con-
nect themselves, in my opinion, with the Crustacea by the
totifera.

The vermes, those of them at least covered with a solid
envelope, have left too insignificant traces of their existence
in the series of formations, and the fossil insects hitherto dis-
covered are in too small numbers, and have not been suffi-
ciently studied, to render it possible at present to form a just
idea of the part they have acted in the different geological
epochs which have preceded the present creation. These
classes still await their monographs for the fossil species.

It is not the same with the Crustacea which are found in
pretty considerable numbers in the whole series of forma-
tions ; and, if they have not been the subject of such numer-
ous researches as the fossils of the greater part of the other
classes of the animal kingdom, they are still sufficiently well
known to enable us to ascertain the progress of their develop-
ment from the most remote geological periods.

The Trilobites, which are unquestionably the most ancient
type of the class Crustacea* have been the object of numerous
publications and very varied researches, since M. Al. Brong-
niart made it the subject of a special monograph. The works
of MM. Dalman, Green, Emmerich, and Burmeister, particu-
larly deserve to be mentioned in the first rank among those
which have contributed most to extend our knowledge of this
curious family, and give us correct ideas of their real rela-^
tions to the other articulated animals. The Trilobites appear
under the strangest and most varied forms, from their first
occurrence in the most ancient palaeozoic formations. This

30 Infusoria.

type, however, does not go beyond the period of the coal for-
mation, when it is replaced by gigantic Entomostraca, which
are in some degree the precursors of the Macruri. Ento-
mostraca of small size likewise appear in very ancient for-
mations ; they abound in certain coal formations, for exam-
ple, and they are found after that in a multitude of deposits.
They have not yet, however, been studied in a satisfactory
manner.

The Macruri, with which MM. H. de Meyer and Count
de Miinster are particularly occupied, prevail from the tri-
assic epoch to the present creation ; while the Brachyura are
essentially tertiary. These latter, as well as the Cirripedia,
which appear to be their contemporaries everywhere, are still
far from being so well known as we would desire. A mono-
graph of the Cirripedia, both living and fossil, is in particular
a pressing desideratum for zoology as well as for palaeonto-
logy. The other orders of Crustacea are not known except
in the tertiary formations. The parasitic Crustacea, soft and
vermiform, appear to be exclusively confined to the present
creation.

It follows, from this hasty glance, that the types whose
affinities have been best studied, such as the Trilobites, Mac-
ruri, and Brachyura, succeed each other in the series of for-
mations in the order of their organic gradation. It is even
very curious to observe the intimate analogy which exists
between the forms of these different types and the phases of
the embryonic development of the Crustacea, which MM.
Rathke and Erdl have afforded us the means of becoming ac-
quainted with.

If I have not hitherto spoken of the Infusoria, it is not be-
cause I forget their influence in the history of the formation
of our globe. On the contrary, I think that M. Ehrenberg
has opened a new era for palseontological researches by his
important discoveries in the world of these infinitely minute
creatures ; but I likewise think that the novelty of these re^
suits, as surprising as unexpected, do not yet allow us to
appreciate them at their just value.

After having thus passed in review the principal classes of
invertebrate animals, whose fossil remains have been most

Nothingness of Material and Pantheistical Theories. 31

carefully studied, I may be permitted to pause for an instant,
and consider the consequences which directly flow, in a
theoretical point of view, from so many scrupulously examined
facts. And, in the first place, it is evident that, from the
most ancient times, all the classes of invertebrate animals
have been represented on the surface of the globe ; that they
have all presented from the first a great diversity of generic
and specific forms ; that this variety is in no respect less, if
we take into account all the conditions of their preservation,
and all the difficulties of observation, than that of the species
of a local fauna belonging to the present creation, circum-
scribed within limits corresponding to the extent of the sur-
face of the palaeozoic formations hitherto examined ; that the
number of these fossils is certainly as considerable as that
of the lists of living species which were published, scarcely
half a century ago, as complete enumerations of the animals
of well known countries. I shall merely mention, as ex-
amples, the various faunas of Europe at the end of the last
century, or even those of Brazil, Egypt, Arabia, and the In-
dies, and the lists of palaeozoic fossils published by Messrs J.
Phillips, De Verneuil and D'Archiac, or those which accom-
pany M. Murchison's work on the Silurian system.

These facts, now as well established as facts of this nature
can be, clearly shew the impossibility of referring the first
inhabitants of the earth to a small number of original stocks,
which have become diversified under the modifying influence
of external conditions of existence. They point out to us, as
with the finger, the direct intervention of a creative Intelli-
gence, anterior to the existence of all beings, who has or-
dained their relations, determined their development, and di-
rected their successive appearance, up to the establishment
of the order of things which now prevails in the world. These
facts also prove the nothingness of all material and panthe-
istical theories, which ascribe to finite beings a self-existing
power, and make them depend solely on indeterminate ex-
terior influences.

When I commenced the publication of my researches on
fossil fishes, I was acquainted with no species more ancient
than those of the coal formation, and even with a very

32 Earliest Fishes.

small number of these. Now, not only is the list of species,
and even of genera, proper to these formations, considerably
increased, but the more ancient deposits are daily increasing
more and more the number of types to add to our catalogues.
The strata of the devonian system, and those of the silurian
system, have in their turn furnished a contingent which con-
tinually goes on increasing. And if recognisable remains of
fishes below the inferior Ludlow beds, which form part of the
Silurian system, have not yet been discovered, I do not think
that we must thence conclude that fishes do not go back to
the most ancient fossiliferous formations ; for their extra-
ordinary frequency in the devonian strata and their presence,
which has been well ascertained, in the silurian deposits,
where they are, it is true, very ill preserved, sufiiciently indi-
cate that, in its appearance on the surface of the globe, this
class of animals is contemporary with the development of the
most ancient types of all the classes of invertebrate animals.
With regard to the period of their first appearance, we can
no longer speak of differences among the classes, but such as
are of little importance, in a biological development con-
sidered as a whole ; and it is henceforth demonstrated that
fishes entered into the plan of the earliest organic combina-
tions, which have been the point of departure in the develop-
ment of all the living beings which have peopled our globe in
the series of time. It follows from this, that the most an-
cient faunas are composed of representatives of all the classes
of invertebrate animals, and only one class of vertebrates,
namely fishes ; while reptiles, birds, and mammifera, did not
appear till later, and in succession. There is, then, a remark-
able and important contrast to be observed between the pro-
gressive development of vertebrates and that of the radiata,
moUusca, and articulata, in which all the classes are contem-
porary, as we have seen above.

In devoting ourselves in this manner to the study of the
remains of organized beings imbedded in the most ancient
geological formations, we revive, as it were, the earliest re-
presentatives of creation. These fossils, in fact, may be
called the first parents of all the beings that lived afterwards.
In calling them up before us, we are present, so to speak,

Value of Geological Formations. 33

at the earliest sports of animals, and at the first bursting
forth of vegetation ; we behold animated nature issuing from
the hand of th« Creator. And if we can hope one day to
arrive at the knowledge of the general plan of creation, it
is by attentively investigating even the faintest appreciable
relations between ancient species, and by following step by
step the modifications which organized beings, viewed as a
whole, have undergone in all the series of formations, from
one to another, up to our own times.

There is one kind of comparison which has been too much
neglected in our attempts to estimate the importance of the
stages of our globe relatively to the remains of the organized
beings which they inclose, but which, I am convinced, will
one day exercise a great influence on our manner of regarding
fossil faunas, by enabling us to determine the value of those
assemblages of strata which have been called terrains or
geological formations. I allude to the proportions in which
we find species of the different classes of the animal king-
dom, in given localities, on the present surface of the globe,
or in such or such a group of formations. It is evident
that it is the beings which now live on the earth that we are
best acquainted with, and respecting which, as a whole, we
possess, in every respect, the most complete and important
information. It is consequently from these beings, or rather
from the knowledge we possess of them, that we ought to
borrow the terms of comparison for all that relates to the
distribution of fossils in the whole formations. It is true that
the geographical distribution of living animals is yet but im-
perfectly known ; it is sufficiently so, however, to make us
aware that all the countries of the globe, considered in a
certain extent, have their particular faunas, composed of an
assemblage of peculiar species, mingled with others which
extend either more to the north or south, east or west ; and
that, consequently, each country supports but a small propor-
tion of the totality of species which people the surface of the
globe.

When we wish, therefore, to appreciate the value of the as-
semblages of fossils which we discover in a formation, and
seek to determine the number of species proper to the geolo-

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. C

34 Probable number of Fossil Fishes.

gical epoch to which they belong, it is not with living animals,
as a whole, that we ought to compare them, but rather with
an assemblage of species living within analogous limits, and
under analogous conditions, in the existing creation. An
example will explain my idea more accurately. If I sought
to determine approximately the number of fossil species of
tlie period of the deposition of the chalk or plastic clay, I
believe that I should choose a very bad method of attaining
my object by computing the lists of fossils of all the geolo-
gical deposits considered at present as belonging to these
geological horizons, and then comparing the sum obtained
with the sum of living species. We should certainly approach
much nearer the truth, by studying as completely as possible
the fossil fauna of some well explored localities, as, for ex-
ample, the deposits of chalk around Paris, or the plastic clay
of the Thames basin, and then comparing these lists of fos-
sils with the living animals of some gulf or some shore in the
present creation, which shall present most analogy with the
extent and conditions in which we may suppose these deposits
to have been formed. We shall thus obtain true foundations
to fix the numerical relations of the whole of these creations
compared with the actual creation.

By following this process, and comparing successively the
ichthyological faunas of dififerent formations, in which I have
recognized different assemblages of fishes, with the ichthy-
ological faunas of the present creation, confined to analogous
limits, I have arrived at the result (a distressing one for
the actual state of our palaeontological knowledge, if it be
admitted to be correct), that the strata which constitute
the crust of our globe, considered as a whole, ought to con-
tain at least twenty-five thousand species of fossil fishes.
In this calculation, the grounds of which I think it unne-
cessary to specify in this place, I have carefully taken into
account the greatest uniformity which ancient contemporary
faunas present. Similar calculations, made with the same
precautions, raise the number of mammifera we may yet ex-
pect to discover to about 3000 ; that of reptiles to about
4000 ; and that of shells to at least 40,000. I am even of
opinion, that very few years will elapse before we shall have

Complete Fossil Fi»h Fauna. 35

acquired the certainty that these calculations are much be-
low the reality. With regard to birds, Crustacea, insects,
echinoderms, and polypes, particular difficulties at this mo-
ment stand in the way of all kinds of comparison of this na-
ture. In relation to fossil infusoria, it would be premature
at present to make use of the labours of one man, continued
only for eight or nine years, in order to estimate the profu-
sion with which animalculce, whose ordinary dimensions ne-
cessarily conceal them from our view, are disseminated
through the strata of the earth, especially now that we know
the great mass of these formations to be entirely composed
of microscopic animalculse. Besides, M. Ehrenberg has suc-
cessively revealed to us such unexpected facts, that we re-
quire to ponder them a while before we can appreciate all
their importance.

The ichthyological fauna of the old red sandstone appears
in such extraordinary and fantastical forms, that the most
trifling remains of the beings which lived at that epoch cannot
fail to arrest the attention of the naturalist. In no other for-
mation do we find an assemblage of fishes deviating so strik-
ingly from all that we are acquainted with in our own day.
The study of no other fauna requires so many years before
we become sufficiently familiarised with its types to venture
to classify them, and fix their relations to those of other crea-
tions. The difficulties these researches presented were quite
of a peculiar nature, for it was necessary to solve them, so to
speak, without a term of comparison, or at least to have re-
course to remote approximations. In fact, comparisons with
the remains of anterior formations w^ould have been impos-
sible ; because it is in the old red sandstone that we meet, for
the first time, with a complete ichthyological fauna. The Silu-
rian formations, it is true, contain some remains of fishes ; but
hitherto they have been so rare, and the number of species
so limited, that it may be safely affirmed that it is only with
the Devonian formation that fishes have really acquired some
importance among other fossils, or, at least, that the part they
performed in nature becomes appreciable. What first strikes
one, on studying the ancient deposits is, that fishes are the
only representatives of the branch vertebrata which exist in

36 Beign of Fishes.

the old red sandstone, or even in the coal formation, inso-
much that we have a good right to call the epoch when these
formations were deposited the reign of fishes. This fact, to
which I have already often called the attention of palaeonto-
logists, is confirmed, in the most absolute manner, by all re-
searches which have of late been undertaken in reference to
the fossils of the old red sandstone. In a few years, the in-
vestigations of geologists have increased the number of
known species tenfold ; and the zeal with which the study is
pursued, in the two countries where this system of strata
appears in its greatest development, that is to say, in England
and Russia, will undoubtedly still lead to numerous and im-
portant discoveries. But it is easy, even now, to foresee that
these discoveries will come within the laws which the species
already known have revealed to us ; that is, they will be con-
fined to the class of fishes as regards the vertebrate depart-
ment ; and that neither reptiles nor mammifera will be found
in the strata of the old red sandstone.

I am well aware that a recent author has imagined that he
has found bones of all the classes of vertebrata in this forma-
tion. But the erroneous determinations on which such con-
clusions are founded, are easily estimated at their true
value, and the tortoises, lizards, crocodiles, and pachyderms,
with which he has chosen to people these ancient deposits,
have successively been arranged in their proper place; that is,
in the lowest class of vertebrata, from which a rash hand had
removed them. In treating of the families and species which
characterize the system in question, I have shewn the falsity
of the notion which makes all the classes of vertebrata go
back to the most remote antiquity ; so that it now remains
well proved that all we know of the remains of vertebrata in
the formations anterior to the Zechstein, belong exclusively
to the class of fishes.

I shall not insist further on the importance of this fact,
when it is viewed in relation to the organic characters of the
creations which have successively peopled the earth. I have
already laid before the public, through another channel, my
views on the development which the different creations have
undergone during the history of our planet. But what I

Embryonic state of the oldest Fishes. 37

wisli to prove in this place, by a careful discussion of facts,
is the truth of the law, now so clearly demonstrable in the
series of vertebrata, that the successive creations have under-
gone phases of development analogous to those which the
embryo undergoes during its growth, and similar to the gra-
dations which the present creation shews us in the ascending
series it presents when viewed as a whole. We may at least
consider it henceforth as proved, that the embryo of a fish
during its development^ the class of living fishes in its numerous
families^ and the fish type in its planetary history, in every re-
spect go through analogous phases, throughout rvhich we can
always trace the same creative idea (pensee creatrice), like a
thread which guides us everywhere in searching out the con-
nection of living beings. The consideration that the fishes of
the old red sandstone really represent the embryonic age of
the reign of fishes, has even been with me a powerful motive
to undertake the examination of these ancient animal remains,
as my first Monograph, forming a continuation of my Be-
searches; since it was here there existed evident facts to
prove the truth of this great law of the development of all
living beings.

Let us first take a rapid glance at the families, the species
of which I have determined. Of these there are at least five
distinct ones, — the Cephalaspides, the Acanthodians, the Dip-
terian Sauroides, the Celacanthes, and the Plagiostomes, if so
be that we may consider this great type as a single family.
The first four belong to the order Ganoides, and the last to
that of Placoides.

The first remark which occurs to the attentive observer is,
that among the numerous species scattered throughout these
families, we have not yet found any trace of vertebrae, and,
in some, only the apophyses to protect the spinal marrow and
the large vessels, though they were equally deprived of the
bodies of vertebrae. Assuredly, if these fishes had possessed
vertebrae, some of them would have been found among the
numerous remains of skeletons which abound in the old red
sandstone, in those specimens of the Coccosteus from Ork-
ney, in which the tails are so well preserved with their spiny
apophyses, their small interapophysiary bones, and fin-rays.

38 No Vertebra in Old Red Sandstone Fishes.

Bat there appears no trace of them, and even in the specimens
of the Coccosteus referred to, we see distinctly that the apo-
physes rested upon an undivided and continuous axis. Now
this incomplete development of the osseous system of the
trunk is found among all embryos, and, in particular, among
those of fishes ; it is likewise found in the last gradations of
the class of fishes, among the Cyclostomes. This series of ver-
tebral bodies, which follow each other throughout the whole
length of the trunk of vertebrates, is replaced in the inferior
forms of this department, and also in embryos, by a cylindri-
cal cord of a gelatinous consistence, which is called the dor-
sal cord. It is not till some time after the appearance of the
cord, that the apophyses and the bodies of the vertebrae are
developed in embryo. In the Branchiostoma {Amphyoxus),
there is only one cord, without any other piece of skeleton,
as among embryos not far advanced. It is among the
Cyclostomes that the formation of apophyses commences, and
among the Plagiostomes that of the bodies of the vertebrae.
In this respect the fishes of the old red sandstone have re-
mained at a degree of development altogether embryonic ; for
they have a cord and apophyses, but they have no vertebral
bodies.

This disposition of the osseous system of the trunk, almost
necessarily determines that of another, — the incomplete de-
velopment of the cranium. We find, indeed, in the fishes of
the old red sandstone, the exterior bones of the cranium well
formed ; the jaws, the thoracic girdle, the opercular and
branchiostegous bones, and those of the upper part of the
cranium, are well developed, strong, and evidently of a bony
structure ; but all that I have observed respecting the forma-
tion of the head, leads me to think that the internal case of
the cranium, that which immediately surrounded the brain,
was not consolidated, but rather cartilaginous. We likewise
find this structure in embryos, where the protective plates
which cover the top and base of the cranium are developed
in an insulated manner, while the cranial case is still cartila-
ginous. The same conformation appears in the sturgeon,
the osteology of which I have described in my Becherches sur
les Poissona Fossiles (vol. ii., 2d part, p. 277); and it is, in fact,

Extraordmary Development of the Cutaneoiia System, 39

with the latter that we can best compare the state of the
skeleton of the cranium in the fishes of the old red sand-
stone.

The osseous and mailed plates which cover the head of the
sturgeon, and which ai-e a continuation of the mailed plates
of the neck and sides, evidently do not belong to the same
system as the frontals and parietals of ordinary fishes.
They are cutaneous bones, developed by replacing ordinary
bones, which are wholly wanting in the great part of the
fishes of the old red sandstone, and particularly in the family of
the Cephalaspides, where we find the same arrangement as in
sturgeons. It would be vain to seek in the cephalar plates
of a Coccosteus or a Pterichthys, analogues of the frontals,
parietals, and nasals, of our osseous fishes. We find in their
place only carapaces, often singularly composed, and which,
nevertheless, form, by their union, coverings for the cranium
altogether as complete as those of ordinary fishes.

This is the place to notice the extraordinary development
presented by the cutaneous system of the fishes of the old
red sandstone. Enormous bony plates often cover not only
the head, but likewise a great part of the body. An entire
family, that of the Cephalaspides, has its essential character
in the cuirass of the trunk, and the scales and plates of the
greater part of the Celacanthes of the old red sandstone,
greatly exceed what we witness in fishes belonging to more
recent formations. Unfortunately, we have not yet terms of
comparison in relation to the fishes of the present creation,
sufficiently numerous to appreciate the value of these charac-
ters ; because we are entirely without data respecting the de-
velopment of scales in general, and particularly that of the
scales of the Ganoides ; we have not even information on the
embryology of a single cuirassed fish of our epoch ; but it
may be presumed from the extraordinary development of the
cutaneous system in our ancient fishes, that these plates and
cuirasses are developed at a very early period in the embryos.

Another fact, from which we may well call the fishes of
the old red sandstone the embryonic age of the reign of fishes,
is the development of their fins. We know that in all the
embryos of fishes hitherto examined, the vertical fins spring

40 Heterocercal Tail of Old Bed Sandstone Fishes.

from a single fin running along the hinder part of the body,
nearly like the fin of an eel. This continuous fin undergoes
a complete transformation in certain places ; in others, it
disappears little by little ; and where it remains stationary,
the rays are gradually enlarged. The spaces which sepa-
rate the different fins are, therefore, smaller, and so much
the less strongly marked the younger the embryo is. To
such a degree is this the case, that certain fishes which at a
later period would possess very distinct fins, have them very
close to each other at an early age, and sometimes scarcely
separated by a shallow notch. In the fishes of the old red
sandstone, the vertical fins enter completely into these primi-
tive conditions of development. The whole of the important
family of Sauroides, which at a later period appear provided
with well separated and insulated fins, is represented in the
old red sandstone only by the Dipterians, which are all pro-
vided with two anals and two dorsals, very near each other,
and but a short way from the caudal. In the Celacanthes of
the old red sandstone, we likewise find many genera, as the
Glyptolepis, and probably also the Platygnathes, which had
double vertical fins, and so closely placed that there was
scarcely an intermediate space between them. Even among
the Acanthodians there is one genus, that of the Diplacanthes,
which is furnished with double vertical fins. It is true that
this arrangement does not occur in all the genera, but it is
at the same time curious that the families which are destined
to run through a long series of formations, such as the
Sauroides and Celacanthes, commence with forms having
double fins, thus approaching the embryonic type.

The fact, that among all the fishes of the old red sandstone
which possess a caudal, that fin is composed of unequal lobes,
and inserted on an elevated extremity of the dorsal cord, is
another point of approximation to the embryo of ordinary
fishes. We know that, in the latter, the extremity of the
tail begins to rise upwards at a certain period of life, ap-
proaching in this to the disposition observed in the sturgeon,
and that at this epoch the caudal of the embryo is hetero-
cerque. On the other hand, I have often called the attention
of naturalists to a fact in every respect similar, which appears

k

Embryonic Aye of the Reign of Fishes, 41

so strikingly in the geological series : namely, that all the
fishes belonging to formations more ancient than that of the
Jura, have the extremity of the caudal raised, and the caudal
itself heterocerque.

There is, lastly, another point to which I would solicit the
attention of naturalists ; that is, the form of the head and
position of the mouth and eyes in fishes of the old r(;d sand-
stone. All, without exception, have the head large and
flattened, rounded, and as it were truncated, similar to that
of a Lotta or Silurus. This character preponderates to such
a degree, that it is very rare to see a fish of the old red sand-
stone which presents the head in profile ; in the majority
of cases, it rests on the upper or lower surface, even when
the body is lying in such a manner as to present one of the
sides. The mouth of the greater part of the genera is widely
open, semicircular, placed either at the extremity of the
rounded head, or even under it. The eyes, in the majority
of the genera, are widely apart, and thrown to the flattened
sides of the head, in such a way that it is often very difiicult
to determine their position. Analogous forms are found in
embryos. Even among fishes which, at a later period, are dis-
tinguished by a long snout in the form of a beak, the embryos
have at first a broad rounded head, truncated in front, with
the mouth below, and the eyes lateral, and it is not till later
that the jaws become elongated and project before the eyes,
forming at last a head of an entirely different form from
what it exhibited at first.

I believe that it would not be easy to find more numerous
approximations between the embryos of our fishes and fossil
fishes, since no part of their bodies is preserved to us but
the osseous system which alone has furnished all these analo-
gies ; and I think observers will generally agree with me
when I affirm that the fishes of the old red sandstone represent,
in the whole of their particular structure, the embryonic age of
the reign of fishes. In no instance, in fact, in any other forma-
tion, do we find so great a number of fishes in which the
internal skeleton is so imperfectly developed, and so inferior
to the cutaneous system ; nowhere else do we find the great

42 Cephalaspides.

majority of fishes having the embryonic forms of the fins and
of the head so strongly marked.

These facts evidently afford us the key to the rank which
these families ought to occupy in an ichthyological system, and
a judicious application of embryology to the classification of
animals, cannot fail to be attended with the most beneficial
results, in bringing our zoological systems to perfection. If,
indeed, after having pointed out the anatomical affinities of
the fishes of the old red sandstone, we then . examine the
zoological relations in which they are found in regard to the
succeeding creations, we perceive, that of the five families
occurring in the old red sandstone, there is one, that of the
Cephalaspides, which is wholly confined to that formation ;
that there is another, the Sauroides, which is represented
only by a particular group, the Dipterians, likewise limited
to the old red ; that a third, that of the Acanthodians, is not
continued beyond the coal formation, and that only the
Celacanthes and the Cestraciontes reach more recent forma-
tions.

Of all these families, it is likewise that of the Cephalaspides
which recedes most from the ordinary forms of other fishes,
to such a degree that one might easily, at the time of their
first discovery, misunderstand their nature, and take them for
animals belonging to other classes of the animal kingdom. It
is in this family that we have found the type of fishes with
winged appendages, represented by the genera Pterichthys,
Pamphractus, and Polyphractus, which, owing to the cuirass
of their bodies, formed of many pieces closely soldered, and
from their pectoral fins being transformed into recurved
stylets, have passed sometimes for tortoises, sometimes for
enormous aquatic Coleoptera. It is among the Cephalaspides
that we have found the curious genus Cephalaspis, whose
broad cephalar shield, with two eyes almost united in a
single orbit, had caused it be taken for a crustacean allied to
the Limulae or Trilobites, before becoming acquainted with
its scaly body and tail provided with vertical fins ; it is among
the Cephalaspides, finally, that we must place the Coccostei,
with their powerful cuirass and long flexible tail, which must

Cephalaspidea. 43

have given them the strangest aspect imaginahle, and have
caused them successively to be taken for fossil Trionyces and
fossil Rays. I have already spoken, in treating of this family,
of the affinities, remote it is true, which it presents to the
cuirassed fishes of our epoch, the Loricarias and Siluroides.
I have nothing further to add on this subject ; but what I
should wish to point out, is the truth of this fact, that the
different genera of the Cephalaspides already shew a grada-
tion, although faintly marked, in their conformation becoming
more and more perfect. It is thus that, on the one hand,
the winged appendages of the Pterichthys and Pamphractus
are lost in the Coccostei and Gephalaspis, where they are
replaced by ordinary fins ; while, on the other hand, there is
an evident approximation between the Coccostei and the
broadly cuirassed genera of the family of Celacanthes, such
as Asterolepis and Bothriolepis. The thick and short form
of the Pterichthys, and the very incomplete development of
their fins, evidently shew that they were fishes of little
agility, living in shoals in mud, moving sluggishly and des-
tined to become the prey of others. Among the Cephalas-
pides, the broad shield with which they are covered, and
their eyes situate on the upper side, indicate the same mode
of life ; but in them the trunk becomes more moveable, and
the tail, the most powerful instrument of motion, is furnished
with fins, and becomes fit to execute the most rapid motions.
The Coccostei, finally, were evidently, even at this step in
the gradation, voracious fishes, as is shewn by their conical
sharp teeth, and their long flat and flexible tail. There is,
no doubt, a wide interval between this and the formidable
armature of the Bothriolepis, and the needle-like teeth of
the Dendrodes (Asterolepis); but it will be admitted that
there is an advance towards the rapacious character in the
family of Cephalaspides, and if we join to this the structure
of the plates, the resemblance of the granulated scattered
points of the Coccostei to the asterisks of the plates of Astero-
lepis, we will soon be convinced that it is not necessary to
take a long step to advance from the Coccostei to the cuir-
assed Celacanthes. This resemblance will be much greater
still if ulterior researches prove that the mailed Celacanthes

k

44 Dipterians.

had not true scales imbricated on the body, but only large
plates covering the head and nape. There is nothing hitherto,
it is true, to prove this supposition, but the fact is neveHhe-
less curious, that along with the great quantity of large
slabs of Asterolepis and Bothriolepis which characterize
certain formations, we have never found true scales which
can be assigned to them. I point out this fact to the atten-
tion of geologists ; for nothing is often more instructive than
the mode in which fossils are associated, particularly when
the remains belong to animals whose size and the softness
of the skeleton have prevented them being preserved entire.
But it is necessary to employ the greatest circumspection in
appropriations of this nature before drawing conclusions from
them : for too frequently these results are transmitted from
one author to another, and sometimes still continue to pass
for truths, when the state of the facts has been modified.
The beds of the old red sandstone, it is true, are not very
favourable to researches of this nature, for the fossils not
forming in them the nuclei of rounded masses, the remains
are dispersed and mingled in such a manner, that we often
find in the same morsel of indurated matter the remains of
many genera entirely different.

The family of the Dipterians, like that of the Cephalaspi-
des, is entirely confined to the strata of the old red sandstone.
Here the affinities to the Sauroides are so evident, that I
have thought it necessary to give up the opinion to which I
for some time adhered, of regarding them as a separate
family. The scales are the same, and the teeth approximate
in every respect, in the genera Osteolepis and Diplopterus, to
the eminently carnivorous type of the Sauroides with insu-
lated incisive teeth. I have provisionally placed in this
family the genus Glyptopomes, which, in the sculpture of its
scales, makes a near approach to the Platygnathes of the
family Celacanthes, but recedes from it, on the other hand,
in the form and arrangement of its scales, which are evi-
dently only in juxtaposition and cut lozenge-shape. It would
be very interesting to know how the position of this genus
will be ultimately fixed ; whether it be necessary, from the
arrangement of its fins, to place it definitively among the

Acanthodians. 45

Dipterians, or rather, whether it indicate, by its simple fins,
the first degree of approach to the type of the Sauroides pro-
perly so called. In the latter case, we should have, in the
Sauroides of the old red sandstone, a gradation similar to
that which exists in the Cephalaspides.

The Acanthodians embrace in their history only two for-
mations, the old red sandstone and the coal measures ; more
recent formations furnish no traces of them. This also is a
very particular type, in no manner connected with the other
families of the Ganoides. It is true that the form of the body
does not deviate from those with which we are familiar, but
the manner in which their bodies are covered certainly pre-
sents a very decided character. Those small rhomboidal
scales, scarcely visible, which make the skin look like sha-
green, have nothing like them in the whole class of fishes ;
for the shagreen of the Plagiostomes is formed of entirely dif-
ferent elements. It may be remarked that in general the
anomalous types, which deviate most from the normal types,
are also of very brief duration, and continue only during one
or two epochs of the history of the earth, after which they
terminate, without our remarking afterwards the types which
may be regarded as those that have replaced them. This is
likewise the case with the Cephalaspides. It is the same
with the Acanthodians. In the fusiform Ganoides of more
recent epochs we find neither scales in the form of shagreen,
nor large spines, in the form of prickles, which stand erect
upon the fins. This type becomes entirely extinct with the
coal formation.

Of all the Ganoides of the old red sandstone, the Celacan-
thes are the only ones which have a lengthened history ; for
they continue as far as the chalk formations, where they ter-
minate in the genus Macropoma. I have already shewn, in
treating of this family, what difficulties we have to encounter
when we wish to limit it rigorously, and assign to it definite
characters, and how probable it is that it will ultimately be
divided into many distinct families. But, apart from these
considerations, which are not yet founded on facts sufficient-
ly numerous, it is certainly in the old red sandstone that the
family of the Celacanthes acquires the most considerable de-

^^ Celacanthcs.

velopment, and it is only by diminishing in all directions that
it at last reaches its point of extinction in the chalk. If we
wish to represent it graphically, it may be regarded as a cone,
with a broad base, the smurait of which is formed by the
genus Macropoma, while at the base are found the Holopty-
chius, Phyllolepis, Glyptolepis, Platygnathes, Dendrodus, Lam-
nodus, Cricodus, Asterolepis, Bothriolepis, Psammosteus, &c.,
of the Devonian system ; all as remarkable by their structure
as by the numerous individuals whose remains are every-
where found in this formation. Indeed, if there be one fact
that can prove how far it is true that ancient strata enclose
types in general less different than those of the present crea-
tion, but, by way of recompense, an infinitely greater num-
ber of individuals, it is surely this, that there are strata of
old red sandstone, particularly in Russia, which are nothing
else than true breccias, almost solely composed of scales and
plates of Asterolepis or Bothriolepis. If the Pterichthys
are so abundant in the nodules of Lethen-Bar that they are
collected in cartfuls, there is in this nothing surprising, be-
cause they were small fishes, living probably in shoals in the
mud, feeding, from all that we can gather from what is
known of their organization, on shell-less molluscs, vermes,
and other unprotected animals. But when we remember
that the Bothriolepis and Asterolepis were fishes of very con-
siderable size, eminently rapacious, and feeding, to judge
from their dentition, on living prej^ we will consider it very
surprising that these voracious species, whose analogues of
our own day are always found widely scattered, should be
assembled in such great numbers as is the case in certain
localities.

What is very curious in the Celacanthes of the old red
sandstone is, that we already encounter in its numerous
genera many pretty distinct types. These are, on the one
hand, the Glyptolepis, which, by their double fins, make so
near an approach to the Dipterian Sauroides that one may
believe in a certain parallelism between the two families ;
on the other hand, the Asterolepis (Dendrodus), the Bothrio-
lepis, and the Psammosteus, the characteristic scales of
which have not yet been found, but which were provided with

Placdides. 47

broad cutaneous plates, and which in their dentition nearly
approach the true type of the family of Celacanthes, that is
to say, of that of Holoptychius, Platygnathes, and Phyllole-
pis. The species of these two groups were evidently the
absolute sovereigns of the seas which they inhabited ; the
gigantic dimensions of the bodies of some of them and their
sharp cutting teeth gave them, there can be no doubt, an in-
disputable superiority. Already in the following strata, in
the coal formation, these tyrants of the primitive ocean are
accompanied by true Sauroides of remarkable size, the Me-
galichthys, for example, as well as others, although the Ho-
loptychius, Phyllolepis, &c., still exist along with them ; in
the succeeding formations, however, the Sauroides evidently
take the lead. The dentition of the Celacanthes of the old
red sandstone is very remarkable ; all these fishes, save
Glyptolepis, which likewise form a distinct group by their
fins, have needle-shaped, insulated teeth, placed at distances,
and formed of folded dentine ; and in no other group of the
animal kingdom does this folding of the dentine go so far as
among our Celacanthes ; witness the genera Dendrodus,
Lamnodus, &c.

The Placdides of the old red sandstone are not yet suffi-
ciently known, in their organization, to enable us at present
to fix their relations to those of the following formations and
to those of the present creation. The fact which has struck
me most, in regard to them, is the small size of the Ichthyo-
dorulites of this formation compared with those of the coal
epoch and of the lias ; and, on the other hand, the rarity of
the teeth of these animals, relatively to the abundance of
their spiny rays, the very reverse of what we witness in the
cretaceous and tertiary formations, as well as among living
species. I conclude from this, that, in the early times of the
development of life, it was not so much the Placoides as cer-
tain Ganoides, Celacanthes, and Sauroides in particular,
which were the terror of the seas, and which traversed it
everywhere as masters, like the sharks of our own days,
under all latitudes. The approximations I have afterwards
made between the Placoides of the old red sandstone and the
sharks of the Mediterranean shew, that, in their numbers and

48 Serial Classifications to be renounced.

diversity, the fossil species of this formation are in nothing
inferior to that of a very extensive fauna belonging to the
actual creation.

From the whole of the facts above noticed, it appears to
me to follow, that not only do the fishes of the old red sand-
stone constitute a distinct fauna, independent of those belong-
ing to otlier formations, but that they also present, in their
organization, the most remarkable analogy to the earliest
phases of the embryonic development of the osseous fishes of
our own epoch, and a not less obvious parallelism with the
lower degrees of certain types of the class, as they now exist
on the surface of the globe. What is most curious in these
connections is, that it is not with the corresponding types of
the actual creation that these ancient fishes can be con-
sidered as parallel ; for example, the osseous fishes of that
period had nothing in common with the osseous fishes of this
period, nor did the Placoides of the most ancient formations
in general resemble those of the present creation. Neither
do the Ganoides exhibit more than remote resemblances to
the existing Ganoides ; but these same Ganoides approach, in
a multitude of characters, the Placoides of our own period,
and even the inferior types of this order. And yet, along
with this, they have also certain relations to reptiles, al-
though this class of animals did not actually appear till
later. These relations I would call prospective analogies, so
frequent is it to meet with prophetic resemblances, in the
series of formations, among types succeeding each other, and
which, after having for a long time presented the combined
characters of many groups, do not become distinct till a later
period. These facts appear to me deserving of our most se-
rious attention ; for they shew us, always with increasing ur-
gency, the necessity of renouncing serial classifications, in
order to express the real relations of living beings. If, in effect,
the most ancient fossil fishes of the order Ganoides shew strik-
ing resemblances to the Cyclostomes and Plagiostomes of
our era — if these same Ganoides have, besides, certain analo-
gies to reptiles, and, in particular, to the Labyrinthodontes
— if these relations disappear in more recent eras — if these
families themselves become progressively extinct and are

Great diversity of Specie^ in Devonian System. 49

replaced by others — can it ever be possible to express all
these relations by a linear arrangement in our zoological
systems 1 And, if what I have remarked in regard to fishes
be equally true in respect to all the classes of the animal
kingdom, ought we not eagerly to borrow from embryology
and palaeontology all the information they can furnish, in
order to enable us to appreciate more correctly the whole of
relations so varied, which connect all created beings with
each other ?

Far from believing that this object can be completely at-
tained at present, I leave, in the mean time, these questions
regarding system, the solution of which will no doubt require
immense labour, to confine myself to the consideration of
this assemblage of fossil fishes, which constitute one of the
most interesting parts of the fauna of the old red sandstone,
in a last point of view, that is to say, as a simple group of
diverse, but contemporary, species. Viewing it in this man-
ner, apart from all systematic considerations, we are never-
theless struck with the great diversity which the species
really present. Who would have expected that we should
ever find, in spaces so limited as those which have hitherto
been explored, above a hundred species of fossil fishes, in
the devonian system alone, that is to say, in a stage of our
formations which was believed, a few years ago, to be con-
fined to the British islands, and to which in consequence only
a local value was assigned ? And yet, all other things re-
maining equal, the ichthyological fauna which this formation
contains, is as considerable as that which inhabits the coasts
of Europe ; and, even although the species of the old red
sandstone do not belong to so great a number of families as
the living species, they are not less varied in their forms and
general aspect, nor less curious in their external characters
and organization, nor less different from each other in size
and the degree of locomotive power with which they were
doubtless endowed.*

* From Professor Agassi z' Monographic des poissons fossiles du vieux gres
rouge.

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. D

( 50 )

On the Classification of Birds, and particularly of the Genera
of European Birds. By John Hogg, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.,
F.L.S., &c. Communicated by the Author.

The principal part of this paper was <jriginally incor-
porated in my " Catalogue of Birds, observed in South-
Eastem Durham, and in North- Western Cleveland,^' which
I read before the zoological section of the British Associa-
tion for the advancement of Science, at York, on the 26th
September 1844 ; but, being desirous of extending the clas-
sification therein proposed, I thought it advisable to delay
the publication of this part, until another opportunity had
permitted me to examine the noble collection of birds in the
British Museum, for ihe purpose of rendering it as perfect
as my leisure would allow. That catalogue^ exclusive of any
remarks on arrangement^ has already appeared in the
** Zoologist'* for August, October, November, and December,
1845. NoWj with regard to the classification adopted for the
same catalogue, and of which a sketch is published in the
" Report of the fourteenth meeting of the British Associa-
tion," it is here necessary to enter into some short explana-
tion.

On forming that catalogue, I, in a great degree, followed
Mr Yarrelfs arrangement and nomenclature. Although I
principally adopted the former, with certain exceptions, for
the land-birds ; yet, for the rvater-birds, I made considerable
alterations, and chiefly assumed Cuvier^s classification. Hav-
ing twenty years ago written a " catalogue of most of the
birds which are known to frequent the country near Stock-
ton," that was afterwards published in the appendix to
Brewster^ s *' History of Stockton-upon-Tees," I chose for it the
Cuvierian system, which had then been given to the world
only seven years before in Wie first edition of the " Begne
Animal." Being still much prejudiced in favour of that na-
tural arrangement (which I believe I was one of the first
to adopt in this country), it appeared to me to be more ad-
visable to [incorporate it in my recent Memoir with that
classification subsequently instituted by some of our English

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 51

ornithologists, — making, at the same time, certain modifica-
tions in both, — than to use the latter alone, as Mr Yarrell
had done. For, I must confess that it struck me as very
anomalous to select Ciwiers Dentirostres, Conirostres, and
Fissirostres, and then to reject, without any sufficient reason,
the equally natural groups of his Longirostres, Cultrirostres,
Lamellirostrcs, &c., as those distinguished authors thought
proper to do. Also, I introduced three families, namely,
Upupidae, Rccurvirostridae, and Procellariadae, from the
*' New Systematic Arrangement of Vertebrated Animals,'' by
C. L. Bonapa) te (the Prince of Musignano^ now of Canino),
published in the Transactions of the Linnean Society,
vol. xviii., 1840.

There are likewise several new tribes that I myself charac-
terised from variations in the structure or form of the hill,
and so tending to complete, in the steps of Linnwus, a Ros-
tral classification. And it seemed to me quite clear, that not
only such was the view of the illustrious Swede, as a refer-
ence to the " Systema Naturae" will shew ; but, also, that the
bill generally presents the most obvious and natural charac-
ters for the chief arrangement of birds. Thus, in continu-
ance of this plan, and in its extension to the genera of the
birds which have been discovered in Europe, I have uni-
formly taken the characters of all the tribes from those of the
tdll ; whilst those of i\\Qfeet and toes present the distinctions
of the subclasses, of the orders, and likewise of many of the
sub tribes. Further and more careful examinations of cer-
tain birds have induced me to make some alterations in my
classification, as published in the beforementioned report of
the British Association, and my " Catalogue of Birds, ob-
served in South-Eastern Durham, and in North-Western
Cleveland ; with an a})pendix, containing the classification
and nomenclature of all the species included therein." Lon-
don, 1845.

Moreover, I have omitted to give the subfamilies, because
I am at present inclined to consider them as superfluous, and
as unnecessarily lengthening the classification ; but those
ornithologists who differ from me, can readily insert them
in their proper places. I have paid some attention to the

52 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds.

selection of the genera, and have been obliged, in order to do
away with the inconvenience of subgenera^ to increase the
number of the genera themselves ; although I trust this has
only been done where real and sufficient differences have
confirmed such a necessity. But I must observe that a great
many of the new genera, constituted by Messrs C. L. Bona-
parte and G. B. Gray, appear to be unnecessary, and depend-
ing on far too minute distinctions. The former author, in
his " Geographical and Comparative List of the Birds of
Europe and North America," Edit. 1838, makes the genera
then found in Europe to amount to the vast number of 246 ;
but, in his later Memoir, " Catalogo Metodico degli Uccelli
Europei," published in the " Nuovi Annali delle Scienze Na-
turali di Bologna, Anno 1842," he has injudiciously increased
this number to 265. Mr Gould, in his splendid work on the
" Birds of Europe,*' gives only 168 genera ; whilst M. Tern-
minck in his second edition, with the supplementary parts, of
'• Manuel d'Ornithologie,*" comprises all the European spe-
cies in 97 genera ; and 113 are the total number of genera
mentioned in M, H. SchlegeVs " Revue Critique des Oiseaux
d'Europe." Leide, 1844.

Now, the entire number of genera, as selected by myself,
for the birds of Europe, will be seen to be 205. Again, the
Prince of Canino, in addition to his immense number of ge-
nera, has included in his very recent " Methodical Cata-
logue," many subgenera ; to the latter, in truth, I cannot
help expressing an insuperable objection, because by a fre-
quent introduction of subgenera, a universal departure from
the vast utility experienced in the Binomial method would
soon take place, and which, in time, would most assuredly be
followed by the intrusion of subspecies (as has already been
effected by M. Brehrn), and even of subvarieties.

In the classification of birds, the maxim — " Exceptio pro-
bat regulam'' certainly prevails to a great extent ; for there
is scarcely a division, a tribe, or a family, in which some
bird does not occur that departs from the regular or normal
form of that division, and becomes in one or more of its cha-
racters an exception to, or assumes some irregularity, or wan-
dering from the rest, and so constitutes what is usually termed

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 53

an " aberrant form. Hence arises the especial difficulty of
classifying birds with such coiTectness and minute accuracy,
as every careful ornithologist would desire to do. So then,
in my present arrangement, I earnestly hope that the zoolo-
gist, after making due allowance for certain exceptions or
aberrant forms, will find the general divisions and leading
characters of the tribes, sub tribes, and other sections, not
hastily designed, but uniformly carried out with a sufficient
degree of exactness and regularity for all practical purposes,
and in strict conformity with Nature.

The following is a Synopsis of my classification : —

Class II.— AVES.

Subclass I.— AVES CONSTRIC-
TIPEDES.

Division I. — Terrestres.
Order I. Raptores.

Tribe I. Planicerirostres.

Suhtrihe 1. Diurni.

Family 1. SarcoramphidaB.

Genus. Neophron.

Family 2. Vulturidae.

Genera. Gyys, Vultur.*

Family 3. Gypaetidae.

Genus Gypaetus.

Family 4. Aquilidae.

Genera. Haliaetus, Aquila, Pan-

dion, Circdetus.

Family 5. Falconidae.

Genera.. Falco, Accipiter, Astur,

Milvus, Nauclerus, Elanus.

Family 6. Buteonidse.

Genera, Buteo, Pernis, Circus,

Strigiceps.

Tribe II. Tecticerirostres.

Suhtrihe 2. Nocturni.

Family 1. Strigidae.

Genera. Surnia, Nyctea, Strix,

Ulula, Symium, Athene.

Family 2. Bubonidae.

Genera, Bubo, Otus, Scops.

Order II. Prehensorea.
Tribe. Rotundirostres.
Suhtrihe 1. Laeviliiigues.
Families 1. Plyctolophidae. 2.
Psittacidae. 3. Macrocercidae.
4. Pezoporidae. 5. Psittaculidae.
Suhtrihe 2. Hirtilingues.

Family 6. Loriadae.

Suhtrihe 3. Tubilingues.

Family 7- Microglossidae.

Order III. Insessores.

Tribe I. Curvirostres.

Suhtrihe 1. Scansores.

Family. Cuculidae.

Genera. Cuculus, Oxylophus, Coc-

cyzus.

Tribe II. Cuneirostres.

Family 1. Picidae.

Genera. Dryotomus, Pious, Jynx.

Family 2. ApternidaB

Genus. Aptemus.
Family 3. Sittidae.

Genus Sitta.

Tribe III. Conirostres.

Suhtrihe 2. Claniatores.

Family 1. CoraciadidaB.

Genus. Coracias.

Family 2. Corvidae.

Genera, Garrulus, Pica, Nucifraga,

Corvus, PyrrhocoraXy Fregilus.

Suhtrihe 3. Cantatores.

Family 3. Sturnidae.

Genera. Stumus, Pastor, Agelaius.

* The Order and Genera in italics signify the Extra'Britannic Birds, or those
which are foreign to the British Islands.

54 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds.

Family 4. Loxiadae.

Genera. Loxia,Pyrrhula, Corythus.

Erythrospiza, Coccothraustes.

Family 5. Fringillidae.

Genera. Petronia, Passer, Linota,

Serinudy Carduelis, Fringilla.

Family 6. Emberizidae.

Genera. Emberiza, Plectrophanes.

Family 7. Alaudidas.
Genera. Phileremus, Alauda, Ga-
^ lerida.

Tribe IV. Dentirostres.

Family 1. Anthidae.

Genera. Certhilauda, Anthus.

Family 2. Motacillidae.

Genera. Budytes, Motacilla.

Family 3. Paridae.

Genera. uEgithalus, Calamophilus,

Mecistura, Parus.

Family 4. Aedonidae.

Genera. Regulus, Melizopliilus,

Sylvia, Curruca, Aedon, Salicaria,

Accentor, Calliope.

Family 5. Saxicolidae.

Genera. Phoenicura, Erithacus,

Saxicola, Vitiflora.

Family 6. Ampelididae.

Genus. Bombycilla.

Family 7. Merulidae.

Genera. Oriolus, Haematornis,

Turdus, Petrocincla, Merula, Cin-

clus.

Subtrihe. 4. Latrones.

Family 8. Laniadae.

Genera. Lanius, Collurio.

Family 9. MuscicapidaB.

Genus. Muscicapa.

Tribe V. Tenuirostres.

Suhtribe 5. Anisodactyli.

Family 1. Certhiadae.

Genera. Troglodytes, Certhia,

Tichodroma.

Family 2. Upupidae.

Genus. Upupa.

Tribe VI. Fissirostres.

Subtribe 6. Syndactyli.

Family 1. Haley onidae.

Genus. Alcedo.

Family 2. Meropidae.

Genus. Merops.

Subtribe 7. AUodactyli.

Family 3. Hirundinidae.

Genera. Cypselus, Progne, Hirundo,

Chelidon.

Family 4. Capriraulgidae.

Genera. Caprimulgus, Scotornis.

Tribe VII. Cutinarirostres.

Subtribe 8. Gyratores.

Family. Columbidae.

Genera. Columba, Turtur, Ecto-

pistes.

Subclass II.— AVES INCON-

STRICTIPEDES.

Order IV. Rasores.

Tribe. Convexirostres.

Subtribe 1. Podarcees.

Family 1. Phasianidae.

Genus. Phasianus.

Family 2. Tetraonidae.

Genera. Tetrao, Lagopus, Bonasia.

Family 3. Pteroclidae.

Genus. Pterocles.

Family 4. Perdicidae.

Genera. Francolinus, Perdix, Or-

tyx, Coturnix.

Family 5. Hemipodiadse.

Genus. Hemipodius.

Subtribe 2. Podenemi.

Family 6. Otididae.

Genus. Otis.

Division II. Aquaticb.

Order V. Grallatores.

Tribe I. Pressirostres.

Subtribe 1. Cursores.

Family 1. Charadriadas.

Genera. CEdicnemus, Cursorius,

Charadrius, Hoplopterus.

Family 2. Vanellidae.

Genera. Squatarola, Vanellus, Gla-

reola, Strepsilas.

Family 3. HaematopodidaB.

Genus. Haematopus.

Tribe II. Cultrirostres.

Subtrihe 2. Ambulatores.

Family 1. Gruidae.

Genera. Balearica, Anthropoides,

Grus.

Family 2. Ardeidae.

Genera. Ciconia, Ardea, Ardeola,

Erogas, Nycticorax.

Tribe III. Pyxidirostres.

Family. Phaenicopteridae.

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 55

' Genua. Phccnicopterus.
Tribe IV. Spathulirostres.
Family. Plataleidae.

Genus. Platalea.
Tribe Y, Longirostres.
Family 1. Tantalidae.
Genera. Tantalus, Ibis.
Family 2. Recurvirostridae.
Genus. Reeurvirostra
Family 3. NumeniadaB.
Genera. Terehia, Limosa,
Numenius.
Family 4. Scolopacidae.
Genera. Totanus, Machetes, Rus
ticola, Scolopax, Macrorham-
phus, Eroliay Tringa.
Family 5. Phalaropodidae.
Genera. Phalaropus, Lobipes.
Family 6. Calidridae.
Genera. Himantopus, Calidris.
Tribe VI. Diversirostres.
Subtribe 3. Macrodactyli.
Family. Rallidae.
Genera. Rallus, Crex, Zapornia.
Tribe VII. Frontiscutirostres.

Family Fulicidae.

Genera. Gallinula, Porphyrio,

Fulica.

Order VI. Natatores.

Tribe I. Lamellirostres.
Subtribe 1. Simplicipollices.
Family 1. Anseridae.
Genera. Bemicla, Anser, Chen.,
Cygnus, Olor, Plectropterus,
Chenalopex.
Family 2. Anatidae.
Genera. Tadorna, Caiinna, Rhyn-
chaspis, Chauliodus, Dafila,
Anas, Mareca.
Subtribe 2. Membranipollices.

Family 3. Fuligulidae.

Genera. Clangula, Undina,

Harelda, Fuligula, CEdemia,

Soraateria.

Tribe II. Serrirostres.

Family 1. Mergidae.

Genera. Mergus, Merganser.

Subtribe 3. Totipalraas.

Family 2. Fregatidae.

Genus Fregata.

Family 3. Carbonidae.

Genera. Carbo, Sula.

Trihe III, Sacculirostres.

Family Pelecanidae.

Gf^nus Pelecanus.

Tribe IV. Tubinarirostres.

Subtribe 4. Longipennes.

Family. Procellariadae.

Genera. Diomedea, Procellaria,

Puffinus, Thalassidroma.

Tribe V. Medionarirostres.

Family. Laridae.

Genera. Cataracta, Lestrie, Larus,

Rissa, Xema.

Tribe VI. Subulirostres.

Family. Sternidae.

Genera. Anous, Viral va, Pon-

tochelidon, Sterna.

Tribe VII. Cuspidirostres.

Subtribe 5. Brevipennes.

Family 1. Podicipidae.

Genus. Podiceps.

Family 2. Coljmbidae.

Genera. Colymbus, Uria.

Tribe VIII. Sulcirostres.

Family 1. Mormonidas.

Genera. Mergulus, Mormon,

Utamania.

Subtribe 6. Imperfectipennes.

Family 2. Alcidae.

Genus. Alca.

It now becomes me to explain, as briefly and as clearly as
I can, the subclasses, certain of the tribes, and other groups,
adopted in the preceding classification.

Subclass I. Aves Constrictipedes,— Birds whose feet are
constrictile, or adapted to grasping. The birds belonging to
this subclass make, in general, compact and well built nests,
wherein they bring up their very weak, blind, and mostly
naked, young, which they feed with care, by bringing food

66 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds.

to them for many days, until they are fledged and sufficiently
strong to leave the nest. They are principally monogamous,
and have the feet endued v^ith great constrictilitt/, or com-
plete power of grasping ; and the thumb or hind-toe, which
almost always exists, entirely rests, upon the ground, and is
in the same plane with the other, or fore toes.

The Order I. Faptores, I have distinguished by tmo tribes,
viz., 1st, Planicerirostres ; and, 2d, Tecticerirostres. The
first comprehends those genera which possess the cere of the
bill plain^ or conspicuous, and it is in general large, indeed
often very extensive. But in the present rostral classifica-
tion, the birds of prey might form a natural tribe, — Adun-
cirostres, on account of their strong and hooked beak, as in
the words of Pliny — " rostra — rapto viventibus adunca^
Still I must add, that I much prefer the two first mentioned
tribes, derived from the important characters of the cere.

Family 1. Sarcoramphidce ; — considering the power o^ flight
as the chief characteristic of birds, I would commence this
class by the condor. That magnificent monarch of the
feathered race is, I believe, the largest of those species that
are endued with the strongest, the most extended, and per-
fect wings ; and it also possesses the power of flying in the
highest degree. And I would terminate this class by the
wingless auk {Alcaimpennis), and the penguins {Spheniscidoe),
because these remarkable birds do not at all possess the
faculty of flying, and have wings which are only rudimen-
tary, or very imperfectly formed. The condor receives its
generic title of Sarcoramphus, or flesh-hill, from the large
fleshy cere, or skin with which its bill is so conspicuously
furnished.

Sub tribe 2. Nocturni : — the nocturnal birds of prey come
under my second tribe — Tecticerirostres, or those raptores
which have the cere of their bill hid, or covered with feathers :
Linnwus erroneously characterised owls as possessing, " rost-
rum aduncum {absque cerd)'' So Dr Fleming says, the bill
of owls is " rvithout cere,'' and the Prince of Canino de-
scribes them with " cera obsoleta." On the contrary, in the
genus Qtus, the cere is large ; although in all the genera

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 57

that singular wax- like membrane, situate at the base of the
bill, is concealed by feathers.

Instead of resuming for the owls the two subdivisions of
Linnaeus, Auriculalm and Inauriculatce, I have arranged them
into two families. — 1. Strigidas, corresponding with the
latter, or without carets; and, 2. Bubonidw, that agrees
with the former, and comprises those owls which are fur-
nished with carets ; or, as our old writers named them, ears
and horns. Both of these families will have to be divided
into operculati and inoperculati^ with reference to the pre-
sence and absence of opercula, in the ears. The diurnal
birds of prey approach the owls by the genera Circus and
Strigiceps ; the latter, or the owl-harrier, in the form of the
head and the facial disc, comes most nearly to an owl. So,
the family of Strigidae approximates to the hawks or falcons,
by the genus Surnia, of which the species called the hawk-
owl (Surnia funereaj, ought to be placed, ihQ first in the dis-
tribution of the nocturnal raptores.

Order II. Prehensores : — This, with the preceding, and the
following orders, constitute six in all, in my general classifi-
cation of birds. I was indeed desirous of retaining only
five orders, according to the system mostly used in England ;
but, on mature consideration, I found that I could not do so,
if I attempted to follow an arrangement in accordance with
nature : I have, therefore, been unwillingly compelled to
place the parrot groups in a separate order, and which I have
termed " Prehensores," after M. Blainville and the Prince
of Canino. But I have ventured to differ from some of the
views of the last-named admirable ornithologist, and of M.
Illiger, in making it my second order ; and, in fact, the link
which connects the Raptores, or birds of prey, with the true
Insessores or perching birds ; whereas they have placed the
Psittacidw i\\Q first in their systems.

The arranging of the parrots with the Scansores appears
to me highly artificial, and, as it were, forcing them into a
place in a system, where they have little except the forma-
tion (zygodactylisrri) of the toes, and perhaps the colours in
some degree of the plumage, to warrant such a step. If we
compare their structure with that of the Baptores, we shall

58 John Hogg. Esq., on the Classification of Birds.

find the parrots approaching most strongly to them. Thus,
I will enumerate some of their comparative resemblances.

They have a hooked bill, — ^termed also " rostrum adun-
cum" by Linnwus^ and a cere covering its base, through
which are pierced the nostrils. These are round, like those
of many of the falcons and owls. Their tarsi are reticulated ;
and their claws, resembling talons, are sharp, and much
curved. The shape of some parrots is similar to that of a
hawk ; whilst that of some others with a short tail is thick-
set, and rather broad or squat, and resembles the shape of
an owl. Again, the naked cheeks or places about the eyes
of certain maccaws, represent the plumose discs, which sur-
round the eyes of owls. These nocturnal raptores likewise
further approach to the parrots, in having their external toe
capable of being turned backwards, which, when reversed,
resembles the zygodactyle position of the latter. Also in
their internal organization they are in these respects similar,
viz., the sternum of parrots is much like that of the fal-
conidse, while the furcula approximates to that of the owls,
by being somewhat flattened. And the oesophagus is equally
enlarged with that of the falcons.

So far had I written, before I had seen, or even heard of,
that most singular parrot, Strigops habropHlus, which has
recently* been placed in the British Museum. This parrot,
as its generic name implies, is exceedingly like an owl in its
general conformation, in having facial discs, and long hair-
like feathers about its beak, and in its downy or soft feathers
or plumage ; from which latter circumstance, the name of
Habroptilus^ has been given to it. It is figured at plate 105,
Part XVII., of Gray's and Mitchell's " Genera of Birds," and
is classed by them in their subfamily Cacatuinse, which corre-
sponds with my family Plyctolophidw. This bird., then, fully
confirms, in the most unexpected manner, the views I had
long entertained of placing the parrot families between the
owls, and the insessorial birds : so this new genus Strigops
must stand the first, or nearest to the owls, in my y?r5/ family
Flyctolophidas.

* Mr J. E. Gray informs me that he purchased this bird at Havre in the last
summer, and that it is a native of New Zealand.

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 69

But I must observe that notwithstanding these affinities
to the raptores, the parrot groups are essentially distinct
from both the diurnal and nocturnal subtribes of that order,
and therefore compose of themselves an extremely natural
order.

The term '' Prehensores," or Holders, will be found ad-
mirably appropriate ; because, the parrots, of all birds, most
possess the faculty of catching hold of every thing ; in addi-
tion to the powerful hold which they always take with their
toes and claws, — and these, from their structure, are best
adapted to that purpose — they also hold, when in the act
of climbing, by their strong beak ; and, when about to eat,
they generally hold their food in one foot, and so raise it to
their mouth. Since the bill of the parrots, although hooked,
differs materially from that of the raptorial birds, by being
rounder in all its parts, I have consequently named the tribe
Fotundirostres. Indeed, in these birds the upper mandible
is likewise different in its anatomical structure, for it forms
quite a separate bone, and is articulated to the cranium.
The three subtribes, Lsevilingues, Hirtilingues, and Tubi-
lingues, are distinguished by the tongues being smoothy or
rough, sometimes even hairy, or tubular. I must, however,
observe, that a further knowledge of several genera of the
rotundirostral tribe is requisite, for the purpose of deter-
mining with greater accuracy the groups proposed in this
arrangement, as well as, in all probability, of adding other
new ones to it. The extra-European or foreign order of
Prehensores, comprising the Linnoean genus Psittacus, I have
here introduced, for the sake of completing my general classi-
fication of birds : all the rest of the foreign families and
genera can be included in my remaining ^re orders.

Order III. Insessores. I commence the perching birds
with the Scansores, or climbers., as being most nearly allied
to those of the preceding order. Many of their habits are
similar ; and the division of the toes into two pairs or yokes,
which has been well termed zygodactyle, i. e., two fore-toes
and two hind-toes, is very much the same. In the arrange-
ment I have here proposed, the approximation of the genera
in each succeeding order to those in the one immediately pre-

60 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds.

ceding it, will be distinctly apparent. In the Raptores, as I
have before said, the diurnal rapacious birds are connected
with the nocturnal by the genera Strigiceps (the owl-harrier)
and Surnia (funerea or hawk-owl) ; again, the Prehensores
are approximated to the latter by Strigops, or the owUpar-
rot; and the Insessores are directly allied to the Prehensores
by the scansorial genera (amongst others) Oxylophus, which
in some respects exhibits an affinity to Plyctolophus, and
Picus, which bears no great dissimilarity of plumage from cer-
tain of the parrots (Psittacus). Lastly, the more ordinary
division of the toes of the true Insessores is then approached
through Sitta, and other genera of the Scansores that are
furnished with three toes before and one behind.

Myjirst tribe, Curvirostres, is derived from the somewhat
slender and generally curved beak of the cuckoos ; whilst my
second tribe Cuneirostres, is founded on the strong cuneated
or wedge-shaped beak of the woodpeckers, wryneck, nut-
hatch, &c.

Of this tribe the family 2, Apternidce, is constituted for the
reception of the three-toed woodpeckers. The genus Apter-
nus of Swainson is its type, and is correctly named, for the
word signifies without a hind-toe^ or heel ; consequently,
this family forms a very rare exception to the groups com-
prised in this subclass, and to which I would also refer the
foreign species Ficus shorii and P. tiga. Although the hind-
toe itself is absent in these birds, yet the outer fore-toe being
placed behind, and in the same plane with the others, causes
the want of it to be scarcely felt in the functions of walking
and climbing.

Family 3, Sittidoe. I think there is much anomaly in
placing, as the English ornithologists do, three genera with
such different beaks as the wren^ the hoopoe., and the nut-
hatch, in the same family, Certhiadae, and in the same tribe,
Scansores ; whilst, in fact, the hoopoe cannot be called a
climber. Cuvier'^s System places that genus, and the mit-
hatch^ among the Tenuirostres, but the wren among the Den-
tirostres ; to this, likewise, there are several objections.
Since the genus Sitta differs in its structure from those ge-
nera, as well as from the two preceding families, I have, in

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds, 61

order to assign it a station more consistent with nature,
placed it in a separate family in my Cuneirostral tribe.

Subtribe 2, Clamatores, Criers or Screamers, I have limit-
ed to only a few groups ; one of which, the Coraciadidae, or
the European Boiler family, I prefer placing in the Coniros-
tral tribe, and next to the jays, which in many respects it
resembles, rather than among the Fissirostres, as some of
our modern naturalists do. Although the wide gape, with
which the common roller is furnished, may give it a claim to
that place ; still I am inclined to divide the present family
Coraciadidw, and station the Australian and African kinds, es-
pecially those of the latter, which are long -tailed, and strong-
ly approach the bee-eaters in form and appearance, next after
the family Meropidse, among the Fissirostres. And this di-
vision would then constitute a new family, and stand in my
subtribe Allodactyl% and just before the Hirundinidse. I
have observed the common roller in Sicily, and think it
clearly more allied to the Corvidae than to any other group.
Like the jay, it is restless, makes a loud chattering cry,
and seeks its food upon the ground, which consists of in-
sects, caterpillars, worms, &c. But it even resembles the
woodpeckers in breeding in decayed trees, and having eggs
of a beautiful shining white colour. In fact, the eggs of
the roller in their shape more exactly correspond with those
of Picus minor.

Family 2. Corvidw. It will be remembered that Cuvier
classes the genus Fregilus, with the hoopoe, amongst his Te-
nuirostres, which is perhaps its proper place, if we regard
the beak alone. To place it in the Conirostral tribe seems
incorrect ; but its general appearance and habits must decide
its station to be with the Corvidae. Fregilus is, consequent-
ly, an aberrant genus.

The third subtribe, or Cantatores, Singers, is very exten-
sive, comprising, in strictness, all the singing birds, and es-
pecially the true Warblers.

Family 4. Loxiadw. Considering that the family of Frin-
gillidcB, as usually retained, is much too comprehensive, and
ought to bo divided into one or two more, I have adopted, for
the larger and thicker billed genera Loxia, Pyrrhula, Cocco-

62 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds,

thraustes. &c., Vigors^ family of Loxiadae. (See Zool. Journ,,
vol. ii., p. 399.)

Family Aedonidce. Instead of the name Sylviadae, which
has been given to the group of true Songsters or Warblers, I
have bestowed that of Aedonidce, from the Greek aribm, a
nightingale, which is derived from the verb ahhw, to sing. The
word for this family will itself appropriately signify song^
sters, being also received from that chief of songsters the
nightingale, as its type. Consequently, it appears to me
to be better to assign the generic appellation of Aedon to
that bird, than to continue that of Philomela. So, then, our
two European nightingales would be called Aedon Philomela
and Aedon Luscinia.

Subtribe 4, Latrones, Robbers, are ^er birds of prey of the
Insessorial order, or Perchers. They include the Butcher-
birds, Shrikes, and Fly-catchers.

Subtribe 5. Anisodactyli. This and the two following sub-
tribes, Syndactyli and Allodactyli, are distinguished by their
toes.

Family 2. Upupidw. As the hoopoe must clearly be placed
in a distinct family, I have employed that previously formed
by the Prince of Canino. But the same author having insti-
tuted the family Cypselidce for the Swifts, and so entirely
divided them from the Hirundinidse, I can by no means agree
with him in the necessity for this.

Tribe VII. Cutinarirostres, I have thus designated be-
cause of the tumid and soft skin, or cuticle, at the base of
the bill, in which the nostrils are situated, being peculiar to
the pigeons, doves, and turtles.

The title of Gyratores, bestowed upon the Columbidae by
C. L. Bonaparte, is strongly indicative of their movements.

Here I must remark, that those zoologists who class the
ColumbidoB with the Basores, or Gallinaceous birds, evidently
transgress the order of nature. No doubt, these birds ap-
proximate nearest to the latter in some respects, yet in
others, and those the most important, they are totally dissi-
milar.

They resemble the Basores^ and especially the domestic
poultry, in their young being hatched with much hairy down

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 63

upon them, and not naked, — in some species having carun-
cles, narrow and long feathers on their necks, — and in seve-
ral of their habits.

But they differ from them (amongst other things)" in their
young being mostly born blind, tender, and requiring to
be fed for some time, — in being monogamous, chiefly arbo-
real, possessing constrictile feet, fully suited for perching ;
with the hind-toe quite resting on the ground ; the tarsi un-
armed with spurs, and in general not swift-footed.

Subclass II. Aves Inconstrictipedes, birds with inconstric-
tile feet; i. e.,feet little or not adapted to grasping.

The birds in this subclass make either a poor and rude
nest, in which they lay their eggs, or else none, depositing
them on the bare ground. The young are generally born
with their full sight, covered with down, strong, and capable
of running or swimming immediately after they leave the
egg-shell. The parent birds attend, and direct them where
to find their food. They are mostly polygamous, have the
feet little or not adapted to grasping, and very frequently
want the thumb or hind-toe; but this, when present, is
chiefly placed higher up the tarsus than the plane of the
fore-toes, and usually rests, in a slight degree, or not at all,
upon the ground.

The tribe Convexirostres points out the strongly arched, or
convex bill, of the Gallinse, gallinaceous birds or scratchers
(Rasores) ; and this I have divided into two sub tribes ; — the
first Podarcees, Uodu^Kseg^ able with their feet, or srvift-footed,
— ^the usual characteristic of this active group, consisting
chiefly of game-birds and poultry ; and the second, Podenemi
— IloS^vg^o/, having feet as swift as the winds. This subtribe
comprehends the bustards, which depend upon the swiftness
of their powerful, long, and muscular legs, for safety, rather
than upon the use of their short wings.

The genus Hemipodius, or half afoot, is so named, because
it wants the hind-toe ; and in this respect, as well in being
polygamous, as in having the bill compressed, it approaches
to the bustard. Consequently, I have stationed it in a sepa-
rate family, Hemipodiadoe, and next before that of Otididce.

The stilters or waders (Grallatores) constitute the Order V.,

64 John Hogg, Esq., on the ClasHfication of Birds.

of which my first subtribe marks the coursers or running
waders.

The birds in this order possess almost every variety of
feet, which are furnished with either three ov four toes. The
hind-toe or thumb, when it exists, is generally placed at a
varying height upon the tarsus, and does not at all touch
the ground, or only does so in a slight degree ; rarely, how-
ever, it is attached in the same plane with the fore-toes, and
rests altogether on the ground, or presses in a great degree
upon it. The mode in which the fore-toes are divided, is
likewise variable, and the modifications of the web or mem-
brane are numerous, and in some examples exceedingly re-
markable.

The beaks also greatly vary, but for the most part they
are of considerable length, and well adapted to searching in
water or wet places, for food ; so are the legs, and frequently,
too, the necks of the different groups.

Family 3, Hcematopodidce, is established for the reception
of that singular genus Hcematopus, which is of importance,
as it leads directly to the following : —

Tribe II. Cultrirostres, signifying the knife-hills, an ap-
pellation very appropriately bestowed on the group by Cuvier.
In fact, the bill of these birds, and especially of the Ardeidw,
is a most dangerous weapon ; when used as an instrument
of defence, they suddenly dart it into their enemy like a long
knife or stiletto.

My second subtribe, Ambulatores, distinguishes the still-
er s or Walking-waders ; this ought to be again divided into
two or three sections, such as Tardi^ Veloces, &c.

Tribes III. Pyxidirostres, i. e., box-billed, I have taken for
the family Phoenicopteridee, from M. JEdm. de Selys-Long-
champs' Classification of Birds, published in his " Faune
Beige," Liege, 1842.

Tribe IV. Since the Spoonbills cannot be correctly classed
with the dagger or knife-billed birds, Cultrirostres, I have
been compelled to form a new tribe for them, and which I
have termed Spathulirostres, the Spatula-billed group. So
I have necessarily added another family, Plataleidce. In this
and several more nero families, I observe, on a very recent

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 65

perusal of M. De Selys-Long champs'' work, that he has anti-
cipated me in their institution. It is, however, gratifying to
me to find, that so able a naturalist coincides in the necessity
for these new groups.

Family 2. Recurvirostridw. Agreeing with C. L. Bona-
parte, I have placed the remarkable genus Recurvirostra io
a separate family ; but among Cuviefs Longirostres, or Long-
billed group, which I have taken for my fifth tribe of Gral-
latores.

Family 5. Phalaropodidce. On more mature consideration
I prefer to follow G. L. Bonaparte in the name of this family.
I had previously arranged it uhder the title of Lobipedidce^
as Mr Yarrell has done ; but, since the genera Phalaropus
and Lobipes belong, without any doubt, to the hongirostral
tribe, and bear a close affinity to the genus Tringa, I have
here necessarily assigned to them their true and natural
position.

Tribe VI. Diver sir ostres. The great diversity, as well in
the shape, as in the length and si;:ie of the beaks of the rails
and crakes, that form the present very natural tribe, has
obliged me, for the sake of perfecting this Rostral classifica-
tion, to entitle it Diver sirostres.

The Rallidce, as well as the Fulicidw, are furnished with
iong toes, unconnected by any membrane at their base, the
Macrodactyli of Cuvier^ which (although not webbed) are in
some species edged with lateral membranes, that greatly
assist in swimming.

Tribe VII. Frontiscutirostres. The singular naked shield^
disc, or plate, upon the forehead of the Gallinules, Sultanas,
and Coots, of the same consistency or nature as the beak it-
self, has led me to establish this tribe. Indeed, this frontal
shield seems only to be a portion of the beak carried over
the forehead, about as high as the crown of the head. The
lobed-feet of the Coots, together with their habits, form, and
plumage, mark them as most nearly allied to the true rveb-
footed birds, Natatores or Swimmers^ which compose my last
and

VI. Order. The feet of the several tribes in this order
are more simple than those of the preceding. They are all

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI, — JULY 1846. E

C6 John Hogg, Esq , on the Classification of Birds.

webbed, palmipedes, but chiefly present three forms oi palma-
ture ; first, where the fore-toes are alone connected by a
membrane : this is the common palmature ; secondly, the toti-
palmature, where the hind-toe is placed at the inner side of
the tarsus, and united with the fore-toes in one entire web ;
and, thirdly, where the fore-toes are edged with lateral and
extended membranes : this is called the fissopalmature. The
tarsi are more or less compressed, and the claws in some are
short and blunt, whilst in others they are flat and square,
or curved and sharp, resembling talons.

Tribe I. Lamellirostres. Cuvier has thus very properly
named his fourth family of Palmipedes, which, with the ex-
clusion of the genera Mergus and Merganser (also Membra-
nipollices), I have assumed for vay first ivihe of the Natatores.
In truth, the lamellae or denticulations, present one of the
principal characters in defining the genera of the Anatidse.
I have divided it into two subtribes, Simplicipollices and
Membranipollices ; and I have separated the geese and swans
{Anseridoe) from the ducks, whilst the latter, with the re-
mainder of the Lamellirostral tribe, being the Pochards, Sco-
ters, Eiders, &c. I have divided into two more families,
by restricting those genera, chiefly fluviatile and lacustrine,
which have the thumb or hind-toe simple, or without a mem-
brane, to the family Anatidw ; and by placing the rest pos-
sessing the hind-toe edged rvith a membrane, in the family
Fuligulidw, being the marine or oceanic kinds.

Family 1. Anseridce. I have thought myself warranted in
classing the geese and swans apart from the large family of
Anatidce of the English zoologists ; because, in addition to their
«hape, and some other characters, their tracheae are mostly
not furnished with any enlargement or labyrinth, or rarely
with a single one, as in the Egyptian goose ; while the re-
maining male Anatidw, except the common scoter, possess
#osseous, or cartilaginous, labyrinths, at the extremities of
their tracheae. . Also, I consider that the domestic swan
©tight to constitute a separate genus, which might be called
0/or,"and the species Mutus ; but the Hooper, with the other
species, should be stationed in the restricted genus Cygnus,
for they diifer, besides some minor points, in these structural

John Hogg, Esq., on tke Classification of Birds. 67

ones of importance ; namely^ in the absence of the basal pro-
tuberance of their bill, and in the lengthened tube of their
windpipe, which enters with a fold into a cavity, within the
keel of the sternum. And in the distribution of the AmeridcB
I have arranged the genera thus : — 1. Bemicla, beginning
with {B. Brenta) the brent bernicle, which affords considera-
ble resemblance to the common coot, the last of the Gralla-
torial order, both in shape, colour, and plumage. 2. Anser ;
3. Chen; 4. Cygnus; 5. Olor; and then I have placed the spur-
winged goose (Plectroyterus Gambensis), because, in that bird,
the single enlargement at the end of the trachea first presents
itself, and is perforated with many holes, thereby approaching
to the AnatidcB. And, lastly, I have added the Chenalopex
Egi/pHaca, or Egyptian goose ; for that species next offers the
tracheal enlargement, which is larger and more perfect than
the preceding, and thus shews its closer affinity to the family
of ducks.

My restricted family 2. Anatidce, answers to Cuvier's second
divison of ducks, which is thus ably defined by that author :-^
'• Les Canards de la deuxieme division, dont le pouce n'est
point horde d'une membrane, ont la tete plus mince, les pieds
moins larges, le cou plus long, le bee plus egal, le corps moins
^pais ; ils marchent mieux ; recherchent les plantes aquatiques
et leurs graines, autant que les poissons et autres animaux. II
parait que les renflemens de leurs trachees sont de substance
homogene, osseuse et cartilagineuse." {Begne Animal^ p. 536,
tome i., edit. 1817.)

^^Family 3, Fuligulidw^ constitutes the first division of
Cuviers arrangement of the ducks {Les Canards), and is cha-
racterized by him as follows : — " Les especes de la premiere
division, ou celles dont le pouce est horde d'une membrane,
ont la tete plus grosse, le cou plus court, les pieds plus en
arriere, les ailes plus petites, la queue plus roide, les tarses
plus comprimes, les doigts plus longs, les palmures plus
entieres. EUes marchent plus mal, vivent plus exclusivement
de poissons, et d'insectes, et plongent plus solvent.'* {Beg.
An., p. 532, tome i.)

Notwithstanding that the tracheal tube and labyrinth of
the golden Eye (Clangula), approximating to those of the

68 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds,

MergidcB, would direct me to station it the last in this group,
as Mr Yarrell has done, I have arranged it jirst, since its
size, form, and appearance, clearly indicate its place to be
next to the Wigeon (Mareca.)

Tribe II. Serrirostres. I considered it more correct to
institute this tribe of saw-billed Natatores, for the Mergidse,
Carbonidse, &c., because the mandibles of their bills are armed
with sharp teeth like those of a saw, indeed, very diflerent
from the LamellcB of the former tribe, than to continue them,
as in the Cuvierian classification, among the Lamellirostres.
Still I ought to remark, that some authors designate the man-
dibles of the Trogons and Pteroglossi as serrated, but these
are more strictly cut in, or jagged, along their exterior mar-
gins ; and they would, therefore, be better defined by the
term Incisirosfres. Further, relying on two or three dis-
tinctions, I have deemed it expedient to raise the genera
Mergus and Merganser to the dignity of a family, of which
the former is its type.

Subtribe 3. Totipalmw, the entire webs of Baron Cuvier.
Here we ftnd the hind-toe, or thumb, brought forward, or
rather to the inner side of the foot, and connected with the
three fore-toes by a strong and total web.

Family 2. Fregatida.. I have retained Bay's generic title
of Fregata for the man-of-war bird, and have placed it in a
family separated from the Carbonidw ; because the feet of that
singular bird, although having the hind-toe brought to the
side, and united with a single palmature, differ much, in the
toes being only webbed for about one-third of their length,
and not, as in the two following families, as far as the claws.
These last, resembling the talons of the Raptores, are sharp
and strongly curved. The Fregata is an American species ;
and its appearance in Europe has been accidental. The
Prince of Canino says, it was only once seen at the mouth of
the Weser in January 1772.

Family 3. Carbonidce, or the Cormorants, have been neces-
sarily divided by myself from the Pelecanidoe of authors for
several important reasons ; among which is the absence of all
serrated denticulations on the edges of the mandibles of the
latter. So likewise, the remarkable form of the entire bill,

I

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 69

and the shape and character of the pelicans being more allied
to those of the swans, have confirmed such a division.

Tribe III., Sacculirostres is so named from the peculiar
bag, or small sack, affixed to the lower mandible of the Peli-
canidw. In fact, the pelican is one of the most extraor-
dinary of the European water birds, and, like the Flamingo
or Avocet, ought to constitute, joer se, a distinct family.

Tribe IV. Tubinarirostres. This tribe I have derived
from M. Illiger's " Tubinares," on account of the tubularnos-
trils, which extend along the top of the upper mandible of
the different genera in this group. This, and the two fol-
lowing tribes, are furnished with long wings ; and they are
included in Cuvier's *' Longipennes," or second family of Pal-
mipedes.

Family Procellariadw. As C. L. Bonaparte had previously
done, so I have separated the Petrels, &c. from the Laridce^
and restricted to them the p;*esent family.

Tribe V. Medionarirostres. The nostrils in the skuas,
gulls, and xemes, are placed about the middle of their bill ;
hence the term, which I have assigned to this tribe, will con-
vey to it a proper signification.

Family Laridw. From the similitude of the bill of the
genus Cataractay or Cascade skua, to that of Frocellariadve^
I have selected for it the first station in this family.

Tribe VI. Subulirostres, This is a very natural tribe
taken from the subulate, or awl-shaped beaks of the terns
and sea swallows.

Family Sternidw. I have differed from G. L. Bonaparte,
M. deSelgs- Long champs, and others, in forming a new family
Sternidce, quite independent of the Laridce. Also, the genus \^
Pontochelidon has been instituted by me for the reception of
Sterna Caspia, and S, Anglica.

Tribe VII. I have designated Cuspidirostres, because of
the strong sharp-pointed beaks of the several genera, which
much resemble the point of a spear. They "all have short
wings — ^the " Brachyptera" of Okvier ; — but which, for the
sake of uniformity of expression adopted for my last three
subtribes, I have called BrerAfmnes, as I find M. de Selys%
Lonychamps has likewise done.

70 John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds.

Family 1. Podicipidce. From the remarkable feet of the
grebes, their want of a tail, and some other characters, I
perfectly coincide with the last mentioned author in separat-
ing them from the family of Colymbidce.

Tribe VIII. Sulcirostres. I have bestowed this title upon
the present tribe, in order to point out their peculiar hills
as well as the grooves or furrows (sulci) that are apparent
in them.

Family I. Mormonidoe. This family has been established by
myself for the little auk, puffin, razor-bill, &c., since they prin-
cipally differ from the true auks {Alcidce) in their short, but
more perfectly developed wings%with which they are able to
fly, notwithstanding the statement of Cuvier and others to
the contrary.

Ohs. With respect to the suhtribes, I must here make
some explanation, viz., that where one subtribe is intended to
embrace more families than those comprised in a single tribe,
for example, the subtribe Longipennes may include the
Larida3 and Sternidae, as well as the Procellariadae ; and the
subtribe Brevipennes, the Podicipidae, Colymbidae, and Mor-
monidae, the term suborder might perhaps be more correctly
substituted for that of subtribe, and in lieu of standing after
be placed before, the tribe ; but this I will leave to the judg-
ment of others. And I will only add, that I have preferred,
for the sake of a uniform terminology, to name all those sec-
tions subtribes, and not some of them " suborders," and
others " subtribes."

Subtribe 6. Imperfectipennes, in consequence of the wings
of the true auks {Alcidce) being so imperfect^ as to be useless
for the purpose of flying, I have formed this subtribe for
them, and for the foreign family of Penguins (Spheniscidce),
which is furnished with very similar wings

Family 2. AlcidcE. Herein are contained the restricted
auks ; and I thus station the wingless auk {Alca impennis)
the last in my arrangement of the European birds.

As I have previously m-entioned, that I would begin my
general classification of birds by the condor (Sarcoramphus
gryphus), and I would terminate it by the smallest species of
penguin ; so, in like manner, it will be seen, that I have com-

John Hogg, Esq., on the Classification of Birds. 71

menced my distribution of the birds of Europe by the genus
Neophron, a bird endued with great vigor of flight, and have
concluded it by iliQ flightless Auk. It will also be observed,
how I have placed the subtribe Brevipennes intermediately
between the Longipennes on the one side, and the Imperfecti-
pennes on the other, and thus gradually leading from the
web-footed birds, possessing considerable power and swift-
ness of wing, to those which have almost no wings, or at
least are entirely deprived of the faculty of flying. For, in
reality, the wings of the latter are most imperfectly developed ;
being merely rudimentary, with scale-like feathers, and use-
less as instruments of flight, they are alone serviceable as
fins for the functions of swimming and diving. Thus we find
the birds comprised in my last family, Spheniscidw, or the
Penguins, in their form, habits, and marine mode of life, ap-
proximating most closely to the Turtles, or Amphibia, and
to the following class of Fishes.

Lastly, in the preceding classification, the great increase
in the number of families may, at first sight, appear objection-
able to some ornithologists. But, on a further examination of
it, I trust, their objections will be removed ; because I feel
satisfied, that, by a more minute and extended division of the
birds into such groups, we arrive at a more perfect and
natural arrangement : and, at the same time, I consider it
to be the only accurate method of attaining to a full know-
ledge of the diff'erences presented in their organization. And
I am exceedingly gratified to find, that the view of that most
distinguished philosopher and observer of nature, Alexander
Ton Humboldt, precisely agrees with my own ; for, in his work
** Cosmos,'" now publishing (vol. i., p. 388), he thus writes :
" In the natural history of birds and fishes, the system of
grouping into many small families is more certain than that
into a few divisions, embracing larger masses.""

( 72 )

Marine Deposites on the Margin of Loch Lomond. By the
Rev. J. Adamson.

As to beauty or magnificence of scenery, Loch Lomond
has many interesting features common to it with the other
Scottish lakes which occupy the chasms of the great primi-
tive mountainous district ; it is, however, more closely con-
nected with a different set of hollows. Tt is the most cha-
racteristic example of a group of long ranges which lie to-
gether, and nearly parallel to each other, but which, instead
of following the direction of the mountain recesses, stretch
almost perpendicular to it, generally cutting through the
transition and part of the primitive rocks, together with the
older members of the secondary class. All the others of
those valleys are connected with the sea by means of the
Frith of Clyde, and are partly filled with its salt water, and
enlivened by its appropriate animals. There is reason
enough to believe that this was at one time the condition of
Loch Lomond ; but at present we find there, along with the
ocean's depth, only the remains of its inhabitants.

One of these marine deposites was about eight or ten feet
above the highest level of the present waters. It lay in a
small hollow, under a projecting precipice of limestone, close
to the margin of the lake. The only remains of it now are
some fragments of a very compact calc-tuff, containing sea-
shells disseminated through it. The limestone rock is now
quarried; and the calc-tuff, being the most accessible and
richest limestone, was first carried off for use. The shells
appear to have been accumulated in a situation exposed to
the stalactite droppings from the lime rock. In the interior
of the tufa, they are chiefly the Myrtilus edulis, or its conge-
ners ; but the surface is sprinkled with imbedded specimens
belonging to the genera Planorbis and Helix, which have ac-
cidentally fallen upon it. This quarry is on the east side of
the lake, about two miles north-west from the mouth of the
Endrick, and on the north side of the great range of islands
composed of secondary conglomerate, which stretches across
the southern end of the lake. The limestone is on the lands
of his Grace the Duke of Montrose, and is worked for his

Marine Deposits on the Margin of Loch Lomond. 73

tenantry, but is not much esteemed for agricultural pur-
poses. It is highly crystalline in its fracture, appearing to
be irregular layers of crystals separated by quartz and clay.
There are other two places which afford shells, in very
different circumstances. These points are similar in situa-
tion ; both are in slight bays opening to the north, and pre-
senting a steep gravelly beach to the water. One of them
is on the island of Inch Lonach, opposite to the village of
Luss ; and the other on the lands of H. Macdonald Buchan-
nan, Esq., near the south-east angle of the lake. The shells
begin to appear about half-way between the highest and low-
est, or the winter and summer, surfaces of the water, which
varies in this respect about six feet. After removing a slight
covering of coarse gravel, we find a thin bed of clay, of dif-
ferent shades of brown, passing into yellow colours, as we
descend. In the upper, or brown clay, are found shells of
the following species. Those marked ? are doubtful. Buc-
cinum reticulum f Nerita glaucina, Tellina tenuis ? Cardium
edule, Venus striatula, Venus Islandica, Nucula rostrata
young, Pecten obsoletus. Anomia ephippium young, Balanus
communis, Balanus rugosus. Echinus escnlentus. A skil-
ful conchologist would discover many others, from the nu-
merous traces of them in the clay. Those shells appear to
have been deposited generally in an entire state, and many
are found with both valves in their natural position. The
Balanus is still slightly attached to the Venus or Pecten ;
and the spines of the Echinus are found clustered in the clay
inclosing its fragments ; so that they must have been either
covered by water to a considerable depth, or thrown on a
beach not much exposed to waves. Few of them, however,
can be extracted entire, as several of the species are always
in a state of gritty chalk ; but many complete and beautiful
specimens of the Pecten can easily be procured. Few of
their fragments appear on the exposed part of the beach,
but, during summer, many may be seen a few feet under wa-
ter. Those deposites cannot be more than about twenty-two
feet above the present level of the sea. It is probable that
an attentive inspection of the margin of the lake would dis-
cover many others similar to them. A little attention may

74 Rev. J. Adamson on the

be necessary to an opinion which we sometimes hear ex-
pressed in conversation, *' That such hollows as Loch Lo-
mond, with a bottom so far below the level of the ocean,
ought, if ever they were filled by it, still to retain its salt
water." It seems to be imagined that the sea- water, on ac-
count of its greater specific gravity, is still retained in the
deep pits of these chasms, and that the fresh-water glides
unmixed above it, or changes by evaporation and renewal,
without affecting its deeply buried mass. It does not seem
difficult to demonstrate the improbability of this supposition.
For the phenomena of solution can be accounted for only on
some hypothesis such as this, — that where a film of pure
water is applied to a film containing salt in solution, there is
a tendency in them to unite, and form a compound of less
saturation than the latter; which compound has a corre-
sponding influence on the nearest, or any number of satu^
rated films beneath it, and will, in like manner, be aff'ected
and changed by the next pure film above it, and successively
by any number of films in any depth of water. The changes
will cease only when an equilibrium of attractions has ta^-
ken place through the whole mass, which will then be in a
state of medium and uniform saturation. Whatever be the
time required for the combination of two films, that time
would be an element in the equation, representing the whole
period necessary to produce uniformity, which must, there-
fore, depend on the number of films, or be a function of the
depth. Changes of temperature at the surface would very
much accelerate the result, by sending downward dense films,
having the highest degree of attraction, until stopped among
others having the same specific gravity, arising from greater
saturation ; so that, probably, no long time would elapse be-
fore nearly uniform saturation took place, even though the
combined depths of the fluids were considerable. But the
tendency towards uniform saturation is opposed in a manner
which must quickly draw off the salt-water from a hollow,
such as a lake, because the surface water, in general, is con-
tinually changing, and the water which has become slightly
saturated flows off, and is replaced by that which is purer,
and has a greater attraction for the salt ; and to satisfy this,

Marine Deposits on the Margin of Loch Lomond. 75

augmented attraction, the progress of change downwards
must be much more rapid. Consequently, however slowly
the tendency to equilibrium may act in an isolated solution,
— in the other case, as the progress of exhaustion goes on
more rapidly, we may expect that no long period would be
required to destroy all perceptible saltness. That this pe-
riod has long since passed, in our Scottish lakes, can scarcely
be doubted ; but though we be not able to bring up sea-water
from the bottom of any of them, yet all are interesting ob-
jects of observation. Loch Lomond, in particular, as the ad-
ditions it receives are so uniformly distributed over the whole
space of its margin, is admirably fitted for experiments on
the changes or stability of temperature in deep waters. —
Memoirs of the Wernerian Society, vol. iv., p. 334.

Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Geologi-
cal Society of London, on 20th February 1846. By Leonard
Horner, Esq., V.P.R.S., President of the Society.*

Following the example of my predecessors, I propose to
notice, in the first place, in the order of formations, such par-
ticulars relating to the sedimentary rocks as have most ar-
rested my attention during the last year, contained in the
works I have had an opportunity of examining with care.
But before proceeding to that systematic review, it may be
useful, for the reason I have already assigned, to give an
outline of the great features in the geology of Russia in
Europe, and the eastern boundary of the Ural Mountains,
described by Sir R. Murchison. And although he nowhere
speaks in these volumes in the first person, but associates
his fellow-travellers with him in all he tells us, if for the
sake of brevity I more generally name him when I have occa-
sion to refer to the authors, I hope I shall not be considered
as detracting in the least degree from the merits of M. de
Vemeuil and Count Keyserling.

Geology of Russia.
Russia in Europe is " one huge depository basin,'* encircled

* Extract from a copy sent to us by the author.

76 Horner^ s Geological Address.

on the west and north by the granites of Sweden and Fin-
land, and on the north-east, east, and south-east, by the chain
of the Ural Mountains, which are mainly composed of plu-
tonic and metamorphic rocks. It consists, to a very great
extent, of a series of undulations, composed of incoherent
clays and sands ; but although in that unindurated state, not
consisting of modern detritus, but being very ancient depo-
sits that have undergone no consolidating process ; for the
whole of European Russia appears to have been exempted
from igneous agency. No eruptions have tilted up the beds ;
but the elevatory forces, to which, however, it has been indu-
bitably and repeatedly subjected, have raised the vast undu-
lating plains en masse, without a break. The oscillations of the
land having left the strike more or less horizontal, scarcely
any traces of unconform^bility of strata of different ages are
to be met with, and beds separated in time by vast intervals
are in the same parallelism of juxtaposition as if they were
the members of one group. Thus at the mouth of the Vaga,
a tributary of the Dwina, about 150 miles south of Archan-
gel, post-pliocene beds are seen resting conformably on lime-
stones with Producti and Corals of the Permian rocks ; and
an observer unacquainted with fossils might view the two
as parts of an unbroken series.

We have some most instructive examples of similarity of
lithological characters between deposits of the most different
ages, consequent, perhaps, in some degree upon that absence
of consolidating processes to which I have alluded. A grit
occurs in Sweden, described as a recomposed granite or grani-
tic gneiss, which constitutes the base of the Silurian system
in that country, that can scarcely be distinguished in mineral
character from a tertiary grit in central France. Lower Si-
lurian deposits charged with fossils common to the crystal-
line slaty rocks of other regions often occur as greensands
and half-consolidated mud-like limestones. We have Silu-
rian bituminous schists that resemble the hard beds of the
Kimmeridge Clay. In one region a carboniferous limestone
has all the characters of a soft tertiary deposit ; in others,
Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian rocks, are not dis-
tinguishable from the younger secondary or even tertiary de-
posits of Western Europe ; and even an oolitic rock of Mip

Geology of Russia. 77

cene age cannot be distinguished from the Great Oolite of the
Jurassic period.

These facts are most valuable, as shewing that at all pe-
riods sedimentary rocks were formed, as they must now be
forming, at the bottom of the sea, from the detritus of ad-
joining land, by the same agencies of disintegration as are
now at work ; and that then, as now, gravel, sand, and mud,
were the forms which such detritus must have taken, to be
afterwards compressed together, and consolidated by a va-
riety of causes acting more or less intensely in different situa-
tions.

But Sir R. Murchidon also observes, that the connection
between the character^ of the fossils and the nature of the
matrix in which they are imbedded, is more pointedly brought
before the observer who ranges over the boundless tracts of
Russia, than in any other country which he has examined.
Notwithstanding the absence of violent dislocations, the va-
rious Russian formations, though horizontal, or so nearly so,
that they may be all considered conformable to each other,
are as distinctly separable by their included remains, as in
those typical and dislocated tracts where geologists first
worked out*their order. And these observations hold good
in the newer as well as in the older deposits ; thus, in the
regions of the Volga, greensand, ironsand, chalk, and chalk
marl occur, in which the same groups of fossils prevail as in
the rocks of Britain and France, which hold the same rela-
tive place in geological succession ; and pure white chalk,
containing some characteristic organic remains, extends from
the British Isles to the confines of Asia.

That so vast a tract of country, unlike most other parts of
Europe, has been so little broken up locally by igneous erup-
tive rocks, may perhaps, with great probability, be ascribed
to this, that a safety-valve was opened, an enormous crack
or cleft was made on the east, by a subsidence of the coun-
try on the west, through which the pent-up elastic force and
the molten matter escaped, and thus the high pressure was
taken off from under the broad expanse. The Ural Moun-
tains, bounding Russia in Europe on the east, are a compa-
ratively narrow ridge, made up of igneous rocks and sedi-

78 Horner 8 Geological Address.

mentary palaeozoic deposits ; and through fractures in the
latter the igneous rocks were erupted, after having produced
in them those changes of structure which we call metamor-
phic ; that is, having caused them to change their original
chai*acters, and assume a crystalline aspect,^ — the force act-
ing with such intensity as in many places to overturn the
strata, and so invert the order of superposition on the flanks.
But it has not been by one great fissure only that the igneous
rocks have been erupted ; " other parallel outbursts and up-
heavals have taken place along the same line at subsequent
epochs ;" and the authors shew grounds for belief that the
present form of these mountains was the result of more than
one elevatory process, and that there was a period when, as
a low ridge, they formed the western shore of a great conti-
nent to the east, that now called Siberia, and even at so re-
cent a period as when that continent was inhabited by large
quadrupeds closely allied to existing species. The Urals ex-
tend from Nova Zemlia to the Caspian, through nearly thirty
degrees of latitude, in a direction nearly north and south,
but seuding oif branches to the east and west at both extre-
mities, one of which, on the north-west, the Timan range, was
first explored geologically by Count Keyserling in 1843 ; and
in no part of this long line are they divided by any great
transverse valleys, nor does their general altitude exceed
from 2000 to 2500 feet. No parts of the author's descrip-
tions are of higher geological interest than those in which
they speak of the Urals ; and to some of the more striking
features of that chain of mountains I shall afterwards more
particularly refer.

The immediate substructure of the whole area of Russia in
Europe is composed of the palaeozoic rocks, which, on the
northern division, are covered by sand, clay, and blocks. A
narrow band of Silurian deposits, the older members of that
group, stretches along a great part of the shores of the Bal-
tic, succeeded eastward by Devonian and Carboniferous for-
mations, each occupying a vast extent of country ; and, lastly,
that highest member of the palaeozoic order of strata to which
the authors have applied the term " Permian System^'' the
most widely spread of all, occupying a region more than twice

Geology of Bussia. 79

the size of the whole kingdom of France. Of the whole range
of the secondary deposits between the Permian and the ter-
tiary, two only have been met with, viz., that division of the
oolitic series which includes the Oxford clay and its asso-
ciated rocks, and in South Russia cretaceous rocks, including
a white chalk very similar in mineral characters and zoologi-
cal contents to that of England. The oolitic rocks overlie the
Permian, but in detached masses, and with a surprising uni-
formity of character from the Icy Sea to the southern extre-
mity of the Urals. There are, besides, but in Southern Rus-
sia only, some limited tertiary districts, and of all ages, from
Eocene to Pleistocene.

The most remarkable feature in the physical geography of
the country described, and which may justly be said to be,
in the words of the author, " one of the most singular fea-
tures in the ancient condition of the surface of the globe
which modern researches have brought to light,'' is that ex-
hibited by the region around the Caspian ; aifording the most
unequivocal proofs of great changes in the relative levels of
the land and water, at a period geologically recent. Over a
vast region a calcareo-argillaceous deposit exists in nearly
horizontal stratification, abounding in freshwater shells and
others analogous to, and to a great extent identical with,
species now living in the Caspian, attaining, in some places,
a thickness of 300 feet ; which appears to prove, that, at the
time it was deposited, there existed an inland sea, of brackish
water, exceeding in size the present Mediterranean, and of
which the present Caspian is the diminished relic. Of this
remarkable deposit, designated *' Steppe" and " Aralo-Cas-
pian limestone" by the authors, I shall speak more particu-
larly when I refer to the Tertiary formations.

This inland sea, although called by Sir R. Murchison a Me-
diterranean, he does not the less consider to have been en-
tirely separated from the Western Ocean of that period, by
a barrier, produced by the elevation of the marine tertiary
beds of Miocene age, on which this Steppe limestone, in many
places, is seen to repose. To affirm with certainty that the
surface of this inland sea once stood at a higher level than
that of the Caspian at the present day, and which, according

80 Horner's Geological Address.

to very careful measurements recently made by order of the
Russian Government, is now proved to be 83*6 feet below
the Black Sea, would require a most extensive series of local
observations and levellings around the region occupied by
the Steppe limestone, attended with very great difficulties.
It is the opinion of some travellers who have carefully ex-
amined parts of this region, that, during the historic period,
and within modern times, the surface of the Caspian has been
diminishing, from the disproportion between the evaporation
from so large a surface in that climate, and the sources of
supply of water. Whatever portion of the land occupied by
the Steppe limestone is now on a level with, and below the
level of the Black Sea, may have been laid bare by this gra-
dual lowering of the water of the Caspian ; but whatever
portion is above that level, and the greatest proportion of it
is so. must, it is evident, have been upraised ; and there is
abundant proof of volcanic forces being in activity in that
region to the present time. To endeavour to trace the direc-
tion of the vast body of water that must have been displaced
by the upheaved land, as there could be no direct outlet to
the ocean, would be an inquiry of great interest ; for it can
hardly be doubted that there must be evidence of a deluge or
deluges having swept over a large portion of that part of
Asia, and more especially if the elevatory forces acted sud-
denly.

As the leading features of the physical structure and the
great geological divisions of the continent of North America
are well known, I do not think it necessary to give any ge-
neral outline of the country described by Mr Lyell in his
lately-published " Travels ;" but I shall have frequent occa-
sion to refer to the information contained in that work on
several points of great importance, in speaking of some of
the additions in the past year to our knowledge of the great
groups of rocks, and to our better acquaintance with ques-
tions of mineral structure, changes in the form of the land,
and distribution of organic remains.

I shall now offer some remarks on the several great groups

Silurian Bocks. 81

of formations, and shall begin with the loWest fossiliferous
deposits.

Silurian Mocks.

It is certainly remarkable, considering the short time that
has elapsed since Sir R. Murchison first proposed the sepa-
ration of the lower beds of tlie palaeozoic strata into one great
series, that rocks which appear to be clearly made out to be-
long to the Silurian system should have been already recog-
nised in so many regions remotely distant from each other.
That they constitute a great part of Europe has been shewn
by many writers/ The geologists of the United States and
Mr Lyell have told us how widely they are spread over the
northern States of North America ; and we learn from Cap-
tain Bayfield that they occur extensively all round Lake
Huron ; northward towards Hudson's Bay ; along the north-
ern side of the valley of the St Laurence, eastward to the
Strait of Belle Isle, and on the western coast of Newfound-
land from that strait to its southern extremity. M. Alcide
D'Orbigny has described them as extensively developed in
South America ; and from Mr Darwin we learn that they
probably exist in the Falkland Islands, adjoining the farthest
extremity of that continent. It is also more than probable,
from the information we already possess, that they exist in
Australia. The rocks were known, and had been partially
described, but they were not understood ; they were known
minerailogically, and deposits separated by great intervals
of time were classified together, under the vague, uncertain,
general term of graywacke, orgraywacke-slate, or clay-slate,
The clear development of the system, and lucid descriptions
of the normal types in the Silurian region of Britain, dispelled
the obscurity that hung over the history of these ancient
beds ; and now geologists are at work in all countries, mak-
ing out the great features of resemblance, and registering
those variations in mineral and fossil contents, dependent on
geographical position and other loca.1 causes, which are found
to prevail more or less in all formations.

It appears to be now the opinion of those geologists who
have most carefully and ex.tensively studied th^ sedimentar

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. F

82 Horner's Geological Address.

rocks which contain the oldest forms and first traces of organic
life, that from the highest beds of the Lower Silurian rocks
to the lowest deposit in which organic remains have been
found, there had been no great variation in the circumstances
under which these beds were deposited, although there is evi-
dence of a long duration of time, in which gradual changes in
animal life took place, some species diminishing in numbers,
others becoming extinct, others continuing to exist through-
out the whole range, and a few appearing in the lower por-
tion of these beds, which, from a marked general change of
forms, are classified as the Upper Silurian rocks. This view
you will see developed in the address delivered by Sir R.
Murchison from this chair four years ago,* where he states,
that the conventional line that had been drawn between the
Lower Silurian and the Cambrian rocks beneath them had
no longer any reference to strata identified by distinguishing
organic remains ; for the same fossils are found in strata on
each side of that demarcation. He also stated, on the same
occasion, that '' the zone of fossiliferous strata characterized
by the Lower Silurian Orthidse are the oldest beds in which
organic life has been detected," and his belief that " many
of the subjacent rocks, sometimes even when in the form of
gneiss, mica-schist, talc-schist, chlorite -slate, &c., are nothing
but metamorphic rocks, in less altered parts of which the
same typical fossils are observable." In his recent work on
Russia he asks the questions, " Can we lay open the earliest
vestiges of animal life, and amid palaeozoic forms trace back-
wards primeval history to a protozoic type ? Can we sepa-
rate such protozoic strata from those which went before
them, and were deposited ere life had been breathed into the
waters .^"t To the latter question I am disposed to answer,
that the mere negative fact that we have not yet discovered
traces of organized bodies in the lowest strata, certainly
does not warrant the inference that no living thing had yet
existed, or our saying, that any strata were deposited " ere
life had been breathed into the waters.'* If these strata con-
tain a particle of undoubted detrital matter, a grain of rolled

* Proceedings of the Geol. Soc, vol. iii., p. 642.
t Eussia and the Ural Mountains, &c., vol. i., p. 1.

Silurian Focks. 83

sand, they afford positive proof of the pre-existence of land
and water, and atmospheric destructive agency to supply the
materials of these strata, and the bed of a sea to receive them.
Is it not highly improbable that this sea was untenanted \
There must doubtless be a lowest sedimentary stratum, the
materials of which must have been derived from land com-
posed of non-sedimentry rocks. By "non-sedimentary" I
mean a rock, the formation of which may, with the greatest
probability, be ascribed to igneous action. Whether it was
granite, or any other form of igneous rock with which we are
acquainted, we cannot tell ; because of the great uncertainty
as to how far the lowest sedimentary deposits have under-
gone changes by metamorphic action ; but that silica and clay
and very little lime entered into its composition is evident
from the predominance of the two former earths in all the
oldest strata, and the comparative rarity of lime.

But animal and vegetable life may have existed while the
land that afforded the materials for the first sedimentary de-
posits was wholly composed of un stratified rocks. Nor is it
necessary to have recourse to the obliteration by metamor-
phic action in all cases where there are no traces of organic
remains. We have learned from the valuable report by Pro-
fessor Edward Forbes of his researches in the -^gean Sea,
that there are profound depths in which no animals and no
vegetables seem capable of living ; and thus, as there may
be now, and probably are, deposits of vast thickness produced
without organic bodies having ever lived in or upon them, in
the profound depths of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, so is
the absence of such remains in any stratum no proof, that
when it was deposited there might not have existed above it
a sea teeming with life. I cannot support this view better
than by quoting what Professor Forbes says on the subject :
" As in the sea there is a zero of vegetable life, so, we may
fairly infer, is there one of animal life. All deposits formed
below that zero will be void, or almost void, of organic con-
tents. The greater part of the sea is far deeper than the
point zero ; consequently the greater part of deposits form-
ing will be void of organic remains. Hence we have no right
to infer that any sedimentary formation, in which we find few

84 Horner's Geological Address.

or no traces of animal life, was formed either before animals
were created, or at a time when the sea was less prolific in
life than it now is : it might have been formed in a very deep
sea."*

The muddy waters of the Amazon stretch SOO miles intd
the Atlantic Ocean, and their sediment must be deposited in
depths far below the zero of animal and vegetable life. Un-
less, therefore, portions of dead organisms be transported dowu
steep slopes by submarine currents, from a shallower sea to
those depths, and be mingled with the sediment, rocks must
now be forming over the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, which,
when upraised in future ages, will exhibit as few traces of
living bodies having existed when their component parts were
deposited, as we can discover in the slates of Wales and of
Westmoreland.

We have received as yet only a part of the results of the
labours of Professor Forbes, and wait with impatience for
his greater work ; but what he has already made known to
us of the changes that take place in organized bodies in dif*
ferent zones of depth, and in different states of sea-bottom,
have so extensive a bearing upon many of the inference^
hitherto drawn as to the age of deposits, and to changes of
climate from fossil contents, that some of our most esta-
blished doctrines ought to be revised, and their soundness
tested by their accordance or otherwise with these conditions.
Others hypothetical ly anticipated that rocks might have been
formed in depths un suited to animal and vegetable life ; but
Professor Forbes was the first, I believe, to establish, by
actual observation, that such is the fact as to depth, and also
the first to shew, as an element of geological reasoning, the
connection that subsists between the nature of the sea-bottom
(often changing on the same spot) and the living bodies it
supports, and thus to demonstrate the existence of laws of
the highest geological importance, and which must have pre-
vailed throughout the whole range of formations.

Among the communications read before the Society since

* On the light thrown on Geology by submarine researches. Jameson's
Edin. 1*hil. Journ., A|>ril 1844.

Silurian Bocks. 85

the last Anniversary, we have had two hy Professor Sedg-
wick on the comparative classification of the fossiliferous
strata of North Wales with the corresponding deposits of
Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, both of them
in continuation of his memoir read in November 1843. I
will not attempt to give any abstract of the contents of these
papers, because I could not do so, to any useful purpose,
without extending my observations to an inconvenient length ;
but I recommend all who are desirous of acquiring an accu-
rate knowledge of the geological topography of those parts
of our island, and of becoming acquainted with many facts
that throw light on that obscure and difficult part of geology,
to study the memoirs themselves; those of 1843 and of
March 1845 are published in the first volume of our Journal,
and the last of them will appear in the number of next May.
It is to Professor Sedgwick we are mainly indebted for the
knowledge we possess of the geological structure of those
parts of our island ; it was he who first grappled with their
very complicated and difficult conformation ; for nearly
twenty years he has been labouring to decipher their ob-
scure and complex characters; and, since the discovery of the
Silurian key, he has been enabled to make out a clear and
intelligible outline of the history of these regions, which> for
a long time, geologists seemed to shrink from all attempts
to understand. Let us hope that the learned author will
soon gather together his scattered materials, and bring out
a new edition of his work, with all the corrections and illus-
trations which his latest observations enable him to supply.
When we have that volume, and can study it with the com-
mentaries, and the additional illustrations of accurate sections,
which we in part have, and may soon look forward to receive
from Sir H. de la Beche and his fellow -labourers in the Geo-
logical Survey of Great Britain, we shall possess a very full
and correct knowledge of these older sedimentary deposits,
and the igneous rocks with which they are associated, and
therefore of the most remote periods of geological history ;
and we may, perhaps, then indulge in a little excusable na-
tional vanity of possessing another standard with which the
structure of exter^sive and distant regions of the earth will

86 Horner's Geological Address.

be compared, in addition to what we already have of many
of the palaeozoic and secondary formations.

A paper by Captain Bayfield read before us last April, and
published in November in our Journal, gives us much im-
portant information on the Silurian rocks that prevail to a
great extent in Canada ; and we are indebted for a more
accurate knowledge of the same class of rocks in the Isle of
Man to the Rev. J. Cumming, in the first part of a descrip-
tion of that island, read last June.

We learn from the " Geology of Russia," that both in that
country and in Scandinavia, a series of ancient deposits
cover a great tract of country, which, in all their great fea-
tures, and often in their minute characters, are identical with
the Silurian series of the British Isles, and that they are
equally divisible into two distinct groups, and are also over-
laid by a true Devonian formation. In the central and
southern parts of the continent of Sweden, the lower Silurian
rocks only occur, but the adjoining islands of Oesel, Dago,
and Gothland are mainly composed of Upper Silurian rocks,
affording better types than Wenlock or Dudley. Describing
the rocks near Katchkanar, on the eastern flank of the Urals,
Sir R. Murchison says, " The banks of the river Is are com-
posed for a considerable distance of white limestone, thickly
tenanted by large Pentameri, some Trilobites, and shells
which we hailed as true Silurians, and worthy of the very
region of Caractacus. We were enchanted when we disco-
vered myriads of them undistinguishable from the Pentame-
rus Knightii ; so that, seated on the grassy banks of the Is,
we might for a moment have fancied ourselves in the mea-
dows of the Lug at Aymestry.'' Of the Lower Silurian fos-
sils of Russia a few only are absolutely identical with forms
of the same age in the British Isles ; but the mass of them
is essentially the same as that of the mainland of Scandi-
navia ; which region being intermediate between England
and Russia, is found to contain a considerable number of
forms common to deposits occupying the same position in
both the other countries. In the lowest part of the Lower
Silurian rocks that skirt the southern shores of the Baltic, a
grit occurs so abounding in a minute shell, the Ungulite or

Silurian Rocks. 87

Obolus (which has a great affinity to the Lingula), as to form
entire beds. Here we have a parallel to those beds in the
Silurian series of the British Isles, abounding so copiously
in the Lingula attenuata. It is also a parallel to beds occur-
ring at a far more distant point, on the opposite side of the
Atlantic. Mr Lyell, in describing the Potsdam sandstone,
the lowest member of the Silurian series in North America,
as it occurs on Lake Champlain, says, *' In many places this
most ancient of the fossiliferous rocks of New York is
divided into laminae by the remains of innumerable shells of
the genus Lingula, They are in such profusion as to form
black seams like mica, for which they were at first mistaken.
It is highly interesting, that in this lowest fossiliferous bed,
one of its commonest organic remains should belong to a liv-
ing genus, and that its form should come very near to species
now existing. Throughout so vast a series of ages has Na-
ture worked upon the same model in the organic world !"

The Silurian system of the northern countries of Europe
is, as a whole, closely analogous to that of Great Britain ;
and it proves that wherever the sediments of the same age
in the two regions resemble each other in lithological tex-
ture, such similarity is accompanied by a close approximation
and frequent identity in the associated organic remains.
When the fossils from the Silurian beds of Northern Europe
were compared, Mr Lyell informs us, by M. de Verneuil
with those brought by him from America, there was a great
distinctness ; but the representation of generic forms, whe-
ther in the organic remains of the Upper or Lower Silurian
strata, was most clear and satisfactory. The geologists of
New York make three distinct groups in the Lower Silurian,
and four distinct groups in the Upper Silurian series of that
country, and Mr Lyell is of opinion that these divisions are
based on sound principles ; that is, on mixed geographical,
lithological, and palseontological considerations ; the analogy
of European geology teaching us that minor subdivisions,
however useful and important within certain limits, are never
applicable to countries extremely remote from each other or
to areas of indefinite extent. The Silurian rocks are deve-
loped in North America on a great scale, and, like those of

88. Horner' & Qeological Address.

Russia, are little disturbed from their original horizon tality,
making the order of their relative positions clear and unequi-
vocal in both countries. In lithological characters there is
a considerable resemblance on both sides of the Atlantic —
mudstones, sandstones, and limestones prevailing. In Ame-
rica, however, there is an intercalated group in the Upper
Silurian system, to which nothing analogous has yet been
observed in Europe, as far as I am aware. It consists of
red, green, and bluish marls, with beds of gypsum and occa-
sional salt-springs, the whole being from 800 to 1000 feet
thick, and undistinguishable from parts of the Upper New
Red Sandstone or Trias of Europe. A similar intercalated
group of red and green argillaceous marls, with gypsum and
salt-springs, is met with in the middle of the Devonian group
in Russia. This occurrence of gypsum and muriate of soda
associated together in the older strata, as they are in the
Pliocene, as well as in many intermediate periods, is a re-
markable circumstance ; and it would be an investigation
well deserving the joint labours of the chemist and the geo-
logist, to endeavour to account for the origin of these chemi-
cal formations.

With regard to the fossil contents of the Silurian beds of
North America, it appears that " while some of the species
agree, the majority of them are not identical with those found
in strata which are their equivalents in age and position on
the other side of the Atlantic. Some fossils which are iden-
tical, such as Atrypa affinis, Leptizna depressa and Leptcena
euglypha, are precisely those shells which have a great verti-
cal and horizontal range in Europe — species which were
capable of surviving many successive changes in the earth's
surface, and for the same reason enjoyed, at certain periods^
a wide geographical range. It has been usually affirmed
that in the rocks older than the carboniferous, the fossil
fauna in different parts of the globe was almost everywhere
the same ; but Mr Lyell adds, " that, however close the gene-
ral analogy of forms may be, there is evidence in the Silu-
rian rocks of North America of the same law of variation in
space as now prevails in the living creation ;" and in another
place he states, that, with regard to the proportion of species

Devonian Bocks, 89

common to the Silurian beds of Europe and America, whe-
ther of the upper or lower division, he can confidently affirm,
that it is not greater than a naturalist would have antici-
pated, from the analogy of the laws governing the distribu-
tion of living invertebrate animals.

While the remains of fucoid plants are met with abun-
dantly in the Silurian rocks of Europe, and in the lowest
members of the series, I am not aware that any vestiges of
land plants have yet been discovered in them^ Sir R. Mur-
chison says, that, in the older palaeozoic rocks of Russia, he
met with no signs of terrestrial fossil vegetables. Fucoids are
plentifully distributed through every part of the series in
North America ; and Mr Lyell also states, that, in the Hamil-
ton group, which corresponds in many of its fossils with the
Ludlow rocks, and which, singularly enough, is met with in
the neighbourhood of Ludlowville, remains of plants allied to
Lepidodendron have been found associated with fossils agree-
ing perfectly with European Upper Silurian types ; and that
other plants allied to these, and ferns, have been met with
in the lowest Devonian strata of New York, associated with
fossil shells closely allied to the Silurian. Thus we have
additional proof, if any were wanting, of the existence of dry
land at the time of the deposition of these Silurian beds.

Devonian Rocks.
The Silurian rocks of Russia in Europe are covered con-
formably by deposits, the identity of which, with the Devon-
ian, or old red sandstone, series of the British Isles, Sir R.
Murchison and his companions clearly made out. They
extend over an area of not less than 150,000 square miles, a
superficies greater, by nearly one-third, than that of Great
Britain and Ireland together. This monotony of feature over
so vast a space is even greatly surpassed by the Permian
rocks ; and when it is considered that this uniformity is com-
bined with a stratification rarely deviating from the horizon-
tal, never thrown up into natural sections, and that the in-
vestigation of them can only be carried on where the beds
are exposed in the banks of rivers, geologists can appreciate
the tedium and labour of exploring such a country, and can-

90 Horner's Geological Address.

not too highly praise the patience and perseverance of Sir
R. Murchison and his fellow-travellers.

Although recognised by a remarkable degree of identity
in fossil contents, and especially in regard to ichthyolites, as
a deposit of the same age as the old red sandstone in our own
country, it is lithologically very different in most places.
Sometimes it is made up of numerous alternations of flat-
bedded, light yellowish limestones, often so impregnated with
magnesia as to be scarcely distinguishable from some of the
magnesian limestones of England, or the Zechstein of Thu-
ringia ; at other times it is composed of red and green flags
and marls ; and, on the flanks of the Urals, this series is re-
presented by black and calcareous slaty masses. Moreover^
it is comparatively rare as a red sandstone. But the fishes
and shells the beds contain soon rectify the mistake as to
the true position of these rocks, into which their mineral as-
pect alone might lead the most experienced geologist, should
he not have an opportunity of seeing them reposing on true
Silurian rocks, and covered by carboniferous strata. In re-
gard to the evidence from fossil contents, it is so complete in
these Russian deposits as not only to establish their own
position, but to corroborate the soundness of the reasoning
which unites the old red sandstone of Scotland with the slaty
limestones and schists of Devonshire and the Continent ; for
they contain the characteristic fishes of the former, and the
molluscs of the latter. The examination of Russia, Sir R.
Murchison further observes, has afforded numberless proofs
that the ichthyolites and molluscs which in Western Europe
are separately peculiar to smaller detached basins, were there
inhabitants of many parts of the same great sea. Of the
known Russian ichthyolites, two-thirds are specifically the
same as those of the same epoch in Great Britain.

The neighbourhood of Dorpat in Lithuania is a very re-
markable locality for the ichthyolites of this age ; they are
there met with of so gigantic a size, that they were supposed
to belong to Saurians, until the closer examinations of Pro-
fessor Asmus of Dorpat, M. Agassiz, and Professor Owen,
disclosed their true nature. A note by Professor Owen, in
the Appendix to the ** Geology of Russia," is highly instruc-

Devonian Rocks. 91

tive, as shewing the great importance of an examination of
the internal structure of the substance of fossil teeth by the
microscope, in determining the classes of animals to which
they have belonged. He points out, by a striking illustra-
tion, how the microscopic labours of the philosopher, in his
closet, may have the most important effect on questions
that appear to be far remote from the subject of his inquiry.
Had the teeth, under consideration, continued to be held to
belong to Saurians, the matrix in which they are imbedded
having a close resemblance in mineral character to magne-
sian limestone, or to members of the new red sandstone
series, borings for coal might have been carried on in many
parts of Russia, involving vast losses ; but the teeth having
been proved to belong to a class of fishes that are character-
istic of the old red sandstone, all expectations of finding pro-
fitable seams of coal are known to be vain.

If we now cross the Atlantic with Mr Lyell, and visit the
Silurian region of North America, we find that series of rocks,
covered by others, having characters corresponding with those
of the Devonian group in Europe. The rocks of the Appa-
lachian chain consist of deposits of the Silurian, Devonian,
and Carboniferous periods. A deposit called, by the Ameri-
can geologists, the Waverley sandstone, which, Mr Lyell is
of opinion, corresponds with the old red sandstone of Europe,
intervenes in the state of New York between the coal-beds
and the Upper Silurian groups, in strata of considerable
thickness. On the western side of the Alleghanies, at Ports-
mouth on the Ohio, the same formation also occurs, but
greatly diminished in thickness, some of the subordinate beds
being reduced to a very thin slate, others entirely lost, con-
formably with what is observed in other sandstones and asso-
ciated slates and shales in that country, viz., by a gradual
thinning of the beds as they extend westwani, and as they
become more distant from that great eastern continent, now
sunk beneath the waters of the Atlantic, frona which the ma-
terials composing them must have been derived.

Our knowledge of the old red sandstone oi* Devonian group
has been much advanced by the monograiph of the fishes of
that series of deposits by M. Agassiz, which has just been

92 Horner's Geological Address.

completed ; a work of the highest merit, in which the skill
with which the anatomy of the singular forms of that earliest
creation of fishes is worked out is quite admirable, and which
also contains many highly important general views. This
work was undertaken at the request, and has been carried
out by the assistance, of the British Association, and is one
of the many valuable gifts for which science is indebted to
that body.

The history of the old red sandstone supplies a useful
lesson to geologists, by shewing them the danger of coming
to hasty conclusions, and founding generalizations, on nega-
tive evidence. The formation itself was long supposed to be
confined to a limited portion of England ; it is now known to
extend over large districts in the British Isles and on the
Continent of Europe. It is most extensively developed in
the northern and western parts of the United States, as may
be seen by inspecting Mr Ly ell's Map ; and we learn from
Captain Bayfield, that a sandstone which prevails greatly in
Upper Canada, and which may be traced all round Lake Su-
perior, resting on granite, appears to be of the same age a***
the old red sandstone, or Upper Silurian ; and he also ob-
served in the district of Gaspe, at the south entrance of the
river St Lawrence, a calcareous sandstone with Devonian
characters. It appears, too, from the work of Mr Strzelecki
on New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, published last
year, thai the greater part of the palaeozoic rocks he examined
in Australia and Tasmania are the equivalents of the DevO'
nian series. In like manner, this bed was long held to be
barren of organic remains ; Sir Henry de la Beche, in the
third edition of his " Manual of Geology," published in ISSS-,
which was no doubt brought up close to all that was known
at that time, says, " Few organic remains have been dis-
covered in thai^ rock.'' When M. Agassiz, in 1833, began
the publication of his " History of Fossil Fishes," he knew
of none older than the coal-measures, and only a small num-
ber in them ; and he tells us, that when he first learned that
fishes had been discovered in the old red sandstone, during
his visit to ScotJiind in 1834, not more than four species
were known. Five years afterwards, when Mr R. Murchi*

Devonian Bocks. 93

son published his " Silurian System," ten genera and seven-
teen species of fishes, and fifteen genera and twenty-three
species of mollusca, are enumerated by him as belonging to
the middle and lower Devonian beds. In the recent work
on Russia, M. de Verneuil enumerates forty-six species of
fishes and sixty-six species of mollusca, which he and his fel-
low-travellers found in the same group in that country. M.
Agassiz, in his " Monograph of the Fishes of the Devonian
System," raises the number of genera to forty-three, and of
species 105, belonging to six or seven families ; and he tells
us that Monte Bolca itself, hitherto reported to be the loca-
lity of all others most rich in species of fossil fishes, does
not contain a greater number ; adding, that, as only a com-
paratively small portion of the rocks of this system has been
examined, many additions may be expected. M. Agassiz is
shortly going, it is said, to North America, where he will
very likely discover many new forms. It is gratifying to
find him ascribing the main success of his researches in this
'field " aux recherches perseverantes et au zele infatigable
des geologues Anglais."

But not only is there this great variety of genera and
species, but the number of individuals found in some locali-
ties immense. Thus, in some parts of Russia there are brec-
cias almost wholly composed of the scales and plates of the
Asterolepis, and the remains of the Pterichthys are so abun-
dant in the geodes of Lethen Bar, in Nairnshire, as to have
been collected in cart-loads. But our wonder is not alone
excited by the great variety and number of vertebrate ani-
mals of a high organization in strata so very low in the order
of formations ; there are many most remarkable features in
the history of this early part of the animal creation which the
researches of M. Agassiz have brought to light ; for these,
however, I must refer you to the work itself.

M. Agassiz, in speaking of the lowest beds in which the
remains of fishes have been found, makes the following im-
portant observations on the probability of their existing in
still lower beds : — " If we have not yet been able to recog-
nize remains of fishes below the Lower Ludlow rocks, I do
not think that we ought from that to conclude that fishes do

94 Horner's Geological Address.

not exist even in the oldest of the fossiliferous beds ; far
their extraordinary abundance in the Devonian series, and
the distinct recognition of them in certain Silurian beds,
where, it is true, they are but imperfectly preserved, suffi-
ciently indicates, that, on its first appearance, that class of
animals was contemporary with the development of the types
of all the classes of invertebrate animals."

Mr Lyell states, that the lowest rock in which ichthyolites
have been traced in America is the Clinton group, which may
be considered the bottom of the Upper, or top of the Lower
Silurian series. Ichthyolites have recently been found in the
Wenlock shale ; another step in descending order, and so far
in support of M. Agassiz's views.

The Carboniferous Series.

Although rocks of this age cover a great extent of country
in European Russia, extending over a tract equally vast in
horizontal extension with that occupied by the Devonian
series, there are few places, except in the coal-field of the
Donetz in the south, where the coal-seams are more than a
few inches in thickness ; and where they are thicker, they
are so poor in quality as to be rarely worth working. The
great coal-fields of England, France, Belgium, and America,
have no well-marked equivalents there, nearly the whole of
the coal-beds in the empire being, like those of Ireland and
the coal-fields on the banks of the Tweed, included in the
lower members of the system ; which, with the sandstones,
shales and marls, are the equivalents of our mountain lime-
stone, as is proved by the identity of a large series of fossils.
From a section of the works at Lissitchia-Balka, on the river
Donetz, we learn, that in a depth of 900 feet there are twelve
seams of coal, the united thickness of which amounts to thirty
feet ; they are associated with sandstones, grits, and shales ;
and eight beds of sandstone are intercalated (containing, from
the uppermost to the lowest, marine shells), the united thick-
ness of which is fifty feet, three of the beds of limestone
resting directly on the coal. Many of the forms of Equi-
setacea, Calamites, Sigillariae, and Ferns, are of the same
species as those of the west of Europe ; and the carbonife-

k

Carboniferoua Series. 96

rous fauna of Russia contains numerous forms identical with
those in the same class of rocks in the British Isles.

A glance at the geological map which accompanies Mr
LyelFs " Travels," shews the enormous development of the
coal series in the territory of the United States, and that it
occupies no inconsiderable space in Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick. We learn from the report of Mr Logan, on the
Geology of Canada, which I shall presently refer to, that a
great coal-field covers nearly the whole of New Brunswick,
A considerable part of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, and
the south-west corner of Newfoundland. The greater part
of the carboniferous series in North America belongs to the
upper portion, and not only abounds with numerous and thick
beds of coal, but, on the western side of the Alleghanies
especially, they are so little disturbed, and lie so nearly
horizontal, that the coal is quite easy of access ; and where
the strata are intersected by rivers, it can be obtained with
little trouble or expense. The great coalfield of Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and Ohio, extends continuously from north-east to
south-west for a distance of 720 miles, its breadth being in
some places 180 miles.* That extending over parts of Illi-
nois, Indiana, and Kentucky, is not much inferior in dimen-
sions to the whole of England, and consists of horizontal
strata, with numerous rich seams of bituminous coal. An-
other carboniferous deposit, 170 miles by 100, lies farther to
the north, between Lakes Michigan and Huron. I may give

* On the 17th of March I received a letter from Mr Lyell, dated the 16th
of February, at Tuscaloosa in Alabama, containing a notice on the Alabama
coal-field, and which was read at the Geological Society on the 25th of March.
He states that he had been examining three coal-fields, the existence of which
was unknown to him when he compiled his Map in 1844. They occur near
Tuscaloosa, in the centre of Alabama, more than 100 miles farther south in a
direct line than the southern limit which he had assigned to the Appalachian
ooal-field, and are situated on the Tombecbee, Great Warrior, and Cahawba
rivers. That on the Great Warrior river has been found by Professor Brumby,
of the University of Tuscaloosa, to be no less than ninety miles long from
north-east to south-west, with a breadth of from thirty to forty miles. These
ooal-fields are portions of the great Appalachian coal-field, with the same
mineral and palaeontological characters. Mr Lyell promises a more derailed
account of his observations. — April 3. 1846.

96 Horner's Geological Address,

the following as an example of the almost boundless re-
sources of fuel which this country affords. At Brownsville, on
the Ohio, there is a seam, ten feet thick, of good bituminous
coal, commonly called the Pittsburg seam, which may be fol-
lowed the whole way to Pittsburg, fifty miles distant. " The
boundaries of this seam have been determined with consider-
able accuracy by the Professors Rogers in Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and Ohio ; and they have found the elliptical area
which it occupies to be 225 miles in its longest diameter,
while its maximum breadth is about 100 miles, giving a
superficial extent of about 14,000 square miles."

Mr Lyell states that at Blossberg in Pennsylvania he was
much struck with the surprising analogy of the coal-measures
to those of Europe in mineral and fossil characters. The same
grits or sandstones are found as those used for building near
Edinburgh and Newcastle ; similar black shales occur, often
bituminous, with the leaves of ferns spread out as in a her-
barium, the species being for the most part identical with
British fossil plants ; there are seams of good bituminous
coal, some a few inches, others several yards, in thickness,
associated with beds and nodules of clay ironstone ; and the
whole series rests on a coarse grit and conglomerate, con-
taining quartz pebbles, very like our millstone grit. The
same similarity of mineral and fossil characters to European
coal-measures is found to prevail throughout North America.
That remarkable circumstance of the very general occurrence
of a sandy clay abounding in Stigmarise, beneath the seams of
<joal, observed in the Welsh and other coal-fields of Britain,
is also found to prevail in those of North America. Mr
Lyell saw numerous instances of this : thus, at Pottsville in
Pennsylvania, there are thirteen seams of anthracitic coal
(true bituminous coal supposed to be altered by metamorphic
action, a subject to which I shall allude hereafter), several
of them from eight to ten feet thick, and in a vertical posi-
tion : on the side which had been the roof of the coal, con-
sisting of shales, he observed numerous ferns with stems of
Sigillaria, Lepidodendron, and Calamites ; on the other side,
that which had once been the floor, he found an underclay
with numerous Stigmarise, often several yards, and even in

Theories of Formation of Coal. 97

some cases as much as thirty feet long, with their leaves or
rootlets attached.

Theories of the Formation of Coal.

It is scarcely possible to visit a coal-field, or to read the
description of one, without being led to theorize on its mode
of formation. The origin of coal has long been a subject of
great difficulty, nor has any theory been yet advanced with
which it has been possible to reconcile all the appearances
which the coal-measures exhibit, all the variety of forms in
which coal is found. Indeed the more closely we examine
the phenomena, the more do we feel the distance we are
from a satisfadtory explanation of them. According to some
geologists, coal-seams and their accompanying strata are
accumulations of land plants and stony detritus carried down
by rivers into estuaries, and deposited in the sea, where the
vegetable matter undergoes changes that convert it into
coal. Others are of opinion that coal is the altered residuum
of trees and smaller plants that have grown on the spot
where we now find them ; that the forests were submerged
and covered by detrital matter, which was upraised to form
a foundation and a soil for another forest, to be in its turn
submerged and converted into coal, and that thus the alter-
nations which the vertical section of a coal-field exhibits are
to be accounted for.

In the works of the last year to which I have chiefly re-
ferred, we find the former theory maintained by Sir R. Mur-
chison as most generally applicable ; Mr Lyell is more inclined
to adopt the latter. Sir R. Murchison dwells upon the facts
of the alternations of coal with limestones containing marine
remains, which are so frequently met with in most countries
where coal-fields prevail ; and as a striking instance of this,
he refers to the Donetz coal-field, which I have already alluded
to. A remarkable example of a similar kind, occurring in
Maryland, is mentioned by Mr Lyell. At Frostburg, a black
shale, ten or twelve feet thick, full of marine shells, rests on
a seam of coal about three feet thick, and 300 feet below the
principal seam of coal in that place. The shells are refer-
able to no less than seventeen species, and some of them are

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. G

98 Horner's Geological Address,

identical with, and almost all the rest have a near affinity to
species found in the Glasgow and other coal-measures.

The theory which refers the coal to trees and plants which
have grown on the spot where it now rests, is illustrated by
Mr Lyell by observations he made in Nova Scotia, on the
south shore of the Bay of Fundy, at a place called " The Jog-
gins." He states that there is a range of perpendicular cliffs
composed of regular coal-measures, inclined at an angle be-
tween 24 and 30 degrees, whose united thickness is between
four and five miles. About nineteen seams of coal occur in
the series, and they vary from two inches to four feet in
thickness. The beds are quite undisturbed, save that they have
been bodily moved from the horizontal position in which they
must have been deposited to that inclination they now have.
In these coal-beds, at more than ten distinct levels, are
stems of trees, in positions at right angles to the planes of
stratification, that is, which must have stood upright when
the coal-measures were horizontal. No part of the original
plant is preserved, except the bark, which forms a coating of
bituminous coal, the interior being a solid cylinder of sand
and clay, without traces of organic structure, as is usually
the case with Sigillaria, and like the upright trees in the
coal-measures cut through by the Bolton Railway. The
trees, or rather the remains of stems of trees broken off^ at
diff^erent heights above the root, vary in height from six to
twenty-five feet, and in diameter from fourteen inches to four
feet. There are no appearances of roots, but some of the
trees enlarge at the bottom. They rest upon, and appear to
have grown in, the mass which now constitutes the coal-
seams and under-lying shale, never intersecting a superior
layer of coal, and never terminating downwards out of the
coal or shale from which the stem rises. The underclay or
shale often contains Stigmariae. Here then, he states, are
the remains of more than ten forests, which grew the one
over the other, but at distant intervals, during which each,
from the lowest upwards, was successively covered by layers
of great thickness of clay and solid stone, the materials of
which must have been arranged and consolidated under the
surface of water, and the vegetation of every layer in which
the upright trees are fixed must have grown on land.

Theories of Formation of Coal. 99

The formation of coal-measures like the above, and of all
others where there is evidence that the vegetable matter was
not drifted to the place it now occupies, but must have grown
•on the spot, is then accounted for, by supposing, that the land
sank below the level of adjoining water ; that gravel, sand,
and mud were washed down from the land that did not sink,
and formed layers of clay and sandstone over the submerged
forest, either in sufficient quantity to rise to the surface of
the water and form land for the next forest, which was sub-
merged in its turn, or that a contrary internal movement
took place, which again raised the submerged land ; and that
for every seam of coal, one above the other, a similar series
of changes must have taken place. It is to this oscillatory
movement that Mr Lyell ascribes the formation of the above
remarkable phenomena in the Bay of Fundy, and others of
a like nature.

At first sight, both theories seem well-founded, when ap-
plied to the particular coal-fields described ; and it is possible
that these eminent and experienced geologists may be of
opinion that both are true, as applied to different situations.
But I see great difficulties to the full acceptance of either,
in many of the phenomena which, on a close examination,
we find coal-fields generally present. As examples, I will
call your attention to two sections that have very recently
been published ; the one a section of the western part of the
South Welsh Coal-Field, included in the valuable series lately
issued from the office of the Geological Survey of Great Bri-
tain, the work of W. E. Logan, Esq., a Fellow of this Society,
so well known to us as an excellent observer, and as inti-
mately acquainted with coal-fields, and who was formerly
attached to that Survey ; the other is entitled a " Section of
the No via Scotia Coal-Measures, as developed at the Jog-
gins, on the Bay of Fundy, in descending order, from the
neighbourhood of West Rugged Reef to Minudie, reduced to
vertical thickness." It is also the work of Mr Logan, who
is now employed by the Government of Canada to make a
Geological Survey of that country, and is contained in his
report to the late Governor Sir Charles Metcalfe, and trans-
mitted by the Governor to the Legislative Assembly. And

100 Horner's Geological Address,

here I may remark, in passing, that while we, as geologists,
have to thank that provincial Government for commencing
so useful an undertaking, we have also the satisfaction of
feeling convinced that it will be prosecuted with vigour by
the present governor, Earl Cathcart, one of our own body,
and, as we know, an able and active geologist. This is a
section of the same series of coal-measures so carefully ex-
amined and described by Mr Lyell,* though with less mi-
nuteness of detail as to the lithological characters and dimen-
sions of the several beds. The phenomena exhibited in the
above sections are not peculiar to them ; they are to a great
extent common to all coal-fields, particularly in the higher
parts of the carboniferous series.

Before giving the analyses I have made of these sections
I wish to call to your recollection that in both theories it is
assumed, that the deposition of the coal-measures took place
in the sea. Mr Lyell speaks of the accumulations having
taken place in a sea : he says, " It by no means follows that
a sea four or five miles deep was filled up with sand and se-
diment ; on the contrary, repeated subsidences may have en-
abled this enormous accumulation of strata to have taken
place in a sea of moderate depth."

The example from South Wales is a vertical section, t re-
presenting the beds as they are known to succeed each
other in descending order, the dimensions being the thick-
ness of each bed at right angles to the plane of stratification.
The coal-measures rest upon carboniferous limestone, in an
inclined and somewhat waved stratification ; and although
these measurements would vary in difi'erent places, from the
swellings and thinnings-out which all strata exhibit more or
less when traced to a distance, they are probably not far
from the average amount over a large area.

1. From the top of the highest bed to the limestone, the
sum of the measurements amounts to nearly 7000 feet ; that
is, the beds must have been originally deposited over each
other in horizontal or nearly horizontal stratification to that
thickness.

* " Travels in America," vol. ii., p. 198.

t No. 1 in the series, illustrating the horizontal section No. 7.

Theories of Formation of Coal. 101

2. Reckoning only the greater divisions, when a difference
of mineral character takes place, there are, besides the coal-
seams, 340 beds, from a few inches to 190 feet thick, with-
out alteration of mineral composition ; involving, in the lat-
ter cases, long periods without any change in the nature of
the detritus washed into the water where the deposition was
going on.

3. These beds consist of sandstones, arenaceous and argil-
liferous slates, and clays, alternating without any apparent
order of succession ; sometimes one sometimes another lying
upon the coal ; and occasionally, but not frequently, the shale
upon the coal is said to be carbonaceous.

4. Interstratified with these beds are eighty-four seams of
coal, from one inch to nine feet thick ; the highest being
covered by a series of beds of sandstone, &c. 200 feet thick ;
the lowest seam separated from the carboniferous limestone
by 1340 feet of similar sandstones and shales, making the
coal-hearing strata 5460 feet in thickness.

5. The seams of coal occur at very unequal distances ; some
are separated by a few inches only of shale or sandstone,
others by as much as 360 feet.

6. There are twenty -three seams, occurring in succession,
most of which are not distinguished by any term indicating
quality ; in two instances, one a three-feet seam, they are said
to be bituminous, and several seams are said to be binding,
which means the same as caking, a quality which only richly-
bituminous coals possess ; the rest are merely called " Coal."
These twenty-three seams, with their interstratified sand-
stones and shales, occupy 1840 feet.

7. Then succeed thirteen seams, in a space of 1000 feet
and nine of these are described as " not bituminousJ'^

8. The thirty- seventh seam, in descending order, is said to
be anthracitic, and fourteen seams below it are so designated :
then come four seams merely called " Coal," and all very
thin. Beneath the lowest of these, and separated by sixty
feet of arenaceous shales and sandstones, comes a bed of
coal, four feet six inches thick, called Anthracite, with five
feet of underclay ; beneath this are seven seams called An-
thracite, and three more are intercalated called anthracitic.

102 Horner's Geological Address,

9. Between the thirty-seventh seam, called Anthracitic, and
the lowest of all, which is called Anthracite, there are twenty-
two seams intercalated, without having any distinctive term
affixed to them, most of them very thin ; but about midway,
three occur near together, without intermediate sandstones
and shales, but separated by clay containing Stigmarise, in
the following manner : —

Ft. In.

Coal, 1 0

Underclay, 0 4

Coal, 4 0

Underclay, ........ 8 0

Coal, 1 4

Underclay, 8 0

10. The seams of coal, whether termed merely " Coal,"
or bituminous, or anthracitic, or anthracite, have, with very
few exceptions, underclays, and these, generally, but not
uniformly, contain Stigmariae. The two lowest beds of an-
thracite have underclays of five feet each, the third from the
bottom has seven feet of underclay, each with Stigmariae.
The underclay is of variable thickness ; in no part more than
fourteen feet, and, except in a few instances, is always said
to contain the Stigmaria ficoides.

11. There appears to be no relation between the thickness
of the underclay with Stigmarise, and that of the coal resting
upon it. The thickest seam of coal, which is nine feet, rests
on three feet of underclay; and there are instances of a seam
of coal only an inch thick, with five feet of underclay stated
to be filled with S tig mar ice.

12. A bed of clay, eight feet thick, with Stigmarise, has no
coal upon it, but a foot of carbonaceous shale ; and above
that forty feet of arenaceous shale, then four feet of clay with
Stigmariae, covered by three inches of coal, and that overlaid
by twenty-five feet of argillaceous shale and sandstone.

13. In no case is any diff'erence stated in the mineral cha-
racter of the sandstones or shales either over or under the
Anthracite seams, or of any other coal-seam.

The example from Nova Scotia is a vertical section, on the

Theories of Formation o Coal, 103

same plan as that in South Wales ; and the coal-measures
there also rest upon limestone, containing organic remains,
" among which there is, in some abundance, a bivalve shell,
which Mr Logan recognised as indentical with Producta Lyelli
of Windsor in Nova Scotia." This limestone at Windsor,
Mr Lyell describes as " a lower carboniferous limestone."
The total vertical thickness of the coal-measures is more than
double that of the South Wales section, being 14,570 feet.

a. The number of distinct beds in the section, of which
separate measurements are given, is 1114, from six inches
to 138 feet thick, without change in mineral composition.

6. These beds consist of quartzose sandstones, grits and
conglomerates, and of arenaceous and argillaceous shales, all
of various shades of red, grey, and green, without any appa-
rent order of succession, sometimes one sometimes another
lying upon the coal, and occasionally a carbonaceous shale is
associated and intermixed with the coal-seams.

c. Interstratified with these beds are seventy-six seams of
coal, from an inch to two feet thick, the far greater propor-
tion very thin. The aggregate thickness of the seventy-six
seams is only forty-four feet, and there is about the same
aggi'egate thickness of carbonaceous shale. The highest
seam is covered by a series of beds of sandstones, conglome-
rates and shales, 2274 feet thick. Beneath the lowest seam
of coal there are 2800 feet of sandstones and shales of the
same nature as those above, but having numerous beds of
grey concretionary limestone intercalated. Thus the coal-
bearitiy strata have a thickness of about 9500 feet.

d. There are no terms attached to the word " Coal," indi-
cating any change of quality throughout the section. Some
of the seams are called " Coaly clay," others " Carbona-
ceous shale," mixed with the coal. The seams occur at very
unequal distances ; from a few inches apart to more than
1200 feet.

e. As in the South Wales section, the coal-seams usually
rest on beds containing StigmaruE, but, in a great proportion
of instances, these occur not in clay but in sandstone and
arenaceous shale. This under bed is from a foot to twenty-
seven feet in thickness ; in one place an understone witl^

104 Horner's Geological Address.

Stigmarioe ten feet thick has a seam of coal over it only an
inch thick.

/*. Between the sixty- seventh and sixty-eighth coal-seams,
the former with associated carbonaceous shale only fourteen
inches thick, there are 170 beds of sandstone and argillaceous
shale, from six inches to 132 feet thick, their aggregate
thickness being 2620 feet, and the sixty-eighth coal-seam is
only called coaly clay, two inches thick, with an underclay
containing Stigmaria leaves of six feet.

g. In the. 2274 feet of sandstones, &c. lying above the
highest seam of coal, fragments of plants are seen in several
of the beds ; they first occur in a bed of sandstone 218 feet
from the top, and the plants are converted into coal ; they
are often called " drift plants,'' and stated to be " coated
with coal/' In one bed there are " carbonized drift plants
of large diameter," say one foot, the stems lying prostrate ;
and 1520 feet below this, there is a sandstone " fit for grind-
stones, with a few Calamites nearly at right angles to the
plane of the beds, as if in situ, but forced over at the top ;''
this sandstone rests on a black carbonaceous shale two feet
thick, but it is not stated whether the Calamites are fixed in
this carbonaceous stratum. Between this last and the first
seam of coal, which is only one inch thick, there are three
feet of a " greenish-grey sandstone with Stigmaria ficoides^
succeeded by two feet of " grey argillaceous shale, with im-
pressions oi ferns and other plants.''

Between the seventy-fifth seam, half an inch, and the
seventy-sixth, two inches thick, are eighty-four beds of sand-
stone from a foot to 1 17 feet thick, together 1223 feet ; and
twenty of these beds, all called greenish-grey sandstone, are
said to contain carbonized drift plants ; and in one of these
beds there is said to be '' a vast confused collection of car-
bonized drift plants ; one lying prostrate measured twenty-
five feet in length, and about one foot in diameter at the
small end." So likewise in the 2800 feet of sandstones, &c.
vvhich are beneath the seventy-sixth or lowest seam of coal,
ten of the beds are said to contain carbonized drift plants.

h. At a distance of 4400 feet from the surface there occurs
a " bituminous limestone with shells and fish-scales," four

Theories of Formation of Coal. 1 05

feet thick, and lower down, in the succeeding 2000 feet, there
are eighteen beds of similar bituminous limestone, one of
them only half an inch thick, eleven of them under six inches,
and the thickest two feet. Neither the shells nor the nature
of the fish-scales are described, but that these are freshwater
limestones may be inferred from this, that several of them
are mixed with Stigmariae and other plants ; thus associated
with the twenty-eighth seam of coal is a '' bituminous lime-
stone and carbonaceous shale in alternate layers of one to
three inches, with plants, shells and fish scales ;" under the
thirty-first, '• with Stigmarise, shells and fish-scales ;" along
with the thirty-sixth, '* black bituminous limestone with
branches and leaves of Stigmarice well-marked, and very
minute shells ;" under the forty -fourth, " with Stigmariae
branches and leaves, fragments of other plants, and minute
shells." Mr Lyell states, that he observed " not far above
the uppermost coal-seams with vertical trees, two strata,, per-
haps of freshwater or estuary origin, composed of black cal-
careo-bituminous shale, chiefly made up of compressed shells,
of two species of Modiola, and two kinds of Cgpris.'^ It is
possible, therefore, that the " minute shells" of Mr Logan are
Cypris. Beneath the lowest seam of coal are intercalated
fourteen beds of what is called a " Concretionary limestone,''
and *' Limestone in concretionary nodules," from one to three
feet thick, one of them as much as eight feet, and in one in-
stance the limestone is said to contain carbonized drift
plants.

i. Several instances are given of stems of plants standing
perpendicular to the plane of stratification ; the first is 2160
feet from the top of the uppermost bed.

a. Calamites " as if in situ^

/3. Lower down, 570 feet below «, two upright stems of
Calamites, two inches in diameter, coated with coal, start
from the top of a dark-grey argillaceous shale, and penetrate
into a grey shale with sandstone above. The length of the
stems is not given.

y. Forty feet below is a foot of sandstone and then a foot
of shale, and '^ in this shale, and running into the sandstone

106 Horner's Geological Address.

above, is a Calamite at an angle of 45° : it appears to start
from a coal-seam below, an inch thick.

b. Beneath this, 640 feet, a seam of coal three inches thick
occurs, and from it " there springs up an erect Sigillaria,
eighteen inches in diameter, and it penetrates the shale and
sandstone above it, five feet of the plant being visible.'*
Underneath the coal is " a grey sandstone with Stigmaria
ficoides {under clay). ^''

g. The next instance given is 1038 feet lower down, where,
from a grey argillaceous shale, rises an upright Sigillaria,
one foot in diameter, penetrating to a height of two feet into
argillaceous shale above. There are sixteen feet of sand-
stone and shale below this Sigillaria, and without Stigmari(E.

^. The next is 270 feet lower, where, from an argillaceous
shale, " springs an upright Sigillaria of one foot in diameter ;
the lower part commences to spread." There are seven feet
of argillaceous shales, with ironstone balls, beneath this
Sigillaria, rvithout Stigmarice.

r}. The next is 228 feet lower, where, from a " grey,
crumbly, argillaceous shale, like underclay, but no Stigmarim
visible, spring several upright Calamites, three of them in
the distance of two feet, and eight more, the whole eleven in
the distance of twenty feet."

6. The next, 137 feet lower, in sandstone, are upright
Calamites, three in the space of a foot.

/. From a carbonaceous shale, a foot thick, sixty-two feet
lower, " spring up erect Calamites, penetrating an arenaceous
shale above two feet ; and there are seven in the space of
eight feet.''

X. The next is 254 feet lower, where, from an argillaceous
shale, springs an upright Sigillaria, four inches in diameter ;
five feet of it are seen in a sandstone above. Argillaceous
and carbonaceous shale beneath, six feet thick, does not con-
tain Stigmarice.

X. From a grey argillaceous shale, twenty-two feet lower
down, springs an upright Sigillaria. Its roots spread out
into the shale, which is ten feet thick, and does not contain
Stigmarice ; but over it lies a grey, crumbly, argillo-aren-

Theories of Formation of Coal, 107

aceous shale or sandstone with Stigmarice, in which six feet of
the stem are visible. From the root of the plant proceeds a
Stigmaria branch, which at first sight had much the appear-
ance of being a root of the Sigillaria, but close inspection
shewed that the two, although touching, were distinct.

/M-. The next is 108 feet lower, where, from a grey argil-
laceous shale, " springs an upright Sigillaria, eighteen inches
in diameter, penetrating an incumbent sandstone." Fourteen
feet of argillaceous shale and sandstone beneath do not con-
tain Stigmariae.

V. The next is 133 feet lower, where, from a thin seam of
coal with carbonaceous shale beneath, " rises an upright
Sigillaria ; the roots spread on the top of the coal ; the plant
is a foot in diameter, and only one foot of the length is
visible.'*

J. The next is 160 feet lower, where, from a red argilla-
ceous shale, springs an upright Sigillaria. Two feet of the
length is seen, but it is cut clean off at the top and at the
bottom by the measures which pass both without disturbance.
No SligmaricB occur for many yards below.

0. The next is 101 feet lower, where, from a grey argilla-
ceous shale, six feet thick, without StigmaritB, starts an up-
right Sigillaria, four inches in diameter ; it is planted two
feet in the shale, and penetrates the sandstone above, being
four feet in length altogether.

ie. The next is 362 feet lower, where, from a red and dark
grey variegated shale, twenty-eight feet thick, with small balls
of ironstone and Stigmaricd, arise two upright SigillaricB. The
roots of these spread out just on the top of the bed, and two
feet of the plant are visible. The roots of the other spread
out likewise, but they sink deeper into the shale by two feet,
and the plant penetrates farther into the superincumbent
sandstone.

g. The next distinct instance is 490 feet lower, where, from
a grey argillaceous shale, several upright Catamites from half
an inch to four inches in diameter, penetrate an incumbent
grey arenaceous and argillaceous shale, containing prostrate
carbonized plants. The roots of a Calamite three inches in
diameter, spread on the top of the shale underneath ; and

108 Horner's Geological Address.

twenty-one more Calamites are visible along the bank in the
space of twenty yards.

This is the last instance stated of stems of plants found in
the strata perpendicular to the plane of stratification ; the
seventeen instances thus occurring in a vertical thickness of
4515 feet.

Throughout the whole 7000 feet in the South Wales sec-
tion, and, if the limestones are, as is most probable, of fresh-
water origin, also throughout the 14,570 feet in the Nova
Scotia section, there appears to be no trace of any substance
of a marine character ; and from anything exhibited in the
composition of the beds, all might have. been deposited in
fresh water. It seems infinitely improbable, had the deposi-
tion taken place in a sea, that a series of accumulations of
this description, implying, be it observed, a vast duration of
time, with different depths and different qualities of sea-bot-
toms, should have taken place without a trace being discover-
able, either upon the surface of the submerged layers of ve-
getable matter, or in any part of the clays and sandstones
that lie upon them, of a marine animal or plant. It seems
no less improbable, that, in a sea skirting a shore, there
should be such an absence of agitation throughout so vast a
space of time, as to allow a tranquil deposit of layers of fine
detritus over a wide area, a spreading out of the leaves of
delicate plants in layers of clay and sand, like the specimens
in a herbarium, and a gradual and insensible passage, in many
instances, from one bed into another. Great as the North
American lakes are, I am not prepared to say that grave ob-
jections may not be urged against the probable existence of
such vast bodies of fresh water as would be of sufficient ex-
tent and depth to receive the beds of many coal-fields ; but
the absence of marine remains throughout vast depths of
strata in coal-fields is a remarkable fact, well deserving of the
most careful investigation.

That the terrestrial vegetable matter from which coal has
been formed has in very many instances been deposited in
the sea is unquestionable, from their alternations with lime-
stones containing marine remains. Such deposits and alter-
nations in an estuary at the mouth of a great river are con^

Theories of Formation of Coal. 109

ceivable, but whether such enormous beds of limestone, with
the corals and molluscs which they contain, could be formed
in an estuary, may admit of doubt. But it is not so easy to
conceive tl\e very distinct separation of the coal and the stony
matter, if formed of drifted materials brought into the bay by
a river. It has been said that the vegetable matter is brought
down at intervals, in freshets, in masses matted together, like
the rafts in the Mississippi. But there could not be masses
of matted vegetable matter of uniform thickness 14,000 square
miles in extent, like the Brownsville bed on the Ohio (the
Pittsburg seam mentioned in page 170) ; and freshets bring
down gravel, and sand, and mud, as well as plants and trees.
They must occur several times a-year in every river ; but
many years must have elapsed during the gradual deposit of
the sandstones and shales that separate the seams of coal.
Humboldt tells us {Koswos, p. 295), that, in the forest lands
of the temperate zone, the carbon contained in the trees on a
given surface would not, on an average of a hundred years,
form a layer over that surface more than seven lines in thick-
ness. If this be a well-ascertained fact, what an enormous
accumulation of vegetable matter must be required to form
a coal-seam of even moderate dimensions ! It is extremely
improbable that the vegetable matter brought down by rivers
could fall to the bottom of the sea in clear unmixed layers ;
it would form a confused mass with stones, sand, and mud.
Again, how difficult to conceive, how extremely improbable
in such circumstances, is the preservation of delicate plants,
spread out with the most perfect arrangement of their parts,
uninjured by the rude action of rapid streams and currents
carrying gravel and sand, and branches and trunks of trees.
In the theory which accounts for the formation of beds of
coal, by supposing that they are the remains of trees and
other plants that grew on the spot where the coal now exists,
that the land was submerged to admit of the covering of
sandstones or shales being deposited, and again elevated, so
that the sandstones or shales might become the subsoil of a
new growth, to be again submerged, and this process repeated
as often as there are seams of coal in the series — these are
demands on our assent of a most startling kind. In the

110 Horner's Geological Address.

sections above examined, we have eighty-four seams oiF coal in
the one, and seventy-six in the other. In the Saarbriick coal-
field there are 120 seams, without taking into account the
thinner seams, those less than a foot thick.* The materials
of each of these seams, however thin (and there are some not
an inch thick, lying upon and covered by great depths of
sandstones and shales), must, according to this theory, have
grown on land, and the covering of each must have been de-
posited under water. There must thus have been an equal
number of successive upward and downward movements, and
these so gentle, such soft heavings, as not to break the con-
tinuity or disturb the parallelism of horizontal lines spread over
hundreds of square miles ; and the movements must, more-
over, have been so nicely adjusted, that they should always
be downward when a layer of vegetable matter was to be
covered up ; and in the upward movements, the motion must
always have ceased so soon as the last layers of sand or
shale had reached the surface, to be immediately covered by
the fresh vegetable growth ; for, otherwise, we should have
found evidence, in the series of successive deposits, of some
being furrowed, broken up, or covered with pebbles or other
detrital matter, of land long exposed to the waves breaking
on a shore, and to meteoric agencies. These conditions, which
seem to be inseparable from the theory in question, it would
be difficult to find any thing analogous to in any other case
of changes in the relative level of sea and land with which
we are acquainted.

That some seams of coal were formed of vegetable matter
that grew on the spot where the coal now exists, seems to be
proved in several cases (such, for instance, as that of the
Bolton railway section) beyond dispute ; and that some seams
afford proofs of having been formed by drifted vegetable mat-
ter may be true. The coal-seams, and the beds associated
with them, could be formed in no other way than under water ;
and the accumulation of the vegetable matter near the surface
of it, and a very gradual submergence of the land, arrested
at unequal intervals, appear to be the conditions most recon-
cileable with the phenomena. This implies, however, a de-

* Humboldt's Kosmos, p. 295.

Theories of Formation of Coal, 111

position of the alternating sandstones and shales in very shal-
low water ; and as we often find these rocks in regular thin
stratification, forming the immediate bottom of coal-seams,
the question arises, Could such a laminated arrangement of
detrital matter take place in water so shallow as is here sup-
posed %

It is held by some geologists, that Stigmarue are the roots
of SigillaricB, and that the stems of the latter contributed
largely to the formation of coal. We should therefore ex-
pect to find, that where there is the greatest accumulation of
Stigmari(B there should be the thickest seams of coal : this is
not only not the case in the above sections, but sometimes
there is no coal at all (11, 12, e,fg^. In a bed of sandstone,
190 feet thick, in the South Wales section, and at a depth
within it of sixty feet, there is a seam of coal, four inches
thick, without underclay and without Stigmarice. Then
again, in the Novia Scotia section, we find stems of Sigillaricd,
standing at right angles to the plane of stratification, resting
on shales that do not contain any Stigmarm (i, ^, x, X, ^,).
Is this a proof that the stems are here, though apparently,
really not in the place where they grew 1 or is it a proof that
Stigmari(B are not the roots of SigillaricR ?

Several instances of upright stems given in the Nova
Scotia section by Mr Logan, can hardly be considered as
occupying the spot where they grew, certainly not that (g)
where it is cut clean off at the bottom. It is remarkable,
that, in the instances of upright stems described by Mr Lyell
and Mr Logan, if occupying the spot where they grew, roots
should so seldom be connected with them. Of all parts of
the tree, none, we should expect, would be more likely to be
preserved ; being protected by their covering of soil from
causes of destruction to which the stems were evidently ex-
posed, as we find them so generally cut off at a short distance
above their bases.

The whole subject of the theory of coal, whether we con-
sider its mode of deposition, the plants out of which it has
been formed, or the various changes which the vegetable
matter has undergone, to convert it into lignite, jet, common
coal, cannel coal, blind coal, and anthracite. Two or more of
these varieties often occurring in the same coal-field, is ex-

112 Horner's Geological Address.

tremely obscure, and presents a wide and interesting field
for future investigation. Before concluding this part of my
subject, into which I shall probably be thought to have en-
tered at disproportionate length, I would call your attention
to some difficulties which the South Welch section offers to
the commonly-received and, I believe, well-founded opinion,
that anthracite is bituminous coal, the volatile parts of which
have been driven off by heat acting gradually from below ;
for we see (8 and 9) that thin seams of common coal are
interstratified with anthracitic seams and with anthracite.
Neither do we find any signs of metamorphic action in the
underclay in immediate contact with the coal, nor in the
strata thaiblie between two seams of anthracite. We must
look to the chemist to explain all this, as well as for en-
lightenment on the formation of the different qualities of
coal ; but we must be contented to receive from him only
indications and resemblances ; for we must never forget,
that, in our experiments, we can never have the volume of
materials, the amount of pressure, and above all, the dura-
tion of time with which Nature has worked ; and each of
these, singly and combined, must have had important influence
in modifying the results.

Permian System.

The soundness of the principles on which Sir R. Murchi-
son and M. de Verneuil first proposed to establish this great
division, has been confirmed by subsequent observations both
by themselves and by others, and appears to be recognised by
the geologists of all countries. The name of Permian, too,
has been as willingly adopted as that of Silurian was, being
at once convenient and appropriate, and recalling the locality
where a true type of the series can be referred to. In their
first journey to Russia, only a part of the region where these
rocks predominate was examined ; but they saw enough then
to satisfy them that some new classification was called for,
and Sir R. Murchison developed his views and those of his
associates at the meeting of the British Association at Glas-
gow in 1840, and in a paper read before this Society in the
following spring. In his address as president at our anni-
versary in 1842, he referred to his second journey in the

Permian System. ^13

summer of 1841, and announced the discovery, that these
newer red sand deposits, covering an enormous portion of
European Russia, constitute a separate zoological system,
distinct in age from the Trias, and comprehending, in ascend-
ing order, our lower new red sandstone (the rothe-todte-Uegende
of Germany), our magnesian limestone (the Zechstein of Ger-
many), and the sandstones and conglomerates that constitute
the lower member of the hunter, or variegated sandstone of
the Germans (represented by the Gres des Vosges of France) ;
and leaving the Trias, composed of Upper Bunter-sandstein,
Muschelkalk and Keuper, as the lowest of the secondary
rocks, and the commencement of new orders in various forms
of life. Sir R. Murchison maintained the same views in his
address of 1843 ; and in the spring of 1844, in a paper which
he read to this Society, he gave a full confirmation of the
correctness of his original conclusions, after a more carefiil
examination of the fossils collected from the Permian series
in Russia, and comparison of them with those collected in
different parts of Germany and Poland, which countries he
visited for the special purpose of examining in situ the char-
acters of the lower members of the new red sandstone series
in their long-established typical forms. The Permian sys-
tem, therefore, consists of a series of conglomerates, sand-
stones, clays, marls, common limestones, and magnesian lime-
stones, all under a great variety of forms, and intermediate
between the Carboniferous and Triassic groups. It contains
a peculiar fauna and flora, mingled, however, with a propor-
tion of the animal and vegetable remains of the Carbonifer-
ous series, on which its beds repose, and thus connected with
the palaeozoic class of deposits ; whereas the Triassic series,
which succeeds in ascending order, has not yet been found,
it is said, to contain any palaeozoic form, whether animal or
vegetable. The Permian system, the authors of the *' Geo-
logy of Russia" observe, constitutes the remnant of the ear-
lier creation of animals, and exhibits the last of the partial
and successive alterations which those creatures underwent
before their final disappearance. The dwindling away and
extinction of many of the types, produced and multiplied in
such profusion during the anterior epochs, and the creation
of a new class of large animals, the Saurians, clearly an-

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXT. — JULY 1S46. U

114 Horner's Geological Address.

nounce the end of the long palaeozoic period, and the begin-
ning of a new order of zoological conditions.

It is remarkable, however, that palaeozoic vegetable forms
reappear, as I shall afterwards more particularly shew, in
beds much newer than the Trias ; for, in the Alps, in many
parts of a series of beds, which two such experienced geolo-
gists as M. Elie de Beaumont and M. Sismonda unhesitat-
ingly declare to belong to the Liassic period, plants have
been found which so skilful a fossil botanist as M. Adolphe
Brongniart has not been able to distinguish from species found
in the Carboniferous series. There is, besides, this peculiari-
ty, that while the base of the Permian rocks frequently oc-
curs in unconformable stratification with the Carboniferous,
there is no example, it is said, in any part of Europe, of the
Trias being found in stratification unconformable with the up-
per members of the Permian system. Too much stress, how-
ever. Sir R. Murchison observes, ought not to be laid on this
last circumstance, as evidence of a gradual passage in time
from the Permian to the Triassic series, because sedimentary
matter may be thrown down on the edges of older strata im-
mediately after their dislocation, and that dislocation may
have taken place without any great period having elapsed
since the strata were deposited. On the other hand, if the
sea-bottom were undisturbed, there might have been, so far
as mineral structure is concerned, an immense interval of
time between the deposition of two beds that are perfectly
conformable, and even have a similarity in lithological charac-
ter. And such, in fact, is the case. " Throughout whole
regions of Russia, the older deposits are clearly separable
from each other by means of their respective fossils, although
they are all apparently conformable."

The different memoirs, which Sir R. Murchison had read
before this Society, made us acquainted with the leading
features of the Permian system ; but his great work on Rus-
sia has not only given us the evidence, at full length, of his
opinions, but brings conviction to our minds by a more gra-
phic, and more impressive form of testimony than it was pos-
sible to produce in his abridged sketches. This system is
developed on an enormous scale in European Russia, repos-

Secondary Bocks. 115

ing upon carboniferous strata, throughout more than two-
thirds of a basin which has a circumference of not less than
4000 English miles ; that is, it occupies a space greater than
twice the area of P'rance.

The palaeozoic series in North America ends with the Car-
boniferous rocks ; for although that and the inferior groups
are developed on so great a scale, a narrow zone of red sand-
stone on the Atlantic slope, celebrated for containing the
footmarks of giant birds, which, in the opinion of Professor
Rogers, belongs to the Trias, is almost the only sedimentary
deposit between the Carboniferous and the Cretaceous rocks.

The Secondary Rocks.

The Trias, so largely developed in other parts of Europe,
is unknown in European Russia.

It is remarkable that, except one member of the oolitic
series, the whole of the secondary formations between the
Permian and Cretaceous groups should be wanting in Russia ;
and that, with the exception of a very limited and even
doubtful oolitic deposit in Virginia, not a trace of them
should have been found from the Atlantic to the Mississippi,
and even as far west from that river as any geologist has yet
penetrated. Professor Rogers rests his determination of
this deposit in Virginia as belonging to the lower part of the
oolitic series, solely on the striking resemblance as a group
of certain plants, accompanying a bed of coal which it con-
tains, to those which are found associated with the oolite coal
of Brora, Whitby, and other European localities. He says
that, "judging by lithological indications alone, perhaps no
more probable conclusion would have been reached on the
subject than that of the able geologists Mr Maclure and Mr
R. C. Taylor, the former of whom assigned this deposit, con-
sisting of slates and of coarse grits composed of the mate-
rials of granite so little worn as to have the aspect of that
rock in a decomposing state, and resting upon gneiss, and
without any calcareous bed, to the period of the Old Red
Sandstone ; the latter to the " transition carboniferous de-
posits." If it be true, that, in the Alps, species of plants
identical with those of the carboniferous period have been

116 Horner's Geological Address.

found in undoubted Jurassic beds, it becomes doubtful whe-
ther the mere " resemblance as a group " of the plants in the
Virginian beds is conclusive evidence, opposed as it is by the
lithological character of the deposit, and the most remark-
able circumstance of the entire absence of the oolitic series
in any other part of the American continent. In a letter I
had from Mr Lyell, who last December passed through Vir-
ginia, he informs me that he had seen some specimens of
coal plants and ichthyolites from this deposit, which throw
some doubt on its being of the oolitic age, especially when
he compares the list with those from Connecticut, and that
he intends to return to the spot in April next, in the hope of
being able to determine their true age more precisely.

The only member of the oolitic series found in Russia is a
representative of our Oxford clay and the beds immediately
associated with it, — that which the French geologists call the
Terrain Oxfordien, Nor, where these Jurassic beds occur, do
they occupy any great extent of surface, but are in detached
spots, at remote intervals, in isolated basins, patches or
stripes. They are composed of slightly coherent dark-colour-
ed pyritous shales, sands and calcareous concretions, sand-
atones and marlstones, very seldom solid calcareous beds, and
throughout with a surprising uniformity of character. They
are besides of little vertical thickness, compared to the same
series in other countries of Europe, the most considerable not
exceeding 400 feet. They form low masses, which no doubt
were at one time more connected, and have been subjected
to powerful denuding causes. They extend from the plains
of Prussia to the frontiers of Asia on the east, and to the
Frozen Ocean on the north. They are moreover seen to un-
derlie the cretaceous and tertiary deposits of Southern Rus-
sia, and appear in the steppes which lead from Europe into
Asia ; but in these southern regions they undergo a change
in lithological characters ; becoming siliceous and calcareous
grits, and resembling the conglomerates and grits found at
the base of the oolitic series in some parts of England ; their
fossil contents, however, continue the same.

Cretaceous Bocks. 117

Cretaceous Rocks.

These occupy a great part of Southern Russia, but are un-
known to the north of 55° of latitude. In regard to mineral
arrangement, there exists that sort of general parallelism
between the beds in Russia and those in Western Europe,
particularly with those of Eastern Germany, which we might
expect to find in strata of the same epoch, separated from
each other by great distances. Green sand, ironsand, chalk
and chalk-marl occur, in which the same groups of fossils
prevail as in rocks of Britain and France which occupy the
same relative age in geological succession ; and pure white
chalk, containing some characteristic organic remains, occurs
at intervals to the confines of Asia. In the southern steppes
of the Don Cossacks, on the banks of the river Donetz, chalk,
possessing all the characters of the English and French
chalk, and containing some of its characteristic fossils, oc-
curs of great thickness, Artesian wells having been sunk in
it to a depth of 630 feet, without any indications of a change
of rock. It contains layers of flint, and the banks of the
same river exhibit a section of a greensand group, seventy
feet thick, resting upon an equivalent of our coral rag, and
surmounted by white chalk. A zone of true chalk, 120 miles
in width, stretches through a great region about 100 miles
south-west of Orenburg.

The cretaceous rocks occupy a very limited zone on the
eastern side of the Alleghanies, extending about 60 miles,
but having rarely a breadth of half-a-mile. They sweep
round the southern extremity of these mountains, occupyhig
a vast tract which stretches far westward of the Mississippi ;
and Mr Lyell saw a collection of chalk fossils brought by M.
Nicollet from the higher parts of the Missouri river. It
appears further, from the recent report of Captain Fremont,
that cretaceous rocks occur on the eastern flanks of the Rocky
Mountains. The series examined by Mr Lyell in the State
of New Jersey, consist of a lower portion of greensand and
green marl, and above these a pale yellow limestone with
corals, both however belonging, in the opinion of Mr Lyell,
who has carefully examined a large series of fossils, to the

118 Horner' » Geological Address.

age of the white chalk, including the period from the gault
to the Maestricht beds. As a detailed account of these beds
and their fossil contents is given in the first volume of the
Society's Journal, I need not dwell further upon them, ex-
cept to give a statement of the general results. There is a
remarkable generic accordance between the fossil molluscs,
corals, ecliinoderms, fish and saurians, and those of the same
series in Europe ; out of sixty shells collected by Mr Lyell,
five seem to be quite identical with European species, while
several others approach very near to, and may be the same
as, European ; fifteen may be regarded as good geographical
representatives of well-known cretaceous fossils, belonging
for the most part to beds above the gault. This amount of
correspondence is not small, when it is considered that the
part of the United States where these cretaceous beds occur,
is from 3000 to 4000 miles distant from the chalk of Central
and Northern Europe, and that there is a difference of 10°
in the latitude of the places compared on the opposite sides
of the Atlantic. " Some of the species common to the oppo-
site sides of the Atlantic are those which in Europe have the
greatest vertical range, and which might therefore be ex-
pected to recur in distant parts of the globe." He concludes
with the following remarks : — " We learn from the facts
mentioned, that the marine fauna, whether vertebrate or in-
vertebrate, testaceous or zoophytic, was divided at the remote
period under consideration, as it is now, into distinct geo-
graphical provinces, although the geologist may everywhere
recognise the cretaceous type, whether in Europe or America,
and I might add India. This peculiar type exhibits the pre-
ponderating influence of a vast combination of circumstances
prevailing at one period throughout the globe — circumstances
dependent on the state of the physical geography, climate,
and the organic world in the period immediately preceding,
together with a variety of other conditions."

Tertiary Deposits.

The tertiary deposits of Russia, exclusive of a few patches
of very recent age, are most expanded in the southern parts
of the empire, those of Eocene and of Miocene ages both oc-

Tertiary Deposits* 119

curring. The former has, in many parts, the very same
structure and contents as the London clay. Sections are
seen of beds equivalent to the calcaire grossier and London
clay, in connexion with strata referred to the upper part of
the cretaceous system. In the neighbourhood of Saratof, on
the Lower Volga, there occurs a sandy calcareous gint, sub-
ordinate to clay and sand, of a concretionary structure, un-
distinguishable from the Bognor rocks in Sussex, and con-
taining the same shells. The authors appear inclined to
believe, that an insensible gradation may be traced from the
upper cretaceous into the tertiary beds.

The Miocene deposits are of far greater extent than the
Eocene. They are the extension of the great basins of Vien-
na and Hungary, and are spread over Volhynia, Podolia, and
Bessarabia, stretching to the Black Sea and the country
north of Odessa, where they are covered by deposits of a
more modern age. They have a close affinity to the deposits
of the sub-Apennines and of Bordeaux, and like beds of the
same age in Styria and Hungary, contain extensive oolitic
beds, undistinguishable, lithologically, from many English
and French varieties of the Jurassic group.

Marine Pliocene deposits are wanting, but the Miocene are
covered by the vast deposit of argillaceous limestone already
referred to as occupying the region around the Caspian, called
by Sir R. Murchison the Aralo- Caspian or Steppe limestone,
in which the univalves are of fresh-water origin, associated
with forms of Cardiaceoe and Mytili, which are common to
partially saline or brackish water. It abounds in many places
with fresh -water shells, and indeed presents the true and per-
sistent characters of a deposit in an inland sea, and contains
no vestiges of corals or other marine bodies. It was ob-
served to be in some places between 200 and 300 feet thick,
and at elevations of 700 feet above the present level of the
Caspian. It possesses an uniformity of character which se-
parates it from any tertiary deposit of Western Europe.

You are aware that Mr Lyell read before this Society four
papers on the tertiary deposits of the United States, which
have been published in our " Proceedings ;" it is unnecessary,
therefore, for me to give even a brief summary of them, and

120 Horner's Geological Address.

I shall content myself with stating some of the general re-
sults. On the Atlantic side of the Alleghanies, an area
about 400 miles long, from north to south, and varying in
breadth from 10 to 70 miles (with some detached patches
further south), is occupied at intervals by tertiary deposits,
which, in the intermediate spaces, are probably concealed by
the more modern deposits and alluvium which form the sur-
face. There are extensive tracts of Eocene formations, par-
ticularly in the south. Out of 125 species of shells which
Mr Lyell obtained from these deposits, he was not able to
indentify more than seven with species of the same epoch in
Europe. But there are a considerable number of represen-
tative species, and an equal number of forms peculiar to the
older tertiary strata of America. The Ostrea selloeformis
may be considered as representing the Ostrea flahellula of
the Paris and London basins, and appears to be one of the
most characteristic and widely disseminated Eocene shells in
this North American deposit.

The Miocene deposits are of far greater extent than the
Eocene ; and there is in them a close affinity of many of the
most abundant species with mollusca now inhabiting the
American coast, the proportion being about one-sixth of the
whole, or about 17 per cent., in those examined by Mr Lyc^l,
who was able to identify 23 out of 147 with living shells.
The corals also agree generically with those of the Miocene
be Is of Europe ; the cetacea also agree generically, and the
fish in many cases specifically.

Metamorphic Rocks.

The theory of metamorphism, in its more extended appli-
cation, in recent times, to the explanation of the peculiar
structure of certain stratified rocks, has thrown a clear light
upon some of the most obscure and difficult parts of geology.
No geologist will now, I presume, hesitate to admit, that
there is evidence amounting to demonstration, that a perma-
nent source of heat exists in the interior of the earth, widely
spread beneath the stony envelopment, and that it has existed
at all times. Whether it is local or widely spread under the
surface — whether it is constantly maintained or is excited

Metamorphic Rockg. 121

at intervals by certain combinations, are questions for the
solution of which we have as yet no data to lead us beyond
probable inferences. It was long ago observed, that when
dykes of basalt passed through sedimentary rocks, earthy
limestones were frequently changed into crystalline marble,
shales into flinty slate, argillaceous sandstone into jasper,
and bituminous coal into graphite or cinder. Similar changes
were also often observed at the junctions of granite with se-
dimentary rocks. An attentive observation of these pheno-
mena led Hutton to infer, that the strata derived from the
detritus of pre-existing rocks had been consolidated into
stone by the agency of subterranean heat ; and although he
extended his theory to all the strata, to many which subse-
quent observations have shewn it to be inapplicable, still the
germ of the modem theory of metamorphism is clearly seen
in one of the fundamental positions of the Huttonian theory
of the earth. But sound as were the views of that philoso-
pher in his leading doctrines, they were adopted by a very
small number of geologists, so strongly had the theories and
system of Werner got possession of men's minds, especially
in Germany and France. About twenty years ago, however,
some startling facts were brought to light ; we heard that
Belemnites had been found in micaceous schists in the Alps,
and that an insensible passage could be traced from a se-
condary oolite full of organic remains, to the highly crystal-
line marble of Carrara, the old type of primary limestone,
and under circumstances which afforded the strongest pre-
sumptive evidence that the oolite had been changed into the
marble by the action of adjacent igneous rocks. Then there
came facts on a grand scale, analogous to those that had
been observed at the junction of trap dykes and granite veins,
with sedimentary rocks, and not only extending to great dis-
tances from the igneous rock, but the secondary shales were
changed into rocks that could not be distinguished from the
so-called primitive gneiss and mica-schists, and, like them,
included crystallized garnets.

Mr Lyell, in 1833, brought forward a more extended and
complete development of the Huttonian hypothesis of conso-
lidation, and first proposed the adoption of the term •* meta-

122 Horner's Geological Address.

morphic" to this peculiar altered structure of sedimentary
rocks, — a term which has been since universally adopted ;
and every year has disclosed new facts from all parts of the
world, in confirmation of the theory that the older crystal-
line and indurated schists, limestones, dolomites, and quartz-
ites, and many similar beds of more modern date, were not
deposited with a structure such as they now present, but
were accumulations of detrital matter, transformed into their
present condition mainly by the action of heat, accompanied
by other chemical action, and the powerful agency of steam
and elastic forces under enormous pressure. A very inge-
nious process, invented by Mr Brockedon, described in a
short paper read before us last year, by which he converts,
under very powerful pressure, the powder of graphite into a
solid mass, having a conchoidal fracture, and undistinguish-
able from the most compact native black-lead, shews that
pressure alone may convert fine detrital matter into solid
stone.

It is not very long ago, far within our own time, since
geologists spoke and wrote of chaotic fluids holding mineral
matter in solution, and of precipitations of crystalline rocks
from that menstruum. But these hypotheses, not only un-
supported by, but at variance with, all known chemical laws,
are now laid aside, and we reason more soberly, interpreting
past changes in the mineral structure of the earth by our ex-
perience of the laws by which the operations in the material
world are governed. Every accession to our knowledge of
the older sedimentary, highly consolidated, and semi-crystal-
line rocks, renders the probability greater that they were
formed in the same manner as those now in progress of for-
mation in existing seas ; in short, that they originated from
the waste of pre-existing lands. As astronomy leads us to
contemplations of immensity of distance in space, thus does
geology lead us to contemplate distances in past time almost
as boundless ; equally difficult for us to form a conception of,
but, although not capable of measurement, not less certain.
"We are thus brought to admit the truth of another of the
fundamental doctrines of the Huttonian theory, laid down by
its author more than half a century ago, and some years af-

Metamorphic Rocks. 129

terwards so eloquently illustrated by his disciple and friend
Playfair, whom I am proud to call my first master in geo-
logy, " that in all the strata we discover proofs of the mate-
rials having existed as elements of bodies, which must have
been destroyed before the formation of those of which these
materials now actually make a part."* We learn from
Professor Sedgwick, that in the north of England there are
chloritic slates alternating with countless contemporaneous
ribs of porphyry, as well as with trappean conglomerates and
slaty beds, derived mechanically from malerials of igneous ori-
gin. M. Abich of Diirpat considers that certain dark-green
grains disseminated through the lowest beds of the Lower
Silurian " Pleta,',' or Orthoceratite limestone of Russia, are
the detritus of the ancient augitic rocks of the Finnish fron-
tier.! The least fragment of an organic body in the lowest
deposits, it is evident, must have been encased in silt or mud,
and that silt or mud must have been derived from pre-exist-
ing rocks, and most probably rocks exposed on land to the
destructive power of meteoric agents. We are told by Mr
Lyell, that the Potsdam sandstone, the lowest of the Silurian
strata of North America, at the Falls of Montmorency, near
Quebec, is remarkable for containing boulders of enormous
size — the largest he ever remembers to have seen, he says,
in any ancient stratified rock. He measured some of them,
which were 8 feet long. They consist of the same gneiss as
that on which the sandstone rests. He also observed in the
same sandstone, on the borders of Lake Champlain, ripple-
marks on the surface of its flags.

Several of the works of geologists which have been pub-
lished during the last year, have supplied much additional
evidence of metamorphic action ; none more important, I
may say more conclusive, than is contained in the work of
Sir R. Murchison on Russia, and of Mr Lyell on America,
and in a very valuable memoir by M. Virlet. As far as my
limits will allow, I will bring forward some of that evidence.

With limited exceptions, true granites are rarely found in
the higher portions of the Urals, but they are of frequent oc-

* Illustrations of the iluttonian Theory, p. 5. t Murchison 's Russia, i.28.

124 Horner*s Geological Address.

ciirrence in the lower regions, particularly on the Siberian
side. The igneous rocks that enter into their composition
are different forms of syenite, porphyry, greenstone, and fel-
spar rocks, often graduating into each other, and associated
with serpentine. These have evidently been erupted at dif-
ferent periods ; and there are wide tracts occupied by grani-
toid rocks, which appear to have been erupted after the age
of the carboniferous series, and posterior to the greater pro-
portion of the greenstones and other eruptive rocks of the
Urals.

It was only after Sir R. Murchison and his companions
had become thoroughly acquainted with the slightly con-
solidated and unbroken sedimentary deposits in European
Russia, that they were able to decipher the intricate charac-
ters of the indurated and crystalline strata which constitute
the flanks, enter into the very body, and form lofty serrated
ridges of the Ural chain ; broken up and cast about in much
apparent confusion. But from the presence of organic re-
mains, traceable at intervals along both flanks, and even close
to the axis of the chain, they w^ere satisfied that some of the
central ridges, although composed of chloritic, talcose, mica-
ceous, and quartzose slates, cannot be of higher antiquity
than the unconsolidated Lower Silurian rocks on the shores
of the Baltic ; and that others, although in a highly crystalline
state, are not older than the Devonian and Carboniferous
series. The same rocks, when they recede from the great
lines of eruption, resume their ordinary "Sedimentary charac
ters. In one place the authors expressly say, that, in pro-
portion as they receded from the igneous zone, the sediment-
ary strata gradually parted with their talcose, chloritic, and
quartzite characters, and assumed the appearance of ordinary
argillaceous schist, with bands of grit and sandstone, all
parallel to the crystalline axis of the chain. In another place
they describe certain Upper Silurian beds, consisting of al-
ternations of argillaceous slate and black encrinite limestone,
passing into talc-schist, and containing great flakes of mica.
Between two great parallel lines of eruption, they saw pure
white saccharoid limestone containing Encrinites, and asso-
ciated with other crystalline beds, which they were satisfied

Metamorphic Bocks, 125

were once sandstones formed under the sea in the palaeozoic
period. In like manner, the sedimentary rocks on the northern
frontier of Russia, where they approach the great granitic
and trappean region that stretches southward from Russian
Lapland, become so changed, that the shales are converted
into Lydian stone, the limestones into marbles, and the sand-
stones into indurated and sometimes granular quartz. These
are not partial local effects, but characterise a long line of
country in a broad zone. The authors observe, that " the
thorough examination of this great band of Silurian rocks,
more or less metamorphic, which lies between the purely
crystalline or azoic rocks of the north, and the wholly un-
altered Devonian and Carboniferous deposits on the south,
well merit the special attention of the geologist, mineralogist,
and chemical philosopher ; for the scale on which these opera-
tions of change has been conducted is gigantic. Our present
acquaintance with the phenomena is, however, sufficient to
convince us, that here, as in other countries, the consolida-
tion, rupture, and alteration, of large portions of the earth's
crust have been effected by the agency and eruption of igne-
ous and gaseous matter." A limestone — ascertained, both
by lithological characters and fossiliferous proofs, to belong
to the Devonian age, in which copper veins occur at a point
where it is intersected in a complicated manner by green-
stone porphyry — is converted, for a space 350 fathoms long,
and 20 wide, into a crystalline rock, in some places becoming
a pure white crystalline saccharoid marble, and associated
with it is a garnet rock, loaded with very beautiful and large
crystals ; a case somewhat analogous to that observed by Pro-
fessor Henslow in Anglesea twenty-five years ago,* and to
that in the neighbourhood of Christiania described by Mi
Lyell.t On the east flank of the Urals, south of Ekaterin-
burg, there is a succession of low ridges parallel to the main
crest of the chain, composed of metamorphic rocks, some of
them so micaceous that they might pass, the authors say, for
primary mica-schist ; others resembling gneiss, which a few

* Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, vol. i.
t Elements of Geolosfy, vol. ii. p. 403.

126 Horner's Geological Address.

years ago, any geologist would have termed primary, but
which are, in fact, only altered palaeozoic sedimentary strata.
If we cross the Atlantic to North America, we obtain equally
clear proofs of the alteration of the sand and mud of the lands
of remote antiquity into crystalline schists, and of the forests
that grew upon them into anthracitic coal, by this same power-
ful agency.

The Appalachian or Alleghany mountains, which run from
north- north-east to south -south-west for 1000 miles, varying
in breadth from 50 to 150, and in height from 2000 to 6000
feet, have not, like the Ural chain, the features of a great rent
in the earth's crust formed by elastic forces from beneath,
and into which molten rocks were injected ; they are com-
posed of Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous rocks, in a
series of nearly equal and parallel ridges formed by flexures
of these rocks. The bending and fracture of the beds is
greatest on the north-eastern or Atlantic side of the chain,
and the strata become less and less disturbed as they extend
westward, until at length they regain their original or hori-
zontal position ; thus offering between the Alleghanies and
the western boundary of the basin of the Mississippi, a coun-
try very similar in conformation to that between the Urals
and the Baltic, and composed, to a great extent, of similar
rocks. The internal movements which caused these flexures
took place, as in Russia, subsequent to the carboniferous
period ; and on the eastern side the igneous rocks have in-
vaded the strata, forming dykes, some of which run for miles
parallel to the main direction of the mountains. These igne-
ous rocks are largely developed to the north-east in the States
of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.

Near Worcester in Massachusetts, Mr Lyell observed mica-
schist containing beds of anthracite, the mica-schist includ-
ing garnets and asbestus ; and he states that he is strongly
inclined to believe, that however crystalline they may be, they
are no other than carboniferous rocks in a metamorphic state.
There are many other places in Rhode Island and Massa-
chusetts of similar transformations, especially in the neigh-
bourhood of masses of granite and syenite.* The coal, which,

■* Ly ell's Ameriru, vol. i. p. 248,

Metamorphic Rocks. 127

westward of the Alleghanies, is highly bituminous, as it ap-
proaches the igneous rocks to the east, gradually loses its bi-
tuminous and gaseous contents, and is finally converted into
anthracite.

The concluding part of the first volume of the second series
of the " Bulletin de la Society Geologique de France," pub-
lished last year, contains an interesting, and, in many respects,
highly instructive account of the proceedings of the Society,
at their meeting at Chambery, in August 1844. During the
sixteen days it continued, several valuable papers were read,
and interesting discussions thereon are reported. Among
others, the subject of metamorphism was frequently brought
forward, and it appears to be the settled opinion of the most
eminent French, Swiss, and Italian geologists, who have
thoroughly examined the Alpine regions, that a great pro-
portion of the mica-schists, talc-schists, and clay-slates of the
Alps, long held as types of primitive rocks, are unquestion-
ably deposits of secondary age, metamorphosed by igneous ac-
tion. The neighbourhood of the place of meeting is described
by the Archbishop of Chambery, — who took an active part in
the proceedings, and who, from the communications he read,
seems to be a zealous geologist, — as one of the countries of
Europe the most interesting in this respect, and one in which
the modifications of metamorphic action may be traced from
its commencement to its extreme intensity with the greatest
facility. At the conclusion of the meeting, M. Virlet read a
paper on the participation which veins have had in metamor-
phic action, and brought forward some new views on the theory
of metamorphism. He states that it has generally been held
to be the result only of the action of plutonic rocks on the
sedimentary deposits with which they come in contact, but
that it is a far more complex operation, and is probably the re-
sult of several causes acting either simultaneously, separately
or successively ; among these he is disposed to ascribe much
to the addition of new materials, insinuating themselves in
the shape of gaseous emanations from the interior of the earth.
He also dwells much on the matter injected into fissures,
forming veins, as having had great effect, maintaining that in
all metalliferous regions, the greater the number of veins by

128 Captain Rozet on the Surface of the Moon.

which they are traversed, so is the degree of metamorphism
increased. He insists much on the metamorphic action of
quartz veins, which he holds to be of eruptive nature ; refers
to the growing conviction among geologists, that, in many
cases, there have been eruptions of veins of calcareous spar ;
and even ascribes the veins and slender ramifications of gyp-
sum, in the argillaceous beds of the lias of Burgundy and the
other eastern provinces of France, to eruptions of sulphate of
lime.

(To he concluded in next Number.)

On the Surface of the Moon. By Captain Rozet.

M. Elie de Beaumont has already been enabled, by means
of the beautiful selenographic delineations of Lohrnaann, and
of Beer and Madler, to make some very remarkable compa-
risons between the forms presented by certain portions of the
mountainous masses of the earth, and the annular openings
of the surface of our satellite.

During the summer of 1844, one of my friends having di-
rected my attention to the circular forms of nearly the whole
of the variations of the lunar surface, I have devoted myself
since that time to the study of the phenomena presented by
these variations of surface, having, at the same time, called
in the aid of the beautiful German maps, and of various works
already published on the subject.

The contours of all the great greyish spaces which, for a
very long time, have been termed Seas^ although it is known
with certainty that they cannot be masses of water, are
formed by arcs of circles which intersect one another. The
number of arcs sometimes amounts to two, rarely to one
mare crisium. These contours present circular escarpments
which seem perpendicular, but the inclination of many of
which is 45 degrees. The matter composing them appears to
be swelled up, and their height often exceeds 4000 metres
(upwards of 13,000 English feet). In the interior of the seas
we remark annular openings or perfect rings, whose diame-
ter amounts to 10 myriametres (upwards of 60 Ei^lish miles),
and the height of whose terminal ridge is 4000 metres. Seve-

Captain tlozet on the Surface of the Moon. 129

ral of them have a peak in the centre, which is a little less
elevated than the edges of the ring.

The large grey spots cover a great portion of the northern,
eastern, and western regions of the disc, and leave in its south-
ern part a brilliant space, covered with an infinity of rings
of all dimensions. These rings are simple and isolated, com-
plex, or united together, two and two, three and three, &c.
When they touch one another, the contours are always ren-
dered imperfect ; and it is generally the smaller one which
encroaches on the larger. In the interior of the large rings
there are almost always present smaller ones, which cut the
edges when they touch them. The bottom of the rings seems
to be flat, but that bottom often presents elevated portions,
arranged in arcs of circles parallel to the external ridge ; so
that the rings would seem to have been formed at the surface
of a fluid mass on which scoriae were floating, by means of a
circular undulation, whose amplitude went on diminishing.

The bottom of the great spots, such as the mare serenitatis,
&c., exhibits the same characters. Simple spots are also to
be noticed, or portions having no projection, but whose cir-
cular forms are well marked. It cannot, therefore, be called
in question, that a general cause, producing these circular
forms, has had an immense influence in the formation of the
solid crust of our satellite. We can perfectly account for all
the facts now enumerated, by supposing a number of whirl-
pools in the fluid matter, whose amplitude diminished with the
fluidity of that matter. Nothing is to be seen on the surface
of the moon which reminds us of our chains of mountains
with their lateral branches, or of our great valleys with their
numerous ramifications, &c. We see^ indeed, many well
marked fissures, as, for example, at the bottom of the mare
vaporum ; but these fissures are simple ; several diverge from
one centre, as in Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler, &c., and form ra-
diating cracks, analogous to those in Von Buch's craters o£
soulevement, but much more considerable. One of the fis-
sures of Tycho traverses the moon diametrically. A conti-
nued study of the various portions of the moon, under all in-
clinations of the solar rays, enables us to recognise two layers
which are quite distinct, but two layers only ; — the bottom of

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI.c— JULY 1846. I

130 Captain Roz^t (m the Surface of the Moon.

the great greyish spaces, which is also that of the rings ; and
a scoriaceous crust, elevated above that bottom to a height
which has been measured at a great number of points. These
measurements have afforded me the means of calculating the
thickness of this crust, and. I found that the mean is 642
metres (2106 English feet).

From all the facts I have ascertained, and from all the de-
ductions to which these facts have led me, I think I may draw
the following conclusions :—

1. The lunar globe has originally been in a state of fusion,
and has been gradually cooled.

2. During the formation of the external scoriaceous pellicle,
there existed in the mass whirlpools or circular movements,
which, driving the scoriae from the centre to the circumfer-
ence, formed annular ridges, by the accumulation of those
scoriae at the limit of the undulation. When several whirl-
pools occurred in such circumstances, that the distance of the
centres, taken two and two, was less than the sum of the
radii, there resulted an enclosed space, bounded by arcs of
circles. When the distance of two centres was greater than
the sum of the radii, two complete rings were formed.

3. The amplitude of the whirlpools diminished with the
fluidity of tlie surface, but the phenomenon continued through-
Out the whole duration of the process of consolidation.

4. The mode of formation which we assign to the lunar
rings, altogether excludes the idea of craters resembling those
of our volcanoes.

5. The surface of our satellite being thus consolidated, no
solid or liquid layer coming from the exterior was subse-
quently deposited upon it ; for, otherwise, the small rings and
the fissures would have disappeared. The perfect preserva-
tion of all these variations in external configuration, shews
that no liquid has ever existed in considerable quantity,
either at the surface, or even in the atmosphere of the moon.

6. After the complete consolidation of the external enve-
lope, the matter which remained fluid in the interior acted
upon that envelope, and fractured it, often giving rise to large
radiating cracks. At that epoch, the solid crust must have al-

Captain Rozet on the Surface of the Moofi. 131

ready been very thick, because the fissures are of large di-
mensions.

7. As no liquid, in any considerable quantity, has ever ex-
isted on the surface of the moon, or in its atmosphere, it re-
sults that no organised beings, similar to those of the earth,
can ever have lived there ; and if that planet, as is pretty ge-
nerally admitted, has no atmosphere, it can possess no beings
in whose organization liquids form a part, and we cannot con-
ceive of organic beings without liquids.

8. Lastly, from the whole of my investigations, there re-
sults the following important fact, viz., that the surface of
the moon permits us to see all the phenomena of its consoli-
dation, and the traces of the revolutions which it has under-
gone. On our earth these phenomena are almost all con-
cealed by aqueous deposits ; but various regions, in which
rocks resulting from fusion have remained uncovered, pre-
sent forms very analogous to those exhibited by the surface
of the moon. It is probable that, if the terrestrial surface
were stripped of the seas, and of all the sedimentary deposits
which cover it, annular forms would predominate. The same
may be said in regard to all the planets of our system ; for
the circular undulations of matter in a state of fusion, seem
to me to be a consequence of the movements inherent in the
different bodies, which, by becoming agglomerated round
great centres of attraction, have formed those planets.*

* The above is an extract from a Memoir which has very lately been referred
by the French Academy of Sciences to a committee, consisting of Messrs Arago,
Elie de Beaumont, and Liouville. — Comptes Rendus, vol. xxii.

( 132 )

Observations on the Principle of Vital Affinity, as illustrated by
recent discoveries in Organic Chemistry. By WiLLIAM
PuLTENEY Alison, M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of the Prac-
tice of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.*

PART I.

The most important steps in a science are those which
lead most directly to the establishment of principles or laws
peculiar to that science itself, and which constitute its claim
to be regarded as a distinct branch of human knowledge. It
has been long acknowledged that such is the character of
many of those phenomena of living bodies which depend on
mechanical movements, or changes of position in their par-
ticles, and therefore that the laws of vital contractions are to
be regarded as equally elementary and distinctive principles
in physiology, as the laws of motion or of gravitation in na-
tural philosophy. But a difficulty has been long felt, as to
whether a similar claim to peculiarity of the principle on
which they depend, can be urged for the chemical phenomena
of living bodies.

In laying down the first principles of Physiology and of
Pathology, I have, however, uniformly maintained the exist-
ence of a power peculiar to living bodies, and to which the
term Vital Affinity, as recommended by several authors, may
be properly applied ; — a power by which " the elements of
nutritious matter are thrown into the combinations necessary
for forming the organic compounds, and restrained from en-
tering into other combinations, to which they are prone as
soon as life is extinct ; — a power which supersedes and coun-
teracts ordinary chemical affinities in living bodies, as com-
pletely as vital contractions counteract gravitation or the in-
ertia of matter." — (Outlines of Human Physiology, p. 22.) And
in delivering lectures on physiology, I always expressed my

* From " Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh," nearly through
the Press.

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity, 133

belief that a time would come, when discoveries in the che-
mical department of the science, — connecting the ingesta of
living bodies with the nourishment of their different textures,
and with the nature of the different excretions, — would elu-
cidate the chemical changes which are continually going on
in them, and are essential to their living state, as completely
as the discovery of the circulation of the blood illustrated
many of the conditions of the existence of living animals. It
appears to me that this anticipation has been more nearly
realized by recent chemical observations, than professed phy-
siologists have yet admitted ; — that not only the existence of
the principle of vital affinity has been established, but its
limits and mode of action, the cases in which it acts, and
those in which it is unconcerned, are to a certain degree de-
fined;— and that a short and general illustration of these
points may be of some advantage, if not to the progress of
the science, at least to the due appreciation, and proper
generalization and expression of the knowledge which has
been already acquired.

To shew the importance of this inquiry, I need do no more
than quote a single sentence from Cuvier, with a statement
which is nearly a commentary upon it by Professor Whewell.
" It belongs to modern times to form a just classification of
the vital phenomena ; and upon the zeal and activity given to
the task of analysing ihe forces which belong to each organic
element, depends, according to my judgment, the advancement
of physiology."* *' As the vital functions became better un-
derstood, it was seen more and more clearly at what precise
points of the process it was necessary to assume a peculiar
vital energy, and what sort of properties this energy must
be conceived to possess. It was perceived when, and in what
manner and degree, mechanical and chemical agencies were
modified, overruled, or counteracted by agencies which must
be hyper-mechanical and hyper-chemicaV " In attempts to
obtain clear and scientific ideas of the vital forces, we have
first to seek to understand the cause of change and motion
in each function, so as to see at what points of the process

* Hist, des Sciences Naturelles depuis 1789, p. 218.

134 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital AJlnity,

peculiar causes come into play ; and next, to endeavour to
obtain some insight into the peculiar character and attributes
of these causes."*

When we say that the chemical changes which take place
in living bodies are elucidated, we mean, of course, that they
are referred to general laws, by which the phenomena ob-
served in this department of Nature are found, by experi-
ence, to be regulated. And when we say that these are laws
of vitality or of vital action, we mean merely, that they are
laws deduced from the observation of phenomena peculiar to
the state of life, — taking for granted that it is always pos-
sible to describe, and practically to distinguish, those sub-
stances which we call living, from inorganic or dead matter ;
and that the only correct definition of vital principles or vital
powers, is, that they are the laws or the powers which regu-
late the phenomena that are peculiar to the state of life.
They are the general expression of the results of the obser-
vation, and generalization of the facts, which are observed in
this department of nature, and which are ascertained to be-
long to this department alone.

We are not, indeed, justified in asserting the existence of
laws peculiar to the state of life, merely by the negative ob-
servation, that the phenomena referred to them are inexpli-
cable by any known laws of inorganic or dead matter ; we
must have the positive observation that they are inconsistent
with — that they take place in despite of — the laws which re-
gulate the changes of dead matter. It is thus that we are
led to ascribe the visible movements of living bodies to vital
powers ; not because we do not perceive how gravitation,
elasticity, or any other known causes of movement in dead
matter, should produce them, but because we do perceive,
that, in the circumstances in which we see these motions, all
those principles, deduced from the observation of dead mat-
ter, would determine either rest, or motion in a different di-
rection from that which really takes place.

I formerly laid before this Society the grounds of an opinion,
then much disputed, but now, I think, pretty generally ad-

* Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii., pp. 39 and 47.

Dr Alison on the Principle of Fital Affinity. 135

mitted, that there are Attractions and Repulsions, as well as
contractions, peculiar to the living state : chiefly, but not ex-
clusively, observed at those parts where chemical changes are
effected in living bodies, and connected with these changes ;
and, without reference to this general fact, I maintain that it
is impossible to have a right understanding of many pheno-
mena of essential importance in physiology and pathology.*

But the general principle is obviously equally applicable
to chemical changes as to mechanical movements. It is not,
indeed, so easy to ascertain, in regard to chemical changes
in living bodies, that they are truly inconsistent with the che-
mistry of dead matter ; the science must be allowed to make
some progress before this can be confidently asserted in re-
gard to any individual chemical change ; but no one can doubt
that, as science advances, it must become possible to say with
certainty, whether the chemical changes in living bodies are
consistent with those laws which regulate chemical changes
elsewhere, or not ; i. e., whether the same chemical elements
can be so brought together by the chemist, as to tend to the
same combinations as are found in living bodies ; or whether,
in his hands, they will enter uniformly into other combina-
tions, and form different compounds.

Farther, it appears to me that, even before any of the re-
cent discoveries, it might be legitimately inferred from facts
already known, that this last description is truly applicable,
in some cases, to the chemistry of living bodies. It was
knowU; for example, that when water, impregnated with car-
bonic acid and with a small proportion of ammonia, is brought
into contact with vegetable substances, in a certain stage of
their existence, the elements of these bodies rapidly combine
so as to form starch, albumen, and oil, which are added to

* Professor Whewell, in his instructive abstract of the general principles
ascertained in Physiology, regards it as established, chiefly on the authority of
Mulder, in regard to the vital force concerned in assimilation and secretion, that
•' it has mechanical efficacy, producing motions, &c. But it exerts at the same
point both an attraction and a repulsion, attracting matter on one side and re-
pelling it on the other ; and in this it diffei-s entirely from mechanical forces.' —
Philosophy of Inductive Sciences, vol. ii., p. 51. 5See also Carpenter's Manual of
Phyriology, § 697, et seq.

136 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

the substance of tlie vegetable, — that under no other circum-
stances can water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, or their ele-
ments, be made to form these compounds, — and farther, that
after a time, when brought into contact, at the same tempera-
ture with the same vegetable substance in an ulterior stage
of its existence, they will form no such compounds, but will
aid and participate in the successive changes to w^hich vege-
table matter is liable after the phenomena of its living state
are over, and of which the ultimate result is, the resolution
of that matter into its original constituents. And from these
facts it seems quite reasonable to infer, that during the for-
mer, or what we call the living state of the vegetable, certain
affinities peculiar to the living state — i. e., certain vital affi-
nities— actuate the elements of which it is composed.

In asserting the existence of vital affinities, we do not, in
the first instance, give any opinion whether it is by the addi-
tion of certain chemical attractions, or by the suspension of
others, during the living state, that the chemical changes pe-
culiar to that state are effected ; we assert nothing more than
what is, as I think, correctly stated in the following sentence
of Liebig : — " The chemical forces in living bodies are sub-
ject to the invisible cause by which the forms of organs are
produced." " The chemical forces are subordinate to this
cause of life, just as they are to electricity, heat, mechanical
motion, and friction. By the influence of the latter forces,
they suffer changes, in their direction, an increase or diminu-
tion of their intensity, or a complete cessation or reversal of their
action,

" Such an influence, and no other, is exercised by the vital
principle over the chemical forces."

" The equilibrium in the chemical attractions of the con-
stituents of the food is disturbed by the vital principle, as we
know it may be by many other causes. The union of its ele-
ments, so as to produce new combinations and forms, indicates
the presence of a peculiar mode of attraction, and the existence
of a power distinct from all other powers of nature, viz., the
vital principle." — {Organic Chemistry^ ^c, pp. 355, 357.)

In these passages I think that Liebig has expressed him-
self with perfect accuracy ; but in other parts of his writings

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 137

he uses language in regard to the nature and results of che-
mical changes in living bodies, which seems to me vague and
speculative, and even inconsistent with what he had stated
in the passages just quoted, e, g., when he says that " the
ultimate causes of the different conditions of the vital force in
nutrition, reproduction, muscular motion, &c., are chemical
forces.^' — {Organic Chemistry, p. 10.)

The following sentence by Mulder expresses the very same
idea, although it might be thought, from the manner in which
this author expresses himself against any introduction of the
vital principle in this department of physiology, that he con-
siders all the chemical changes in living structures to be re-
ferable to the same laws as in inorganic matter.

" By a small organ of a plant a force is exercised, exciting
forces which slumbered in the carboji, oxygen, and hydrogen,
or rather modifying the forces which existed in these, so that
12 equivalents of carbon unite with 10 of hydrogen and 10 of
oxygen ; and from 12 equivalents of carbonic acid (12 C Og)
and 10 of water (10 H 0) starch is produced, 12 C 10 H 10 0,
24 of oxygen passing oflf." — (Chemistry of Vegetable and Ani-
mal Physiology, p. 67 )*

But it is important^o fix our attention, for a short time,
on the instances adduced by Mulder, of the formation of
starch, or some of its allied compounds, out of carbonic acid
and water, by the combination of the carbon of the acid with
the elements of water, and the expulsion of the oxygen of the
acid; because this is the grand and fundamental power,
which must have been called into operation when organized
structures were first created on earth, and on the continued
exercise of which the existence of all such structures, vege-

* In the foregoing and other translations from recent German writers, the
word force is used in a sense which I think would be much better expressed by
the term power or property, merely on this account, that the English word force,
in physical discussions, has usually a precise and limited meaning assigned to
it, as a cause capable of producing visible motion, and of which we have a
measure, either in the velocity or in the quantity of motion which it can excite ;
whereas the term power or property, applied to any material substance, has a
more general meaning, as simply the cause of change of any kind, and is there-
fore applicable where the result of the property ascribed to any substance may
Be very different from visible motion.

138 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

table and animal, is still essentially dependent ; and because
the simplicity of the process makes it a fit case for consider-
ing the question, whether the power here named is strictly
entitled to the epithet vital ; or whether, as some eminent
physiologists in this country maintained, the idea expressed
by that term is incorrect and unscientific.

The opinion of those who oppose the doctrine of vital affi-
nity, is thus distinctly stated in the Anatomy of Drs Quain
and Sharpey :

" Although the products of chemical changes in living
bodies for the most part diff'er from those appearing in the
inorganic world, the difference is nevertheless to be ascribed,
not to a peculiar or exclusively vital affinity diff'erent from
ordinary chemical affinity, but to common chemical affinity,
operating in circumstances or conditions which present them-
selves in living bodies only ; and undoubtedly, the progress
of chemistry is daily adding to the probability of this view."

I consider this to be a hasty and ill advised statement ;
and to shew this, I request attention, y?r*/, to the perfect sim-
plicity of the apparatus by which this change is eff'ected.
" In all plants,'^ says Mulder, " there exists a small organ,
of the most simple form, although employed by nature for
the most varied purposes. It is a small filmy sac, a thin
membrane, which encloses a small space, which it enables to
communicate with the exterior space through invisible pores.
These little sacs or cells are the chief organs of plants. A
countless multitude of them, grouped together, forms the
whole bulk of the plant, so that if every thing except the
cells be destroyed, the shape and size of the plant are not in
the least changed or diminished."

Into this simple apparatus in certain parts of plants, water,
impregnated with carbonic acid, is introduced, while the
plants exhibit the phenomena of life ; and let us next observe
the intensity of the action by which the carbonic acid is there
decomposed, the carbon attached to the elements of the wa-
ter, and the oxygen set free. " This is done by a power,"
says Liebig, " to which the strongest chemical action cannot
be compared. The best idea of it may be formed by consi-
dering, that it surpasses in power the strongest galvanic bat-

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 139

tery, by which we are not able to separate the oxygen from
carbonic acid. The affinity of chlorine for hydrogen, and its
power to decompose water, under the influence of light, and
set its oxygen at liberty, cannot be considered as nearly
equalling the power and energy with which a leaf, separated
from a plant, decomposes the carbonic acid which it absorbs."
— {Organic Chemistry^ p. 134.)

Next let us observe the extent to which this energetic
power is exercised by living plants. Perhaps the most ac-
curate idea of it may be formed from attending to the state-
ment of Theodore de Saussure, that on a mean of 54 obser-
vations made in a country district, the proportion of carbonic
acid in the atmosphere during the night was to its proportion
in the day-time as 432 to 398, i. e., the carbonic acid exist-
ing in the atmosphere was found to be diminished very nearly
10 per cent, in a few hours of every day ; and for this dimi-
nution we know no cause, except that this power of the green
parts of vegetables, of decomposing the carbonic acid of the
atmosphere, is exercised only under the influence of light.*

Now if a power of this extraordinary energy and extensive
operation, and acting in so very simple a manner, were really
to be regarded as depending only on ordinary chemical affi-
nities, exerted under peculiar conditions, it might surely be
expected, that the chemist might so regulate the conditions
under which he might bring together carbonic acid, air, and
water, as to exhibit some traces of this power, and effi^ct
some decomposition of the carbonic acid and evolution of
oxygen. But we know, not only that this cannot be done,
but that when air, water, and carbonic acid, are introduced
into the very same vegetable cells, within half an hour after
they have exhibited this phenomenon, at the same spot, under
the same light, and at the same temperature, they will not
only fail to exhibit the same change, but will uniformly ex-
hibit the very reverse, i. e., the absorption of oxygen and the
formation and evolution of carbonic acid.

Nay, we know that it is only in certain cells of the living

* See Macaire's Memoir of Theodore de Sausaure, in Jameson's Edinburgh
I'hilosophical Journal, vol. xl., p. 31 (Jan. 1846.).

140 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

vegetable, that this peculiar chemical change, under the ac-
tion of light, is effected ; the same fluid, introduced into cells
composed of the same material in the parts of fructification,
undergoes no such change ; but, on the contrary, gives occa-
sion only to the reverse process, the absorption of oxygen
and evolution of carbonic acid.*

Then it is to be remembered, that this complete inversion
of ordinary chemical affinities, in the case of the living plant,
is only one of several cases to be afterwards noticed, where
we see chemical compounds uniformly formed in living bodies,
quite distinct from any that can be formed by the chemist
from the same elements, and quite distinct from those to
which the same elements uniformly revert, after the pheno-
mena of life are over.

Lastly, we must remember, when we see this apparent in-
version or alteration of the ordinary chemical relations of
matter, taking place in the interior of living bodies, that in
that scene, by the admission of all, matter comes under the
dominion of mechanical laws, which operate in no other de-
partment of nature ; so that it is quite conformable to analogy
to suppose that its chemical relations will undergo a similar
modification.

When all these considerations are duly weighed, I cannot
perceive what further evidence can be required in order to
justify the expression which I have quoted from Liebig, viz.,
that the " new combinations,''^ as well as the forms, assumed
by that matter which goes to the composition of organized
beings, " indicate the existence of a power distinct from all
other powers of nature, viz., the vital principle ;" i. e., that
the vital principle regulates the changes of chemical composi-
tion, as well as the changes of position which the particles of
that matter undergo ; which is more simply expressed by say-
ing, that there are vital affinities as well as vital contractions
and attractions.

But even if we are to regard it as doubtful whether or not
ordinary chemical affinities can determine, under any condi-

* Theodore de Saueeurc, in Jameson's Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,
vol. xl., pp. 22, 23.

Dr Alison on the Principle of T^ital Affinity. 141

tions, this decomposition of carbonic acid and evolution of
oxygen by its contact with carbon and the elements of water,
I maintain that it is sound philosophy, when we see this and
other rapid and extensive and important chemical changes,
essentially different from those which the same elements pre-
sent under other circumstances, uniformly attending the phe-
nomena of life in vegetables, — to investigate and generalize
the laws by which these changes are regulated, as laws of
living action, leaving it open to future inquirers, if they can,
to resolve them into other laws of more general application.
For although I acknowledge the force of the aphorism,
" Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora," still I
apprehend, that in every case to which this aphorism is ap-
plied, the potest fieri must be established, not by conjecture,
but by experiment ; otherwise we fall into the error, so
strongly condemned by Bacon and others, of prematurely gene-
ralizing, and supposing the laws of nature to be fewer and
more comprehensive than they really are.

Having thus, in reference to this first and simplest ex-
ample, vindicated the soundness of the principle which I pro-
pose to illustrate, I think we may next shew, that the main
object of inquiry in the chemical department of physiology is
more simple and precise, and the extent of that inquiry, ne-
cessary to elucidate most questions in physiology, much less
than might be supposed from the multiplicity of details, of
which what is called the science of organic chemistry is made
up. After what Liebig calls the " peculiar mode of attrac-
tion'* which operates in living bodies, has led to the formation
of certain organic compounds, these compounds lose their con-
nection with living bodies, become liable to an infinite number
of changes and decompositions, and thus give origin to an in-
finite variety of substances — generally of temporary duration
only, because retained in their form by attractions of no great
intensity — applicable to many useful purposes, but foreign to
the inquiries of the physiologist. He is concerned only with
the chemical changes which take place in living bodies them-
selves^ and during the state oj life ; and the results of recent
inquiries seem to me sufficient to shew, that the fundamental

142 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

and peculiar arrangements of chemical elements there ob-
served are less numerous, and the laws regulating them more
simple, than they have usually been thought.

In considering this subject, we are enabled, by the results
of the inquiries of geologists and physiologists, to revert to
the period of the introduction of living bodies into the world,
and reflect on the conditions then assigned for their existence.
We are justified, by reason, in allowing the imagination to
fall back on the time when this Earth rolled through space
an inanimate mass ; and if any minds, besides that of the
Great Ruler of the universe, were connected with it, they did
not hold their connection through the medium of any organ-
ized structure. For I believe we are justified in laying down
these propositions as established, ^r^/. That the simply phy-
sical arrangements of this globe were completed before any
organized beings were created ; secondly, That vegetables
were created and lived chiefly on the atmosphere, fixing large
quantities of carbon from it on the earth's surface, before ani-
mals were called into existence ; and, thirdly. That at what-
ever time their existence began, either the first living being
of every species, vegetable and animal, or the first ovum from
which that being was developed, must have been formed in
a manner wholly difi'erent from that in which any living
bodies, at least of the higher orders, are now reproduced ; i.e.,
that they must have been formed in a manner strictly miracu-
lous, and, of course, beyond the limits of physical science.

But although we cannot ascend higher, in prosecuting this
subject, than to inquire in what manner the first plants, or
the germs of the first plants, were enabled so to act on the
inorganic matter around them as to extract from it the mate-
rials, first of their own growth and sustentation, and after-
wards of all other organized beings, — yet in the inquiry, thus
limited, important progress has been made. From the time
when these nascent organized bodies sprung into existence,
we must regard it as an ultimate fact, that they were endow-
ed with the power, which all the vegetables that have suc-
ceeded them have exercised, of so modifying the attractions
existing among the particles of matter, as to cause many of
these particles from the air and the water immediately sur-

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity » 143

rounding them, to enter into their substance, by their roots
and leaves, or by the organs which soon became their roots
and leaves, and then to arrange themselves there, in those
peculiar forms by which the numberless species of the vege-
table world are characterized. I apprehend we must also
regard it as an ultimate fact, that they were endowed with
the power of so modifying the chemical relations of the ele-
ments composing those absorbed matters, as to select and re-
tain certain of these elements, and allow others to pass away
from them, to decompose the carbonic acid, fix the carbon,
and invest it with those peculiar affinities for the water, the
hydrogen of the water, and a few other elements, contained
in the surrounding media, by which all the proximate princi-
ples, first of vegetables and then of animals, and therefore
the whole substance of organized beings, are formed.

But it is important to have a precise exposition, although
not an explanation, of the power thus exercised by the first
plants ; and it is still more important and satisfactory to be
able to shew how, by the exercise of these and analogous vital
powers, the atmosphere must have been gradually changed,
the proportion of carbonic acid in it diminished, and the pro-
portion of oxygen increased ; how it became fitted, and is kept
fitted, for the residence, first of cold-blooded and then of warm-
blooded animals ; how most of the other conditions of exist-
ence of these animals have been, and still are, continually
prepared for them by these living actions of vegetables ; how
all the variety of the textures of all organized bodies, from
the origin of vegetables to the death and decomposition of
animals, are continually formed and maintained ; and how,
both divisions of organized beings. Nature has provided, not
for the permanent existence, but for the development and de-
cay of successive generations of individuals, and thus for the
perpetuation of the species. These are the subjects of inves-
tigation in the chemical department of physiology ; and if it
can be shewn, that, by a few simple laws, regulating what
we call vital attractions and affinities, i, e., modifying, in or-
ganized bodies, the attractions and affinities to which matter
is everywhere liable, provision is made for all this succession
and continual renewal of the phenomena of life ; then, al-

144 Dr Alison on the Prmciple of Vital Affinity.

though we cannot explain the introduction of living beings
into the world, any more than we can explain the dissemination
of the stars throughout space, — although we must always re-
gard the appearance of organized bodies on the earth's sur-
face as the clearest indication which human knowledge pre-
sents of the subjection of the universe, not only to general
laws, but to an arbitrary Will, superior to these laws and
changing them at pleasure, — yet I think it may be said that
we have nearly as clear an insight into the designs and ar-
rangements of Providence for the maintenance of living beings
upon earth, and for the eternal reproduction of them there,
so long as these laws shall be in force, as we have into those
by which the movements of the heavenly bodies are directed
and controlled.

1. Our first business is to study the facts that have been
ascertained in regard to the simplest form of chemical change
to which the term vital may be applied, which is merely se-
lection, by a portion of living structure, of some one substance
existing in a fluid, and the consequent attraction of this to a
particular part of the structure, while other materials, equally
presented to that living part, are excluded.

We need not here enter into the question, on which che-
mists and agriculturists are not yet agreed, whether the
nourishment of plants, in the present condition of the earth's
surface, does or does not require the pre-existence, in the
soil, of organic compounds, resulting from previous living
beings, which are absorbed from it. But we may justly give
the name of vital attraction or affinity to that power by which
certain saline matters, dissolved in the compound fluid which
is absorbed, are retained in the substance of the plant, while
others are returned to the soil. " The experiments of Macaire
Princep,"*' says Liebig, " have shewn that plants, made to ve-
getate with their roots, first in a solution of acetate of lead,
and then in rain-water, give back to the latter all the salt of
lead which they had previously absorbed. Again, when a
plant, freely exposed to the air, rain, and light, is sprinkled
with a solution of nitrate of strontian, the salt is absorbed,
but is again separated by the roots, and removed farther
from them every shower of rain, so that at last not a trace of

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 145

it is to be found in the plant. A fir-tree, the ashes of which
were analysed by a most accurate chemist, grew in Norway,
on a soil to which common salt was conveyed in great quanti-
ty by rain-water. How did it happen that its ashes contained
no appreciable quantity of salt, although we are certain that
its roots must have absorbed it after every shower? We
can explain this only by the observations above referred to,
which have shewn that plants return to the soil all substances
unnecessary to their own existence ; and we are thus led to
the conclusion that the alkaline bases, existing in the ashes
of plants, must be necessary to their growth, since, if this
were not the case, they would not be retained." (lb. p., 103, 4.)
Another inference is at least equally obvious, that plants have
the power of fixing and retaining within them those matters
which are suited or essential to their composition ; and this
power we regard as the simplest form of vital affinity. It may
be said, that the alkaline bases are thus fixed in plants, because
they enter into combination with organic acids, and that,
therefore, it is the formation of these acids, not the retention
of the bases which combine with them, that is truly the vital
change. But this does not apply to other saline matters con-
tained in vegetables, which must have been taken up from the
soil in the same state in which they are found in the plants,
e. g., the phosphate of magnesia, which is " an invariable in-
gredient in the seeds of grasses ;" or the silica which is found .
in certain parts of various plants.

Were it not for this selecting and appropriating power,
indicating a simple attraction of some parts of the vegetable
for certain earthy or saline matters only, we should find some
salts of alumina, as well as of lime or magnesia, in the ashes
of almost all vegetables, — that earth existing in large quan-
tity in all fertile soils, whereas it is " very rarely found in^
the ashes of plants.'' "^ ' •

In the animal kindom the same power of simple selection
and extraction is more fully exemplified, perhaps most strik-
ingly in the development of many of the lower classes, of
which the organization is simple, and the matters deposited
from the nourishing fluid remarkably diversified, as in many
of the radiata and mollusca, which have horny and earthy

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. K

146 Dr Anderson on the Properties of PicoUne.

integuments. And in all animals, so far as any chemical
change is effected in the vital actions of absorption, secretion,
and even nutrition, it would appear to be chiefly of this sim-
ple kind, consisting in the selection and appropriation of com-
pounds already existing in the fluids on which these functions
are performed, not in the formation of new compounds. The
chyme which is found in the intestines of an animal during
digestion contains all the compounds (albuminous, fatty, and
extractive matters) which are found in the chyle absorbed
from it, although these are in a different state of aggregation,
and associated also with other matters which are not absorb-
ed. Since it has been ascertained that the compounds which
used to be thought peculiar to the greatest secretions in the
body, the bile and the urine, pre-exist in the blood, and are
only evolved at the liver and kidneys, — accumulating, there-
fore, in the blood, when the secretive action of these organs
is suspended, — it has become obvious that the main office
of these organs is not formative^ but only attractive ^ to ex-
tract from the blood compounds already existing there. And,
although there is one material extensively employed in the
formation of animal textures, viz., gelatin, which cannot be
detected in the blood ; yet, as this is the only material so
employed which cannot be found there, and as a substance
very closely resembling it is found there under certain cir-
cumstances, we may assert that in animals by far the greater
part of the act of nutrition, numerous and diversified as the
compounds forming the solid materials of animal bodies may
be, is likewise of this simple kind.

(To be concluded in next Number.)

On the Constitution and Properties of PicoUne, a new Organic
Base from Coal-Tar. By Thomas Anderson, M.D.,
F.R.S.E., Lecturer "on Chemistry, Edinburgh. (From the
forthcoming volume of Transactions of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh).*

The careful study of the products of destructive distillation
has enriched organic chemistry with an extensive series of

* Read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on 20th April 1846.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline. 147

results of unexpected interest and importance. These re-
sults have affected, in no inconsiderable degree, the recent
progress of the science ; and their influence has been of a
twofold character, both general and particular, exerted in
the former case in the development of some of the more re-
markable general doctrines of organic chemistry ; in the lat-
ter, in the important light thrown by their investigation on
the constitution of the substances from which they are de-
rived, and the facilities they have afforded of following out
connections, which the examination of the original substance
either does not at all present to our view, or, at least, indi-
cates only in an imperfect or dubious manner. Added to
to this, we have the remarkable fact of the appearance among
these products of substances in some cases identical with
those occurring in organised beings ; and in others, present-
ing analogies of the very closest character with the actual
products of vital affinity, which, taken together, afford abun-
dant reason for pursuing the investigation of substances
which have already afforded results of so remarkable a cha-
racter.

Setting aside altogether those substances, the occurrence
of which is so frequent, that they may be called the general
products of destructive distillation, such as carbonic acid,
light carburetted hydrogen, olefiant gas, acetic acid, &c.,
it may be laid down as a general rule, that each individual
compound produced during such a process, is formed by the
destruction of a limited number of substances only, which
bear to each other, and to the product, a more or less inti-
mate connection in constitution or chemical relations. In
those instances in which we have been enabled to submit to
destructive distillation substances of a definite and simple
constitution, in a state of chemical purity, and Vhere an uni-
form temperature has been preserved, the results have been,
for the most part, of an exceedingly simple and intelligible
character ; but in proportion as the atom becomes more com-
plex, so also do the products of its decomposition, and the
explanation of the results is found to be proportionately dif-
ficult and unceii^ain. These difficulties and uncertainties are
increased in a still higher degree, in the case of a substance

148 Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picolinel

such as coal, where we have to deal not merely with one
complex atom but with a congeries of several such, and where
the process is performed on the large scale, and under a
variety of perturbing influences. The distillation of coal is,
in factj attended by the formation of about twenty different
substances, the constitution and properties of which have
been examined with different degrees of accuracy, and which
present among them instances of almost every species of
chemical compound. The discovery of six of these substances
is due to Runge,* who published, about fourteen years ago,
a very interesting memoir containing an account of their
general properties. Of these substances, three are possessed
of acid properties, and three are bases, to the latter of which
he gave the names of Kyanol, Leukol, and Pyrrol, from the
peculiar colours developed by the action of certain reagents
on their salts. The two former of these substances were
afterwards submitted to a detailed examination and analysis
by Hoffman,t who arrived at the interesting result, that both
are identical with substances which had been independently
obtained by the decomposition of certain well known bodies ;
Kyanol possessing the constitution and properties of the Ani-
line of Fritsche, and the Benzidam of Zinin ; while Leukol is
identical with the substance described by Gerhardt under the
name of Chinoline, and which was obtained by him as a pro-
duct of the distillation of quinine, cinchonine, and strychnia,
with caustic potass. Hoffman failed, however, entirely in
obtaining any evidence of the presence of pyrrol in the sub-
stance which he examined, and leaves in doubt the existence
of such a compound.

Having lately had occasion to examine a quantity of the
mixed bases contained in coal-tar, obtained by a method simi-
lar to that of Runge, but which, owing to a modification of
the process, contained all the more volatile bases formed
during the distillation of coal, I was led to try whether or
not pyrrol was to be found in it, and I found immediate evi-
dence of its existence, by the characteristic red colour which

* Poggendorf 8 Annalen, Band 31, u. 32.

t Annalftn der Chemie und Pharmacie, vol. xlvii.

Dr Anderson on the Proper He s of Picoline. 149

it gives to fir-wood moistened with hydrochloric acid. The
attempt to separate this pyrrol proved that it was present in
extremely minute quantity only, but led to the discovery of
a new base different from those of Runge, for which I pro-
pose the name of Picoline, and the examination of whose pro-
perties forms the subject of the present paper.

Preparation of Picoline^

For the crude substance employed in the preparation of
picoline, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr Astley of the
Bonnington Chemical Works, and it was obtained by the fol-
lowing modification of Runge' s process. In the preparation
of naphtha from coal-tar, the first product of distillation is
agitated with sulphuric acid for the purpose of separating any
naphthaline which may be present, as well as a variety of
substances in extremely minute quantity, which communicate
to the crude naphtha the property of becoming dark-coloured
by exposure to the air ; among these substances, of course,
are all the basic compounds contained in the oil. The sul-
phuric acid which had been used for this purpose was neu-
tralised by impure ammonia obtained by a single distillation
of the watery fluid of the gas-works. On the addition of the
ammonia there was no separation of any oil in quantity ap-
preciable to the eye ; but upon distillation, the bases, which
had been dissolved in the fluid, passed over with the first
portions of the water, and collected in a separate layer in
the receiver. This oil, when it came into my hands, pos-
sessed a very dark brown colour, a somewhat viscid consist-
ence, and a peculiar pungent and disagreeable odour. It was
heavier than water, a layer of which, containing a small pro-
portion of oil in solution, floated on the surface. The exa-
mination of this oil proved it to consist, in addition to pico-
line, of a mixture of pyrrol, aniline, an oily base possessing
the general properties of leukol, and a thick heavy oil desti-
tute of basic properties.

In order to separate picoline, the oil, along with the water
which floated on its surface, was introduced into a retort and
carefully distilled. At first, water, accompanied by a little
oil, passed over, and then an oil by itself, which dissolved

160 Dr Anderson on the Properties of PicoUne.

completely in the watery fluid contained in the receiver. As
the distillation proceeded, another oil made its appearance,
which collected in a layer on the surface of the fluid which
had previously distilled. When about three-fourths of the
oil had passed over, the process was stopped, by which means
the oil, destitute of basic properties, which requires a very
high temperature for its distillation, was left behind in the
retort. The fluid in the receiver was now supersaturated
with sulphuric acid diluted with water, care being taken to
obtain a powerfully acid reaction. The peculiar odour which
the fluid possessed, was by this process entirely changed, but
not destroyed ; and, on distillation, the water which passed
over, carried with it all the pyrrol contained in the solution,
while the other bases were retained by the sulphuric acid.
Caustic potass was then added to the residue in the retort
until an alkaline reaction was manifest, and it was again
distilled ; the water which passed over carried with it the
oily bases, partly dissolved, partly floating on the surface of
the solution, exactly as in the first distillation. A few sticks
of fused potass were introduced into the product, and the
whole was left in repose ; as the potass dissolved, the oil,
which is entirely insoluble in solutions of the fixed alkalis,
rose to the surface and there collected in the form of a pale
yellow layer, still containing a considerable quantity of water,
which may amount to 30 or 40 per cent, of the bulk of the
oil. The oil was separated from the watery fluid by means
of a pipette and pieces of fused potass added so long as they
continued to become moist. The dry oil was then introduced
into a retort and distilled. A transparent and colourless oil
passed over, which was tested at intervals by allowing a drop
of it to fall into a solution of chloride of lime. So soon as
the reaction of aniline made its appearance the receiver was
changed. The first portion was now picoline in a state ap-
proaching to purity ; that which immediately followed con-
sisted of a mixture of picoline and aniline. The first portion
was again digested with fused potass and rectified; that
which distilled at 273° was collected apart, and constituted
pure picoline.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline. 151

Constitution of Picoline,
The general analogy in properties which picoline bears to
aniline and the other oleaginous bases, permitted the as-
sumption that it, like these substances, was free from oxy-
gen ; I proceeded, therefore, in its analysis, upon this hypo-
thesis, and neglected the determination of the nitrogen. The
following are the results of the analyses : —

[. { 15-
I 3-

... .{

•630 grains of picoline gave
Analysis I. \ 15"954: ••• carbonic acid,
3-944: ... water.

5*34:7 grains of picoline gave
15*100 ... carbonic acid,
3*670 ... water.

Which give the following results per cent. : —

I. II.

Carbon . . 77*16 . 77*18

Hydrogen . . 7*77 . 7*62

Nitrogen . . 15*20 . 15*20

100*00 100*00

These results correspond closely with the formula C12 H7 N ;
the calculated result of which is —

Theory.

Mean.

C12

. 900*0

77*29

77*17

H7

. 87-5

7-43

7-69

N

. 177*0

15*28

15-14

1164*5 100*00 100*00

This formula is precisely the same as that of aniline, along
with which picoline occurs in coal-tar. In order to ascertain
whether the atomic weights of these substances were also
identical, I prepared the platinum salt of picoline, and deter-
mined the amount of platinum contained in it. The salt was
obtained by adding bichloride of platinum to a solution of
picoline in excess of hydrochloric acid : no immediate preci-
pitation took place unless the solutions were very concen-
trated, but in the course of twenty-four hours the salt was
deposited in fine orange-yellow needles. When dried at 212°,
it gave the following results : —

n.|

152 Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline,

J r 9*670 grains of chloride of picoline and platinum gave
I 3-147 • • • platinum = 32'544 per cent.

10*844 grains of cliloride of platinum and picoline gave
3*517 ... platinum = ^2'522 per cent.

From these analyses are deduced the following atomic

weights : —

L II.

1211*1 1213-7

These agree sufficiently well with the theoretical atomic
weight, which is 1164*5. They correspond also precisely with
the results of the analysis of the aniline salts. The identity of
these results is shewn by the following table of the analyses
by Fritsche, Zinin, and Hoffman, of aniline from its different
sources, and of picoline, as well as of the platinum salts of
these substances : —

Aniline.* Benzidam.* CyHnol. Picoline. Theory.

C =z 77-73 77-32 76-67 77*17 77*29

H = 7-60 7*50 7-72 7*69 7-43

N = 14*98 14*84 15*62 15-14 15*28

100*31 99*66 100*00 100*00 lOO'OO

The following are the results for the platinum salts : —

Benzidam. Kyanol. Picoline. Theory.

Mean platinum, per cent. 32*501 32*886 32*533 32*94

Atomic weight . 1216*1 1170'5 1212*4 1164*5

The results of all these analyses agree perfectly with one
another ; but the properties possessed by picoline differ from
those of aniline, which, whether obtained from coal-tar, in-
digo, or nitrobenzid, presents ^ perfect identity in its chemi-
cal characters.

Properties of Picoline.

Picoline is a perfectly colourless, transparent, limpid fluid,

extremely mobile, and destitute of viscidity. It possesses a

powerful, penetrating, and somewhat aromatic smell, which,

when very dilute, is replaced by a peculiar rancid odour, ad-

* Not having the original papers of Fritsche and Zinin at hand, I extract
these two results from Berzelius' Arsherattelse, 1844, p. 454, where they are cal-
culated according to C=:76-12, the rest are with C=76, but the difference is
80 small as not to aflfect the comparison.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline. 153

hering pertinaciously to the hands and clothes. Its taste is
acrid and burning when concentrated ; but when very dilute,
as, for instance, when its vapour is sucked into the mouth, it
is powerfully bitter, as are also the solutions of its salts. It
is not changed by exposure to a cold of 0°. Picoline is ex-
tremely volatile, and evaporates rapidly in the air. It boils
at the temperature of 272°, and the thermometer remains
perfectly stationary during the whole period of the ebullition ;
it is therefore much more volatile than aniline, which, accord-
ing to Hoffman, boils at 359°. It may be preserved for a
long time in a bottle containing only a small quantity of it,
and which is frequently opened, without becoming manifestly
coloured ; whereas aniline becomes rapidly brown, and, in-
deed, cannot easily be obtained colourless, except by distil-
lation in a current of hydrogen. The specific gravity of pico-
line is less than that of water. I found it to be 0*955 at 50°,
while, according to Hoffman, that of aniline is 1-020 at 68°.

Picoline mixes with water in all proportions, and forms a
transparent and colourless solution. It is insoluble, how-
ever, in solution of potass, as well as in most alkaline salts,
the addition of which causes its immediate separation from
the water. It dissolves also readily in alcohol, ether, py-
roxylic spirit, and the fixed and volatile oils. It is a power-
ful alkaline base : a rod dipped in hydrochloric acid, and held
over it, is immediately surrounded by a copious white cloud
of hydrochlorate of picoline. It restores the blue colour of
reddened litmus, but does not affect the colouring matter of
red cabbage. It does not coagulate the white of eggs as ani-
line does.

The reactions which it produces with other substances are
also quite distinct from those presented by aniline. When
brought in contact with the solution of chloride of lime, it
does not produce, in the least degree, the violet colour which
is so characteristic of aniline ; on the contrary, the solution
remains perfectly colourless, unless, indeed, the picoline has
not been well separated from pyrrol ; in which case, a slight
brown makes its appearance, but no violet, Picoline is also
incapable of producing the yellow colour in fir wood and the
pith of the elder, which is so readily obtained with aniline.

164 Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline*

When treated with chromic acid, even when very concen-
trated, and after boiling, no change takes place in the colour
of the solution, and only a small quantity of a yellow powder
is deposited; while aniline gives an abundant precipitate,
which has, according to the degree of concentration of the
fluid, a green, blue, or black colour.

Picoline precipitates from solutions of chloride of copper
a portion of the oxide of copper, while the remaider forms a
pale blue solution, which, when evaporated to a small bulk,
deposits a congeries of prismatic crystals, which seem to be a
double salt. No blackening of the solution takes place, as is
the case with aniline. When an excess of hydrochloric acid is
present, there is obtained, on evaporation, another double salt
in large crystals, apparently derived from the rhombohedral
system. Picoline produces also double compounds with the
chlorides of mercury, platinum, gold, tin, and antimony. With
chloride of gold it gives an exceedingly characteristic com-
pound, in the form of a fine lemon-yellow precipitate, which
is soluble in a considerable quantity of boiling water, and is
deposited, on cooling, in delicate yellow needles. Aniline,
under similar circumstances, gives a reddish-brown precipi-
tate, resembling the ferrocyanide of copper. It gives, with
infusion of nut-galls, a copious curdy precipitate of a pale-
yellow colour, which dissolves in hot water, and is deposited
again on cooling. It does not precipitate the solutions of
nitrate of silver, chlorides of barium and strontium, or sul-
phate of magnesia.

The properties of picoline, as now detailed, are obviously
different from those of aniline. They recalled, however,
strongly to my mind those of a base called Odorin, obtained
by Unverdorben* from Dippel's animal oil. According to this
chemist, Dippel's oil, which is obtained by several successive
distillations of the oleum cornu cervi, is a mixture of four dif-
ferent bases, to which he gives the names of Odorin, Animin,
Olanin, and Ammolin. Of these, the two first constitute nine-
teen twentieths of the whole oil, and the odorin, which resem-
bles picoline in its solubility in water, is obtained by simply

* Poggendorf s Annalen, vol. xi.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of PicoUne. 155

distilling the oil, and collecting the product as long as it dis-
solves. These results, however, have been called in question
by subsequent observers; Reichenbach, especially, asserts
that he was unable to separate any basic compounds, and con-
siders the substances obtained by Unverdorben to be mix-
tures of empyreumatic oil with ammonia. As, however, the
properties which Unverdorben has attributed to odorin, ap-
proximate in some respects to those of picoline, I thought it
desirable to ascertain the existence of this substance, and
whether or not it is identical with picoline. In order to pre-
pare odorin, I rectified the oleum cornu cervi, and then dis-
tilled the product ; but on allowing the first drops of oil to
fall into water, they were not dissolved as Unverdorben has
asserted, but floated unchanged upon the surface. Finding
this process unsuccessful, I agitated the crude oil with dilute
sulphuric acid ; the acid fluid immediately acquired a very
deep reddish-brown colour, and when separated from the oil,
and supersaturated with potass, a semisolid viscid mass sepa-
rated from the fluid. This, when distilled with water, yielded
a mixture of several oily bases, while a dark-coloured resin-
ous substance, probably Unverdorben' s Fuscin, was left in
the retort. The mixed bases which I thus obtained, formed
an exceedingly small fraction of the oil employed. They were
purified by several successive rectifications, and generally in
a method similar to that employed for picoline, and the first
portions of the product collected apart. It then constituted
a colourless oil, which became brown in the air, dissolved
readily in water, and presented an odour similar to, though
not quite the same as, that of picoline. It gave, with chlo-
ride of gold, a dirty-yellow precipitate, which dissolved in hot
water, and deposited, on cooling, in the pulverulent form, and
with bichloride of platinum, a compound in red wart-like crys-
tals. By an accident in the laboratory, the small quantity of
this substance which I had prepared for analysis was de-
stroyed, so that the evidence of their identity cannot be con-
sidered as sufficient. The characters of odorin, as given by
Unverdorben, are not perfectly identical, either with those of
picoline or the base which I obtained. Odorin, according to
Unverdorben, boils at about 212°, and its salts are oleaginous

156 Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water-Wheel.

compounds which distil in the form of an oily fluid, whereas
those of picoline are mostly crystallizable. I am at present
engaged with the examination of these substances.

It is obvious, from the observations contained in Hoff-
man's* paper, that picoline must have been present along
with aniline and chinoline in the substance which he exa-
mined. He mentions, especially, that his aniline, as ob-
tained by distillation only, possessed a peculiar pungent and
disagreeable odour, which was got rid of only by several suc-
cessive crystallizations of its oxalate from alcohol, and that
the impure aniline has a specific gravity less than that of
water. He observes also, that the quantity of the substance
present must have been excessively minute, as it did not af-
fect the results of the analysis, a phenomenon, the cause of
which is sufficiently explained by the identity in constitution
of the two substances. Hoffman did not obtain picoline in
the separate state, simply because the bases employed by him
were obtained from the less volatile portions of coal-tar,
which necessarily contain it only in minute proportion.

(To be concluded in next Number.)

Description of a Water -Wheels with Vertical Axle, on the plan
of the Turbine of Fourneyron, erected at Balgonie Mills,
Fifeshire. By JOSEPH GORDON Stuart, Esq., F.R.S.S.A.
(Communicated by the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, f)

My attention was first directed to the Turbine water-wheel,
by the paper read on the subject before the British Associa-
tion, at its Glasgow meeting in 1810, by my friend Profes-
sor Gordon. On that occasion the Professor introduced the
Turbine of Fourneyron (the French patentee) to the notice
of the Association, as a very important machine for econo-
mizing water-power, and after some discussion, the Associa-
tion appointed Mr Smith (then of Deanston), and Mr Fair-
bairn of Manchester, along with Professor Gordon, a Com-

* Liebig's Annalen, vol. xlvii.

t Read before the Society, on 23d March 1846.

Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water-Wheel. 157

mittee, for the purpose of investigating the comparative merits
of the turbine and other water-wheels before the next meet-
ing of the Association.

Here, however, the matter has rested, so far as that Com-
mittee is concerned, ever since ; and, with a single excep-
tion, to be immediately noticed, I am not aware of the subject
having been again brought before the public of this country.
The exception referred to is a popular description of the tur-
bine of Fourneyron, with a very strong recommendation in its
favour, contained in the interesting volume on the " Indus-
trial Resources of Ireland," published in the year 1844, by
Dr Kane of Dublin.*

While the Committee of the British Association did not,
so far as I know, follow out in any way the remit made to
them, I felt so much interest on the subject (incited no doubt
by suffering much annoyance and serious loss from two very
inefficient breast-wheels at my works here) as to continue,
with Professor Gordon, the investigations which he had al-
ready entered upon, until we became convinced that the tur-
bine was indeed a material improvement upon any other
known mode of using water-power.

Circumstances prevented us, however, from giving practi-
cal expression to our convictions, until my breast- wheels be-
came so worn out as to threaten complete breakdown ; and
then, in the early part of last year, I seriously set about the
task of erecting one. I may here mention that, at this time,
I hesitated between the turbine and Whitelaw and Stirrat's
patent water-mill ; but, after consideration of their published
statement, and a personal inspection of several of their mills
erected on a large scale, I saw sufficient cause to confirm my
impression in favour of the Turbine of Fourneyron, as the
more perfect machine. I then put myself in communication
with the French patentee, and offered to allow him to erect,
or superintend the erection of a wheel for me, so as his in-
vention might be introduced into this country, under the
most favourable circumstances. Fourneyron, however, de-
clined to enter into the arrangement unless he was to be per-

* Since this paper was read, Professor Kane has published a translation of
Riihlman's Essay on the Construction of Turbines.

158 Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water-Wheel.

mitted to make the wheel in France, to bring it here, and to
fit it up at my works, all at my sole expense ; and as this, I
calculated, would cost me nearly double of what it could be
done for on the spot, I was under the necessity of breaking
off the negotiation. I then resolved to execute the whole
myself, availing myself of the valuable assistance of Profes-
sor Gordon, and his partner Mr Hill, so far as the calcula-
tions of size, speed, &c., were involved.

The fundamental principle upon which the construction of
the turbine is based, is that by which the maximum of useful
effect i» obtained from a given fall of water, depending upon
the relative velocity of the water and its recipient, which
ought to be such that the water enters the wheel without
shock, and quits it again without velocity. A notion of its
construction may readily be formed, by supposing an ordi-
nary water-wheel laid on its side, wrought at the bottom of
the fall, and the water being made to enter from the interior
of the wheel by the inner circumference of the crown, flowing
along the buckets, and escaping at the outer circumference.
The turbine consists essentially of, 1, a reservoir, the bottom
of which is divided into radial compartments, by covered
plates, serving to guide the water to take a particular direc-
tion of efflux ; 2, a cylindrical sluice, capable of nicety of ad-
justment ; 3, the wheel itself, a disc with covered buckets, in-
to which, when the sluice is raised, the water enters at every
point of the inner circumference, and escapes at every point
of the outer circumference.

It will be readily seen, that the effective power of the
wheel must depend greatly upon the curvature of the fixed
partitions and buckets being such as to realize the philoso-
phical principle of its construction, viz., that the water enters
it without shock, and quits it again without velocity. This
is^ no doubt, a delicate problem, but practically, it has been
completely solved.

My works at Balgonie are situate on the river Leven, and
have right to the use of the whole water contained in it. The
river issues from Lochleven ; the discharge is there regu-
lated by sluices, so as to afford, as nearly as possible, during
the whole year, a regular flow of about 6000 cubic feet per

Mr J. O. Stuart on the Turbine Water- Wheel. 159

minute. The fall at my works, as measured for a turbine-
wheel, that is, from the surface of the water in the front lead
to the surface of the water in the tail-race, is 11 ft. 8^ in. I
have erected the turbine so as to take the full advantage of
this fall, and calculated it for venting this 6000 feet of water
per minute.

The turbine consists of six principal parts, viz.,
1 and 2, The wheel and shaft,
3 and 4, The sluice-cylinder and sluice,
5 and 6, The centre disc and pipe.

These are all made of cast-iron, and the united weight is up-
wards of 7 tons. Besides these, there is the reservoir, or
wheel-house, as we may term it, which comes in place of the
arc of the ordinary water-wheel.

I shall shortly describe each of these parts, and the de-
scription will be made more intelligible, as well as more in-
teresting, by reference to the drawing of a vertical section,
on the scale of one inch to a foot ; the drawing of a quadrant
of a horizontal section, full size, and the model of the whole
erection, on the scale of f th inch to a foot, — all which I now
exhibit.

The reservoir is constructed of stone, solid ashlar, hewn
and jointed. It is eleven feet square within walls, and the
walls all round are two feet thick, the stones being alter-
nately headers and runners. At the depth of 11 ft. 8^ in., and
the supposed depth of tail-water from the front surface, two
beams of wood 12 in. square, crossing each other in the centre
of the square, are bedded in the causeway of the bottom, and
built into the side-walls, so as to aflPord a solid foundation
for the step, in which stands the upright shaft of the wheel.
4 ft. 6 in. above these beams, four beams 18 x 20 in. square,
cross the reservoir, placed so as to leave a square opening in
their centre 6 ft. 9 in. within ; and a flooring of 3 in. plank, caulk-
ed as a ship's deck, makes this opening (which it reduces to a
circular form) the only communication between the upper and
under parts of the reservoir. 2 ft. 6 in. from the surface of the
water in front, the one side of the reservoir stops, so as to allow
the ingress of the water, and the opposite side has an open
arch below the floor-beams, to permit the egress of the water.

160 Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water- Wheel

The walls are carried up two feet above the highest water-
point; and there, four beams again cross, leaving an opening
of about 2 feet square in the centre, in which is fixed the sus-
pending-pipe and neck-collar of the upright shaft. I will only-
further remark, regarding this reservoir, that if I were erect-
ing a turbine on a high fall, with a small supply of water, I
should probably construct this of plates of cast or malleable
iron.

The step is of cast-iron, about 8 cwt., and contains the
brass for the bottom of the upright shaft working in. It is
firmly bolted to the lower beams by strong bolts in the four
paws of it.

The shaft is of cast-iron (cast on its end), about 16 feet
long, 9 in. diameter at the smallest part, and swelled a little
towards the centre. It is steeled at the lower end, where it
works in the brass of the steps, and has a gudgeon of 8| in.
diameter, working 18 in. from the top. Above this journal
is hung the spur-wheel, from which motion is taken off by-
pinion in the usual way.

The wheel is a saucer-shaped disc of cast-iron, keyed on
the shaft below the flooring of the wheelhouse. The saucer-
shaped part is 6 ft. 8 in. diameter, and then there is a flat cir-
cumference of 1 ft. 2 in., making the whole diameter 9 feet.
Upon this flat circumference are erected the curves or buckets
of the wheel. They are made of the best boiler-plate, and
are 9 in. high. On the top of them is fitted another circum-
ference of cast-iron, 1 ft. 2 in. across. These circumferences
are thus fastened together by means of the curves which are
bolted into each, and a compact wheel thus formed, weighing
in all about 45 cwt., and having 32 curved openings for vent-
ing the water through.

The pipe serves the double purpose of keeping the shaft
from the water, and of sustaining in its place the centre disc.
It is furnished with a square collar, w^ith four paws, by which
it is suspended from the four top-beams. It is also stayed
and kept in its place by four rods from the four sides of the
wheelhouse to a flange cast on it, rather more than half way
down.

The centre disc is shaped so as to lie above the saucer-
fthaped ^nti^rior of the wheel, and is about \ of an inch less

Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water-Wheel 161

diameter than that part. It is keyed on the bottom of the
pipe just below the circular opening in the floor, and so low
that its upper surface is level with the flat circumference of
the wheel, and kept in its place by the stay-rods of the pipe,
so as to be about \ of an inch clear of that circumference all
round. On this disc are erected the guide-curves, equal in
number to the curves of the wheel, and in such a shape as to
throw the water at the proper angle on them as it flows out.

The sluice-cylinder is bolted to the four large beams of the
floor, and is of such depth that its lower end comes down to
within a few inches of the top of the upper circumference of
the wheel. It is bored through, so that the sluice may fit
well, and be readily moved up and down in it.

The sluice itself is another cast-iron cylinder, fitted to the
inside of the last mentioned one, going down as low as to
rest on the outer circumference of the centre disc, and rising
so high as, when fully up, to leave 9 in. of opening between
that disc and it. This sluice is vsrought by three rods work-
ing in screws, communicating with a triangle at the top by
means of studs and levers from eaoh rod. The triangle is
wrought by bevel wheels and shaft from the outside of the
wheelhouse.

The mode of working the wheel is thus : —

The water coming into the wheelhouse or reservoir from
the front lead, fills it up, standing on the centre disc and
flooring, to the height of the top of the water in the front
lead. The sluice is then raised, when the water flows out
under it, off" from the curves of the centre disc, which thus
remains fixed and stationary, on to the curves of the wheel,
which, yielding to the pressure so exercised upon its curves,
moves round in the direction of the efflux of the water from
the centre disc ; the sluice is raised until the necessary speed
is attained, or until the water is vented by the wheel as fast
as it is supplied to the reservoir from the front lead, care
being taken that it is not allowed to go faster away, — that is,
that the head of the water in the reservoir is always main-
tained at its full height, — the level of the front lead.

I have thus minutely described each part of the wheel,
and, I trust, made the description intelligible by reference to

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. L

162 Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water- Wheel.

the model and drawings, as such appears to me the best way
of bringing this very important, and, in this country, novel,
mode of using water-power under the notice of this Society.

As soon as the Turbine was ready, I threw out one of my
old breast-wheels, and attached to it the part of my works
driven thereby. The success was so encouraging, that, in
January, I threw out the other breast-wheel, and the Turbine
has since been driving my whole works.

My works contain

1000 spindles, dry flax spinning.
796 „ dry tow spinning.
160 „ heavy jute spinning,
and 1156 „ wet spinning.

3112

"With the necessary preparing machinery, — machinery such
as, I believe, would be put upon a sixty horse-power steam-
engine, — I could not get water enough to drive them with
my two breast- wheels ; — in fact, 500 spindles were stand-
ing altogether for two years. The turbine is driving them
about 10 per cent, faster than they were before, and it is not
using all the water. From the experiments I have as yet
been able to make, I do not think that it is using above 5000
cubic feet per minute ; and from a defect in the construction
of the intake -lead, the turbine has not the full advantage of
that water. The lead is too narrow, and turns an awkward
comer, so that the water in the wheelhouse will not stand up
to the full head, and can hardly be called above 10 ft. 3 in., in-
stead of 11 ft. 8| in. When I have remedied this defect* and
so been enabled to give the wheel the whole water, and also
maintain a steady head of 11 ft. 8^ in. in the wheelhouse, I
have a very confident expectation that the wheel will prove
capable of working up to 85 or 90 horses' power.*

The whole subject of water-wheels is a very interesting
and important one; and I do not think that it has yet re-
ceived, in this country, the attention which it merits. The

* A model of Mr Stuart's Turbine is deposited in the Museum of the Royal
Scottish Society of Arts. — Ed.

Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine JFater-Wlieel 163

French have, both theoretically and practically, arrived at
much greater perfection than we have in economising water-
power, and a great variety of very beautiful wheels have been
introduced in that country. " Coals being abundant," Dr
Kane well remarks, " the steam-engine is invented in Eng-
land ; coals being scarce, the water-pressure engine and the
turbine are invented in France. It is thus the physical con-
dition of each country directs its mechanical genius." Such
suggestions may explain the greater practical interest taken
in the subject in France, but can hardly excuse the want of
theoretical inquiry which we have to complain of in this
country. My complaint is surely not without reason, when
I mention the fact, that no hint of any water-wheel, beyond
the common old-fashioned overshot, breast, or undershot
wheels, is to be found in any one of the otherwise elaborate
articles on water-works, hydrodynamics, &c., in the seventh
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, although, in the pe-
riod embraced by its publication, from 1830 to 1843, many
treatises by Poncelet, Morin, De Prony, and other eminent
members of the Academy of Sciences, appeared in France, in
which the merits of the Poncelet and the Turbine wheels are
set forth. I beg to lay one of these treatises on the table,
along with this paper, for the use of the Committee, to whom
I hope the Society will remit the matter ; and only regret
that, as I have been unable to procure another copy of it for
aiding me in my future experiments, I cannot present it to
the Society. It is the result of experiments on the Turbine
wheel, by Monsieur Morin, made under appointment of the
Academy, and at the expense of the French Government, and
it brings out these very interesting results : —

1. That the Turbine wheel is equally suitable to every
height of fall, from the greatest to the smallest. In illus-
tration of this, I may mention, that at St Blazien, there is
one erecte<l, by which is driven the whole machinery in a
cotton-mill of 8000 spind?es, with carding engines, and all
necessary preparation. The available fall is 332 feet ; the
quantity of water 60 feet per minute ; while on the Seine, in
France, there is one erected with a fall of only 13 inches, and
which, even in such unfavourable circumstances, economizes
55 per cent, of the theoretical power of the water.

164 Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine JFater-WTieel

2. That in all ordinary circumstances, the Turbine will
make available — transmit a net useful effect, to use Morin's
words — from 70 to 78 per cent, of the theoretical power.

3. That Turbines can be driven at speeds varying consider-
ably from that which theoretically is their best speed, with-
out seriously deteriorating from their practical efficiency.
One great practical excellence of the turbine is the high speed
at which it revolves. In the ordinary wheels, especially the
overshot, which is the best of them, we cannot have great
economy of power, without a very slow motion, and hence
much intermediate mechanism is necessary to bring the
motion up to the speed required for general use ; but in the
turbine, the greatest economy is accompanied by a rapid mo-
tion, and hence the connected machinery may be rendered
much less complex. The one which I have erected develops
its power best when at the speed of 48 turns per minute ; but
in consequence of the defect mentioned in the intake of the
water, I have not regularly wrought it above 42 turns. Still,
even at this speed, it is five times faster than my former
breast-wheels ; and, as my main shafting is about 200, much
intermediate raising of the motion is avoided. Turbines have
the farther advantage that the speed may be varied, as suit-
able, without materially affecting the economy of power.

4. That they may be wrought under water, that is, in back-
water, without materially affecting their useful effect. This
is found to be experimentally true, and may, indeed, appear
from the consideration that the power is in the difference be-
tween the front and back columns of water, and that it is
comparatively immaterial whether the discharge into that
back column be on the surface or at the bottom. In erect-
ing a turbine, then, the wheel ought to be placed so as to be
rather under the back-water when full going ; and thus the
greatest possible fall is secured.

5. That they can receive very variable quantities of water,
without the per-centage of useful effect being materially al-
tered. If a turbine be working with a force of 10-horse
power, and its supply of water be suddenly doubled, it be-
comes of 20-horse power. If the supply be reduced to one-
half, it still works to 5-horse power ; while such sudden and
extensive changes would altogether disarrange water-wheels

Mr J. G. Stuart on (he Turbine Water-Wheel. 165

of the common construction, which can only be calculated for
the minimum, and allow the overplus to go to waste.

Such are the general results borne out by Morin's experi-
ments in this treatise. Riihlman has also published a very
full report on the theory and practical working of the Turbine.
I have not seen it, but only extracts from it. From these I
find him stating, as the general result, that 70 per cent, of
the theoretical power may be depended upon in all cases. As
to the choice between turbines and horizontal axle wheels, he
says, that where there is a fall of a certain height which may
be economized by means of an over shot- wheel, such is to be
preferred to the turbine ; for, when carefully arranged, the
overshot- wheel economizes more than 70 per cent, of the
theoretical power ; but in all cases of high or very low falls,
the turbine is to be preferred to all other wheels. He far-
ther states, that their universal application, in such circum-
stances, can only be retarded by want of foresight or know-
ledge of their actual performance.

In regard to this statement I would fully coincide with it,
restricting the preference for the overshot, to falls from 20 to
30 feet, in which there is no fear of back-water, and from
which a quickly brought-up motion is not required. Below
20 feet, the overshot is not economical, and above 30 feet it
becomes a very expensive wheel in erection. The overshot-
wheel is certainly that, of all tlie engines hitherto in use,
which most effectually economizes water-power ; but the tur-
bine has two great advantages over it, in being adapted to
any fall^ rvhether high or low, and in pertnitting the water to
be applied at the same instant to every point of the circumfe-
rence. Farther, the turbine will, in general, be less expen-
sive in the erection than any other wheel. It is simple in its
construction, and little liable to break or go out of order; and,
consequently, it will suffer less than any other wheel from
ordinary tear and wear.

I venture to indulge the hope that the Society will accord
me some credit for having risked the experiment of intro-
ducing this wheel on a large scale ; and I will only add, that
if they shall think the matter worthy of being remitted to a
Committee, I shall be ready to afford the gentlemen appoint-

166 Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water-lfheel.

ed all the information I am possessed of, as to the theory and
practical working of the wheel, and also to exhibit the work-
ing wheel to them, if they can spare a day for the purpose,
and form a deputation to Balgonie.

Report of Committee.

The <*onimittee embraced the obliging invitation of Mr Stuart, to visit Bal-
gonie Mills, that they might see the turbine at work, and proceeded accordingly,
when they had full opportunity of examining the construction and the working
of the machine, with every part of which they were much gratified. From the
circumstance of the river being in a state of flood at the time of the visit, the
Committee regret that they were unable to institute some intended experiments,
with a view to determine the quantity of water delivered upon the turbine in
its ordinary working state. But, taking the known data that prevails over the
Leven, for the guaranteed delivery of 6000 cubic feet per minute as a true
standard, and with the fall at Balgonie Mills 11 feet 8^ inches, the power
given out by such water-wheels as appear to have been employed, yields, by
calculation, about 67 horses' power. The received data on which this calculation
is founded, has been corroborated by answers obligingly communicated to cer-
tain queries propounded to Mr Stuart by the Committee.

For the development of this power, Mr Stuart employed formerly two Breast-
wheels with open float boards running in close arcs ; the one was 10 feet wide,
the other 7 feet, and each of them 16 feet 8i inches diameter. With these
wheels, according to Mr Stuart's own statement, his mill produced a certain
quantity of yarn of certain qualities per day; but since the application of the
tui'bine to perform the whole work, the products of the mill have been in-
creased by 10 to 12 per cent.

The old water-wheels having been demolished, the Committee can only judge
of their efficiency (in relation to the water and the fall), by comparing with the
amount of work performed ; and this, it appears, had been about 45 spindles per
horse power with all their preparing machinery, a duty that approaches the
average calculation.

With the application of the Turbine, there has been no increase to the num-
ber of spindles in the mill, but their velocity has been increased to the extent of
the increase of production ; and this is the only direct proof of the superiority of
the Turbine, as yet attainable in this country.

From a careful examination of the structure of this machine, the Committee
feel satisfied that it affords all the conditions of great durability, and what is of
even greater importance, no peculiar liability to derangement from either in-
ternal or external causes ; from the latter, indeed, it is pre-eminently free.

In absence of the means and the time requisite to make any satisfactory ex-
periments on the actual power of the machine, the Committee can only repeat
the experience of Mr Stuart himself, " that it gives out 10 or 12 per cent, more
of useful effect, than the old wheels," the fall and the delivery of water being
the same. This result, making allowance for defects in the old wheels, seems to

Mr J. G. Stuart on the Turbine Water- Wheel 167

agree very satisfactorily with the statements of the different Continental writers
who have handled the subject experimentally ; and, reasoning from a source
Independent of experimental results, the Committoe see additional grounds for
placing confidence in those statements, as well as in that of Mr Stuart. The
grounds here alluded to, rest on the circumstances attending the arrangement
of common bucket and breast-wheels. In all such casec, water acts by its gravity
alone; hence such wheels are usually restricted to velocities of 6 to 8 feet per
second, and hence also, the water must have acquired a corresponding volocity
before it enters the wheel. This preparatory step takes from the height of the
fall a quantity varying from one to two feet ; at the bottom of the fall, also, there
is a loss consequent ujion the prevention of back-water, amounting at least to
half the depth of the shrouding, or from 6 to 9 inches, making a total redaction
of fall of from 2 to 2i feet.

With the Turbine, the engineer gets free of this loss of fall, because the ma-
chine takes up, if well constructed, every inch of the height ; or, according to the
views of the Continental writers, it may even yield effects beyond the natural
fall, by working the turbine under the surface of the tail-water. Upon this
last point, the Committee have some misgivings ; but from the grounds above
stated, that of rendering every inch of the fall available, they see good reason
to expect uniformly favourable results from Turbines properly constructed and
regulated.

It will readily appear, that the advantage, here dwelt upon, bears with greatest
effect upon low falls ; and since the reduction of the fall (for common wheels)
will be nearly the same for all heights, it follows, that the loss bears a much
larger proportion to the entire height in low, than in high falls. Thus, in a fall
of 6 feet, one-third may be considered as lost ; but in one of 30 feet the loss
would be only ^-^ or t^. It follows, from these observations, that the Turbine
will be most economical, in respect to power, in falls of from 1 foot up to 10 or
12 feet. As the fall becomes higher, the advantages diminish, and it is more
than probable, that, from 20 to 30 feet, a bucket-wheel is to be preferred. Up-
wards of 30 feet, and especially for great heights, the Turbine again becomes
economical, but on other grounds ; here the advantages will lie in the cowyxtra-
tively small cost of erection, com-pv^red with the power attainable from great heights-
These considerations, independently of any advantage arising from the inter-
nal mechanism of the Turbine, seem to afford still surer grounds of confidence
in this machine, under the limits here specified.

In conclusion, the Committee have great pleasure in expressing their appro-
bation of those exertions of Mr Stuart, which place him as the first in this country,
to have adopted " Fourneyron's " beautiful invention ; and, from the fortitude
and persevering skill exhibited in the pursuit of his object, crowned as it is with
a successful accomplishment, Mr Stuart is, in the opinion of the Committee, de-
serving of the best consideration of the Society.

James Slight, Convener.
John An&seson.
Edinburgh, Jun4 9. 1846.

( 168 )

On the Indian Tribes inhabititig the North-West Coast of
America. By John Scouler, M.D., F.L.S. Communi-
cated by the Ethnological Society.*

The ethnography of the tribes inhabiting the north-west
coast of America, although far from being so well known as
that of the Indian races to the east of the Rocky Mountains,
has of late made considerable progress. In addition to the
materials scattered through the works of the older voyagers,
much valuable matter is to be found in Baer's recent work
on the Russian Settlements on the north-west coast ; and,
in the Proceedings of the Geographical Society, I have pub-
lished a very extensive series of Vocabularies of Indian Lan-
guages, collected by Dr Tolmie, which have been illustrated,
and made the subject of comment by Dr Latham, in two com-
munications, read before the Ethnological Society. In the
following observations it is my intention to attempt a classifi-
cation of the various tribes found between Behring's Straits
and the Columbia River, and included between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. As all our more authen-
tic information respecting the more northern tribes of Esqui-
maux and Koluschians, have been derived from Wrangel's
communications to Baer's work, it will not be necessary to
enter minutely on that part of the subject. In attempting
this synopsis of the Indian tribes of the north-westward, we
have to premise that it is merely an attempt, and one which
will necessarily be subject to much correction. The number
and names of the tribes is very imperfectly known ; and, in
many cases, we have no specimens of their language to en-
able us to fix their place, and often the indications of travel-
lers are so vague, and even contradictory, that their state-
ments only produce perplexity. The following is, therefore,
to be considered rather as an exhibition of what is known on
the subject, than as a complete monograph. The distinction,
however, between facts and probable inferences has been
carefully observed.

With respect to the tribes inhabiting the Russian territory,
it may be remarked, that we find there three very distinct

* B«ad before the Ethnological Society, 29th April 18^6.

On the Tribes inhabiting the N.-West Coast of America, 169

families of the human race brought into intimate relation-
ship, and each retaining its own peculiarities. We find the
Esquimaux to the north and west, the Koluschians, on the sea-
coast, to the south, and, in the interior, the Carriers and
other tribes of the Athabascan family, extending eastward
toward Hudson's Bay, and spreading southward along the
western side of the Rocky Mountains to the head- waters of
Frazer's River. Notwithstanding the contiguity of these
three families or groups, and that they have interchanged se-
veral words of their respective vocabularies, the distinction
tween them in language, manners, and modes of living, is
very apparent, so that there is, in general, little difficulty in
ascertaining to which of the three families a tribe belongs.
Thus the Esquimaux of Greenland and Kodiac, although
thousands of miles apart, have more dialectic affinities than
the Kodiacs have with their neighbours, the Kenai or Kolus-
chians. There is nothing more remarkable than the perti-
nacity with which even small tribes of Indians adhere to
their language, retaining it, as Mr Gallatin observes, to the
last moment of their existence. The difference of customs,
as, for example, between a fishing and a hunting tribe, also
tends to prevent intercourse, and thus keep languages dis-
tinct. Mr Dunn informs us, when speaking of the tribes
situated around Puget's Sound, that " the coast tribes and
those of the plains observe a marked aversion to mutual in-
corporation, and confine themselves to distinct localities ; the
plain tribes not approaching the Sound, and the tribes bor-
dering on the Sound not extending their roamings into the
plains." In the same manner, the Athabascan and Esquimaux
races, in the northern regions, carry on a perpetual warfare.
We also find, among the Indian races to the east of the Rocky
Mountains, that amalgamations of dialects rarely, if ever,
take place ; their organization into tribes, and the necessity
of preserving the full extent of their hunting-ground causes
repulsion, not union, and is favourable to perpetual hostilities.
It will be seen, in the course of this paper, that a different
social condition has tended to obscure the marks of dialectic
distinctions in certain tribes.

1. Esquimaux. — The ethnography of this race is now well

170 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

known, and requires no illustration here. Extending from
Greenland to Aliaska, they speak everywhere the same lan-
guage, with dialectic variations. They inhabit the most north-
erly parts of the new world, and even part of the icy coasts
of the old. The Esquimaux tribes, inhabiting the north-west
angle of America, appear to have been the most numerous
portion of the race, in proportion to the extent of country
which they occupy, and, at the same time, the most social
and civilized. This may be accounted for by the milder cli-
mate of this region, by far the most temperate of any occu-
pied by the Esquimaux, from its numerous islands, inlets, and
peninsulas, which multiply, in a comparatively small space,
an extensive line of sea-coast adapted to their mode of life.
The Esquimaux of this region display much industry and in-
genuity, and carry on an extensive intercourse among them-
selves as well as with the Koluschians, and even with the in-
habitants of the Asiatic coast. In this part of America the
Esquimaux are divided into numerous small communities,
whose names and places of residence are to be found in Baer's
work, where much information may be obtained respecting
them.

2. Athabascans. — This family of Indians is not numerous
in proportion to the extent of country which it occupies, but
is interesting from its position amidst so many distinct fami-
lies, and occupying very nearly the whole breadth of the
American continent. The Athabascans are everywhere se-
parated from the sea-coast by the Esquimaux ; and towards
the Mississippi River they become conterminous with the
Algonquin race. To the west of the Rocky Mountains, the
Athabas(!ans, under the names of Tacullies or Carriers, oc-
cupy the country called New Caledonia ; but have nowhere
reached the sea-coast, from which they are cut off by the Es-
quimaux, Koluschians, and other tribes. The Athabascan
tribes are separated from the Ichthyophagous tribes of the
coast by repugnance arising from difference of mode of life,
or by natural barriers. To the north, the Athabascans inha-
bit the head waters of the streams which flow into the Paci-
fic, and thus come into hostile contact with the Esquimaux.
Further south, they are cut off from the Koluschian and other

Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 171

sea tribes by the range of mountains which runs parallel to
the coast, and from which they extend eastward to the Rocky
Mountains. It would appear, that, to the north and west,
the Tacullics or Athabascans rarely approach within 100
miles of the coast. Tribes of the Athabascan family occupy
the country about the sources of the Salmon River, Frazer's
River, and the northern tributaries of the Columbia. The
Nagailers or Chin Indians, who speak the same language as
the Tacullies, and are consequently Athabascan, come in
contact with the Bellichoola on Salmon River, and with the
Atnas or Noosdalums on Frazer's River. In the interior,
they descend as far as Flat Bow Lake, where their neigh-
bours are the Kootanie and Flatheads.

An inspection of the vocabularies of the languages spoken
on the north-west coast, will aid us in defining the limits of
the Athabascan family. If we examine the languages spoken
from Observatory Inlet to the Columbia, we find they possess
very few Athabascan words, the mountain barrier having ob-
structed the intercourse between the fish-eaters of the coast
and the Athabascans of the interior. On the other hand, on
the north and south, where no such defined barrier separates
the diflferent races, we find in the vocabularies evidence of a
more frequent intercourse. In the dialects of the northern
and continental Koluschians, we find a good number of
Athabascan words ; and the Kenai may probably be consi-
dered as rather Athabascan than Koluschian. In like man-
ner, we find Athabascan words in the Kleketat and Shahap-
tan, as tribes speaking these languages form the southern
frontier of the Athabascan race.

3. The Koluschians. — The narrow portion of sea coast ex-
tending from Mount St Elias to the Columbia River is re-
markable from being inhabited by Indians whose manners,
physical features, and even intellectual and moral characters,
differ considerably from those of the other Indians, whether
of North or South America. The northernmost of these fami-
lies may be called the Koluschian, and consist of many small
tribes, of which we have attempted to give a tolerably com-
plete enumeration.

172 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

1. Ugalenzi, A small tribe, dwelling in winter to the east

of the Island of Kodiac, and during summer at the
mouth of the Copper River.

2. Atna. Living on the River Atna ; distinct from the

Atna of M'Kenzie.

3. Galzani, or Koltschani. Living to the north and east

of the Atna River.

4. Kinai. Inhabiting the vicinity of Cook's Inlet.

5. Inchulukhlaites. Inhabiting the vicinity of the River

Chulitna.

6. Inkalites. Inhabiting the vicinity of the Rivers Kwich-

pack and Kuskowim.

7. Sitkans. Inhabiting King George the Third's Archi-

pelago.

8. Cheelkaats. Inhabiting Lynn's Canal, and neighbour-

hood.

9. Tako. Inhabiting Point Salisbury and Snettisham.

10. Stikine, Inhabiting Prince Frederick's Sound and Sti-

kine River.

11. Tunghaase. Inhabiting the island of Revilla Gigedo.

The territory occupied by the Koluschian family may be
defined as including the islands and the shores of the main-
land, from Cook's Inlet to the Stikine River. In the north-
ern part of the Koluschian territory, the limits become unde-
fined, from the intermixture of tribes of different languages
in the same country. Thus we find an Esquimaux tribe, the
Tschugassi, inhabiting the peninsula between Cook's Inlet
and Prince "William's Sound. The Inchuluhkaites and Inka-
lites, although Koluschians, live still farther north, amidst
tribes of Esquimaux. Another cause of perplexity is, that
in the six tribes first named in the table, we find in their vo-
cabularies so many Athabascan words as to indicate an inti-
mate intercourse with the Carriers. In the Kinai vocabu-
lary, for example, the number of Athabascan words is so
great, as to render it probable that they belong rather to that
family of Indians than to the Koluschians, and that, to use
a geological expression, they form an outlying portion of
the Carriers. The more southern tribes, Nos. 7, 11, are un-

Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 173

questionably Koluschian, speaking dialects of the same lan-
guage, which is much freer from all Athabascan or Esqui-
maux intermixture. The Koluschian family, as we have de-
fined it, includes the Tunghaase of Dr Tolmie, the Sitkans
of the Russians, and Tchinkitane of Marchant.

4. Chimmesyan. — In the present state of our knowledge,
the Chemmesyans must be classed by themselves, as speak-
ing a distinct language as peculiar as that of the Koluschians,
with which it has had remote affinities.

The following table will exhibit the limits of this family and
the principal tribes which speak the Chimmesyan language : —

1. The Naaskaak. Inhabiting Observatory Inlet.

2. The Chemmesyan. Inhabiting Dundas's Island and

Stephen's Island.

.* ^ ,, *, J Inhabiting Princess Royal Islands.

4. Kethumeesh. )

5. Haidah. — This well defined family comprehends the
various tribes inhabiting Queen Charlotte's Island, including
the Skittegats^ Maasets, Cumsherves^ ^c. Besides the inha-
bitants of Queen Charlotte's Island, the Kyganie tribe, inha-
biting Kyganie Bay, and the southern extremity of Prince of
Wales' Archipelago, belong to the Haidah family.

6. Haeeltsuk. — The Haeeltsuk tribes occupy the mainland
and islands from Hawkesbury Island, and Millbank Sound to
Brough ton's Archipelago, inclusive, with the opposite coast of
the Continent, and also the northern parts of Quadra and
Vancouver's Island. The geographical position of the Haeel-
truk, will be best exhibited by the following table of tribes,
and their places of residence.

1. Hyshalla. Inhabiting Hawksburg Island.

2. Hyhysh. Inhabiting Cascade Canal.

3. Haeeltsuk ; 4. Esleytuk, Inhabiting Millbank Sound.

5. Weekenoch. Inhabiting Fitzhugh's Sound.

6. Nalatsenoch. Inhabiting Smith's Inlet.

7. Quagheuil. Inhabiting Broughton's Archipelago.

8. Tlatla-Shequilla. Including Northern extremity of

Vancouver's Island.

9. Leequeeltoch. Inhabiting Johnston's Strait. .

174 Dr John Sconler on the Indian Tribes

7. BelUchoola. — This family comprehends but a small
number of tribes, speaking, however, a peculiar language.
They live on the Salmon River and Dean's Canal, where
they were visited by M'Kenzie on his journey to the Pacific
Ocean. The small vocabulary collected by M'Kenzie, leaves
no doubt, as Dr Tolmie and Dr Latham observes, that the
Indians found by M'Kenzie at Friendly Village, belongs to
the BelUchoola tribe.

We have classified the Koluschians, Haidah, Chimmesyans,
BelUchoola, and Haeeltruk, as distinct families of Indians,
and the distinction will hold good even if their languages
should be proved to belong to one general tongue, of which
they are respectively modifications. The languages of any
of these tribes is unintelligible to the others ; but, at the
same time, the number of words common to them all induce
us to suppose, that, with more copious vocabularies, many
affinities might be detected and discrepancies removed,

8. Kawitchen. — The following tribes belong to this family : —

1. Commagsheak. Gulph of Georgia, Northern Part.

2. Kawitchen. Gulph of Georgia, Southern Part.

3. QuaiUin. Frazer's River.

4. Noosdalum. Hood's Canal.

5. Squaltyamish. Puget's Sound.

6. Atnas.

The table of tribes speaking the Kawitchen, and of their
habitations, indicates the extent of country over which the
language prevails. It extends along the shores of the Gulf
of Georgia on the mainland, opposite Vancouver's Island, and
south to Puget's Sound, where it approaches the Cowlitch
River. Dr Tolmie has supplied three vocabularies, those of
the Kawitchen, Noosdalum, and Squallyamish, which appear
to be so many dialects of the same original language ; the
Squallyamish, however, exhibiting the greatest amount of
variation. The Atna Indians of M'Kenzie are, as Dr Latham
suggests, a branch of the Kawitchen family, and have for
neighbours the Athabascans.

9. Nootkans.

1. Naspatle ; 2. Naotkans ; 3. Tlaoquatch ; 4. Nit-

Inhabiting the North-West Coast of America. 175

tenat. All inhabit the western shores of Van-
couver's Island.

5. Classet. Inhabit Cape Flattery.

6. Queenioolt. Inhabit Queenhithe South of Cape Flat-

tery.

7. Chikeelis. Inhabit Chikeeli Bay and River.

8. Cowlitch, Inhabit Cowlitch River.

9. Tilhalumma, Inhabit sources of Chikeeli River.
The relations of this important family, as w^ell as its geo-
graphical limits, are very difficult to ascertain, especially as
there is much confusion in the vocabularies and relations of
the tribes inhabiting the Lower Columbia. If all the above
mentioned tribes belong to the Nootkan family, it occupies a
very extensive region, including the greater part of the west-
ern and southern shores of Vancouver's Island. On the

mainland it extends south to the Columbia River, and occu-
pies the greater part of the region between Puget's Sound,
the Cowlitch River, and the Pacific. As this extensive range
is given to the Nootkan family for the first time, it is neces-
sary to distinguish what is ascertained from what amounts
only to a considerable degree of probability. We have many
vocabularies of the Nootkan language by Cook, Mozino, Dr
Tolmie, and Jewitt, who remained a captive at Nootka for
several years. A comparison of these vocabularies leaves
no doubt that the first four tribes in the prefixed table belong
to the Nootkan family. We have, unfortunately, no vocabu-
lary of the Classet language ; but I have reason to believe
that the Classets and Tlaoquatch can understand each other,
and if so, the former belongs to the Nootkan family. The
chief difficulty is with the last four tribes mentioned in the
list. Dr Tolmie merely says, that they speak the Chikeeli,
but gives no further information respecting them. The rea-
sons for supposing that the Chikeeli tribes are allied to the
Nootkan family are as follows : — At the mouth of the Colum-
bia River, especially on tbe south side, we find several tribes,
hereafter to be mentioned, who use the Cheenook language.
Above these tribes, and ascending to the falls of the Colum-
bia, we find theCathlascans also speaking a peculiar language.
Of the tribes on the north side of the river, between the Cow-

176

Dr John Scouler o?i the Indian Tribes

litch, Pugefs Sound, and the sea, we have apparently no
vocabularies, although the country is occupied by well known
tribes of Indians. It is not, however, upon this negative
argument that we place the Chikeeli tribes in the Nootkan
family. While residing for several weeks among the Indians
of the Lower Columbia, I collected a small vocabulary of the
language, and of the phrases essential for carrying on some
conversation with the natives. A comparison of this lan-
guage, spoken by the Chikeelis, with the Tlaoquatch vocabu-
lary of Dr Tolmie and the Nootkan ones of Mozino and
Jewitt, prove that it has very great affinities with the Nootkan.

COLUMBIA.

Plenty

Aya, Tlaoquatch

Haya

No

. . Wik, Nootkan . .

Wake

Water .

Tchaak, Tlaoquatch

Chuck

Good .

Hooleish, do.

aosh

Bad

Peishakeis, do.

Peshak

Man

Tchuckoop, do.

Tillicham

Woman

Tlootsemin, do.

Clootchamen

Child

Tanassis, do.

Tanass

Now

Tlahowieh, do.

Clahowiah

Come

Tchooqua, do.

Sacko

Slave

Mischemas, Nootka

Mischemas

What ar

e you doing ? Akoots-ka-mamok TIaoqus

itch Ekta mammok

What ar

e you saying ? Au-kaak-wawa Tlaoquatc

h Ekta-wawa ?

Let me s

ee . . Nannanitch

Nannanitch

Sun

Opeth, Nootka

Ootlach

Sky

Sieya, do.

Saya

Fruit

Chamas, do.

Camas

To sell

Makok, do.

Makok

Understa

nd . . Comraatax, do.

Commatax

The vocabulary here given proves that there is a very con-
siderable affinity between the tribes of the north part of the
Lower Columbia and the Nootkans of Vancouver's Island,
and is the evidence on which we have ventured to place the
Chikeelis in the same group as the Nootkans.

10. Cheenooks. — The Cheenooks inhabit the lower part of
the Columbia, near the sea, and from thence extend along the
coast, probably until they reach the Umpqua tribes on the
river of the same name. The chief tribes are

1, Cheenooks. Inhabiting the south bank of the Columbia.

2. Cladsaps. Inhabiting the sea-coast near Point Adams.

Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 177

3. Kellamiicks, Inhabiting the Kellamuck River, and

south of the Cladsaps.

4. Cathlamuts. Inhabiting the south bank of the Columbia

above the Cheenooks.

11. Umpquas. — Lewis and Clark have given the names of
many Cheenook tribes which live on the bays and streams
entering the Pacific, and extending towards the Umpqua river.
Their names it is unnecessary to repeat. We will merely
state, that beyond them, and on the Umpqua and Clamet
rivers, we find the Umpqua Indians, of whom we know very
little, except that they speak a very distinct language, and
are therefore entitled to form a separate family.

12. Cathlascans. — The Cathlascans inhabit the banks of
the Columbia, from the Falls down to Wappatoo Island, and
also the lower part of the Multrumah or Willamud river.
The Cathlascans are divided into many little tribes. Their
chief place of resort is Wappatoo Island, a low but fertile
tract, which resemble the Lizerias of the Tagus. The alluvial
and overflown parts of the island abound in a species of Sa-
gittaria, resembling the iS". sagittifolia, but remarkable for
producing at the root a tuber of the size of that of the arti-
choke, which it very much resembles in flavour, and forms an
important article of food to the natives of the Lower Columbia.

As in the case of the northern tribes, the families which
we have called Kawitchen, Nootkan, Cheenook, and Cath-
lascan, may form a group by themselves, and the recurrence
of the same words in several of the vocabularies, induces us
to suppose that the differences will be reduced as our know-
ledge of the ethnography of the Oregon improves^

13. Shahaptan.

1. Kliketan. Inhabit the tract between Fond Ner Per-

cees, Mount Rainier, and the Falls of the Columbia.

2. Shahaptans or Ner Percees. Inhabit the southern

branch of the Columbia, and spread over a great
extent of country.

3. Wallawalla.

4. Cayoose. Inhabit the Snake River from its mouth to

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. M

178 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

its junction with the Salmon River, and the inter-
mediate country.
5. Peloose. Inhabit sources of the Spokan River.

Of the numerous tribes inhabiting the upper tributaries of
the Columbia, there are probably many who should be in-
cluded in the Shahaptan family, but who, in the absence of
vocabularies, cannot be placed in the table with any degree
of certainty. That the Kliketat, Wallawalla, and Shahap-
tans, speak the same language, although with dialectic varia-
tions, is undoubted ; and the vocabularies in the appendix,
perhaps the most accurate we possess of any Oregon lan-
guages, exhibits both the affinities and divergences. It was
drawn up by the Rev. Cornelius Rogers, who has resided as
a missionary among the Nez Percees, and is thoroughly ver-
sant in their language. The Peloose and Cayoose Indians
may also be referred to this family without much risk of error.
The first live on the Wallawalla and Columbia at their junc-
tion, the second to the west of the Ner Percees. The Sha-
haptan tribes occupy a very extensive territory, extending
from Mount Rainier south to Ford Ner Percees, at the junc-
tion of the great northern and southern tributaries of the
Columbia, and including the extensive country included be-
tween them.

14. Okanagan. — This family is placed to the north and
east of the Shahaptans. The language is spoken at Fort-
Okanagan and in the upper part of Frazer's River. , As Dr
Latham conjectures, it is probable that the Salish or Flat-
heads belong to the Okanagans. The Rev. Mr Parker says,
they are a branch of the Shahaptans, and speak the same
language, but the scanty vocabulary we possess is in favour
of Dr Latham's opinion. The affinities of the following tribes
are uncertain, although they must be referred either to the
Shahaptans or Okanagans ; — the Spokan s, who live on the
Spokan river, the Coeur, and Alenes, and Ponderas, who are
a numerous tribe living to the north of Clarke's River. The
Cootanies on the M'Gillivray River, according to Mr Parker,
speak a peculiar language, and beyond them we have the
Athabascan Carriers.

Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 179

15. Kalapooiah, — We possess vocabularies of two dialects,
of this family, the Kalapooiah and Yamkallie. The language
is spoken beyond the sources of the Willamut River, in the
extensive plains in that quarter, and separated by the range
from the Cheenook and Umpquas.

16. Shossoonies, — The Shossoonies, Snakes, or Diggers, who
reside in the mountains and deserts to the south of the sources
of the Columbia, are the only remaining family to be noticed,
as the tribes inhabiting California, from the sources of the
Rio Colorado southward, are too little known to afford mate-
rials for description. In the absence of complete vocabu-
laries, we only know that they form a family apart, having
no affinity with the Shabaptans or Kalapooiah. The Shos-
soonies are, perhaps, the most miserable Indians on the whole
continent, except the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego ; and in
their arid deserts their condition, as described by Captain
Fremont, is more like that of the Hottentots, or the natives
of New Holland, than of American Indians. Their chief
subsistence, when fish is not to be found, consists in a scanty
supply of game, lizards, and small mammifers, and such
roots as the country affords.

Their chief vegetable food consists, according to Captain
Fremont, of the roots of a thistle, the Gircium turgenianum
oii\iQ Anethum graveolens. The Camas camassia esculenta,
and a species of Valerian, V. eduli. It is on such scanty fare
that the Shossoonies subsist amidst their rocks and deserts.

In the preceding synopsis, it has been attempted to exhi-
bit as complete a view as possible of the various tribes in-
habiting the northern coast of America, from the Polar Seas
to the Columbia. The extreme difficulty of the task, and the
toil of collecting information scattered in minute portions
through a great variety of works, will, it is trusted, be taken
as an apology for any errors which may have been fallen into.
Were we to construct an ethnographical chart of the north-
west part of America, and compare it with the excellent one
which Mr Gallatin has given, illustrating the distribution of
the Indian tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, nothing would
appear more striking than the great variety of languages
spoken in the narrow district included between the Rocky

180 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

Mountains and the Pacific, contrasted with the few but wide
spread dialects, spoken between Hudson's Bay and the Gulf
of Mexico. Unwilling to introduce premature generaliza-
tions, we have estimated the number of distinct languages at
sixteen. Although the number will probably be considerably
reduced by subsequent investigations ; the Okanagan may be
perhaps united to the Shahaptan and the Haidah, with the
Koluschian ; but after all such reductions, the number of dis-
tinct languages spoken to the west of the Rocky Mountains,
will be far greater, in proportion to the surface of country and
population, than it is to the east, between the mountains and
the Atlantic. The territory occupied by the Algonquin race
alone exceeds the whole extent of the Oregon territory. In
the south of the United States, however, we have something
analogous to the population of the west coast, for there a
great number of small tribes are found speaking distinct lan-
guages, and having little affinity with each other. The creeks
and the jungles of that part of country appear to have afforded
an asylum to tribes expelled from their ancient abodes. On
the east of the Rocky Mountains the wide diffusion of parti-
cular languages depends in part on the nature of the country.
Subsisting almost exclusively by the chase, each tribe re-
quired a great extent of country ; few natural barriers existed
to prevent dispersion, and the sanguinary nature of Indian
warfare left no resource to the vanquished but the alterna-
tive of flight or extermination. In the history of the Irri-
quois confederacy, we have a picture of this desolating war-
fare in which even the harsh mercy of slavery was refused to
the vanquished.

Among the natives of the north-west coast, the features of
the country, intersected by mountain ranges, or broken up
into islands, rendered the tribes more sedentary ; while, at
the same time, it permitted, and even from the diversity of
its products required, some degree of commercial intercourse.
Under such physical conditions, and where the modes of ob-
taining food varied with the character of the country, exten-
sive conquests were impossible ; the energetic Haidah of
Queen Charlotte's island could not, even if conquerors, abandon
at once their mode of life as fishers, and change themselves

Inhabiting the North^West Coast of America. 181

into hunters if they penetrated across the mountains, and
occupied the country of the Athabascans. This circumstance
is unquestionably favourable to the production and preserva-
tion of a variety of dialects, although it is by no means a
proof that they were not originally derived from a common
source. When, to ascertain this, w^e compare the different
vocabularies, vre find a source of perplexity which does not
occur to any thing like the same extent among the languages
spoken to the east of the mountains. In the Irriquois, Che-
rokee, Sioux, and Algonquin, we find very few words com-
mon to all or to any two of them ; the term expressing num-
bers, the common objects of nature, articles of indispensable
necessity, or of family relationship, are perfectly distinct. In
the languages of the north-west coast, on the contrary, there
seem to be an equal balance of divergences and resem-
blances ; the same words reappear in the most remote lan-
guages, and these frequently numerals or other terms of the
first necessity. The similarity with respect to numerals,
may be at once seen on inspecting the vocabularies published
in the Proceedings of the Geographical Society.

The following instances will explain the same fact : —

Jfan, Tillicham, Columbia River ; Boy, Tchileque, Carrier.
Woman, Shewat, Koluschian ; Aiat, Shahaptan.
Water, Tchuk, Nootkan ; Tshush, Wallawalla.
Child, Munna, Bellichoola ; Mumunna, Kawitchen.
Child, Tillcoole, Chlmmesyan ; Tool, Cheenook.

The source of strange confusion, so to speak, appears to
depend on the following circumstances. The Indians of the
northward possess a very different natural character from
that of the eastern tribes ; they are more sedentary, of a mild-
er nature, their wars are far less cruel^ the prisoners are
usually detained in a state of mild slavery, and ultimately
incorporated into the conquering tribe ; and this circumstance
alone will tend to produce an intermixture of dialects. An-
other modifying cause results from the extensive commercial
intercourse carried on between even very remote tribes.
Baron Wrangell has given an interesting account of the ac-
tive trade carried on, from time immemorial, among the tribes
from Behring's Straits to Queen Charlotte's Island, and even

182 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

to Nootka ; Dr Tolmie has given valuable information respec-
ting the fairs held at Naas, where the Koluschians, Haidah,
Chimmesyans, and Haeeltzuk, interchange commodities.

Previous to the arrival of Europeans, when the use of iron
was unknown, copper was an article of great value, and the
traditions concerning it prove its former importance ; and al-
so a commerce in articles constructed from this metal.
Wrangell informs us that the Northern Atnas of the Copper
River were famous for the fabrication and commerce in knives
and daggers of copper. The tradition of the Chippewyans,
recorded by M'Kenzie, that their ancestors came from the
west, from a country abounding in copper, may probably re-
fer to their intercourse, by means of the Carriers with the
Atnas of the Copper River. According to Mr Dunn, the
Cheelhaats of Lynn's Canal were, like the Atnas, famed for
their copper, which they wrought with great dexterity. In
this country, he says, great quantities of virgin copper are
found, some of it is worked into a kind of shield, two feet and
a-lialf long and one broad, with figures of men and animals
expressed on it. The labour and ingenuity expended in work-
ing these shields gives them a great value. One of them is
estimated as worth nine slaves, and is transmitted as a pre-
cious heirloom from father to son. The tradition of the Noot-
kans, as related by Meares, bears upon the same point. An
old man entered the bay in a copper canoe with paddles of
copper ; and thus the Nootkans acquired a knowledge of the
value of that metal.

Another article of commerce, or rather the circulating
medium of the country, was the hyaqua shell, which was a
still better substitute for money than the courie of the east.
These hyaquas were sorted according to their sizes, and after-
wards strung together always to the number of forty. The
mode of estimating their relative values was very ingenious
and simple. If the string of forty hyaquas made only a fa-
thom they were of small value ; if thirty- five made a fathom,
the shells were of greater size and worth, and, of course, five
remained over, and when ten remained in excess, such a string
of hyaquas was worth many beaver skins. These hyaquas are
obtained at Nootka and De Fucas Straits, but so much value

Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 183

was attached to them that they found their way to Oonalaska
and the Columbia River. This shell money, both from its
limited supply, its durability, and facility with which its value
could be expressed in numbers, and its portability, was far
superior to the coccoa money of the Mexicans. This com-
mercial intercourse must have have tended to produce some
assimilation among the idioms ; and, accordingly, we find
that most exchangeable articles have the same name in Ko-
luschian and Haidah, although the languages are, in other re-
spects, very different. The practice of kidnapping and sel-
ling slaves must have had a similar tendency.

Another cause of variation is the dialectic differences which
grow up in distant tribes speaking the same language, lead-
ing to differences of pronunciation which the stranger can-
not detect.

In the Wallawalla and Shahaptan vocabularies, appended
to this paper, we see that, even in Indian languages, such
variations follow certain rules. According to the excellent re-
marks of Mr Rogers, one form of the subjunctive ends in tah
and nah, in "Wallawalla it is always tahna ; the Wallawalla
substitute sh for the Shahaptan k, as in tshusk for scush ; the
Wallawalla substitutes n for Shahaptan /, as wanaka for wa~
lasa. Mr Rogers also adds, that the same word often varies
considerably in signification ; and hence another cause of
difficulty in judging of affinities from imperfect vocabularies.
Another observation by Mr Rogers, points out another cause
of variation, of which I know of no other instance among In-
dian tribes. He informs us that the Cayoose Indians have an
entirely distinct language of their own ; but they have long
since adopted the Nez Percee as their national tongue, and
only a few of the old people retain a knowledge of their original
language. If this circumstance be fully established, it throws
much light on the causes of variation in the Oregon languages,
and indicates a much more flexible disposition than is usually
found among Indians. The smallest tribe, in the south of the
United States, retained its language with the most obstinate
tenacity ; and the barbarous Otomis retained their uncouth
language for centuries amidst the more polished languages
of Mexico. With our present imperfect knowledge of the

1S4 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

languages spoken in the north-west coast, all attempts at
ethnological classifications will remain imperfect, more voca-
bularies must be constructed, and the old corrected, before
we can trace the affinities and migrations of tribes, the study
of whose dialects constitutes all their history.

The researches of American philologists, especially Du
Ponceau and Gallatin, have shewn, that, however different
the words may be in Indian languages, the same grammati-
cal structure pervades them all. From Canada to Chili, we
find similar forms under a great diversity of words. The
principles of M. Du Ponceau have been found applicable,
with one exception, to all the hitherto examined languages
of America, and it is an interesting inquiry to ascertain whe-
ther the languages of the north-rwest coast afford confirma-
tion, or exceptions, to so extensive a generalisation ; unfor-
tunately the materials are not abundant, as it is far more dif-
ficult to obtain a grammar than a vocabulary. The only
grammar of an Oregon language, which we are acquainted
with, is a manuscript one of the Shahaptan or Nez Percee,
drawn up by the Rev. C. Rogers, and which affords a short
but perspicuous view of the peculiarities of that wide-spread
tongue.

The only consonants used in Shahaptan are h k 1 m n p s
t w. The letters b d f g r v z, so often absent in Indian
languages, are only used in Shahaptan, when pronouncing
foreign words. They have, however, several sounds unknown
to English as ph aspirated Ik, tkt, shk.

Like the other American, or in short, all barbarous lan-
guages, the Shahaptan is rich in words indicating every varie-
ty of object, but poor in general terms, like the Malayan dia-
lects, where there may be twenty names for gold, but none
for metal. It is apparently to the same poverty of general
ideas, that the pronouns and verbs, with their definite and ge-
neral plurals, and vast variety of inflexions, indicating every
minute particular of time, place, or motion, are very unfit for
the discussion of moral topics. They resemble the technical
language of botanists, expressing with rigorous precision,
the form and properties of bodies, but unfit for any kind of
speculative discussion. The distinction of bodies into animate

Inhabiting the North- West Coast of America. 18&

and inanimate, which pervades the Algonquin, and exists,
although in a minor degree, in many American languages,
has not been hitherto detected in dialects of the Oregon.
Although not immediately connected with the subject, it may
be mentioned that this distinction of bodies into animate and
inanimate is not peculiar to some tribes in North America.
It appears to exist in the Peruvian, where also animate ob-
jects are divided into rational and irrational. In the rational
and irrational divisions, the sex is expressed by words equi-
valent to male and female, but these words are different in
the two classes of nouns.

We have now to offer a few remarks on the physical ap-
pearance, intellectual character, and social institutions of
the Indians of the north-west coast of America. Even if we
exclude the Esquimaux, we find there is a considerable variety
in the physical features of the north-west Indians. TheHaidah
and Koluschians differ greatly from the Chenooks and Cath-
lascans of the Columbia ; and the Shahaptans and Kleketat
differ from both. The northern tribes are of a pale com-
plexion, and are not darker than the Portuguese or Italians,
while the complexion of the Columbian Indian is deeper, al-
though not so much as the Irriquois of Canada. The fea-
tures also of the northern tribes are more prominent, they
have broader cheek-bones. The Koluschians are of middle
stature, but strong made, with broad nose and great cheek-
bones, and in all respects strongly marked features. The
Cheenooks are of small stature, with crooked legs, from
sitting so long in their canoes, with flat nose and large nos-
trils, but their features are less prominent than in the Haidah
and Koluschians. The Kleketat and Flatheads are of a fair
complexion, tall stature, well made, and active. The pecu-
liarities in the form of the cranium have been mentioned in
a paper on the Oregon Indians, published in the Transac-
tions of the Geographical Society.

The intellectual and moral characters of the Indians on
the west coast are very different from those of the Indians
east of the Mountains. From the nature of their pursuits
the Oregon Indians have a more extensive range of ideas,
and are less inflexible in character than the other American

186 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

tribes. The western Indians are imitative and docile ; and
instead of the hard-heartedness of the Irriquois, the ferocity
of the Carib, or the implacable cruelty of the Brazilian, the
Oregon Indians are comparatively humane, the custom of
scalping is unknovi^n, prisoners taken in war are rarely put
to death after the excitement of the contest has subsided,
and they are never exposed to lingering tortures. Those
probationary tortures by which the young men were initiated
into the rank of warriors, and of which, as practised by the
Mandians, Mr Catlin has given so entertaining an account,
are unknown to the west of the Rocky Mountains.

There is, however, a very considerable variety of psycho-
logical character among the tribes of the north-west coast.
The northern tribes of Koluschians, Haidah, and Bellichoolas
are, in point of skill and ingenuity, far superior to the Chee-
nooks and Cathlascans. The mechanical skill and imitative
ingenuity of the northern Indians as displayed in the con-
struction of their canoes, houses, fishing implements, as well
as in their ornamented daggers, pipes, and masks, has at-
tracted the notice of all civilised visitors. The elaborate
carvings of the Haidahs is equal in skill to any thing we
find displayed by the Mexicans, and shews how small an
amount of civilisation might suffice for the construction of
the monuments of Chiapa or Yucatan. A very curious in-
stance of the imitative powers of the northern Indians is
related by Mr Dunn. The Bellichoolas of Millbank Sound
were struck with admiration on the first sight of a steam-
boat, and undertook to construct a vessel on the same model.
In a short time they had felled a large tree, and were con-
structing the hull out of its scooped trunk. Some time after
the rude steamer appeared. She was from twenty to thirty
feet long, she was black with painted ports, was decked
over, and the paddles painted red, and Indians under cover
to turn them round. She was floated triumphantly, and
went at the rate of three miles an hour. The introduction
and general cultivation of the potato without the aid of
European lessons or example, is a remarkable instance of
the docility and industry of the Haidah, and they not un-

Inhabiting the North^West Coast of America. 187

frequently sell from five to eight hundred bushels of them at
the annual fair at Naas.

The Indians of Nootka are not equal to the northern
tribes, but are superior to the Cheenooks and Cathlascans of
the Columbia, who are the least energetic, and at the same
time the most cowardly and licentious of all the inhabitants
of the north-west coast. If inferior in some degree to the
northern tribes, in as far as regards dexterity and mechanical
skill, the tribes of the interior, such as the Flat-Heads, Cayuse,
and Shahaptans, are by far the first in moral character. The
desire for religious even more than for intellectual culture,
►and the strong, although untutored, devotional feelings,
are pleasing phenomena in the Indian race, in general so
untractable. This favourable account of the Flatheads
and allied tribes, does not rest on the evidence of the mis-
sionaries alone, but is the opinion of all who have travelled
among them. They are described as polite and unobtru-
sive. Even the children are more peaceable than other chil-
dren, and although hundreds may be seen together at play,
there is no quarrelling among them. They have learned to
observe Sunday, and will not raise their camp on that day ;
they also spend a part of it in prayer and religious cere-
monies. The chief assembles them to prayer in which they
all join in an occasional chorus. He then exhorts them to
good conduct. These customs were adopted before the ar-
rival of Christian teachers among them.

The religion, or rather superstitions, of the Indians of the
north-west coast, do not appear to differ greatly from those
of the tribes to the east of the Mountains. The supposed
simplicity of the Indian creed, as well as their equally ima-
ginary eloquence, have been the subject of much vague spe-
culation, founded on inaccurate observations. As an instance
of the vagueness with which the customs of the Indians are
sometimes described, it may be mentioned, that a very re-
spectable writer, in speaking of the Cheenooks, alludes to
assemblies around the council fire, taking up the tomihawk,
and displaying the scalps of their enemies, although such
customs were unknown in the Oregon territory.

188 Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

In like manner, when we hear the term Great Spirit so often
used in speaking of Indian superstitions, we are ready to sup-
pose that such an expression conveys the equivalent idea to
the Indian which it does to ourselves, and that their faith
was a simple natural theism. This, however, is very far
from being the ease. The religion of the Indian is merely a
kind of fetichism, consisting in charms and incantations. In
the narrative of Tanner, who lived from his childhood among
the Indians, and whose faithful and detailed narrrative is so
different from the speculations of certain writers, we find
that the religion of the Indian is merely a system of fetichism
similar to that which once prevailed among the Finns, and*
is found at the present day among the people of Siberia.
Among the Indians east of the Mountains, the fetiche, under
the name of medicine bag, is well known, and consists merely
of some object supposed to be possessed of mysterious powers.
Along with this, there is excitement produced by fastings,
incantations, and dream s. On the north-west coast the system
is similar ; and in a former paper, to which allusion has been
already made, there is an interesting account by Dr Tolmie
of the superstitions of the Haeeltruk. In the Oregon terri-
tory, the term medicine-man is more appropriate than it is
to the east of the Mountains ; for, on the Columbia, the chief
influence is derived from expelling diseases by means of
charms snd mystic ceremonies.

Connected with the religion of these Indians, their mode
of interment deserves notice. It is remarkable, that the
simple and natural process of committing the body to the
earth, is rarely practised by the American Indians. Among
the ancient Peruvians, the body was wrapped up in mats, and
interred in a sitting posture, the same posture in which the
dead are represented in the picture writings of the Mexi-
cans. On the north-west coast, the body is sometimes placed
in a box, and deposited in the crevices of the rocks* or put
into a canoe, and raised upon props, where it dries, and be-
comes a mummy, and so remains until the body and the
canoe fall into decay. The custom of burning the body, al*
though uncommon, was practised among the Carriers of New
Caledonia. Mr Dunn informs us, that, like the people of

Inhabiting the North-fTest Coast of America, 189

Hindostan, they used, until lately, to bum their dead, a cere-
mony in which the widow of the deceased, although not sa-
crificed, was obliged to continue beating the breast of the
corpse until it was consumed on the funereal pile. Instead
of being burned, she was obliged to serve as a slave the re-
lations of her deceased husband for a series of years, during
which she wore around her neck a small bag containing a
portion of the ashes of her husband. At the end of the al-
lotted time a feast was held, and she was declared at liberty
to cast off the symbols of her widowhood.

Another curious custom, of which, however, we have found
as yet only obscure notices of its existence on the north-west
coast, is what has been called the totem, among the Algonquin s,
among whom the institution exists in perfection. According
to this institution, an Indian tribe or nation is divided into va-
rious clans or families, each supposed to have a common de-
scent, bearing, as an emblem or surname, the appellation of
some animal or other object, which, among the Algonquins, is
called the totem of the clan. Individuals among the Indians
cannot marry within their own clan, but must seek a wife in a
clan bearing another totem ; and hence marriages into a close
degree of consanguinity are effectually prevented. The fe-
male children in many tribes follow the totem of the mother,
while the males follow that of the father. This system ap-
pears to be very general among the Indians, and even in
other barbarous nations ; and we find traces of it among the
Indians of the north-west coast. The Cheenooks generally
seek for wives among the Chiheelees, and vice versa ; and
thus Indian women may be found in places very remote from
the abode of their parents. Among the Koluschians and
northern tribes, there is the division of the dog and raven
clans, with numerous subdivisions. This system existed in
South as well as North America. Thus Piedrahita, in his
History of New Grenada, notices its occurrence among the
Panches, a tribe inhabiting that country. He says, " No
casaban los de uno pueblo con muger alguna del, porque
todos setenian por hermanos, y era sacro sancto para ellos e
impedimento de parentesco pero era tal su ignorancia, qui
si la proporia hermana nacia en deferenti pueblo, no escusaba

190

Dr John Scouler on the Indian Tribes

casarse con ella el hermano." The existence of this institu-
tion appears to have produced the very curious peculiarity of
Indian languages noticed by Mr Gallatin, that the women
use different words from the men to express family relation-
ships. In some Indian languages this peculiarity penetrates
even deeper into the language. Among the Moxas of South
America, the women and the men use different pronouns in
speaking to each other of things relating to each other. The
Kobang of the Australians appears to be the very same insti-
tution as the totem of the Algonquins ; and it would be inte-
resting to know if similar peculiarities pervade their lan-
guage.

Shahaptan.

Wallawalla.

Kleketat.

Man

Nama

Winsh

Wins

Boy

Naswae

Tahnutshint

Aswan

Woman

Aiat

Tilahi

Aiat

Girl

Piten

Tohauat

Pitiniks

Wife

Swapna

Asham

Asham

Child

Miahs

Isht

Mianash

Father

Pishd

Pshit

Pshit

Mother

Pika

Ptsha

Ptsha

Friend

Likstiwa

Hhai

Hhai

Fire

Ala

Sluksh

Sluks

Water

Tkush

Tshush

Tshaush

Wood

Hatsin

Slukas

Slukuas

Stone

Pishwa

Pshwa

Pshwa

Ground

Watsash

Titsham

Titsham

Sun

Wishamtuksh

Au

Au

Moon

.

. AHhai

Ailhai

Stars

Witsein

Haslu

Haslo

Clouds

Spalikt

Pashst

Rain

Wakit

Sshhauit

Tohtoha

Snow

Maka

Poi

Maka

Ice

Tahask

Tahauk

Toh

Horse

Shikam

Kusi

Kusi

Dog

Shikamkan

Kusi Kusi

Kusi Kusi

Buffalo

KokuUi

Musmussin

Musmussin

Male Elk

Wawakia

Wawakia

Winat

Female Elk

Taship

Tashipka

Winat

Grey Bear

Pahas

Wapantle

Black Bear

Jaka

Saka

Analmi

House

Snit

Snit

Snit

Gun

Timuni

Tainpas

Tuilpas

Body

Silaks

Waunokshash

Head

Hush us

Tilpi

Palka

Arm

Atim

Kamkas

Eyes

Shilhu

Atshash

Atshash

Inhabiting the Ncrrth-West Coaist of America. 191

Nose

Ears

Mouth

Teeth

Hands

Feet

Legs

Mocassens

Good

Bad

Hot

Cold

Far

Near

High

Low

White

Black

Red

Here

There

Where ?

When?

What?

Why?

Who?

W^hich ?

How much ?

So much

How far ?

So far

How long ?

So long

This

That

I

You

He, she,

We

Ye

They

Togo

To see

To say

To talk

To walk

To read

To eat

To drink

To sleep

it

Shabaptan.

WaUawalla.

KlekeUt.

Nathnu

Nathnu

Nosnu

Matsaia

Mat^iu

Him

Em

Am

Tit

Tit

Spshus

Spap

Alia

Ahwa

Waha

Waha

Wainsh

Tama

Ileapkat

Shkam

Shkam

Tahr

Skeh

Shoeah

Kapshish

MiUa

Tshailwit

Sakas

Sahwaih

Sahweah

Kenis

Kasat

Tewisha Kasat

Waiat

Wiat

Wiat

Keintam

Tsiwas

Tsa

Tashti

Hwaiam

Hweami

Ahat

Smite

Niti

Naihaih

Koik

Olash

Sunuhsimuh

Tshimuk

Tsimuk

Sepilp

Sutsha

Sutsa

Kina

Tshna

Stshiuak

Kuna

Kuna

Skone

Minu?

Mina?

Mam

Mana?

Mun?

Mun?

Mish ?

Mish?

Mish?

Manama ?

Maui?

Ishi?

Skiu?

Skiu?

Ma?

Mam?

Mas?

Milh?

Milh?

Kala

Kulk

Skulk

Miwail ?

Maal?

Kewail

Kwal

Mahae ?

Mnalh

Kohae

Kwalk

Ki

Tshi

Tshi

Joh

Kwa

Skwa

Su

Su

Suk

Sui

Sui

Suik

Ipi

Ipin

Pink

Nun

Nama

Nemak

Ima

Ena

Imak

Ema

Ema

Pamak

Kusha

Winasha

Winasha

Hakesha

Hoksha

Heisha

Nu

Nu

Tseksa

Siniwasa

Sinawasa

Wenasa

Winashash

Wasasha

Wasasha

Wasasha

Wipisha

Kwatashak

Makosha

Matshushask

Pinimiksha

Pinusha

192

Governor Reid on the Winds, Sfc.

Shahaptan.

Wallawalla.

Kleketat.

To wake

Waksa

Tahshisask

Tahshasha

To love

Watanisha

Tkeshask

Tkehsha

To take

Paalsa

Apalashask

To know

Lukuasa

Ashakuashash

Shukuasha

To forget

Titolasha

Slakshash

To give

Inisha

Nishamash

To seize

Inpisha

Shutshash

Wanapsha

To be cold

Iswaisa

Sweashash

Iswaiska

To be sick

Komaisa

Painshash

Painsha

To hunt

Tukuliksa

Salaitisas

Nistewasa

To lie

Mishamisha

Tshishkshash

Tshiska

To steal

Pakwasha

Pakwashash

Pakwasha

On the Winds, as influencing the Tracks sailed by Bermuda
Vessels ; and on the Advantage which may he derived from
Sailing on Curved Courses, when meeting with Progressive
Bevolving Winds. By Governor Reid of Bermuda.*

In high latitudes, the prevailing atmospheric currents,
when undisturbed, are westerly, particularly in the winter
season. As storms and gales revolve by a fixed law, and we
are able by observation to distinguish revolving gales from
steady-blowing winds, voyages may be shortened by taking
advantage of them.

The indications of a progressive revolving gale are, a de-
scending barometer with a regularly veering wind, or with
the wind changing suddenly to the opposite point.

In the northern hemisphere, storms revolve from right to
left, thus /^

In the southern hemisphere, storms revolve from left to
right, thus

o

The indications of a steady-blowing wind which will not
revolve, but blow in a straight-line direction, is a high baro-
meter remaining stationary. When the steady wind blows
from either pole, according to the side of the equator, the at-
mosphere will be both dry and cool. An increase of warmth

* The above notice was communicated to us through the kindness of a friend
of Governor Reid's.

Governor Reid on the Winds, ^c. 193

and atmospheric moisture, are indications of the approach of
a progressive revolving wind.

The first half of a revolving gale, is a fair wind from Ber-
muda to New York, because in it the wind blows from the
east; but the last half is a fair wind from New York to Ber-
muda. During the winter season, most of the gales which
pass along the coast of North America are revolving gales.
Vessels from Bermuda bound to New York, should put to
sea when the north-west wind, which is the conclusion of a
passing gale, is becoming moderate, and the barometer is ris-
ing to its usual level. The probability is, more particularly
in the winter season, that, after a short calm, the next suc-
ceeding wind will be easterly , the first part of a fresh revolv-
ing wind coming up from the south-west quarter.

A ship at Bermuda bound to New York or the Chesapeake,
might sail whilst the wind is still west, and blowing hard, pro-
vided the barometer indicate that this west wind is owing to
a revolving gale, which will veer to the northward. But as
the usual track which gales follow in this hemisphere is
northerly or north-easterly, such a ship should be steered to
the southward. As the wind at west veers towards north-
west and north, the vessel would come up, and at last make
a course to the westward, ready to take advantage of the east
wind at the setting in of the next revolving gale.

A vessel at New York and bound to Bermuda, at the time
when a revolving wind is passing along the North American
coast, should not wait in port for the westerly wind, but sail
as soon as the first portion of the gale has passed by, and
the NE. wind is veering towards north ; provided it should
not blow too hard. For the north wind will veer to the west-
ward, and become every hour fairer for the voyage to Ber-
muda.

A great number of gales pass along the coast of North
America, following nearly similar tracks, and in the winter
season make the voyages between Bermuda and Halifax very
boisterous. These gales, by revolving as extended whirl-
winds, give a northerly wind along the shore of the Ameri-
can Continent, and a southerly wind on the whirlwind's op-

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. N

194 Gfovemor Reid on the Winds, <^c.

posite side far out in the Atlantic. In sailing from Halifax
to Bermuda, it is desirable for this reason to keep to the
westward, as affording a better chance of having a wind blow-
ing at north, instead of one at south ; as well as because the
current of the Gulf Stream sets vessels to the eastward.

When vessels coming from Barbadoes or its neighbouring
West India Islands, sail to Bermuda on a direct course, they
sometimes fall to the eastward of it, and find it very difficult
to make Bermuda when westerly winds prevail. They should
therefore take advantage of the trade-wind, to make the 68°
or 70"" of west longitude, before they leave the 25° of latitude.

On a ship leaving England for Bermuda, instead of steer-
ing a direct course for the destined port, or following the
usual practice of seeking for the trade-winds, it may be found
a better course, on the setting in of an easterly wind to steer
west, and if the wind should veer by the south towards the
west^ to continue on the port-tack, until by changing, the ship
could lie its course. If the wind should continue to veer to
north, and as it sometimes does even to the eastward of north,
a ship upon the starboard-tack might be allowed to come up
with her head to the westward of her direct course. On both
tacks she would have sailed on curved lines, the object of
which would be, to carry her to the westward against the pre-
vailing wind and currents. There is reason for believing
that many of the revolving winds of the winter season origi-
nate within the tropics ; and that ships seeking for the steady
trade- winds, even further south than the tropic, at that period
of the year, will frequently be disappointed. How near to
the equator the revolving winds originate in the winter sea-
son, is an important point not yet sufficiently observed. The
quickest voyage from England to Bermuda therefore, may
perhaps be made, by sailing on a course composed of many
curved lines, which cannot be previously laid down, but which
must be determined by the winds met with on the voyage.
This principle of taking advantage of the changes of revolv-
ing winds, by sailing on curved lines, is applicable to high
latitudes in both hemispheres when ships are sailing westerly.

GOVEENMENT HOUSE, BERMUDA,

21« March 1846.

( 195 )

Origin of the Constituent and Adventitious Minerals of Trap
and the Allied Rocks. By J AMES D. Dan A.

The minerals of trap and the allied rocks may be arranged
in two groups :

1. Those essential to the constitution of the rock, or inti-
mately disseminated through its texture.

2. Those which constitute nodules or occupy seams or cavi-
ties in these rocks.

Of the first group, are the several feldspars, with augite,
hornblende, epidote, chrysolite, leucite, specular, magnetic
and titanic iron ; and occasionally Hauyne, sodalite sphene,
mica, quartz, garnet, and pyrites. Of the second group are
quartz, either crystallized or chalcedonic, the zeolites or hy-
drous silicates, Heulandite, Laumonite, stilbite, epistilbite,
natrolite, scolecite, mesole, Thomsonite, Phillipsite, Brew-
sterite, harmotome, analcime, chabazite, dysclasite, pectolite,
apophyllite, Prehnite, datholite, together with spathic iron,
calcspar and chlorite. Native copper and native silver might
be added to both groups, yet they belong more properly to
the latter. To the same also might be added sulphur, and
the various salts that are known to proceed from decomposi-
tions about active volcanoes, including the crystallizations of
alum, gypsum, strontian, &c. ; but these more properly form
still a third group, and being well understood, will not come
under consideration in the remarks which follow.

We observe, with regard to the minerals of the first group,
that they are all anhydrous — that is, contain no water. In
this respect, the essential constituents of trap and basalt are
like those of granite and syenite. But in the second group,
consisting of the minerals occurring in cavities or seams, all
contain water except pectolite, quartz, calcspar, and spathic
iron ; and the last three are known to be always deposited
in an anhydrous state from aqueous solutions.

We proceed to give a few brief hints with regard to the
first group, intending only to glance at this branch of the
subject, and then take up more at length the group of ad-
ventitious minerals.

196 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals,

Essential constituents of modern Flutonic Bocks. — It is ob-
vious that modern igneous rocks, although in some cases de-
rived from the original material of the globe, have proceeded
to a great extent from a simple fusion of rocks previously
existing, and especially of the older igneous rocks. In ac-
cordance with this view, we may with reason infer that the
trachytes and porphyries, which consist essentially of feld-
spar, have proceeded, in many instances at least, from feld-
spathic granites ; the basalts and trap from syenites, horn-
blende or augitic rocks.

A theory proposed by Von Buch supposes that the feld-
spathic rocks, as they are of less specific gravity, are from
the earliest eruptions, or the more superficial fusings, while
the heavier basalt has come from greater depths. Darwin
thus accounts for the granites of the surface being inter-
sected by basaltic dykes ; the latter having originated from
a deeper source, where their constituents took their place at
some former period, from their superior gravity. It virtually
places hornblende rocks below feldspathic granites in the in-
terior structure of our globe. The hypothesis is ingenious,
and demands consideration ; but it may not be time to give
it our full confidence.

But supposing these more modern rocks to have been de-
rived from the more ancient granitic — what has become of
the quartz and mica which occur so abundantly in the latter,
while they are so uncommon in the former ? By what changes
have they disappeared \

In the fusion produced by internal fires, the elements are
free to move and enter into any combinations that may be
favoured by their afiinities. If silica, alumina, magnesia,
lime, iron, the alkalies, potash, and soda, were fused together
— and these are the actual constituents of basalt — what re-
sult might we expect 1 From known facts, we should con-
clude that the silica would combine with the different bases,
and these simple silicates would unite into more complex
compounds. The silicates of alumina and the alkalies or
lime, form thus one set of compounds, the feldspars : the
silicates of magnesia and the isomorphous bases, iron and
lime, another set, to which belong augite, hornblende, and

Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals. 197

chrysolite ; and if much iron is present, we might have, with
the lime and alumina, the mineral epidote. The experiments
of Berthier, Mitscherlich, and Rose, and the facts observed
among furnace slags, confirm what is here stated.

But not to go back to a resolution of the fused minerals into
their elements, we may consider for a moment what changes
the minerals themselves might more directly undergo in the
process of fusion.

Much of the mica in granite differs from feldspar, in con-
taining half the amount in silica in proportion to the bases —
the bases in each being alumina and potash or soda. The
change, then, in the conversion of the mica into feldspar, would
require an addition of silica, which might be derived from the
free quartz of granite. Other varieties of mica contain mag-
nesia, which would go towards the formation of some mineral
of the magnesian series. It is possible that trachytes and
porphyry have thus been made from granite ; but trap rocks
could not have been so derived, as they contain from 10 to 25
per cent, less of silica.

Again, hornblende and augite are so nearly related, that
they have been considered by Rose the same mineral, the
different circumstances attending the cooling giving rise to
the few peculiarities presented. There can be no difficulty,
therefore, in deriving augite by fusion from hornblende rocks.
This, moreover, has been actually confirmed by experiment.

Augite, by giving up half of its silica, and receiving addi-
tional magnesia in place of its lime, is reduced to chrysolite.*
The Gehlenite, nepheline, anorthite, and meionite of Vesu-
vius, contain, like scapolite, only 40 to 45 per cent, of silica
and a large proportion of lime ; and it is no improbable sup-
position, judging from the small amount of silica, and from
the lime present, that scapolite rock, or rather limestones
containing scapolite, may have contributed in part towards
the lavas of that region. The ejections of unaltered granu-
lar limestones, and many mineral species pertaining to such
beds, strongly support this view ; and it is no less sustained
by the fact, that in the Vesuvian basalts, Labradorite, which

* The formula of augite is R» 8i« ; that of chrysolite, R» Si.

198 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals.

includes lime instead of the alkalies, replaces common feld-
spar. The original feldspar seems to have given way to leu-
cite and Labradorite.*

An important source of new combination is found in the
sea-water which gains access to the fires of volcanoes. The
decomposition which takes place eliminates muriatic acid, so
often detected among volcanic vapour ; but the soda and other
fixed constituents remain, to enter into combination with
some of the ingredients in fusion. Is not this one source of
the soda forming the soda feldspar, or albite, and of the mu-
riatic acid and soda in sodalite ? Phosphates have been long
known to occur occasionally in volcanic rocks, and lately phos-
phoric acid has been proved to be generally common in small
quantities. Sea-water is also a very probable source of this
ingredient, as has been shewn by late analyses of the same by
Dr Jackson.

These few hints are barely sufficient to indicate something
of the interest that attaches to this field of investigation,
which the future developments of science will probably open
fully to view. We do not attempt to explain why in these
modern fusings, mica should not have remained mica, and
the quartz still free uncombined quartz. The facts prove
some peculiarity of condition attending the formation of the
granitic rocks. Of this condition we know nothing certain,
and can only suggest the common supposition of a higher heat
and slower cooling, attending a greater pressure and differ-
ent electrical conditions, and the same circumstances may
have existed during the granites of different ages.

With these brief suggestions, I pass to the second division
of the subject before us.

2. Minerals occupying cavilies and seams in amygdaloidal
trap or basalt. — These minerals have been attributed to a
variety of sources, and even at the present time there are
various opinions respecting their origin. According to some

* Using H for the bases and Si for silica, the formula of leucite is H Si^ ;
that of common feldspar, R Si ** ; that of Labradorite, R Si. From this, it ap-
pears that feldspar may be reduced to leucite by giving up one third of its
silica, the bases being the same in the two ; and with this excess, and other si-
lica combining with the lime at hand, Labradorite might be formed.

Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Miner aU. 199

writers, they result from the process of segregation ; — that
is, a separation of part of the material of the containing rock
during its cooling by the segregating powers of crystalliza-
tion ; and in illustration of the process we are pointed to the
many segregations of feldspar, quartz, and mica, in granite
and other rocks, the siliceous nodules in many sandstones,
the pearlstones in trachytes and obsidian. Others have
thought them foreign pebbles, enclosed at the time the rock
was formed. Again, they are described as proceeding from
the vapours which permeated the rock while still liquid, and
which condensed as the rock cooled, in cavities produced by
the vapours. By a few it is urged, admitting that the cavities
are inflations by vapours like those of common lava, that
tJiey may have been filled either at the time the rock cooled
or at some subsequent time, either by crystallization from
vapours, or from infiltrating fluids, but more generally the
latter.

Of these views we believe the last to accord best with the
facts. MacCulloch, in his system of Geology, — a work which
anticipated many of the geological principles that have since
become popular, — dwells at length on this subject, and sup-
ports the opinion here adopted with various facts and argu-
ments. Lyell also admits the same principles. A review of
the facts will enable us to judge of its correctness.

1. In the first place, the cavities occupied by the nodules
are in every respect similar to the common inflations or air-
bubbles in lava. These cavities are open and unoccupied in
common lava, and may be no less frequently so in the ejec-
tions under water ; and should they not be expected to fill in
some instances by infiltration \ They are the very places
where an infiltrating fluid would deposit its sediment, or col-
lect and crystallize, if capable of crystallization ; and such in-
filtrating fluids are known to permeate all rocks, even the
most solid, and especially if beneath a body of water. It is
evident, therefore, that we are supporting no strange or im-
probable hypothesis. On some volcanic shores one variety
of the process may be seen in action. The cavities of a lava
may be detected in the process of being filled with lime from
the sea-water washing over dead shells or coral sand, and at

200 Mr J. D. Dana on the Ori(/in of Trap Minerals.

times a perfect amygdaloid is formed. But the positions and
characters of the minerals themselves establish clearly the
view we support.

2. The mineral in these cavities sometimes only fills their
lower half, as if deposited from a solution ; and again, it in-
crusts the upper half or roof, as if solidified on infiltrating
through. In the large geodes of chalcedony, stalactites de-
pend from above like those of lime from the roof of caverns ;
and, as MacCulloch states, the stalactite is often found to
correspond to an inferior stalagmite, the fluid silica having
dripped to the bottom, and there become solid ; moreover the
superior pendent stalactite is somethnes found united with
the stalagmite below. The same results are here observed
as with lime stalactites in caverns, and often a similar lami-
nated or banded structure, the result of deposition in succes-
sive layers. Such results can proceed only from a slow and
quiet process, — a gradual infiltration of a solution from above
into a ready formed cavity ; they cannot be supposed to arise
from ascending vapours, or gaseous emanations from below,
no more than the stalactite in the limestone cavern.

Another fact is often observed. A geode of quartz crystals,
sometimes amethystine, — in which every crystal is neatly and
regularly formed, is found with the surface coated over with
an incrustation of chalcedony, the part above hanging in
small stalactites; and this chalcedonic coat sometimes scarcely
adheres to the crystals it covers, — or is even loose, and may
be easily separated. There can scarcely be a doubt of a sub-
sequent infiltration in a case of this nature.

We might rest our argument here, since the fact being as-
certained with regard to quartz, it is necessarily established
as a general principle with reference to the zeolites and other
amygdaloidal minerals : for quartz or chalcedony, when pre-
sent in these cavities, is, with rare exceptions, the lower or
outer mineral. We find zeolites implanted on quartz, but
very seldom quartz on zeolites. I have met with no instance
of the latter, while the former is the usual mode of occurrence.
Any deduction, therefore, respecting quartz, holds equally
for the associated minerals.

How a cavity coated with a deposit of chalcedony can still

Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals. 201

be afterwards filled up with other minerals, has been deemed
a mystery in science, but the possibility of it is now not
doubted. Even flint and agate, as MacCulloch states, are
known to give passage to oil and sulphuric acid ; and much
more will this take place in the moist rocks before the agate
has been hardened by exposure to the air. Silica remains in
a gelatinous state for a long period after deposition, and in
this condition is readily permeable by solutions. It is not
necessary that the fluid which has acted the part of a solvent
and filled the cavity, should yield place to another portion of
fluid ; for the process of crystallization having commenced, a
new portion of the material is constantly drawn into the
same fluid, and the necessary chemical changes are also pro-
moted by the inductive influence of the changes in progress
— the catalytic action as it is called — one of the most effi-
cient, and at the same time one of the most universal, agen-
cies in nature.

Other evidence with reference to amygdaloidal minerals is
presented by the zeolites themselves.

3. The zeolites occupy veins or seams as well as cavities.
Often the seams were opened by the contraction of the cool-
ing rock, and at other times they were of more recent origin.
In either case the minerals filling these seams must be sub-
sequent in formation to the origin of the rock itself, and could
not have proceeded from vapours attending the eruption.
These seams sometimes open upward, and can be seen to have
no connection with the parts below, the rock in this portion
being solid. Origin from above or from either side, is the
only supposition in such cases.

Messrs Jackson and Alger, in their valuable memoir on the
Geology of Nova Scotia, mention the occurrence of crystals
of analcime attached to the extremity of a filament of copper,
the copper having been the nucleus about which the solution
crystallized, and state that their formation must have been
subsequent to the formation of the rock.

4. Zeolites, moreover, have been found forming stalactites
in basaltic caverns, as was observed by the writer in some of
the Pacific islands ; and Dr Thomson has described and ana-

202 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals.

lyzed one (Antrimolite) from Antrim in Ireland, near the
Giant's Causeway.

These facts favour throughout the view we urge, that the
amygdaloidal minerals have in general resulted from infiltra-
tion, and were not necessarily formed simultaneously with
the erupted rock.

5. We remark farther, that no lavas have ever been shewn
to contain, at the time of ejection, any of the zeolitic mine-
rals. The zeolites of Vesuvius are known to occur only in
the older lavas, and afford no evidence against our position.
The cavities in lavas, as far as observed, are empty as they
come from the volcanic fires, with the exception of those
containing sparingly some metallic ores which are condensed
within them. Considering the fusibility of the zeolites and
their easy destruction by heat and by volcanic gases, sulphu-
reous and muriatic, we should, a priori^ say that they could
not be formed under such circumstances.

6. Besides, as we have stated, none of the proper consti-
tuents of trap or basalt — or the minerals disseminated
through these rocks, — contain water. They are all anhy-
drous. The minerals formed accidentally in furnaces are
anhydrous. The constituents of granite, syenite and por-
phyry are all anhydrous. It is only those minerals which
are found in geodes or seams that contain water. Of equal
importance is the fact, that none of the essential constituents
of these rocks have ever been found in these geodes or cavi-
ties along with the zeolites, as might have been the case had
they been formed together, by segregation or otherwise.
Neither feldspar, although so abundant, nor augite, nor chry-
solite, have been found filling, like zeolites, or with them, the
cavities of amygdaloid. There is, then, a wide distinction be-
tween anhydrous constituents of these rocks, and the hydrous
zeolitic minerals.

A few zeolites have been found in granite or gneiss, but
they are so disseminated that they can be shewn to be of
more modern origin than the rock, and to have resulted from
some decompositions of true granitic minerals. They differ
entirely in their mode of distribution from the feldspar, gar-
net, &c., of granite. Along with a decomposing feldspar, it

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 203

is not unusual to find stilbite in the cavities formed by the
decomposition.

Zeolites also have been found disseminated through the
texture of basalt, clinkstone, &c., like the feldspar, augite,
fee. But the proportion varies widely, and in some parts of
the same bed they are found to be wanting ; so that we have
sufficient reason for classing these disseminated zeolites with
those in the cavities, as formed or introduced by infiltration.

(To be contiuued.)

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Monday J 2d March 1846.
Sir Thomas M. Brisbane, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following Communications were read : —

1. On the recent Scottish Madrepores, with Remarks on the
Climatic Character of the Extinct Races. By the Rev.
Dr Fleming.

The author, in this communication, referred, in the first instance,
to the three species of Lamellif'erous Polyparia, described in his
*' British Animals," Edin., 1828, exhibiting specimens of the Caryo-
phyllea cyathusy and Turbinolia horealis of that work, together with
a characteristic drawing, by the late Mrs Hibbert, of the Pocillopora
interstinctay there alluded to as a native of the Zetland seas. He
then exhibited a specimen, six pounds in weight, of the Madrepora
prolifera of Miiller, which was found last summer by fishermen,
their lines having become entangled with it, in the sea between the
islands of Rum and Egg. This species was known to Pontoppidan,
as a native of the Norwegian seas, and is now ascertained to be a
native of the Hebrides.

The author next exhibited specimens of the Turbinolia sepulta of
the crag, together with a new and recent species from the Cape of
Good Hope. In conclusion, the author observed, that while, from
an acquaintance with the habits of a few individuals^ we could safely
speculate respecting the geographical and physical distribution of a
species, we cannot, from our acquaintance with the history of one species
of a genus, predicate with any confidence respecting the character of
other species of the same genus. Thus, there are species of Madre-
pores natives of tropical seas, and there are species natives of the
North seas. After illustrating his views by a reference to the species
of the genera Bos and Elepha^y the author closed his observations by
stating, that the evidence, proving the climate, during the deposition

204 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

of the mountain limestone, to have been warmer than at present, as
derived from its contained organic remains, was defective, since the
organisms compared did not belong to individuals of the same species,
but to species of similar genera.

2. On the principle of Vital Affinity, as illustrated by recent
Observations in Organic Chemistry. Part I. By Dr
Alison. Published in the present Number of the Edin-
burgh New Philosophical Journal.

Monday, 16th March 1846.
The Right Rev. BiSHOP Terrot, Vice-President, in the Chair.
The following Communications were read : — •

1. On the Personal Nomenclature of the Romans, with an

especial reference to the Nomen of Caius Verres. By
the Rev. J. W. Donaldson, Author of the New Cratylus.
Communicated by Bishop Terrot.

2. On the appearance of the Great Comet of 1843, at the

Cape of Good Hope, with illustrative Drawings. By
Professor C. P. Smyth. Communicated by the Secre-
tary.

3. On the Existence of Fluorine in the Bones from Arthur's

Seat. By Dr G. Wilson.

4. On the Composition of the Bones from Arthur's Seat. By

Dr Christison.

The author found that the bones of animals lately disinterred in
the course of the new drive, contained ^ (A' the quantity of gelatine
common in recent bones.

Monday, Qth April 1846.
Sir Thomas M. Brisbane, Bart., President, in the Chair.
The following Communications were read : —

1. On the Description of Oval Curves, and those having a

plurality of Foci. By Mr Clerk Maxwell junior ; with
Remarks by Professor Forbes. Communicated by Pro-
fessor Forbes.

2. On the Influence of Contractions of Muscles on the Circu-
lation of the Blood. By Dr Wardrop.

In this paper, Dr Wardrope states that he has endeavoured to
shew, by a series of observations and experiments, that the muscles,

On the Solubility of Fluoride of Calcium in Water, 205

besides being tbe active organs of motion, perform, by their contrac-
tions, an important office in the circulation of the arterial as well as
venous blood ; an office which has not hitherto been described by
physiologists, but which appears to be capable of explaining several
interesting phenomena in tlie living body, of which no satisfactory
account has yet been given.

3. On the Solubility of Fluoride of Calcium in Water, and
the relation of this property to the occurrence of that
Substance in Minerals, and in recent and Fossil Plants
and Animals. By Dr G. Wilson.

After a preliminary reference to the existence of fluorine in recent
and fossil bones, Dr Wilson stated that he had made a series of ex-
periments with a view to discover what solvent carried fluoride of
calcium into the tissues of plants and animals. His first trials were
made with carbonic acid, which was passed in a current through
water containing pure fluor-spar in fine powder suspended in it. The
fluor was by this treatment dissolved, yielding a solution which pre-
cipitated oxalate of ammonia, and when evaporated left a residue
which, on being heated with sulphuric acid, gave off hydrofluoric acid.

The author was, in consequence, inclined to suppose that carbonic
acid conferred upon water the power of dissolving fluoride of calcium.
But on observing that, long after the whole of that gas had been ex-
pelled by warming the liquid, the latter remained untroubled, he be-
came satisfied that water alone can dissolve fluoride of calcium, con-
trary to the universal statement of writers on chemistry.

On prosecuting the inquiry, he found that water at 212° dissolved
more of the fluor than water at 60°, but he has not yet ascertained
the proportion taken up by that liquid at either temperature.

The aqueous solution of fluoride of calcium was found to give, with
salts of baryta, a precipitate which required a large addition of hy-
drochloric or nitric acid to redissolve it. The author pointed out
the difficulty which must in consequence occur, in distinguishing be-
tween dissolved fluoride and sulphates, and suggested that fluorides
may have been mistaken for sulphates in the analysis of mineral
water.

He referred also to the objection which must now lie against the
present method of determining the quantity of fluorine present in
bodies, consisting, as it does, in converting that element into fluoride
of calcium, which, in the course of the necessary analytical opera-
tions, is washed freely, and must be sensibly diminished in quantity ;
a fact which has of necessity been hitherto overlooked. Dr Wilson
stated that he was not yet able to suggest an unexceptionable quan-
titative process ; but that the fluoride of barium, being much less
soluble than the fluoride of calcium, might, in the meanwhile, be sub-,
stituted for it in the estimation of fluorine.

206 Proceedings of the Boyal Society of Edinburgh,

The author proceeded to state, that, in consequence of the obser-
yations he had made as to the solubility of fluoride of calcium in
water, he had been led to look for that body in natural waters, and
had found it in one of the wells of Edinburgh, namely, in that sup-
plying the brewery of Mr Campbell in the Cowgate, behind Minto
House. At the same time, he stated that preceding observers had
already found it in other waters. He believed, however, that he
was the first to detect it in sea-water, where, by using the bittern or
mother-liquor of the salt-pans in which water from the Frith of Forth
is evaporated, he had found it present in most notable quantity. The
author referred to the presence of fluorine in sea- water, as adding an-
other link to the chain of observed analogies between that body and
chlorine, iodine, and bromine.

Dr Wilson further stated, that he had confirmed the observations
of Will, as to the presence of fluorine in plants, and Berzelius' dis-
covery that fluorine exists in the secretion from the kidneys ; and
bad, in addition, detected fluorine in the blood and milk, in neither
of which has it been hitherto suspected to occur. The paper was
concluded by some observations on the presence of fluorine in fossils,
and its relations to animal life.

Monday 20th April 1846.
The Right Rev. Bishop Terrot, Vice-President, in the Chair.
The following communications were read : —

1. On the Constitution and Properties of Picoline, a new or-

ganic base from Coal-Tar. By Dr T, Anderson. In-
serted in the present Number of the Edinburgh New
Philosophical Journal.

2. Notice of Polished and Striated Rocks recently discovered

on Arthur Seat, and in some other places near Edin-
burgh. By David Milne, Esq.

Mr Milne stated, that, in the gully situated between Arthur Seat
and Sampson^s Ribs, a great extent of rock had been recently ex-
posed (by the removal of clay and other superficial deposits) which
was found to be smoothed as well as furrowed or scratched.

The gully is about 30 feet wide, at the lowest level to which it
has been hollowed out, and at one part, both of its sides are composed
of these smoothed furrowed rocks ; but, in general, it is only on one
side, viz., that next to Arthur Seat, that rock exists. There, the
appearances of smoothing and rutting extend for about 80 yards.

The gully runs about NW. and SE. by compass. The highest
point in it is near the north end. At both ends it is open and
sinks to a level with the adjoining level country. The gully is

On Striated Rocks on Arthur Seat, 207

about 200 feet above tbe level of Duddingston Loch, and 400 feet
above the sea. Arthur Seat forms on the east side of it a precipi-
tous cliff of about 260 feet.

The walls of the gully consist (so far as yet exposed, in the for-
mation of the Victoria road), for about 5 feet upwards, of vertical
rock.

This rock towards the north end of the gully is a compact por-
phyry ; towards the south end, of friable porphyry. At the north end
the polishing has been greatest.

The scratches are in general nearly horizontal ; a few slope up-
wards to the south ; these are at the north end of the gully, where
it is narrowest.

The longest scratches are about 6 feet long, from ^ to ^ inch
deep and an inch wide.

There are, especially towards the south end of the gully, many
»pots of a few inches square, where there has been neither polishing
nor scratching. These all face towards the south.

The deposit immediately above those rocks, and which has com-
pletely filled up the gully, is a brown tenacious clay, full of boulders
of all sizes. The boulders consist of traps (some of them of rock not
existing in the neighbourhood) and sedimentary rocks. Whilst there
are sandstone fragments, which are very similar to those on Salisbury
Crag, there are limestones, supposed not to exist nearer than Fife.

This boulder clay is not so tenacious as the blackish-blue boulder
clay generally prevalent in the Lothians. It, however, resembles in
all respects a deposit of the same kind, existing at the foot of Samp-
son'& Ribs, which is about 160 feet below the level of the gully.

Above the boulder clay in the gully there is a mass of debris, de-
rived apparently from the crumbling of the rocks above on the face
of Arthur Seat. Three species of marine shells have been found in
this mass ; but, as human bones and Roman remains have also
been discovered in it, the probability is, that these shells have been
brought by human hands.

In the cuttings for the North British Railway, between Arthur
Seat and Musselburgh, the upper sides of the large boulders are ge-
nerally found smoothed and scratched. The scratches seem to be from.
NW. to WNW. by compass. On some of the boulders there are in-
dications of more recent scratches running W. ^ S. by compass.

The boulders in the railway cuttings between Haddington and
Dunbar exhibit scratches running from NW. to WNW.

The opinion formed by the author on these data was, —

(1.) That the agent which had polished and scratched the rocks
on Arthur Seat, was the same as that which had polished and
scratched the boulders,

(2.) That it had acted from the north-westward over a large and
low district of country.

(3.) That the polishing and scratching had h*ieu effected by the

208 List of Patents. ^

gravel and angular blocks existing in the boulder clay and diluvial
gravel.

(4.) That there had been rushes of water along the country,
which bore along the mud, sand, gravel, and boulders now spread
over the country, and which, in passing over the rocks and large
boulders, smoothed and rutted them.

(6.) That, at this period and subsequently, water must have stood,
in a comparatively tranquil state, above the level of Sampson's Ribs,
to account for the beds of sand existing on the south side of Artliur
Seat, and at a level of 200 feet above Duddingston Loch.

(6.) That the outline or configuration of the district, thus sub-
merged, could not have been materially different from what it now
presents.

3. Results of the Makerstoun Observations, No. II. On the
Relation of the Variations of the Vertical Component,
of the Earth's Magnetic Intensity to the Solar and Lu-
nar Periods. By J. Allan Broun, Esq. Communicated
by General Sir T. M. Brisbane, Bart.

List of Patents granted for Scotland from 2Sd March to
22d June 1846.

1. To Julius Adolph Detmold, of the city of London, merchant,
being a communication from abroad, " improvements in the means of
applying steam as a motive power." — 23d March 1846.

2. To Alexander Bain, of Hanover Street, Edinburgh, engineer, "im-
provements in electric clocks and telegraphs, parts of which improvements
are applicable to other purposes." — 25th March 1846.

3. To James Ivers, of Preston, in the county of Lancaster, machine-
maker, " certain improvements in machinery, or apparatus for preparing,
roving, and slubbing cotton, wool, and other fibrous substances." — 30th
March 1846.

4. To James Stokoe, of Newton, in the county of Northumberland,
mill- Wright, " improvements in purifying the vapours arising from smelt-
ing, and other furnaces, and in recovering therefrom the useful matters
which may be intermixed therewith." — 2d April 1846.

5. To William Mather and Colin Mather, of Salford, in the county
of Lancaster, engineers, " certain improvements in boring earth, stone,
and subterraneous matters, and in the machinery, tools or apparatus ap-
plicable to the same." — 2d April 1846.

6. To Charles Cowan, paper manufacturer at Valleyfield, near Peni-
cuick, in the county of Edinburgh, " improvements in the manufacture of
paper, millboard, and other similar substances," which is partly his own
invention, and partly the invention of a foreigner. — 3d April 1846.

7. To George Daniel Bishopp, of Paddington, in the county of Mid-
dlesex, civil-engineer, ** improvements in certain engines or machines

List of Patents. 269

used for obtaining mechanical power, and for raising and impelling
fluids."— 6th April 1846.

8. To Henry Smith, of Liverpool, engineer, ** improvements in the
manufacture of wheels for railways, and in springs for railway and
other carriages, and in aide guards for railway carriages." — 6th April
1846.

9. To William Unsworth of Derby, silk manufacturer, *' certain im-
provements in looms for weaving." — 7th April 1846.

10. To Pierre Armand Lecomte de Fontainemoreau, of Skinner's
Place, Size Lane, in the city of London, being a communication from
abroad, *' certain improvements in apparatus for raising and supporting
vessels and other floating or sunken bodies, and its application for the
better prevention of life and property." — 8th April 1846.

11. To Henry Mandeville Meade» of the city of New York, in the
United States of America, gentleman, being a communication from abroad,
" improvements in distilling from Indian com and other grain." — 9th
April 1846.

12. To Henry Mandeville Meade, of the city of New York, in the
United States of America, gentleman, being a communication from abroad,
" improvements in the manufacture of bread." — 9th April 1846.

13. To Benjamin Fothergill, of Manchester, in the county of Lan-
caster, machine-maker, " improvements in certain parts of machinery
used in the preparation for spinning, and in the spinning and doubling of
cotton, wool, and other fibrous substances." — 9th April 1846.

14. John Robert Johnson, of Alfred Place, Blackfriars, in the
county of Surrey, chemist, " improvements in purifying gas, and in the
treatment of products of gas-works." — 9th April 1846.

15. Reuben Goodale Fairbanks, of Cecil Street, in the county of
Middlesex, civil-engineer, being a communication from abroad, " certain
improvements in machinery or apparatus for making moulding or manu-
facturing bricks, tiles, and other articles from earthy or plastic materials."
—13th April 1846.

16. Alexander Alliott, of Lenton, in the county of Nottingham,
" certain improvements in the rotatory machines employed for drying
and other purposes requiring the application of centrifugal force." — 14th
April 1846.

17. John Ainslie, of Alperton, in the county of Middlesex, brick and
tile manufacturer, *' certain improvements in the arrangements for the
manufacture of bricks, tiles, and other similar articles from clay and
other plastic substances, and in machinery or apparatus for the manufac-
ture of bricks."— 14th April 1846.

18. James Laming, of Mark Lane, in the city of London, merchant,
being a communication from abroad, " improvements in making the
cyanides, and ferrocyanides, of potassium and sodium." — 15th April
1846.

19. James Allingham, of Dublin, in the kingdom of Ireland, gentle-
man, and James M'Gauley, of the city of Dublin aforesaid, clerk, " cer-
tain improvements in steam-engines." — 16th April 1846.

20. John Lake, of Apsley, in the county of Hertford, civil engineer,
" certain improvements in propelling." — 16th April 1846.

21. Samuel Heseltine junior, of Bromley, in the county of Middle-
sex, civil-engineer, being a communication from abroad, " improvementa

VOL. XLL NO. LXXXI. — JULY 1846. 0

210 List of Patents.

in machinery or apparatus for dressing stones for grinding corn, grain,;
and other substances." — l7th April 1846.

22. William Mather, of Salford, near Manchester, in the county of
Lancaster, and Colin Mather, of the same place, millwrights and en-
gineers, *' improvements in metallic pistons." — 21st April 1846.

23. Edouard Auguste Desire Guichard, of Rue des Jenueurs,
Paris, in the kingdom of France, " improvements in printing calico and
other fabrics." — 21st April 1846.

24. Bennet Woodcrofts, extension of a patent for the period of six
years, of " certain improvements in the construction and adaptation of a
revolving spiral paddle for propelling boats and other vessels in water."
—21st April 1846.

25. William E coles, of Blackburn, in the county of Lancaster,
power-loom manufacturer, William Crook, of Livesey, hand-loom
weaver, and William Lancaster, of Blackburn, in the county of Lan-
caster, power- loom weaver, '* certain improvements in looms for weav-
ing."—24th April 1846.

2Q. John Barsham, of Long Melford, in the county of Suifolk, manu-
facturer of bitumen, " improvements in the manufacture of mattresses,
cushions, brushes, and brooms, and in machinery for preparing certain
materials applicable to such purposes." — 27th April 1846.

27. John Nott, of the city of York, gentleman, "certain improve-
ments in the means of communicating intelligence from one place to
another."— 29th April 1846.

28. William Price Struve, of Swansea, civil-engineer, *' improve-
ments in ventilating mines." — 29th April 1846.

29. Julian Van Oost, of Genbrugge, near Ghent, but now of Osna-
burg Street, Regent's Park, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, " im-
provements in treating seed, and in preparing materials used for ferti-
lizing land, and for aiding vegetation." — 29th April 1846.

30. George Hinton Bovill, of Millwell, and Robert Griffiths, of
Havre, in the Kingdom of France, engineers, " improvements in appa-
ratus applicable to the working of atmospheric and other railways, canals,
and mines, and improvements in transmitting gas for the purpose of
lighting railways and other places." — 29th April 1846.

31. Peter Carmichael, manager for Baxter Brothers and Company,
flax-spinners and linen manufacturers in Dundee, " improvements in
hackling or dressing flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances, and im-
provements in machinery for rubbing, stretching, and equalizing the
breadth of cloth made from flax, hemp, jute, and other fibrous sub-
stances."— 6th May 1846.

32. John Lloyd Bullock, of Conduit Street, Hanover Square,
chemist, being a communication from abroad, " improvements in the
manufacture of quinine." — 6th May 1846.

33. John Blyth, of St Anne Limehouse, in the county of Middlesex,
" an improved mode of closing the orifices of bottles or other vessels ap-
plicable to inkholders." — 7th May 1846.

34. Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham, near Bradford, in the
county of York, gentleman, " improvements in carding and combing
wool."— 11th May 1846.

35. To Alexander Parkes, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick,
iirtist, •' improvements in the preparation of certain vegetable and animal

Liisl of Patents. 2lt

•nbBtances, and in certain combinations of the same substances alone or
with other matters." — 11th May 1846.

36. To Pierre Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, of No. 15
New Broad Street, in the city of London, being a communication from
abroad, " an improved mode of constructing certain parts of the harness
of horses and other beasts of burden." — 11th May 1846.

37. Thomas Hancock, of Stoke, Newington, in the county of Middle-
sex, Esquire, " improvements in the manufacturing and treating of articles
made of caoutchouc, either alone or in combination with other substances,
and in the means used or employed in their manufacture." — 12th May
1846.

38. To William Garnet Taylor, of Halliwell, in the county of
Lancaster, cotton-spinner, and William Taylor, of Halliwell aforesaid,
labourer, "Improvements^in consuming smoke and economising fuel."—
13th May 1846.

39. To Bryan Donkin, of the Paragon, New Kent Road, in the county
of Surrey, civil- engineer, " improvements on wheels as applicable to rail-
way carriages, and on the mechanical contrivances by which railway car-
riages are made to cross from one"line of rails on to another line, or on
to what are generally called sidings." — 14th May 1846.

40. To Frederick Harlow, of Paradise Street, Rotherhithe, in the
county of Surrey, carpenter, " improvements in atmospheric railways."
—20th May 1846.

41. To Jean Joseph Ernest Barrucll, of Rue, St Jacque's, in the city
of Paris, in the kingdom of France, chemist, " improvement in working
of certain sulphurets to transform them into metals or oxides, and to
collect the latter, also to collect the oxides from oxidized ores equivalent
to these sulphurets." — 20th May 1846.

42. To George Hinton Bovill, of Millwall, in the county of Middle-
sex, engineer, being a communication from abroad, " improvements in
manufacturing wheat and other grain into meal and flour." — 25th May
1846.

43. To William Longshaw, of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster,
cotton-spinner, '* certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for
spinning and doubling cotton and other fibrous substances." — 27th May
1846.

44. To George Duncan, engineer, Edinburgh, *• an improved method
of making comfits, confectionary, lozenges, and all description of pan
goods, the machinery and apparatus for the manufacture of the same, or
for any other article to which the said apparatus or machinery may be
made applicable."— 28th May 1846.

45. To George Lowe, formerly of Brick Lane, Old Street, in the
county of Middlesex, but now of Finsbury Circus, in the said county,
civil-engineer, extension fov Jive years, " for increasing the illuminating
power of such coal-gas as is usually produced in gas-works ; also for con-
verting the refuse products from the manufacture of coal-gas into an
article of commerce not heretofore produced therefrom ; and also of a new
mode of conducting the process of condensation in the manufacture of gas
for illumination." — 2d June 1846.

46. To J^fiN Webster Hale, of Fitzroy Square, in the county of
Middlesex, gentleman, being a communication from abroad, " improve-

212 List of Patents.

ments in machinery for clearing or freeing wool and certain other fibrous
materials of burrs and other extraneous substances." — 4th June 1846.

47. To Nathan Defries, of Saint Martin's Lane, in the county of
Middlesex, engineer, " improvements in gas-meters." — 4th June 1846.

48. To Stephen R. Parkhurst, of Liverpool, in the county of Lan-
caster, machinist, *'a method of propelling vessels." — 4th June 1846.

49. To Moses Pool, of the Patent Office, London, gentleman, being a
communication from abroad, ** improvements in making fabrics from
fibrous materials." — 4th June 1846.

50. To John Webster Cochran, of Paris, in the kingdom of France,
engineer, " certain improvements in machinery for cutting and shaping
wood for ship-building and other purposes.'' — 12th June 1846.

51. To John Forrester, shawl- washer, in the town of Paisley, and
county of Renfrew, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, " cer-
tain improvements in machinery for fulling cloth manufactured of wool,
cotton, silk, and other fibrous materials." — 16th June 1846.

52. To Bennet Woodcroft, of Manchester, in the county of Lancaster,
consulting engineer, " an improved mode of printing certain colours on
calico and other fabrics." — 18th June 1846.

53. To Robert Reyburn, of Brown Street, Glasgow, chemist, ** im-
provements in making extracts from animal and vegetable substances."
-—18th June 1846.

54. To William Spiby, of Carrington, in the county of Nottingham,
engineer, " improvements in the construction of furnaces used for heating
water and other fluids." — 18th June 1846.

55. Francois Stanilas Meldon de Sussex, of Millwall, in the county
of Middlesex, manufacturing chemist, " improvements in the manufacture
of soda potash." — 18th June 1846.

5Q. Thomas Jones, of Salford, in the county of Lancaster, machine-
maker, ** certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for preparing,
Blubbing and roving cotton, wool, and other fibrous material." — 22d June
1846.

Scientific Intelligence and Notices of New Publications in next

Number.

THE

EDINBURGH NEW

PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL,

On the Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci, and on the Vol-
canic Phenomena which it exhibits ; with some Remarks on
Craters of Elevation, on the Distinctions between Plutonic
and Volcanic Rocks ^ and on the Theories of Volcanic Action
which are at present most in repute. With Two Plates. By
Charles Daubeny, M.D., F.K,.S., Professor of Chemistry
and Botany in the University of Oxford. Communicated by
the Author.*

The lively interest, which, of all classes perhaps of physi-
cal phenomena, the operations of a volcano are best calculated
to inspire, has been my principal motive for undertaking
three journeys, at intervals of nearly ten years apart, to the
south of Italy ; on my return from each of which, I felt it a
matter no less of duty than of inclination, to communicate
some account of what I had observed to such members of
my own University as felt any curiosity in researches of this
description.

Accordingly, soon after I came back from my first visit to
Italy in 1824, I submitted my views with respect to the ge-
neral nature and origin of volcanoes, in some lectures delivered
in this place, which have been incorporated in a work after-
wards published by me, but for some time past out of print.f

In these lectures I maintained, by an appeal, more parti-

* Read to the Ashmolean Society of Oxford.

t Description of Active and Extinct Volcanoes. 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1826,

VOL, XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. P

214 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

cularly, to the operations now proceeding about Vesuvius, in
Sicily, and in the Lipari Islands, that hypothesis which was
first propounded by Sir H. Davy, but which, towards the close
of his life, that great chemist, like an unnatural parent, ap-
pears to have cast aside.

And although Dr John Davy, in the Life he has published
of his brother, has taken me rather severely to task, for ven-
turing to suggest, that this cruel abandonment of his own pro-
geny was, on the part of Sir Humphrey, a matter of taste,
rather than of deliberate judgment, as though I had almost
impeached his moral conduct by attributing to him such a
change of sentiment on a scientific question,* yet I am still
prepared to contend, that, inasmuch as this illustrious philo-
sopher, at the very time when he avowed his preference for
a rival theory, acknowledged that the one he had originally
advocated was adequate to account for all the phenomena
which are known to accompany a volcanic eruption, f the opin-
ion he expressed is not entitled quite to the same deference
which it would otherwise command, nor to be regarded of
sufficient weight to bias us against the reception of the evi-
dence which may be offered in support of that hypothesis
which I have ventured to espouse.

In my first visit, then, to Naples, my attention was almost
exclusively directed, as that of most travellers is, to the
operations of the active, or semi-active volcanoes round about
this Capital ; but on my second, I extended my examination
to an extinct one in Apulia, situated near the eastern decli-
vity of the Apennines, and bearing, as it would seem, the
same relation to the Adriatic, which Vesuvius does to the
Mediterranean.

This volcano, known to the ancients as the Mount Vultur,
a name which it still retains, preserves to the present day

* See Davy's Life, vol. ii., pp. 124, 5.

t Phil. Trans, for 1828, p. 250. " Assuming the hypothesis of the existence
of such alloys of the metals of the earths as may burn into lava in the interior,
the whole phenomena may be easily explained from the action of the vs^ater of
the sea and air upon those metals ; nor is there any fact in any of the circum-
stances which I have mentioned in the preceding part of this paper, which can-
not be easily explained according to this hypothesis."

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 215

unimpaired the fomi as well as the structure of those por-
tions of the earth's surface which have been once the theatre
of igneous operations ; the medium of communication, as it
were, between the atmosphere and the interior of the globe.

Yet no manifestations of activity are recorded as having
been exhibited by it during those periods of Roman history
when such phenomena would have excited attention.

On the contrary, it appears, from the testimony of Horace,
to have presented then the same luxuriant vegetation, the
same wooded slopes, which we observe at present ; so that
the inference seems inevitable, that the grand display of vol-
canic activity, which must have accompanied the formation
of so considerable a mountain, was limited to a period long
anterior to the existence of historical records.

Of this locality, as well as of the allied phenomena exhi-
bited in a spot on the Apennines intermediate between it
and Mount Vesuvius, and in a line parallel with both, called
of old the Lake Amsanctus, where, just as was the case nearly
2000 years ago, in the time of Virgil, copious volumes of
carbonic acid gas are constantly given off into the atmo-
sphere from some internal focus of volcanic operations, I gave
an account on my return at one of the meetings of this So-
ciety, and the particulars are contained in a brief memoir
since published in our Transactions.*

One other volcano, however, or rather, I should say, ano-
ther distinct system of volcanic operations existing within
the Neapolitan territory, remained to be explored ; I mean
that of Rocca Monfina, near Sessa, at a distance of about 30
miles to the north of Naples.

This mountain, accordingly, it was my particular object, in
the third and last journey I undertook to the south of Italy^
to investigate ; and as it proved in some respects more inter-
esting, and more instructive, even than any of those which I
.had previously examined, I conceive that a brief account of
it will form a suitable appendix to the reports on volcanic

* Narrative of an Excursion to the Lake Amsanctus and to Mount Vultor
in Apulia, 1835, published by the Ashmolean Society.

216 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

phenomena, which I have on former occasions presented at
these meetings.*

Those who have travelled from Naples to Rome by the
lower and more frequented road, which passes by Mola de
Gaieta, Fondi, and Terracina, may recollect, that, after reach-
ing Capua, they soon lose sight of the volcanic tuff or pepe-
rino, which constitutes the subsoil in all directions around
Naples. They then find themselves upon a calcareous marl,
which, upon examination, will appear to belong to the tertiary
period, until they approach the hills which are ascended be-
fore arriving at the post-house of St Agatha. They there
perceive that the rock is again a kind of tuff, but one possess-
ing a different character, and therefore derived from another
source from that surrounding Naples, and that it may be
traced to a mountain called Rocca Monfina, which lies be-
tween the two towns of Sessa and Teano, one of which, Ses-
sa, stands at a distance of about half a mile from the inn of
St Agatha already noticed, whilst Teano is situated on the
eastern flank of the mountain looking towards the central
chain of the Apennines.

Both these cities will be familiar to the readers of Livy,
the first as Suessa Auruncorum, the last hold of the nation
of the Aurunci, the second as the seat of the rival state of
the Sidicini.

The Aurunci, however, in the earlier periods of Roman
history, had their capital at the summit, and not on the de-
clivity, of the mountain. Though they at one time appear
to have possessed themselves of a considerable tract in the
level country, both of Campania and of Latium, yet their
original site was the hilly country intervening. Thus they
are noticed by Virgil as a hardy race of mountaineers,

et quos de coUibus altis

Aurunci misere patres ;

and those who like myself have ascended the mountain will
regard it as admirably well adapted for the stronghold of a
warlike and predatory clan.

* The map in Plate I., p. 216, gives the relative positions of the three vol-
canoes alluded to.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 217

We first read of them, indeed, soon after the expulsion of
the Tarquins, as having formed a confederacy against Rome
with two Latin cities, Pometia and Cora, when, being defeated
with great slaughter, they are said to have taken refuge with-
in the walls of Pometia? The following year Pometia was
besieged without success, and one of the consuls being se-
verely wounded, the invading army sounded a retreat.

A second army was, however, quickly dispatched, and Ro-
man perseverance at length triumphed, Pometia being taken
by assault, after which it was so completely destroyed, that
though it had ranked as the principal town in the Pontine
Marshes, to which, indeed, it gave its name, no vestige of it
can now be discovered, and its very position is unknown.

Still the Aurunci remained unmolested in their capital on
the summit of Rocca Monfina, to which the Romans, as it
would appear, did not think it prudent to pursue them ; and,
although a few years afterwards, when this same people, in
consequence of the taking of the town of Suessa by the Ro-
mans, joined the Volscians, they were again defeated in bat-
tle, their independence was still preserved to them within
the range of the mountain fastness alluded to.

For the next century and a half the Aurunci appear to
have kept aloof from collision with the Roman power, but in
the year A.U.C. 410, they made a predatory incursion into
the Roman territory, which excited so much alarm, from the
fear lest, if unchecked, the whole Latin nation might rise, and
make common cause with them, that a dictator was appointed
to head the army sent to oppose their march. They were
indeed promptly repulsed; but nevertheless, in the great Latin
war which commenced about five years afterwards, they again
took part against the Romans, and shared in the defeat
which attended the arms of the confederates.

At the peace which followed, they were admitted in the
alliance of the Romans ; but from this moment may be dated
their ruin ; for soon afterwards the hostile nation of the Si-
dicini, either by surprise or treachery, effected that which the
Romans appear never to have attempted, namely, the expul-
sion of this people from their stronghold on the summit of
Rocca Monfina, which, with its walls and fortifications, was.

218 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

utterly demolished, the inhabitants being compelled to seek
refuge in the town of Suessa, the modern Sessa, in the plain
below.

After this event, all we read of the Aurunci is, that they
took part with the Samnites in theiiv^econd war against the
Romans, and, in consequence of their defeat, were obliged to
submit to receive a Roman colony, so that their existence as
a separate state was from this period destroyed.

That they should so long have resisted the Roman power,
and not been finally subdued, until deprived of their original
fortress on the top of Rocca Monfina, will be less a matter
of surprise, when I have described the structure of this re-
markable mountain.

After a rather steep ascent of about 2000 feet, we find
ourselves all at once within a very regular crater, the brim
of which is perfect on the west, where it forms the lofty and
precipitous Monte Cortinella, and may be traced in other
parts throughout its entire circumference, except on the side
which we enter on coming from Sessa, where it is so far
broken away, that there is scarcely any sensible descent be-
fore arriving within its precincts. The circular form and ex-
tent of the crater is however better observed from some point
near to its centre, than from its margin, and a remarka*ble
conical protuberance which rises up from the midst of the
crater, and reaches an elevation of 3200 feet,* considerably
exceeding the highest point which the margin of the latter
attains, gives us an opportunity of surveying its internal di-
mensions.

Its diameter is estimated at two and a half Italian miles,
and its circumference at seven and a half ; but a large portion
of its interior is occupied by the conical hill above noticed, the
structure of which I shall describe immediately.

It is no novelty to the traveller in Italy, to observe the
country increasing in verdure and fertility, in proportion as
he ascends to a higher elevation ; so that, after toiling up a
laborious ascent, unapproachable perhaps, except on foot, or

* Abich, uber die Natur, &c., der vulkanischen Bildungen. Braunschweig,
1841.

£difi rjS^ewJ^/u'l. ^Jour.

TZA-T^ JI.

Tbl.Jn^T.jja^e ZJ^.

Vesuvius, ifr Somm/v. accordinq to Strobe

.

4^

tar^v

'*^"^'3^

wSk

^W /,'V^H

^^. t?/" the Tuff

^

''J^^S^^mk

^^^^H

^^

. SonmuL and Vestvyuis after tJie time of Plitvy.

S^Croce

MTbiasyico

M'.Caihminc

aJTrachfte . t. Tuff.

SoctiP/7 of Rocai fMorvfiruv.

•.j4ppenirieIiTrustone.

Crnnuid Fian of Rocca Monftn^.

J.Fislu3-fc.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 219

by beasts of burden accustomed to mountain paths, he may
often find himself all at once in a valley, exhibiting, instead of
the sombre and lonely aspect which in colder countries is cha-
racteristic of mountain scenery, a display of those softer and
lovelierfeatures,whichtheintenseheatof thesun soon banishes
elsewhere from the landscape of southern latitudes, and teem-
ing with a population, more healthy, more vigorous, and appa-
rently more thriving, than he had left in the plain below.

Such is found to be the case in crossing the mountain
chain that separates Amalfi from the towns that lie scattered
along the Bay of Naples, after we have climbed up the flights
of rude steps, which often form the only medium of commu-
nication between the villages situated on the slope of the
hill, and the sea that flows at its base.

And in like manner, Rocca Monfina, isolated as it may ap-
pear, and remote from any great thoroughfare, comprehends
within its precincts two or three populous villages, several
churches, and more than one convent ; whilst its surface, so
far from presenting the rugged aspect which volcanic rocks
usually assume, is so uniformly clothed with vegetation, and
in a state of such complete culture, that, but for the amphi-
theatre of hills which encloses the table-land on its summit,
the circular form of which betrays the origin of the moun-
tain of which it forms the outer margin, no one could for an
instant dream, from its general physiognomy, that the whole
was of igneous formation.

And yet, when we look back to the accounts given by the
Roman writers of the state of Vesuvius, or rather of Monte
Somma, just before that mountain returned to a state of ac-
tivity in the second century of the Christian aera, we may see
reason to believe, that its condition must then have been
nearly similar to that of Rocca Monfina at present,* if we
only except the crater, which, not being composed of tufi^,
was entirely barren, even in the time of Strabo.f

* See engravings in Plate II., p. 219, which repi-esent the supposed form of the
mountain in the time of Straho, and its appearance subsequently to the time of
Pliny.

t See Martial IV., Ep. 44. Strabo, V. 24.

220 Br Charles Daubeny on the

In one respect, indeed, even here the analogy held good ;
for, like the crater of Eocca Monfina, that of Monte Somma
seems to have been broken away on one side, by which the
troops of Spartacus must have entered it when besieged by
the Roman legions ; and it was by climbing up the sides of
that portion which continued entire, that the army alluded
to contrived to escape from their dangerous position, and to
take the enemy in the rear.*

If such, then, was the condition of Rocca Monfina during
the early periods of the Roman Republic, we can hardly ima-
gine a position better calculated for the stronghold of such
a nation as the Aurunci are described to have been.

Their outpost Suessa, situate, as we have seen, near the
bottom of the mountain, commanded the approach to it on
that side where it was most accessible, and secured to them
a communication with the sea, with the cities of the Pontine
Marshes, and with their possessions in Campania.

If driven from thence, they had only to retreat to the sum-
mit of the mountain, where, posted on the external margin
of the crater, they would watch the movements of any invad-
ing force, long before it could gain the top of a mountain of
such height, and so difficult of access. In case of an attack,
they could drive their flocks and herds within the crater,
where they would find ample space and good pasturage,
without danger of molestation, unless, indeed, the enemy
were powerful enough to dislodge them from the vantage
ground which their army would occupy on the brim of the
crater, itself a natural fortress, inclosing within its ample
boundaries a large tract of fertile land.

Even if compelled to relinquish this stronghold, they still
had it in their power to take refuge on the conical and pre-
cipitous mountain which rises up from the very centre of the
crater, where a small force might easily set at defiance a
host of invaders.

On this mountain, called, from a cross which, till lately,
stood on its summit, the Monte de la Croce, they accordingly
appear to have placed their citadel ; for an Italian archseolo-

♦ Plutarch, in Vit. Crassi. Florus III. 20.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 221

gist* first pointed out, on a level spot nearly at the top of
this eminence, as vestiges of the ruined city, pavements of
streets, corners of apartments, foundations of buildings, three
cisterns for containing vv^ater, together with heaps of hewn
stones, and remnants of very strong walls.

Some of these were perceived by myself in the course of
my rambles over the mountain, and I found that they con-
sisted of the same material which composes the rock on
which they had been erected.

No better proof than this could be adduced of the antiquity
of the volcanic operations to which the mountain owes its
actual configuration ; for, as Sir William Gell observed to me,
when I once descanted with him on the extreme disproportion
which exists between the length of period embraced within the
several epochs of human and geological history, a nation like
the Aurunci, to whom it was of essential importance to have
near their city good pasturage for the flocks and herds on
which they depended for support, would never have selected
Rocca Monfina for their capital, not only if the volcano itself
had been in activity, but had not the stone which constitutes
the interior of the crater been already in such a state of de-
composition, as to be covered with herbage, and to yield abun-
dant crops.

"With regard to the geological structure of the mountain,
I may remark, that, with the exception of the conical mass
of rock in its centre which constitutes the Monte della Croce,
it is almost entirely composed of beds of a volcanic tuff, which
differs, however, from that met with round about Naples, in
the inferior degree of its compactness, in its more earthy ap-
pearance, in the more frequent presence of mica, and the rare
occurrence of the darker varieties of pumice.

I remarked a red ferruginous variety, sometimes in beds
alternating with the commoner kinds, and in one instance
forming a kind of vein running vertically through the strata.

The tuff continues from the town of Sessa till we approach
the outer brim of the crater, covered over with loose uncom-

* Perotta, Sede degli Aurunci, as quoted by Romanelli, vol. iii., p. 444.

222 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

pacted aggregates of volcanic sand, and of stones promis-
cuously heaped one upon the other.

In this tuff are often imbedded, not only its usual concomi-
tants, sand and rapilli, but also large blocks of a kind of por-
phyry, peculiar, as it would seem, to the products of the an-
cient volcanoes, of Monte Somma and of Rocca Monfina in the
Neapolitan territory, and of Acquapendente and Viterbo in
the Roman, characterised by crystals of leucite, which, at the
spot now under consideration, are often of extraordinary di-
mensions, sometimes two inches and a half in diameter, and
are accompanied by minute crystals of augite, both imbed-
ded in a felspathic basis. As the felspathic portion was more
readily decomposed than the imbedded crystals, these latter
might often be detached from their matrix in a state of great
integrity.

Near the little village of Tuoro de Sessa, which is situate
very little below the external margin of the ancient crater, we
observe a continuous bed of this leucitic porphyry, resting upon
the tuff, and extending for some distance along a ravine which
runs obliquely down the sides of the mountain. This was the
only instance that occurred to me, in which the above rock
appeared in any other form than that of detached blocks.

The most remarkable feature, however, in the physiognomy
of this mountain, and that which distinguishes it from every
other volcano I had seen, is the protrusion, from the interior
of the crater, of a conical mass of rock resembling trachyte,*
large enough to fill up two-thirds of the area comprehended
within the walls of the crater, and so lofty as to rise consi-
derably above the most elevated point in its margin ; consti-
tuting, indeed, when observed from a distance, the most con-
spicuous object embraced within the compass of the moun-
tain.

This trachytic rock is much more abrupt than the tuff

* See in Plate I. the section and ground plan of Rocca Monfina, the former re-
duced from a sketch taken by the artist who accompanied me on my visit to the
mountain ; the latter borrowed from a memoir by Professor Pilla, who, how-
ever, has represented the crater as though it were entirely effaced on the east,
whereas it appeared to me there distinctly traceable, although, undoubtedly,
much lower than it was on the west.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 223

through which it appears to have been protruded. In its
centre is a hollow plain, which may possibly have once been
a kind of crater, as there are still on three of its sides points
of rock that rise considerably above the central concavity, of
which the highest was formerly marked by a cross ; a cir-
cumstance which, as I have stated, served to give the name
of Santa Croce to the entire mountain.

The rock is generally of a reddish-brown colour ; its base
sometimes gray, fine-grained, and compact, but not of very
close texture, intimately interwoven with small felspathic
portions, which frequently shew a glassy fracture, as if from
fusion.

Much green augite, never, however, accompanied by even
a trace of hornblende, penetrates the whole mass ; and brown
mica, generally in hexagonal tables, is a predominant ingre-
dient. Abich regards the rock in the aggregate as forming
a link intermediate between trachyte and greenstone.

Pilla informs us, that the summit of this cone is exactly
equidistant from all parts of the crest of Monte Cortinella,
the only portion of the original crater that stands absolutely
intact, shewing, that it stands exactly in the centre of the in-
closed area ; a singular and improbable coincidence, unless
it had upheaved the rest of the mountain, but one presenting
no difficulty if we admit this supposition.

The rock alluded to, abrupt as it is, seems to be every-
where covered over with vegetation, and a fine chestnut
forest occupies a considerable portion of its flanks.

From its summit the eye embraces, on the one hand, Mola
di Gaieta, the range of mountains terminating in Cape Cir-
cello, and the whole extent of coast as far as Ischia and Ve-
suvius ; whilst on the other, the line of the Apennines, in-
cluding the monastery of Monte Casino, and other places
built upon the slope of these mountains, appear conspicuous.

The artist who accompanied me executed, from this and
other points of the mountain under consideration, a pano-
ramic view of the whole circuit which the eye comprehends,
of which the following ground-plan may serve to present
some idea :

224

Dr Charles Daubeiiy on the

-^

5 ^1 I tP

Now, the circumstance which, in a geological sense, at-
taches the highest interest to the structure of this mountain,
is the support which it appears to afford to the theory of ele-
vation ; the view, that is, which regards volcanic mountains,
as formed in tlie first instance by such a sudden upheave-
ment as might have brought the masses of rock of which
they consist, from a nearly horizontal position, into their pre-
sent inclined one, and at the same time caused them to occupy
a much higher relative level than they had done antecedently.

This view of the original formation of volcanic mountains
has been maintained by some of the most distinguished of
modern geologists ; by Humboldt, by Von Buch, by Elie de
Beaumont, by Dufrenoy, and by Abich.

But as it has met with able opponents, in Lyell and Scrope
in this country, and in Mons. Prevost in France, it is satis-

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 225

factory for those who adopt such a theory, to be able to jus-
tify their belief in it, by pointing out facts, which, like the
experimenta crucis in chemistry, seem irreconcilable with any
other hypothesis.

Of this description, as it appears to me, is the protrusion
of a compact mass of trachytic rock through the centre of a
mountain mainly consisting of materials so different from it,
as leucitic porphyry and volcanic tuff; and its attaining,
moreover, a height so considerable, as it has done, in the in-
stance before us.

The first difficulty in the way of supposing it formed by
the same operations as those which produced the mass of the
surrounding mountain, arises from the constitution of its com-
ponent parts, whi<}h is such as to imply a different origin for
the two. Moreover, it may be remarked, that if the Monte
della Croce had consisted of heaps of incoherent scoriae, or of
large fragments of slaggy lava piled one above the other,
like the cone which is now forming in the centre of the crater
of Vesuvius, its existence might then, indeed, have been ex-
plicable by an appeal to the everyday operations of which we
are eyewitnesses in volcanoes now in activity.

Had it even formed part of a stream of lava, which might
still be traced down the external flanks of the mountain, al-
though we should have wondered at its ample dimensions, we
might, nevertheless, have referred it to the same cause ; but
a conical mass of rock so considerable, and yet so completely
circumscribed within the area of the crater, could only, as it
would seem, have been brought into the position which it is
seen to occupy, by being upheaved all at once from the inte-
rior of the globe, whilst in a semi-fluid or pasty state, but
not in a condition of actual liquidity.

We have, therefore, before us an agent, which would not
only be competent to uplift the surrounding strata of tuff, but
which must necessarily have done so, if the latter had been,
at the time of its eruption, in an horizontal position ; and to
suppose them gradually formed by successive showers of loose
incoherent ejected materials, before the trachytic rock in its
centre was protruded, seems to imply a forgetfulness of the

226 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

height which the tuff has attained, and of the high angle at
which its beds are inclined.

Alternating strata of tuff and lava may, indeed, be ima-
gined to build up, in the course of time, a mountain of consi-
derable elevation, but a hill consisting of tuff alone, as ap-
pears to be the case with a large part, at least, of Rocca Mon-
fina, could only have attained its present height, which is at
least 2000 feet above the sea, in consequence of some eleva-
tory movement subsequent to its ejection ; and if this be ad-
mitted, we have before us, in the central trachytic rock of
Monte della Croce. an agent calculated to cause such an up-
heavement, and itself hardly to be accounted for without
such a supposition.*

I have not time at present to enter into the general dis-
cussion of the subject, and wall, therefore, only allude to two
facts relating to the volcanoes of Etna and Vesuvius, which
seem to shew that even there, where analogy would most
lead us to suppose that the whole of either mountain has been
formed by a succession of the same ejections which are con-
tinuing to increase it, the stubborn evidence of facts compels
us to adopt the elevatory theory.

The first of these facts is the circumstance so lucidly point-
ed out by Elie de Beaumont, and substantiated by him through
a most laborious induction of particulars ; namely, that a
stream of lava, having an inclination of more than six de-
grees, cannot form a continuous mass, and, therefore, that
the upper portion of Mount Etna, which rises with an incli-

*^ Although Rocca Monfina presents the best instance with which I am ac-
quainted, of a trachytic rock that has protruded through the centre of a crater,
without forming a current of lava extending down the external slope of the
mountain, yet we have something of the same kind in the crater of Astroni ;
and on the road from Rome to Florence we may observe, near Rosciglione, in
the Lake of Vico, the Lacus Cimini of antiquity, and an undoubted crater, a
conical hillock rising from the centre, the real structure of which is concealed
from the passing traveller by its being covered over with trees, but which may
very probably be of similar formation.

Amongst extinct volcanoes, however, a still more striking parallel is presented
in Auvergne by the Puy de Dome, a conical mountain consisting of that friable
description of trachyte called domite, which rises from the midst of an amphi-
theatre of volcanic rocks of quite a different character from itself, and of a much
darker colour from the intermixture of augite. See my work on Volcanoes.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci.

227

nation of 29° and 30°, must have been produced in some other
way.*

The second is the discovery of the same marine shells in
the tuff of Monte Somma which exist in that of the Phle-
grean fields ;t seeming to shew that the former, as well as
the latter, had once been under water, and, consequently,
could only have attained its present elevation by being up-
heaved.

The reluctance, indeed, which certain eminent geologists
in this country have evinced to the admission of this theory,
seems to have proceeded from an undue reliance upon the
truth of their favourite principle, that all the phenomena on
the earth's surface, which geology has revealed to us, are
brought about by a repetition of the same cycle of operations
which we are eyewitnesses of at present — that in the natural,
as well as in the moral world, there is a kind of circle of
events continually reproducing each other, and bringing us
back, after an interval of time, to our original starting place.

For my own part, I am inclined to think, that the analogy
of the moral world might lead to more hopeful conclusions ;
the laws of matter, indeed, like the passions and capacities

* See also Von Buch on Volcanoes and Craters of Elevation, Edin. Phil. Jour.,
vol. XXXV. for Oct. 1836.

t Professor Scacchi, in the Guida di Napoli (a valuable present made by the
king of Naples to each of the Scienziati who attended the Italian Congress held
at his capital in the autumn of last year), enumerates the following shells as
existing amongst the erratic blocks of Monte Somma, some of which he states
also to occur in the tuff of the same locality.

Pecten Jacobseus,

varius, . .

■ — sanguineus,

Ostrea cristata, .
Nucula margaritacea
Mytilus, . . ,
Solen legumen,
Tellina donacina,
Tellina exigua,
Erycina Renieri,
Corbula nucleus,
Mactra stultorum,
Venus exoleta,
Chione,

Marl.

+
+
+
+
+
+

Cardium echinatum,

• tuberculatum,

Volvaria triticea,
Buccinura mutabile,

macula, ,

Pleurotoma varia,
Scalaria communis, .
Turritella communis,
Natica Valenciennerii,
Dentalium dentalis, .

coarctatum,

Siliquaria anguina, .
Serpula cereolus.

Marl.

+
+
+

Lime-
stone.

228 Br Charles Daubeny on the

of man, have at all times, no doubt, continued the same ; but
it does not, therefore, follow, that the former may not have
produced different effects in ancient times, by operating upon
a different condition of the external v^^orld, and that the
series of events which we witness at present must have taken
place formerly, or will be repeated hereafter ; any more than
we need anticipate the recurrence of the same conditions of
civil life which we read of in ancient history ; or deny, that, in
the midst of continual alternations of retrocession, as well as
of advancement, the general tendency of human society is in
the direction of progress.

Waiving, however, these general considerations, I will just
point out certain facts, which seem to demonstrate that these
geologists must, in spite of themselves, admit of processes,
which, though all included under the general category of ig-
neous operations, are, nevertheless, distinguished from those
brought about by the influence of subterranean heat at the
present time, and of which, therefore, they can have no actual
experience.

Few of us in the present day will question the igneous ori-
gin of granite, and least of all those belonging to the school
of geology to which I allude ; it is impossible, indeed, to con-
ceive in what manner the particles of silex, alumina, and
alkali, composing this rock, could have been brought into
such close juxtaposition as to be able to exert their mutual
af&nities, and to form crystals of felspar and mica, unless the
mass had been in a state which admitted of a certain freedom
of motion in its constituent elements, for which an approach
to a state of fluidity seems absolutely requisite, whilst for this
fluidity we know no other probable cause than heat.

Nevertheless, it is an undoubted fact, that, on the one hand,
the igneous operations, whose effects we witness, have never
been found to give rise to ejections of granite ; and, on the
other, that those extensive rock formations, apparently re-
sulting from igneous processes, which, themselves destitute
of all traces of organic life, lie at the base of those strata
which contain the earlier manifestations of the same, and are,
therefore, considered to have preceded them, never present
to us the characters either of sub-aereal or of sub-marine

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 229

volcanoes, whether we regard their geological structure, and
relations to other rocks, or their constitution, as determined
by chemical analysis. For the first element in the considera-
tion I would appeal to the testimony of Professor Keilhau of
Norway, who, by a long series of elaborate observations, has
at least succeeded in shewing the difficulties of identifying
granitic rocks with modern igneous products ; and I am happy
to find Sir Roderick Murchison, in his recent work on Rus-
sia, adding the testimony of his extended experience to the
soundness of those views with respect to the primogeniture
of granite, which were prevalent in the earlier times of geo-
logy. For although its occurrence superimposed on second-
ary and even on tertiary strata cannot be denied, yet it does
not therefore follow, that those extensive formations of the
same kind which lie below the most ancient fossiliferous
rocks are to be placed with them under the same category.

We may, therefore, appeal to the production of a granitic
compound, as an example of a mode of igneous operation
differing from any which we witness at present, and brought
about under conditions which seem in the later periods of the
earth's history to be, to say the least, but of unfrequent oc-
currence.

But this is not all, for by reference to the discoveries of
modern chemistry we shall be enabled, if I mistake not, to
trace a very beautiful series of transitions, by which the
primeval granite has been converted, first into trachyte, and
afterwards into the various kinds of lava, &;c., which charac-
terise modern volcanoes.

On this point I will enlarge a little, as a full explanation
of it may tend to impart to you, as it has done to myself,
clearer notions as to the real nature of the products which
we are accustomed somewhat vaguely to designate under the
names of granites, trachytes, and the like.

Ask, for instance, a geologist what he means by the term
granite, and he will tell you that he understands an aggre-
gate of three minerals, namely, quartz, mica, and felspar, in
a state of intimate mixture.

But in order to learn what these several minerals really
are, the chemist is the fittest person to be consulted ; and from

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXIL— OCTOBER 1846. Q

230 Br Charles Daubeny on the

him we may collect, that quartz is nearly pure silex, coloured
by indefinite, though minute, quantities of certain foreign mat-
ters, but that mica and felspar are definite compounds, form-
ed of an acid and a base in exact atomic proportions. The
same, indeed, applies to all crystallized minerals consisting
of more than one ingredient, as was* first laid down by the
illustrious Berzelius — a generalization, by the by, which ranks,
perhaps, next to the great Daltonian law of definite propor-
tions, highest in the scale of importance amongst scientific
truths of this class, and was arrived at by him at a time when
so many difficulties lay in the way of its adoption, that we
cannot sufiiciently admire the penetration required for its dis-
covery, as well as the boldness which he evinced in promul-
gating it. Indeed, until the celebrated Prussian chemist Mits-
cherlich had developed his original views on the subject of
what he has called Isomorphism, we were stopped at the very
threshold of Berzelius' theory, by finding the same mineral to
contain, sometimes one base, sometimes another, without any
other apparent limitation, except that the proportions they
severally bore to each other should be as their atomic weights.
Thus garnet might contain alumina, peroxide of iron, lime,
magnesia, protoxide of iron, severally combined with silica,
or any one or more of these bases might be absent, provided
only there was one base with three atoms of oxygen com-
bined with two of the negative element, and another with
one atom of oxygen united with one of the latter, present in
the compound.

The difficulty which this occasioned was, however, removed,
when Mitscherlich had shewn that several bases admitted
of being substituted one for the other without destroying the
essential character of the crystallization, or producing any
further change in it than a slight diff^erence in the angle ;
the only necessary condition being, that each of the bases so
replacing each other should contain an equal number of atoms
of oxygen. Thus potass, soda, lime, magnesia, protoxide of
iron, &c., may replace each other, as containing each an atom
of oxygen to an atom of the radical present ; as likewise may
alumina, peroxide of iron, and peroxide of manganese, since
they each contain three to two of base, so that the same mine-

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 231

ral admits of a considerable diversity of composition, whilst
still retaining its own peculiar crystalline form.*

But later researches have carried us a step further ; they
shew that crystallographers had often confounded several
minerals which analysis proves to be distinct ; thus Henry
Rose of Berlin, and other chemists of the school of Berzelius,
proved, that whilst one kind of mica contains a certain defi-
nite amount of potass, in another a portion of that base will
be replaced by lithia, and in a third by magnesia.

In the two first, the mineral, when examined by polarized
light, exhibits only one axis of double refraction, or one set
of rings, whilst in the last it displays two such sets, so that
the magnesian mica deserves to be distinguished as a sepa-
rate species on crystallographical grounds alone.

In like manner, Henry Rose has asserted, on the faith of
chemical analysis, that mineralogists had designated by the
name of felspar several distinct substances, a statement which
the more exact examination of their respective angles of cry-
stallization has since shewn to be correct.

There is, indeed, such an analogy between them with re-
spect to their chemical composition, as well as to their ex-
ternal characters, that they may, perhaps, be conveniently
considered as merely different species of a genus to which the
term felspar is applicable, the new terms which have been
affixed to them by way of distinction being regarded as de-
signating the species.

Thus the genus felspar may be defined as indicating a mi-
neral, the primary form of which is an oblique rhombic prism,
and its chemical constitution that of two compounds of silica
united together ; the first consisting of silica united with any
base which contains only one atom of oxygen, the second com-
pound of silica, one where that body is united to a base in
which the proportion of oxygen to the radical is as three to
two.

* Rammelsberg, a disciple of Rose, has proposed a chemical classification of
siliceous minerals founded on this principle, which I shall give in the Appen-
dix, as it seems to me the best attempt that has been made, to reduce to order
the confused mass of species containing various proportions of those earths
which mineralogy presents.

232 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

But this definition gives scope for a considerable diversity
of chemical composition, since silica is capable of entering
into chemical union with bases in the proportion of one, two,
and three atoms ; and, accordingly, I may enumerate the fol-
lowing species of the felspar family, as distinguished by Rose
and his disciples. In this enumeration, however, I will en-
deavour to simplify the matter as much as possible, by point-
ing out, in the first place, merely the relation which the silica
bears to the base which contains three atoms of oxygen to
two of radical ; and, in order to avoid an inconvenient cir-
cumlocution, will speak of this base as though it were in all
cases alumina, that being the negative element possessing the
above composition, which is most commonly found in union
with silica in this class of minerals.

In anorthite, then, and in labradorite, the silica is to the
alumina in the proportion of atom to atom, the difference be-
tween these two minerals consisting, in the former being com-
posed of three proportionals of this combination ; in the lat-
ter of only one.

In the andesin, or the felspar from the Andes, as well as
in oligoklase, the silica is to the alumina in the proportion of
two to one ; the difference between the two consisting in the
proportion w^hich the silica bears to the base with one atom
of oxygen.

Lastly, in pericline, albite, glassy felspar, adularia, and or-
thoklase, the proportion of silica to alumina is as three to
one, the largest amount in which it is capable of entering into
chemical union with any base whatsoever.

The chemical differences between these four minerals con-
sists in the nature of the base with one atom of oxygen united
to silica, which it contains ; this in orthoklase is chiefly potass ;
in albite wholly soda ; in pericline partly potass, but chiefly
soda ; and in adularia chiefly potass, though a small amount
of soda is also present.

Thus we have, in the felspar family, three several grada-
tions in the proportion which the silica bears to the alumina
with which it is combined, namely, one, two, and three atoms
to one of base, as may be seen by the following table, for
which I am indebted to Abich.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci.

233

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234 Dr Charles Baubeny oti (he

It is observable that the specific gravity of the mineral is,
in these cases as well as in most other of the products of ig-
neous action, inversely as the amount of silica, and directly
as that of the other bases, so that a near approximation to
their chemical composition may be often obtained by merely
ascertaining their vs^eight.

This, accordingly, is the method proposed by Abich, in or-
der that we may appreciate the real mineralogical composi-
tion of a rock, in which the component parts are so blended
together that it is impossible to separate one from the other
for the purpose of examination.

In these cases the specific gravity will often give the pro-
portion of silica, supposing iron and other of the heavier me-
tals not to be present in quantity sufficient to aiFect the re-
sult ; and from the proportion of silica the nature of the fel-
spathic mineral present may be, in general, estimated with
sufficient precision.*

Now, it is important to observe, that the kinds of felspar
commonly found in granite are those which contain the largest
proportion of silica, namely, either orthoklase, adularia, or al-
bite. Where, as is often the case, orthoklase and albite are
both present, the basis is generally composed of the latter,
whilst the imbedded crystals consist of the former.

Such is the case at Carlsbad ; and this fact affords, per-
haps, the true solution of a question which I started in my

Per Cent.
* Thus, Trachytic porphyry, having a spe- ) 2.5783 contains of silex 69-46

cific gravity of J

Trachyte, 2-6821 65'85

Domite, 2-6334 65-50

+ Clinkstone, 2-5770 67-66

Andesite, 2-7032 64-45

+ Glassy Andesite, ......... 2-5851 66-45

Trachyte-dolerite, 2-7812 ... ... 67-66

Dolerite, 2-8613 63-09

The only exceptions being clinkstone and glassy andesite, the former having
the same composition as trachyte-dolerite, but an inferior specific gravity ; the
latter corresponding nearly with clinkstone in both these particulars. It is to
be remarked, however, that clinkstone, although chemically resembling trachyte-
dolerite, has a different mineral composition, for it appears to be a mixture of
a zeolitic mineral with glassy felspar. Probably the same may apply to glassy
andesite.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci, 235

Jleport on Mineral Waters (British Association EeportSjVol. v..
1836, p. 24), namely, why these and other thermal springs
which issue from granitic chains, hold carbonate of soda in
solution, but not carbonate of potass.

Now, by considering the nature of its felspathic material,
it being one of those varieties of the mineral in which the
silica is in the proportion of three atoms to only one of base,
we may see the reason, why in granite a certain proportion
of quartz, or uncombined silica, is almost universally present.

Its amount, in fact, represents the excess of silica existing
in the rock over and above that which could combine with
the alumina ; and hence it implies, that at the time, and at
the place where the granite was formed, there was not a suf-
ficient quantity present of the several bases to combine with
the whole of the silica.

And if we examine the composition of the various rocks
which have been produced by the operation of volcanic forces
in ancient and in modern times, we shall be able to trace a
gradual scale of diminution in the proportion of silica, and a
corresponding increase in that of the bases present.

The first great division of them is comprehended under the
name of trachyte, a general term for a class of rocks of igne-
ous formation, characterised mineralogically by their harsh
and gritty feel, together with the frequent presence of cry-
stals of glassy felspar ; and, chemically, as being trisilicates
with or without an excess of silica.

They are divided by Abich, who follows in a great degree
the classification of Beudant, into,

1. Trachytic porphyry, in which quartz is present, but
neither hornblende, augite, nor titaniferous iron appear. It
is found, not only in Hungary, but also in the Ponza, and in
some of the Lipari islands.

2. Trachyte properly so called, in which no quartz occurs,
but which contains crystals of hornblende and even of augite,
together with mica.

3. Andesite, the trachytic rock of the Andes, described by
Abich as being of various degrees of compactness and con-

23G Dr Charles Daubeny on (he

sistency, possessing a coarse conehoidal fracture, and con-
taining a large number of small white crystals, resembling
albite, in a crystalline base of a darkish colour. Small cry-
stals of glassy felspar are rare in this variety of trachyte, but
those of hornblende are common, and augite is also present.
It sometimes passes into greenstone or diorite.

Thus the rock composing the summit of Chimborapo, the
basis of which resembles pitchstone, and which is destitute
of hornblende, though rich in augite, is called by Von Buch
an andesite. Antisana also, and Cotopaxi, are said to consist
of the same ; and it is probable that this rock, in connection
with trachyte properly so called, constitutes the greater part
of those volcanic mountains in South America which are
destitute of craters.

4. Obsidian and pumice, which are so connected, both phy-
sically and mineralogically, that they must be placed under
the same head, and regarded merely as expressions for two
different conditions which the same original material has been
made to assume, by the agency of volcanic forces. Both, in-
deed, have been regarded rather as particular states which
many different minerals are capable of assuming, than as dis-
tinct species ; but it is to be remarked, that simple silicates
and bisilicates of alumina are incapable of assuming, either a
vitreous condition, such as that of obsidian, or those cellular
and filamentous forms which we observe in the different
varieties of pumice.

It is necessary therefore that the rock should be rich in
silica, or be a trisilicate ; and hence, if with Abich we divide
pumices into two groups, namely, into cellular and filament-
ous, the former being dark green, poorer in silica, and richer
in alumina ; the latter white, and containing more silica ; we
shall find that the former is derived from clinkstone, trachyte,
and andesite, and the latter from trachytic porphyry.*

5. Pearlstone, a rock frequent in Hungary, and character-
ised by the presence of crystallites, or little globular concre-

* For further remarks on the formation of obsidian and pumice, see Appendix.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 237

tions more or less vitreous, and generally scaly, with a pearly
lustre arising from the commencement of a kind of crystal-
lization in the mass, or, where this is wanting, passing into a
stony structure, or into a semivitreous one corresponding with
that of pitchstone, which latter mineral seems to be nearly
allied to it.

6. Trachytic tuff, the principal rock covering the Phlegrean
fields, the analysis of which proves that it is, like pumice,
only a metamorphosed condition of trachyte. Thus tuff, pu-
mice, and obsidian, are all modifications of the same volcanic
basis ; and all, except obsidian, contain water chemically com-
bined— ^}'ellow tuff three atoms — white tuff two atoms — ^pu-
mice one.

Now lava, although commonly accompanied by abundance
of steam at the time of its eruption, and containing, even for
several months afterwards,* entangled within it a large
quantity of aqueous vapour, holds no water in chemical com-
bination, so that the fact stated with respect to tuff and pu-
mice shews, that these formations have been placed under
circumstances in some respects different from modem lavas.
We must, therefore, regard the three former as caused
by water operating in a different manner from the steam
which accompanies a flow of lava, inasmuch as the latter
never contains any water in a state of chemical combination.
All these varieties, then, of volcanic products, which Abich
has classed under the general name of trachyte, approximate
to granite, in the circumstance of containing a trisilicate of
alumina or of some corresponding base, and hence may be
supposed to be more immediately derived from the latter rock,
than other igneous formations are. Nevertheless, in one
variety of it, namely, in the species distinguished by Beudant
as trachytic porphyry, quartz is present ; and, accordingly,
this modification would seem to present the nearest approxi-
mation to granite, the chief difference indeed between the
two being the partial substitution of glassy felspar for ortho-

* See my Memoir on the Eruption of 1834, in Ph. Trans, for 1845.

238 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

klase, minerals of analogous constitution, though of different
external characters, and with different relative proportions of
the two alkalies present in them.

In trachytes, properly so called, there would appear to
have been such an accession of alkali and of earths, that the
whole of the silica entered into combination, and consequently
no quartz exists in the rock.

But when we proceed to the lava currents which have been
emitted from actual volcanoes, or to the analogous trap for-
mations which are regarded as the effects of submarine erup-
tions, we find a still further diminution in the proportion of si-
lica, indicated by the substitution of labradorite for orthoklase,
or, in other words, the presence of one atom of felspar in-
stead of three, coupled with that of hornblende or augite,*
in both which minerals the silica bears a still smaller pro-
portion to the base with which it is combined.

In these last minerals two new elements also make their
appearance, which are seldom or never present, except in
small quantities, in granite or in trachyte — I mean lime and
magnesia ; thus evincing already a change, either in the na-
ture of the igneous operations, or in the materials upon which
they were exerted.

Thus the modern lavas of mount Etna have been deter-
mined by Lowet to consist of an intimate mixture of labra-
dorite and of augite ; and a lava which had recently flowed
from Stromboli was ascertained by Abicli to possess the same
composition.

Greenstone, or dolerite, is composed of nearly the same
materials, its compactness being merely the effect of the

* Hornblende is R Si + R^ Si^, where R is generally lime, but sometimes
protoxide of iron, or soda ; and B? is generally magnesia, but sometimes pro-
toxide of iron. In some hornblendes the silica seems to be partially replaced
by alumina. Bomdorff, Augite is ll^ Si^, where R is either lime, magnesia,
protoxide of iron, or protoxide of magnesia. The silica is sometimes replaced
by alumina, as is the case also in hornblende. See Rammelsberg's Dictionary
of Mineralogy, Berlin, 1841.

t Jameson's Journal, 1837.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci, 239

greater pressure to which it was subjected during the act of
cooling.

Abich, however, has found it necessary to distinguish a class
of formations intermediate between trachytes and green stones,
which he denominates trachyte-dolerite. To this he refers
the rocks which encircle the peak of Teneriffe, those of one
of the volcanoes in Kamschatka, of the little cluster of islands
between Lipari and Stromboli described by Hoffmann, and
above all the material which constitutes the Monte della
Croce, the central cone of Rocca Monfina already alluded to.
Abich considers the felspar present in this rock to be oligo-
klase, which, by reference to the table, will be found to be a
bisilicate, and the many green specks of augite which per-
vade it indicate a further change in the composition of the
mass, and a nearer approach to greenstone. With this latter
material, which, as we have seen, is a compound of augite
with one of the species of felspar poorest in silica, the rock
called basalt must not be confounded ; as in it we may re-
cognise a still further step in the elaboration of the consti-
tuents, this substance being composed of an intimate mixture
of augite and magnetic iron with a mineral of the zeolitic
family. The composition of the latter is such as to imply
that it may have been formed out of labradorite with the ad-
dition of water, the presence of which in all zeolites is the
cause of that bubbling up under the blowpipe which has oc-
casioned them to be distinguished by that general appellation.

"We perceive a similar change in the rock called clinkstone,
which has been shewn by Gmelin to be an intimate mixture
of glassy felspar with a zeolite.

Thus, as we proceed towards the more modern groups of
volcanic formations, we find new ingredients successively
coming into play ; first, the alkalies increasing, then lime
and magnesia becoming part of the constitution of the mineral
mass, and, lastly, water entering into combination with the
earthy materials.

The gradual increase of soda is likewise a remarkable cir-
cumstance, modern lavas appearing to contain a much larger
quantity than the volcanic products of ancient periods, and

240 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

hence various minerals being produced in which this alkali
is predominant.*

These facts may, perhaps, suffice to shew, that the original
material out of which volcanic rocks of whatever age have
been elaborated, was of a granitic nature — a strong confir-
mation, as it appears to me, of the old opinion, that this rock
stands lowest in the series of formations, and serves as the
foundation upon which the rest repose.

The same circumstances may, likewise, be alleged as proofs
that the igneous operations actually going on are, in many
respects, different from those which produced the primeval
granite ; to which conclusion we shall also be led, by consider-
ing the differences that exist between the composition of the
ancient volcanic products of the Monte Somma, and those
resulting from the operations of Vesuvius at the present day.

Thus, if we go back to the period when the materials which
constitute the tuff about Naples were ejected, we shall find
that pumice was then one of the principal products ; whereas
it is now never found amongst the ejected masses at Vesuvius.

Now, pumice has been shewn to be merely an altered con-
dition of trachyte, and not to be derivable from felspars so
poor in silica as labradorite, or anorthite. Moreover, M.
Dufrenoy has ascertained that the lavas of Monte Somma
are almost unattackable by acids, whilst in those of Vesuvius
the proportion of the soluble to the insoluble part is in gene-
ral about as four to one. The former lavas contain a larger
proportion of potass, whilst in the latter soda predominates.

It is also a well ascertained fact,t although disputed in an
English work of authority, that this volcano was formerly

* As Natrolite, Nepheline, Thomsonite, &c.

t For this I need not go further than the Guida de Napoli, already quoted,
the geological portion of which was contributed by Professor Scacchi, a very
accurate mineralogist, who has done a service to science, not only by the dis-
covery of many new species at Vesuvius, but also by identifying several of those
which Monticelli had created with substances previously discovered. From his
enumeration of the minerals found about Vesuvius, it will be perceived, that,
with the exception of felspar, augite, hornblende, and brieslakite, they all ap»
pear to be derived from the extinct volcano of Monte Somma.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 241

much more prolific in minerals than it appears to be at pre-
sent, very few, at least out of the large number of species,
found within the range of Vesuvius existing in its modern
lavas, whilst they abound amongst the ejected masses im-
bedded in the tuff of Monte Somma.

Having now endeavoured to trace the particulars in which
the processes of an igneous character going on at the present
day differ from those which gave rise to the rocks commonly
called plutonic, I will next briefly consider which of the com-
monly received theories of volcanoes is most reconcilable with
the phenomena which have just been pointed out.

I may remark, in the first place, that th^re are only two
modes of explaining volcanic action, which deserve a moment's
attention, when viewed by the lights of modern science.

One set of philosophers, inferring from the oblate sphe-
roidal figure of the globe, that it was once in a state of fluidity
from igneous fusion, and, again, presuming, from the increas-
ing temperature observed as we descend deeper and deeper
into its recesses, that it may retain enough of its heat at the
present time to be preserved in a state of fusion below cer-
tain depths, propose a very simple mode of explaining the
evolution of melted matter from volcanoes, by attributing it
to the contraction of the crust of the globe upon its fluid
contents, by which a portion of the latter is from time to
time expressed at the points of least resistance.

Others, considering that all the matters ejected from a
volcano contain an inflammable base united with oxygen —
that the latter need not be supposed to have been present in
the interior of the earth in quantity sufficient to combine with
all the principles for which it could exert an affinity — and,
therefore, that these bases may, without violence, be supposed
to exist in an unoxidized state at a certain distance from the
surface — have proceeded to shew, that, assuming such to be
the fact, all the phenomena of volcanic action may be ex-
plained according to the received principles of chemistry, by
the access, first, of sea water, and afterwards, of atmospheric
air, to the interior of the globe.

2i2 Dr Charles Daubeny on (he

For, granting that no other of the bases which enter into
the composition of lava would inflame on the approach of
water, the metals of the alkalies, at least, which constitute
sometimes as much as one-tenth of the entire bulk of the
ejected matter, would certainly do so, whence must result a
considerable evolution of hydrogen, and a generation of heat
sufficient to cause all the unoxidized substances in the vicinity
to unite with the oxygen presented to them.

But, without entering into a complete exposition of this
theory, I think it must on all hands be admitted, that if its
relative merits are to be decided by its capability of explain-
ing the phenomena, it may fairly claim the preference over
the rival hypothesis.

If, indeed, we assume that the globe was once fluid, and
take for granted that it still retains a sufficiently high tem-
perature to preserve its original fluidity in the interior (al-
though the slight depth to which we have yet penetrated
hardly justifies us in speaking decisively as to the state of
things which may exist below a certain depth), there is even
then but one phenomenon of volcanic action, which, so far
as I know, can be fairly deduced from these premises, namely,
the protrusion in certain localities of melted matter from the
surface. For the ejection of fragments of rocks, the evolu-
tion of steam, and the disengagement of various gaseous com-
pounds, are phenomena of which this hypothesis seems to give
no account. Nor does it seem clear, why the lines of least
resistance should be found almost invariably near the sea, or
why, indeed, they should occur at all underneath the bed of
an ocean, where the controlling pressure must be even greater
than it is in the midst of our continents.

Accordingly, most of those persons who profess to hold to
the theory of central heat, in reality combine with it some
hypothesis into which chemical considerations enter.

They explain, for instance, the evolution of steam, and of
muriatic acid, by the access of salt water to the spots where
this melted matter is supposed to exist, by the chemical ac-
tion of which the muriatic acid is separated from its base,
and the water converted into steam.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci, 243

By this addition to the theory, we advance, indeed, one
step towards the solution of the problem ; but there will still,
I conceive, be a difficulty in explaining other of the connected
phenomena : such, for example, as the generation of ammonia,
which so often is present amongst the products of a volcano ;
the evolution of air usually deprived of its oxygen, which bears
witness to the existence of some processes of oxidation going
on underneath ; and, above all, the escape of inflammable
gases, into which hydrogen enters as a constituent.

With regard to the first of these facts, the generation of
ammonia cannot be disputed, although the amount formed
by volcanic action may still remain a matter of surmise.

Those, however, who, with Baron Liebig, deny that gase-
ous nitrogen is capable, on the surface of the earth, of form-
ing any direct combination with hydrogen,* may be less in-
clined to condemn the hypothesis, with reference to this
subject, which I have thrown out in a former publication,*)",
and which assumes, that the quantity so formed was once
very considerable, as it traces to volcanic processes carried
on in the interior of the globe all the ammonia which would
be requisite for supplying the first plants with the nitrogen
they must have contained ; just as others have imagined all
the carbon necessary for the primeval vegetation to have
been derived from carbonic acid arising from the same in-
ternal source.

At least, however, even those who refuse to go with me up
to this point, will admit, on the faith of the evidence which
I have adduced, the second fact noticed, namely, the extrica-
tion of nitrogen gas, either pure, or with a small admixture
of oxygen, from thermal springs in general ; since, amongst

* In confirmation of this, it may be stated, that I have vainly attempted to
form ammonia by decomposing water in an atmosphere of nitrogen gas, through
the agency of a metal like potassium. Yet these two elements unite readily
when both are in a nascent state, as in the common experiment of producing
ammonia by the action of diluted nitric acid on powdered tin. Hence it may
be inferred, that, under a high pressure, such as may exist in the interior of
the globe, a union between these two elements would take place.

t Three Lectures on Agriculture, page 97.

244 Br Charles Baubeny on the

the whole extensive catalogue of those* cited as having been
personally examined by myself, in various parts, both of the
Old and New World, scarcely one could be fixed upon which
does not present this phenomenon, excepting, indeed, a few
in the island of Ischia, the origin of which is manifestly no-
thing else than the rain water, which had collected in in-
ternal reservoirs at a small depth beneath the surface, and
had then become heated by the rock, still partaking of the
high temperature it had acquired by recent volcanic opera-
tions.

And, withi respect to the last fact mentioned, it is one so
inexplicable by the mere access of water to an incandescent
body, already saturated with oxygen, such as lava, that the
opponents of the chemical theory have no other resource than
to deny its reality.

" If inflammable gases were present," they say, *' they
would burn on coming into contact with the air ; and hence
flames would be commonly seen issuing from the orifices of
an active volcano.

" But the appearances which have been taken for flames
turn out to be illusory, being due merely to the light radiated
from the red-hot stones ejected, and not derived from gaseous
matter in a state of combustion.'*

Now, that flames should not be of ordinary occurrence in
volcanoes, may be explained without much difficulty.

In the caverns and fissures through which the gases evolved
had to pass before they reached the circumference of the
earth, and escaped from the orifice of the volcano, they must
often come into contact, either with oxygen,' or with oxidized
bodies, from which they would be able to abstract the same
principle. In both these cases, the hydrogen would recombine
with oxygen, and return to the focus of the volcano, as water*

But supposing oxygen gas to be absent, or not to exist in
sufficient quantity to unite with all the inflammable matter
evolved, the latter would, in most cases, be accompanied with

* See, for those in the Old World, Report on Mineral Waters, Br. Associat.
Reports for 1836; for those in the New, my Sketch of the Geology of N. America.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 245

such volumes of steam, as alone must prevent it from enter-
ing into combustion w^hen it came into contact with the ex-
ternal air ; for it is well known, from the researches of Davy,
that a certain per-centage of any uninflammable gas or va-
pour prevents such bodies from taking fire.

It is, therefore, far more easy for the advocates of the che-
mical theory to account for the general absence of flames
about the orifices of active volcanoes, than for the supporters
of the contrary hypothesis to explain their occasional pre-
sence ; and that they are sometimes observable seems to be
now ascertained, not only from the testimony of Sir H. Davy
himself, who states that he observed at Vesuvius, during a
small eruption, the existence of a real jet of flame, and that
of M. Elie de Beaumont, who assures us of the same fact,
as witnessed by himself at Mount Etna, but more recently
by the observations made by Professor Pilla of Pisa,* who
has given us a circumstantial account of three several oc-
currences of this kind in the years 1833 and 1834 at Ve-
suvius.

My own persuasion, therefore, is, that hydrogen gas, de-
rived from the decomposition of water, most generally in
combination with sulphur, is evolved in enormous quantities
from all volcanoes, but that a comparatively small proportion
of it usually finds its way upwards to the surface : since, if
sulphurous acid be present likewise, the two gases will de-
compose each other, so that only the excess of the one most
abundant will remain, and if it meet with oxygen in its pro-
gress upwards, it will combine with this principle, and water
will consequently result.

Nevertheless, I hold that the sulphuretted-hydrogen which
impregnates the mineral waters in various ignigenous, and
even in certain primary districts, is derived from some vol-
canic/ocw^ ; I am inclined to believe, that the beds of sulphur
met with in various parts of the world, where igneous agents
have been at work, as in Sicily, owe their origin to the decom-

♦ See his " Discorso sopra la produzione delle fiamme nei Vulcani, &c.," read
at the Fifth Italian Scientific Congress, held in 1843, and translated in Jame-
son's Journal for April 1844.

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. R

246 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

position of sulphuretted-hydrogen disengaged from the same
source ; and conclude, therefore, that it is not unfrequently
evolved from the orifices of volcanoes, although, for the most
part, prevented from inflaming by the large intermixture of
aqueous vapour which usually accompanies it.

But without entering at this advanced period of the even-
ing into a general discussion of the question, I will merely
point out to you, how completely this theory squares with
the manner, in which I have shewn the several products of
volcanic action to be successively produced from the consti-
tuents of granite.

We have seen that these changes of form and structure
have been produced by the addition of lime, magnesia, potass,
soda, oxide of iron, water, &c., to the mica, quartz, and fel-
spar, present in the original material.

Now it is evident that, besides the water, only one of these
bodies, namely, the soda, could have been supplied in suffi-
cient quantities by the sea ; the access of which to the focus
of the volcano there are so many reasons for supposing an
immediately exciting cause of the operations we witness. Is
it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose the other constituents
to have existed in their unoxidized state below, and thus to
have contributed, by their subsequent oxidation, to the pro-
duction of the high temperature, as well as to the generation
of those inflammable gases which arise during the process ?

Again, it is not an unimportant circumstance to remark,
that the iron found in lavas and in trap is usually magnetic,
or partly in the state of protoxide ; whilst in granite it exists
wholly as a peroxide. May not this partial change from per-
oxide to protoxide be brought about by the action of the
hydrogen disengaged, and does not the presence of protoxide
of iron sufficiently explain, why none of the more oxidizable
metals are even found in lava, except saturated with oxygen % *

* This is alleged by Dr John Davy, as a circumstance which operated on his
brother's mind in inducing him, towards the close of his life, to abandon the
chemical theory. I cannot, however, agree with him in thinking, that the pre-
sence of potassium, sodium, or even calcium, amongst the ejections of a volcano,
ought to be expected according to the conditions of this hypothesis.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 247

These considerations, if they do not persuade you of the
truth of my hypothesis, may at least plead my excuse for
having ventured to maintain it, even though it be one which
seems to have been repudiated by Sir H. Davy, and which a
geologist of reputation once, I think, stigmatized, by desig-
nating it as smelling of the laboratory.

With respect to the former ground of discouragement, I
have already given my reasons for not regarding it as abso-
lutely fatal ; and with respect to the latter, as we all, I hope,
in the nineteenth century, are aware, that modern chemistry
is not confined within the limits of the apothecary's shop, I
consider it the highest testimony in favour of any geological
theory, to be able to say of it, that it has been submitted to
the severe ordeal of chemical investigation, and has not been
found wanting.*

In conclusion, then, I will remark, that my visits to
Naples have afforded me the materials for laying before you,
on this and on two former occasions, a sketch of the pheno-
mena presented by the three great volcanic systems which
exist within the compass of that territory, and thereby, as it
so happens, exhibiting a picture of as many different phases
or conditions of igneous action, exemplified in the localities
which I have successively brought to your notice, namely, in
the country immediately round about Vesuvius, at Mount
Vultur, and at Rocca Monfina.

The first of these localities exhibits, no doubt, the most

* On this subject, however, it behoves me to speak with some diffidence, when
I see the contrary maintained by so eminent a chemist as Professor Bischof of
Bonn. All I can say is, that the objections he had originally put forth to this
hypothesis have been answered, in a manner which, to my mind at least, appeared
satisfactory, in Jameson's Journal for April 1839. The Professor, however,
having, in his memoir on the Natural History of Volcanoes and Earthquakes,
■published in the very same number of that Journal, reiterated some of these,
and added a few other remarks, I will refer to the Appendix for a statement of
the grounds on which I conceive my original views to remain still unshaken ;
although it may be suggested, that the Professor's remarks referred to must,
from their date, have been written before he could have seen my reply to his
original memoir. See Appendix.

248 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

striking, the most varied, and, perhaps, altogether the most
instructive series of phenomena ; inasmuch as it has consti-
tuted a permanent vent for the products of the chemical ac-
tions going on in the interior of the globe, ever since the ces-
sation of those kindred phenomena which we read of as hav-
ing been displayed formerly within the compass of the Phle-
grean Fields, and which had rendered that district an object
of terror to the early Greeks, — invested their inhabitants, the
Cimmerians, with a kind of vague and mysterious awe, — and
led the poets to place the entrance to the infernal regions
amongst their caves and forests.

But our knowledge of the subject would be incomplete, if
we did not extend our observation to such mountains as
Mount Vultur and Rocca Monfina.

In the former of these we perceive a volcano which was
extinguished, as it were, by the very throes that accompa-
nied its birth ; for the volcanic energy which heaved up the
materials of which the mountain is composed, and produced
a crater in the midst of it, seems to have been expended in
that very effort, and never afterwards to have exhibited any
signs of vitality, either by emitting streams of lava or ejec-
tions of scoriae.

It is an example, therefore, of a simple crater of elevation,
not converted, like Vesuvius, into a permanent volcano, by
having become the vent for successive eruptions of igneous
matter at any period subsequent to its formation.

In Rocca Monfina, on the other hand, we are enabled to
observe the precise agents which Nature calls into operation,
for the purpose of elevating volcanic hills in general, whether
the latter be destined to remain merely as monuments of
what she had accomplished at a distant period of time, or to
serve likewise, in after ages, as chimneys for her subterra-
nean laboratory — the trachytic rock of Monte della Croce
being here seen actually protruding through the crater, in
the centre of the mountain, which it no doubt contributed to
upraise.

Rocca Monfina also appears to have given oif one^, if not

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 249

two, streams of lava ; but the volcanic processes would seem
to have soon been transferred to some other quarter, as, from
a period long antecedent to historical records, it has sunk
into complete inactivity.

Thus we observe, in these three mountains, three succes-
sive developments of volcanic activity evinced, —

1st, In the elevation of an entire mountain.

2d, In this elevation being accompanied by the protrusion
of a trachytic rock through its centre.

3fl?/y, In the elevation of a mountain being followed, after
a long interval of apparent tranquillity, by the establishment
of a permanent vent, through which lavas, fragments of
rocks, and elastic vapours, continue from time to time to be
discharged.

All these, however, are derived from subaereal volcanoes,
having been formed on dry land, under no greater pressure
than that of the atmosphere, and are, consequently, of later
date than the beds of tuff which are spread on all sides
around them, the latter being products of the action of vol-
canoes which existed when the country was yet under the bed
of the Mediterranean, and, consequently, being modified in
their characters and structure, by admixture with the sea-
water in which they appear to have been deposited.

Appendix I.

250

Dr Charles Daubeny on the

Appendix I.
Rammelsherg^ s Classification

Definition of the Classes.

Symbols

representing the

Class.

Subclasses.

1st Class. Silica alone

2d — Silica united with a single Base,
having 1 Atom of Oxygen .

3d — Silica united with a single Base,
having 1^ Atoms of Oxygen

4th — Silica united with several Bases,
all with 1 Atom of Oxygen

5th — Silica united with several Bases,
all with 1^ Atoms of Oxygen

*6th — Silica united with several Bases,
both with 1 and Ij Atoms of
Oxygen

7th — Silicates united with Aluminates

8 th — Silicates united with other salts

Si

I SiR

(
1

I si R I

IsiR + Si r|
Isi Ri-Si RJ

I Si K + Si K
SiR + AlR

Without M'ater
With water
Without water
With water
Without water
With water
Without water
With water
Without water
With water
Without water
With water ,
Without water
With water

With Sulphates
With Fluorides
With Borates

* As the minerals comprehended under this class are numerous, the sub-
classes are again subdivided according to the proportion which the silica in
each of the two binary compounds of which the mineral consists, bears to the
bases with which it is united.

Thus the subclass without water is divided as follows :
let Division. Both Silicates neutral — example, Albite.
2d — One Silicate neutral ; with one f — example, Spodumene.
3d — One Silicate neutral ; with one \ — example, Ryakolite.

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci.

251

to page 231.

of Siliceous Minerals,

Examples

of the Class and

Subclass.

Symbol of the MineraL

Quartz

Si

Opal

si + ii

Tablespar

Ca3 Si«

Meerschaum

Mg Si + H

Cyanite

Al* Si

Kaolin

A13 si* + 6H

Augite

R3 (viz. Ca ; Mg ; Fe ; Mm) Si«

Apophyllite

il3 SH+6H

Beryl

BeSi*+2AlSi«

Bole

Ra(Al;Fe)Si3+9H

Felspar

R(K;Na)Si + ArSi2

•

Garnet

R3 (Ca; Mg; Fe; Mn) 8i + R(Al; Fe; Mn) Si

Mesotype

R(Ca; Na)Si + 'AlSi + 3H

Cross- Stone

2R3 (Ba ; K) Si* + 7A1 Si^ + 36H

Grenatite

3A1 Si + Fe3 Al«

Ilauyne

Ca3 SiM 3AlSi + 2K S

Lepidolite

4AlSi2+KF12+2LiFl

Tourmaline

RB + AlSi

4th Division. Both Silicates f — example, Leucite.

6th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th

One Silicate § ; one J — example, Scapolite.

— Both Silicates ^ — example, Epidote.

— One Silicate ■} ; one ^ — example, Lievrite.

— One Silicate ^ ; one ^ — example, Nepheline.

— Both Silicates | — example, Petalite.

— One Silicate J ; one ^ — example, Murchisonite.

The same is the case with the subclass containing water.

252 Dr Charles Daubetiy on the

Appendix II. (Page 236.)
Abich's ObservatioTis on the formation of Obsidian and Pumice.

The mode in which pumice and obsidian have been formed, can
only be cleared up, through a more exact scrutiny into the nature of
the volatile materials which both these bodies, in greater or less
quantity, contain. Humboldt and others have remarked upon the
swelling out which certain obsidians undergo at a white heat, and
have found a great difference, in this respect, to exist between spe-
cimens taken from different localities. — Abich has further ascer-
tained, that the poorer in silica, and the richer in alkaline bases ob-
sidian is, the more, in short, its composition approaches to clinkstone,
the more readily it may be made to pass by heat into the condition
of pumice.

It being admitted that the immediate cause of the change is the
extrication of some volatile principle, the nature of this latter be-
comes the next subject for inquiry.

Abich found, that, in order that the mineral should swell out into
a porous mass, it must be submitted to heat in lumps ; for, if it be
in powder, it does not undergo any such tumefaction by exposure to
a high temperature, but only changes to a dark red or brown colour ;
losing, during the process, twice as much weight as the same had
done in lumps ; from which it would appear, that only a portion of
those volatile ingredients which escape from the powder is, in the for-
mer case, disengaged.

By comparing the analysis of obsidians with that of pumices ob-
tained from the same locality, it would appear, that although the
sum of the alkaline bases is in both very nearly the same, yet that
there is more potass in obsidian, more soda in pumice, — the increase
in one alkali corresponding with the deficiency in the other.

This might lead one to conjecture, that, during the formation of
pumice, a certain amount of potass was dissipated, and a proportion-
ate quantity of soda introduced from without, and that, from the dis-
engagement of the former, the cellular condition of the mineral might
have resulted.

It will be readily supposed, that both obsidians and pumices are
often very widely different one from the other in their constitution,
and that amongst the latter the darker and more cellular varieties may
arise from a predominance of earthy and alkaline bases, the white
and silky-looking kind from a larger amount of silica.

When felspathic rocks, rich in alkali, pass into a state of fusion in
the presence of some earthy base, the latter displaces a portion of the
alkali, and thus causes the mass to swell out.

Jt is worthy of remark, that chlorine and water are present in all
pumices and obsidians, and that, from many, certain inflammable
gases are also disengaged. This latter fact, indeed, has led some
chemists to imagine, that the cellularity of pumice may have been

Site of the Ancient City of the Auranci. 253

caused by a disengagement of carburetted hydrogen, derived from
the bitumen which Knox discovered in certain obsidians ; but this
cannot be the case, as the presence of bitumen is an exception rather
than the rule. It is more probable, that the formation of pumice is
connected with the disengagement of chlorine, derived from sea-salt,
which maybe decomposed by the heat, its soda being seized upon by the
mineral, and entering, as before explained, into its composition. — A
portion of this chlorhio, however, adheres most tenaciously to the mi-
neral mass, which is proved by the fusion of pumice into glass, as even
then it retains a portion of this volatile ingredient. With respect to
obsidian, Abich conceives, that the greater and more continued the
pressure to which the melted material has been subjected may be,
the greater tendency will be shewn by the mass, both to assume a
stony rather than a vitreous texture, and to form definite and distinct
minerals, rather than one homogeneous amorphous compound. Hence
from the same material lithoide lavas may be produced under pres-
sure, vitreous ones in the open air.

Appendix III. (Page 247.)
On the Chemical Theory of Volcanoes.

Professor Bischof justly observes, ** that the close connection be-
tween volcanoes and hot springs would lead us to refer both to the
same cause." " But," he continues, " thermal springs are too uni-
versally distributed to be accounted for by chemical processes going
on in the interior of the globe. They seem to occur everywhere where
the water rises from a great depth. They must, therefore, be attri-
buted to the high temperature which generally pervades the interior
of the globe."

To this I would reply, that no one questions that the high tempe-
rature of a spring is acquired immediately from that of the rock from
whence it proceeds, or supposes the rock, when it lies at a distance
from any volcano, to derive its heat from chemical processes taking
place within itself. From a mineral mass so circumstanced, as well
as from a water simply thermal, w^e can collect nothing which should
lead us to give the preference to either theory ; it is only from ana-
logy, that the heat either of the one or of the other can be explained.
But more commonly, hot springs, like volcanic eruptions, are accom-
panied with other products, which seem to imply the existence of
chemical action ; hot springs, for instance, with carbonic acid, sulphu-
retted-hydrogen, and azote, — ejections of lava, with steam, muriatic
acid, sulphuretted-hydrogen, and ammonia. The carbonic acid, indeed,
might be evolved from limestone, owing to the mere access to it of heat ;
but I cannot agree with Professor Bischof in attributing the sulphu-
retted-hydrogen to a decomposition of sulphates by organic matter.
Sulphuric salts do not occur in the majority of these springs, and the
small quantity therein existing of baregine (the only organic matter
which is present) appears to be generated after the water has reached

254 Dr Charles Daubeny on the

the surface. Neither can the almost constant escape of azotic gas be
accounted for, without supposing some process of oxygenation to be
going on in the interior.

Now these springs usually make their appearance, where other
evidences of volcanic action are exhibited, in the dislocation and eleva-
tion of the surrounding strata ; and the latter phenomena occur so
extensively over the earth's surface, that volcanic operations, if as-
sumed to be their cause, may have been widely enough distributed to
produce a general increase of temperature throughout that zone in
the interior of ,the globe in which they are carried on. What may
be the condition of the earth lower than this, we surely have no data
for ascertaining ; for it is evident that, if this supposed zone lie be-
low the level which mining operations have reached, it would itself
elevate the temperature of all those portions of the earth's crust of
which we have any cognizance.

I am, however, unwilling to dogmatize, either with respect to the
general cause of the internal heat of the globe, or the limits to which
this heat may be confined.

All that I have ever sought to prove is, that, be the existence of
a central heat ever so well established, its assumption does not ad-
vance us towards the explanation of the phenomena, either of volca-
noes, or of thermal springs in general, and that a process of oxidation
is going on, often with intense energy, in the interior of the globe,
of a different nature from that usually occurring on the surface, as
being attended with an evolution of hydrogen gas, a phenomenon
which can be most readily explained by the decomposition of water,
through the action of the metals of the earths and alkalies upon that
liquid.

I would finally remark, that Professor Bischof will find his objec-
tion to the supposed existence of these bases in the interior of the
globe, arising from their low specific gravity, answered by anticipa-
tion in my Reply to his former paper, as I have there shewn that the
specific gravity of one hundred parts of the metallic principles pre-
sent in a mass of ordinary lava, would be quite as considerable as
that of the same amount of these same bodies united with oxygen,
so that the diflSculty, be it small or great, which attends the fact of
the high specific gravity of the globe, as compared with that of the
materials composing its surface, is the same to those who reject my
hypothesis, as to those who embrace it.

Lest, however, it should be imagined that I have attached an un-
due weight to this theory, or have done more than to advocate it as the
most plausible account that can at present be given of the facts before
us, I will, in conclusion, extract the remarks which I made, nearly
ten years ago, in my Report on Mineral and Thermal Springs, un-
dertaken at the request of the British Association.

" We ought carefully to distinguish between that which appears
to be a direct inference from observed facts, and what at most can

Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 255

advance no higher claim than that of being a plausible conjecture.
The general occurrence of volcanoes in the neighbourhood of the sea,
and the constant disengagement of aqueous vapour and of sea-salt
from their interior, are facts, which establish in my mind a convic-
tion that water finds its way to the seat of the igneous operations,
almost as complete as if I were myself an eyewitness of another
Phlegethon discharging itself into the bowels of the earth, in every
volcanic district, as in the solitary case of Cephalonia.

•* Nor is the access of atmospheric air to volcanoes more question-
able than that of water ; so that the appearance of hydrogen united
with sulphur, and of nitrogen, either alone or combined with hydro-
gen, at the mouth of the volcano, seems a direct proof that oxygen
has been abstracted, by some process or other, from both.

*' Having satisfied our minds with regard to the fact of internal
oxidation, we naturally turn to consider what principles can have
existed, in the interior of the earth, capable of extracting oxygen
from water as well as from air ; and this leads us to speculate on the
bases of the earths and alkalies as having caused it. But in ascrib-
ing the phenomena to the oxidation of these bodies, we ought not to
lose sight of the Baconian maxim, that, in every well-established
theory, the cause assigned should be not only competent to explain
the phenomena, but also known to have a real existence ; which lat-
ter circumstance cannot, of course, be affirmed of the alkaline and
earthy metalloids, as occurring in the mterior of the earth."

Miscellaneous Observations, chiefly Chemical. By John Davf,
M.D., F.R.S., Lond. and Edin., Inspector-General of Army
Hospitals. Communicated by the Author.

1. In experimenting upon a siliceous sand from Mabaica,
in British Guiana, coloured reddish-brown by peroxide of iron,
I perceived that it was rendered almost black by the applica-
tion of heat, even of a moderate degree. The effect was well
shewn by heating the sand either on a thin plate of glass or
in a platina capsule. The change of colour was distinct, when
the temperature, it may be conjectured, was very little above
the boiling point of water, and seemed to be at its maximum
before it attained a dull-red heat. On placing the heated
capsule suddenly in water, so as to reduce its temperature
rapidly, a rapid lightening or brightening of the colour ap-
peared, making a pretty experiment.

The peroxide of iron, colouring the sand, was in the state

256 Dr Davy's Miscellaneous Observations,

of impalpable powder, merely adhering to the siliceous sand,
which was in the form of grains of transparent colourless
quartz, most of them rounded, having been water- worn : such
was their appearance under the microscope.

I did not think it necessary to make the experiment on the
change of colour out of the influence of atmospheric air, tak-
ing it for granted that oxygen was in no wise concerned in
producing the change ; and that this is another instance (if
it has not been noticed before) of change of colouring de-
pending on change of temperature, and independent of any
change in the chemical composition of the substance exhibit-
ing it.

Trials made on soils of excellent quality, — dark mould con-
taining very little vegetable matter, — have shewn the same
change of colour from change of temperature, as the coloured
sand just mentioned.

These instances seem deserving of being kept in mind in
conducting the examination of a soil containing iron, — a com-
mon ingredient of soils, and in the state of peroxide. Mere
blackening of such a soil should not be considered a satisfac-
tory proof of the presence of vegetable matter. More deci-
sive proof should be required, afforded by the smell on the
first application of heat, and by comparison of colour before
and after a sufficient application to destroy any vegetable
matter which may be present.

2. When iron is precipitated by ferrocyanide of potassium
in a solution containing alumina, and the latter, without se-
paration of the precipitate by filtration, is thrown down by
ammonia, the colour of the first from blue becomes brown,
as if originally precipitated by ammonia. Now, after having
been well washed, after having been collected in a filter, if
sulphuric or any other mineral acid be added, the mixed pre-
cipitate will acquire a blue colour; and it is surprising how
long after repeated washings it retains this property, gradual-
ly, however, diminishing in intensity of colour.

Other instances might be given of the power of precipitates
to retain a portion of another matter, existing in the solution
from which they have been thrown down. I shall mention
one only in particular. It occurred in examining cane-ashes

chiefly Chemical. 257

obtained by burning the dried sugar-cane (after the expres-
sion of its saccharine juice), under the copper-pans in which
the juice is evaporated, in the common process in use in the
West Indies of making Muscovado sugar. After the ash
had been acted on by an acid, ammonia was added to the so-
lution formed. Owing to the presence of a little oxide of
copper derived from the pans, the copious precipitate pro-
duced, consisting chiefly of phosphate of lime, was coloured
bright-blue, as was also the solution after the addition of the
volatile alkali. Repeated washings of the precipitate, as in
the former example, only very slowly diminished the inten-
sity of its colour ; and after such washing, and standing co-
vered with water at least a fortnight, the precipitate con-
tinued coloured faintly blue, the supernatant incumbent
water being colourless.

Do not such facts as the preceding, of the retention of co-
louring matter by certain precipitates, help to explain how
particular minerals are coloured, as opalite blue, imbedded
in colourless dolomite, and the various colours of quartz and
of the oriental aluminous gems, some, at least, of which we
know to be formed contemporaneously with the colourless
rock above mentioned \ In accordance with this, I may men-
tion, that carbonate of lime, when precipitated, as in the in-
stance brought forward of phosphate of lime, from a solution
containing a little copper, does not attach to it the colouring
matter, — a single washing on a filter is sufficient to render
it colourless.

The same facts regarding the retention of one substance
adhering to the particles of another, shews the necessity of
great caution in deciding that a precipitate is pure, and free
from any of the fluid medium in which it has been thrown
down. In the instances noticed of the adhesion of one to an-
other, the precipitates were not only washed repeatedly in a
filter, but w^ere also taken from the filter repeatedly, and
agitated in large quantities of water.

3. So delicate is the sense of touch, that it may be em-
ployed advantageously as an aid in chemical research. There
are fine clays and sandstones, very compound, and formed of
minute particles derived from disintegrated rocks. In the

258 Dr Davy's Miscellaneous Observations ,

examination of these, even with the aid of acids and the mi-
croscope, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether they
contain silica or not. In such instances, the aid above men-
tioned may be had recourse to with advantage. If a little of
the clay or sandstone, in fine powder, as abraded by a knife,
be placed on a slip of glass, and gently touched — slightly
rubbed with a rod of glass, its end somewhat rounded and
perfectly smooth — a peculiar harsh sensation will be im-
parted to the fingers holding the rod, very characteristic, and,
after a little experience, not to be mistaken. This test of
silica, in a state of fine division, or of minerals as hard, in a
finely divided state, may be useful to the inquiring traveller,
a slip of glass and a small glass rod being, with water, all
that is required. Provided thus, the geologist may in an
instant determine, with tolerable accuracy, whether such
finely-divided silica or hard mineral enter into the composi-
tion of the matter examined, even though in the form of de-
licate silicified infusoria, microscopic objects, such as occur
in chalk in some situations, and which, to be distinctly seen,
require to be exposed to a high magnifying power.

4. Tin, when precipitated from a saline solution by means
of a carbonated alkali in the state of carbonate of lime, ad-
heres in part to the sides of the glass vessel in which the
precipitation is made. If minutely observed, it will often be
found that the precipitate adheres more firmly in some places
than in others ; and if a slip of glass be immersed when the
precipitation is taking place, it will be found that one of its
sides is more coated than the other, and that on the side on
which there is most precipitate, there it adheres much more
firmly than to the others ; from one side the carbonate is
easily removed, from the other with difficulty. On both sides
the precipitate, when examined by the microscope, is found
in the form of crystals, and most generally rhomboidal.

Do not the facts mentioned tend to shew, that in this in-
stance an influence is exercised analogous to that of electri-
cal polarity? And, is not the property thus displayed of
carbonate of lime so adhering to glass, that quality on which
its efficacy as a cement depends ? Precipitated from sea-
water by the separation of the carbonic acid by which it was

chiefly Chemical. 259

held in solution in the sea, owing to the higher temperature
of the shores, and the agitation of the breaking waves, it
constitutes the cementing principle of all the sandstones now
in the act of forming at the sea-margin in various regions.
Absorbing carbonic acid slowly from the atmosphere when
lime is mixed with siliceous or shell sand, and properly mois-
tened, it appears to operate in the same manner in forming
in time a mass of stony firmness. When a foreign substance
is not present, and hydrate of lime is converted into carbo-
nate by the absorption of carbonic acid, then it appears to
form a soft little cohering mass of granular particles resem-
bling chalk. I have found instances of the kind in the pure
lime-mortar used in the Coliseum, and in the walls of ancient
Thebes in Egypt. Whilst the mortar, a mixture of lime and
sand, employed in the rubble work, of which the Coliseum
— a combination of arches consists — is now hard as stone,
this pure mortar, consisting only of carbonate of lime, used
as a cement for the facing stones of the building, is as soft
as chalk ; and the same remark applies to the pure mortar
similarly used at Thebes.

5. In examining specimens of manures offered for sale as
guano, it is desirable to have a ready test of sulphate of lime
by which it may be distinguished from the phosphate. The
insolubility of the latter in water, and the moderate degree
of solubility of the former, are certain criteria. Some time,
however, is necessary to witness the effect in a satisfactory
manner. To obviate delay, I find the following process to
answer well. After well washing the sample under exami-
nation, to remove the more soluble salts, distilled or rain
water is to be poured on the residue, and a minute or two
after a few drops of the solution of oxalate of ammonia are
to be added ; if sulphate of lime is present, a cloudiness will
be perceived apparently rising from the bottom, the cause of
which requires no explanation.

6. Ammonia, as it is well known, precipitates from an acid
solution several substances, as alumine, magnesia, phosphate
of lime, phosphate of magnesia. The appearance of the pre-
cipitate indicates tolerably its nature, and, consequently, is
deserving of attention. The precipitate of alumine alone is

260 Dr Davy's Miscellaneous Observations^

almost transparent, — jelly-like. — owing to the excessive mi-
nuteness of its particles, individually out of the limits of dis-
tinct vision, using the best microscopes at present construct-
ed. The precipitate of phosphate of lime is less transparent,
consisting as it does of granules of a larger size, and within
the limits of microscopic observation. The precipitate of
phosphate of magnesia in the form of the double salt ; the
ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, is almost of an opaque
white, being thrown down in crystals which reflect a good
deal of light. Though a tolerable conjecture may thus be
formed of the nature of a precipitate by ammonia, and that
whether pure or mixed, it will be right in most instances,
and of course always when perfect accuracy is aimed at, to
trust only to the appearances as a guide to the use of appro-
priate distinctive tests.

7. If the pulp of the tamarind, including the seed, be ex-
posed to the air, it remains moist for a considerable time. It
is not attacked by insects, nor does mildew soon form on it.
If it be digested in water, and the solution formed be sepa-
rated by filtration and evaporated, an extract is obtained pos-
sessing similar properties. It deliquesces in a moist atmos-
phere, probably owing to the presence of magnesia in combi-
nation with one or more vegetable acids, for I have found
this earth in a notable quantity, in the pulp which I have ex-
amined. Whilst the entire pulp, and the residue from it, are
so little liable to change, the residue is otherwise. If ex-
posed to the air, it soon loses all excess of moisture, and is
rendered dry. If kept in water and exposed to the air, it
soon becomes covered with mildew. Does not this show that
the acid and saline matter of the pulp have a preservative
quality, and are designed for the purpose of preservation \
The instance adduced appears to me a striking one. Very
many more might be pointed out of similar significancy ; in-
deed, it would be more difficult to find an example of the
contrary. The preservative materials in the vegetable king-
dom, especially in the instance of seeds, appear to be chiefly
woody fibre, forming husks and shells ; oils, as in the instance
of certain kernels or nuts, and sugar and acid salts in the
instance of certain fruits ; and, as in the example of the tama-

chiefly Chemical. 261

rind, collocted eliiefly in the pulp enveloping ttie seeds. These
means of preservation, wq too well know from experience,
have not an unlimited power. After a while they all, when
exposed to the influences of the elements, yield and undergo
change ; designed, no doubt, to promote the end for which
they are intended — the multiplication of their kind. The
tamarind is not an ex<}eption. After many weeks exposure, I
found the pulp enveloping its seeds dry and in part mildewed,
and the acid-extract covered with thick mildew.

8. When Indian corn (maize) is exposed to the fire, it is
easily charred, but it is reduced to ash^s with extreme diffi-
eulty ; indeed, it may be said that the charcoal of this grain
is almost incombustible. It owes this property to the large
proportion of phosphate of magnesia it contains in conjunc-
tion with a little phosphate of lime. Tfiis is proved by di-
gesting it with dilute nitric acid. The acid dissolves these
salts, and after their removal, the charcoal is incinerated
without difficulty.

Owing to its property of resisting the fire, it has aecurred
to me, that this glazed charcoal may be advantageously em-
ployed as a varnish for pottery. It has iJie properties, in
the most essential respects, of the admired black varnish of
the pottery of Ancient Greece and Etruria ; and I apprehend
its effect would be as pleasing to the eye as a red ground,
and that it would be equally durable. I hope it may have a
trial.

9. When Indian corn is digested with dilute nitric acid
for a considerable time, the saline mattei*s above mentioned
are extracted, — a bright yellow solution is formed. If a solu-
tion of ammonia be added to it, a precipitate is obtained like
that of phosphate of lime, consisting, as seen under the mi-
croscope, of granules, and without any distinct crystals, as if
entirely destitute of the ammonian or magnesian phosphate.
If this precipitate is collected and heated before the blow-
pipe, it fuses, shewing thereby that it is not chiefly phos-
phate of lime ; and, if it be redissolved in dilute nitric acid
and reprecipitated by ammonia, the precipitate, as seen un-
der the microscope, has not the character of phosphate of
lime, but of the double magnesian salt, appearing chiefly in

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXll. — OCTOBER 1816. 3

262 Miscellaneous Observations, chiefly Chemical.

crystals, and not distinctly in granules. The obvious differ-
ence of circumstances in the two instances is, that, in the
first instance, the salt was precipitated from a solution con-
taining some vegetable matter derived from the corn ; and
that, in the latter, it was without, and I may say, unimpeded,
by that matter. In the mixed " fusible calculus," as it has
been called, consisting of a mixture of phosphate of lime and
of the ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, we often see an
earthy chalky texture, the stone being formed in part, or
altogether, of loosely adhering granules. Reasoning from
analogy, may not this peculiarity be owing to a cause such
as has been supposed to have had an effect in the instance
above described, viz., being deposited from a fluid containing
an organized matter in solution, and some of which enters into
the composition of the calculus % And may not the same cir-
cumstance be connected with the fact, that the urinary calculi
generally are little crystalline ?

10. Ammonia, as it is w^ell known, occasions a precipitate
of magnesia when added to a solution of sulphate of magnesia.
But, however much in excess it be added, it does not preci-
pitate the whole of the magnesia ; a definite portion remains ;
a new salt is formed — a double salt, consisting of the whole of
the acid in union with the unprecipitated earth, and a portion
of alkali equivalent to the portion of earth thrown down.
That this is the case, may be inferred from the following re-
sults. The precipitate obtained by the addition of a solu-
tion of ammonia to one of sulphate of magnesia, after having
been well washed in a filter, yields no smell of the volatile
alkali when mixed with quicklime, nor, when dissolved by
means of nitric acid, any indication of sulphuric acid in union
with it by the test of nitrate of baryta, proving that this
precipitate is pure magnesia. If the solution from whence
a portion of magnesia has been thrown down by the volatile
alkali be evaporated, a salt in a crystalline form, deliques-
cent in a moist atmosphere, will be obtained, which appears
to have the same properties as the double salt of sulphate of
ammonia and sulphate of magnesia. "When carefully heated,
it first enters into the watery fusion ; and when the greater
part of the water is expelled, on slowly raising the heat.

Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals. 263

keeping it below a dull red heat, a slight ammoniacal odour
is first exhaled, and next fumes of sulphate of ammonia. If
the heating process is stopped before the whole of the vola-
tile salt is sublimed, the residue is entirely soluble in the
water, seeming to prove that the proportions of the acid and
bases are the same as in the neutral salts.

Some paradoxical appearances are connected with the for-
mation of this double salt. Thus, as is well known, when
magnesia is mixed with a solution of sulphate of ammonia,
a strong smell of the volatile alkali is evolved ; the mag-
nesia separating a portion of the alkali to combine with the
remainder of the acid. Thus again, even when the carbon-
ate of magnesia is similarly added, the same odour is pro-
duced in a less degree, and there is a slight effervescence.
Another instance of paradox may be mentioned. If a cer-
tain portion of sulphuric acid is added to a solution of sul-
phate of magnesia, ammonia, however largely added, will
occasion no precipitate. The explanation of this is obvious.
The same remark applies to the following : — When a precipi-
tate has been obtained by ammonia from sulphate of mag-
nesia, the volatile alkali being in great excess, if sulphuric
acid is added, and yet not in sufficient quantity to neutralize
the excess, the precipitate will be redissolved. The pheno-
mena are the same, substituting the nitrate or muriate of
magnesia for the sulphate, and using the nitric or muriatic
acid for the sulphuric, and owing to the same cause, viz.,
the formation of soluble double salts. For purposes of ana-
lysis, it may be worth keeping in mind, that these last men-
tioned double salts are remarkably deliquescent.

Barbadoes, May 1. 1846.

Origin of the Co?istituent and Adventitious Minerals of Trap
and the Allied Rocks, By Jambs D. Dana.

(Concluded from p. 203.)

7. Bearing upon this subject, it should be observed, that
the constituents of amygdaloidal minerals are, in general,
those of the containing rock. Silica, potash, soda, alumina.

264 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals.

are found in the felspars ; lime, magnesia, and iron, in augite
or hornblende ; iron and magnesia in chrysolite. These are
all the constituents needed, except a little baryta for one
species^ The felspar decomposes readily and gives up its
ingredients, its potash or soda, silica and alumina, The same
is true of augite and chrysolite, which afford magnesia, lime,
silica, and iron. With water to infiltrate, we should, there-
fore, have all the necessary ingredients at hand for the re-
quired compounds. The fact already stated, that zeolites have
been found as stalactites in caverns, seems to prove that they
do actually result from decompositions and recompositions,
such as have been supposed. Thus, we have all the condi-
tions at hand necessary for producing, by infiltration, the
zeolite and the chlorite nodules of these rocks. The alumina,
alkalies, and lime, contribute, along with, a portion of the
silica, to the zeolites ; and the magnesia, iron, and another
portion of the silica, to the chlorite,* often as abundant as
the former. The amygdaloidal nodules frequently have a
green coating, which further indicate the probable truth of
these views ; for it appears evidently to be a precipitate from
the solution before a crystallization of the zeolites took place
— a settling, perhaps, of the insoluble impurities taken up by
the filtrating fluid in its passage through the rock, or of the
formed chlorite, less soluble than the zeolites. Occasionally,
when the rock contains copper, these nodules have an earthy
coating of green carbonate of copper — -the carbonate having
proceeded, apparently, from the native copper of the rock, by
the same process as explained.

The hypothesis of filtration seems, then, to be at least the
principal source of these minerals. In some instances the
filtrating fluid may have derived its ingredients from distant
sources. The salts of sea-water may act an important part
in these changes. Silica is dissolved on a grand scale dur-
ing submarine eruptions, as we have elsewhere urged, and
is thence distributed to the rocks around. Lime, also, is

^ Chlorite consists of the same elements as augite or hornblende, except that
the liine is excluded and water added. Thoj^ are, silicu, alumina, magnesia,
oxide of iron^ with 12 per cent, of water.

Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals. 266

taken up in a similar manner. But the rock itself has often
afforded the ingredients for the forming minerals, during
the passage of the filtrating fluid through it. By the same
means, the adjoining walls of a seam or dyke, which receive
the drainings from the rock of the dyke, are often penetrated
by zeolitic minerals.

It may be thought that I am giving undue influence to a
favourite theory, and in the minds of some, these conclusions
may be set down among mere speculations in science. But
the circumstances attending submarine igneous action, I am
persuaded, is not generally apprehended. What is the con-
dition of the deep bed of an ocean \ Even at a depth of three
miles, the waters press upon the bottom with a force equiva-
lent to a million of pounds to the square foot ; and with such
a forcing power above, can we set limits to the depth to
which these sea-waters — magnesia and soda solutions — will
penetrate \ Will not every cavern, every pore, far down,
be filled, under such an enormous pressure % Let a fissure
open by an earthquake effort, and can we conceive of the
tremendous violence with which the ocean will rush into the
opened fissure \ Let lava ascend, can we have an adequate
idea of the effect of this conflict of fire and water \ The rock
rises, blown up with cavities like amygdaloid, and will a long
interval elapse before every air-cell will be occupied from the
incumbent water ? Suppose an Hawaii to be situated beneath
the waves, pouring forth its torrents of liquid rock ; — this
island contains about five thousand square miles, which is less
than the probable extent of many a region of submarine erup-
tion ; — suppose, I say, the fires were opened and active over
an area of some thousands of square miles — are there no
effects to be discovered of this action \ There is no geologist
that pretends to deny the premises — the fact of such submarine
eruptions, the ocean's pressure, the effect of fire in heating
water, and in giving it increased solvent power ; and why
should they not reason upon the admitted facts, and study
out the necessary consequences ? Surely, if there have been
effects, we might expect to see some of them manifested in
the cavities of the ejected rocks, which were opened at the

266 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals.

time to receive the waters and any depositions they might be
fitted imder the circumstances to make.

We are led by these considerations to another point in
connection with this subject — the probable condition under
which the different amygdaloidal minerals have been formed.
Have they all proceeded from heated solutions, or all from
cold solutions I or can we distinguish some which are indubi-
tably of one or the other mode of formation %

Bearing on these questions, we notice such facts as are
afforded by the condition and relative positions of the mine-
rals in geodes. And I would here acknowledge my obliga-
tions to the valuable memoir, before alluded to, by Messrs
Jackson and Alger. The paucity of information on this sub-
ject to be found in the various accounts of similar rocks by
other writers, is surprising. Even where special pains have
been taken to describe the mineral species, the relative posi-
tions of the minerals is very seldom noted. It has been
altogether too common among geologists to treat mineral
information with a degree of neglect almost amounting to
contempt, although, as facts will probably hereafter shew,
they lie at the basis of an important branch of geological
science.

But to proceed with the subject before us. We find that

Quartz or chalcedony, and datholite, very seldom overlie
other mineral species in geodes or amygdaloidal cavities,
while the latter often overlie them.*

Prehnite is usually lowermost with reference to all the
species except the two just mentioned. Occasionally it is
found upon analcime, as at the Kilpatrick hills.

Analcime is commonly situated below all, except quartz,
datholite, and Prehnite.

Of the remaining species, chabazite, stilbite, harmotome,
Heulandite, scolecite, mesole, Laumonite. and apophyllite, it
is more difficult to distinguish an order of arrangement. My

* The writer has observed stilbite, apophyllite, calc-spar, and Prehnite, over
lying datholite, and various species over Prehnite.

Mr J. J). Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals. 267

investigations only enable me to state that chabazite is usu-
ally covered by the rest (when associated with them), yet it
is sometimes superimposed on stilbite ; and apophyllite is
almost uniformly above all with which it may be associated ;
calc-spar is at different times above and below. We thus
arrive at the following, as the usual order of superposition : —

1. Quartz.

2. Datholite.

3. Prehnite.

4. Analcime.

5. Chabazite, harmotome.

6. Stilbite, Heulandite, scolecite, natrolite, mesole, Lau-
monite, apophyllite.

It is a reasonable inference that the species which covers
the bottom of a cavity was first deposited, and, as a general
rule, that the others above were formed, either simultane-
ously, or in succession upon the lowermost, as their order
may indicate. Each is usually perfect in its most delicate
crystallizations, so that we cannot suppose that the minerals
first deposited often underwent change after their deposition,
though instances of this may no doubt be detected.

It is also evident, that if there were any species formed
previous to the complete cooling of the rock, or if any require
for their formation an elevated temperature, they are those
first deposited — the first in the above series. A few consi-
derations will place this, if possible, in a clearer light.

Quartz, as we have stated in a preceding page, and fully
remarked upon elsewhere, enters largely into solution during
submarine eruptions. This solution has been shewn, by ac-
tual experiment, to be a necessary consequence of such
action. This fact corresponds most completely with the
above deductions. Quartz usually forms the first lining of
the geode or amygdaloidal cavity, when it is found at all,
and, moreover, it is the most abundant of all amygdaloidal
minerals.

Quartz may also proceed from decompositions of the rock
in the cold, and incrustations of this kind are known to oc-
cur ; but such an explanation does not account for its gene-
rally preceding all other species in filling cavities and seams

268 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Miner ah.

in trap rocks, and is insufficient to produce the large deposites
of silica, sometimes amounting to many tons in a single
geode.

It should not be understood that the quartz is supposed to
be derived always from the same heated waters that attend-
ed the formation of the containing rock ; for later eruptions
in the same region might, at a subsequent period, produce a
like result ; yet, as its place in the series proves it to be the
earliest in formation, it has probably been generally deposit-
ed from the water heated during the eruption of the rock.
Leaving quartz, we pass to the other minerals.

It is a striking fact, that the minerals next to quartz in the
table given — datholite, Prehnite, and analcime — contain less
water than either of the following species. While the others
include from 10 to 20 per cent., the first, datholite, has but
5 per cent., Prehnite about 4J per cent., and analcime 8 per
cent.* This fact certainly leans towards the view of their
having originated at a somewhat more elevated temperature
than the other species — -the same conclusion that is drawn
from their lower position in geodes.

The fact, also, that Prehnite has been found forming pseu-
domorphs, bears the same way ; for heat would be necessary,
in all probability, to aid in removing the original mineral.
The vast extent of some Prehnite veins — occasionally, as Dr
Jackson has observed, three or four feet wide — ^refers to an
origin like that of the quartz in similar rocks. Indeed, there
seems little doubt that Prehnite is often derived from that
portion of the silica in solution which entered into combina-
tions at the time with the alumina and lime which the sili-

* The following table shews the per-centage of water, and gives at the same
time a general view of the couaposition of the zeolites.

Silica, boractc acid, lime. — Datholite (5 Aq.)

Silica, alumina, lime. — Prehnite (4J Aq.) Heulandite (14 Aq.) Scolecite
(13J Aq.) Epistilbite (14 Aq.) Stilbite (17 Aq.) Laumonite (17 Aq.)

Silica, alumina, lime, and potash or soda. — Mesole (12 Aq.) Thomsonite (13
Aq.) Phillipsite(17 Aq.) Thabazito (21 Aq.)

Silica, alumina, and either soda, baryta, or strontia. — Analcime (8 Aq.) Na-
trolite (9^ Aq.) Harmotome (15 Aq.) Brewsterite (13 Aq.)

SiUca, lime, and potash. — Apophyllite (16 Aq.)

Silica, lime. — Dygclasite (16^ Aq.)

Mr J. D. Dana on the Ori(jin of Trap Minerah. 2G0

ceous waters contained ; and probably the lime as well as silica
was derived in part from an external source. The pseudo-
morphs prove that Prehnite may have been the result also of
subsequent eruptions, at the same time that they shew the
probable necessity of heat for its formation.

Datholite is a compound of silica, lime, and boracic acid,
with about 5 per cent, of water. Besides the small per-cen-
tage of water, and its being, next to quartz, the lowermost
mineral in geodes, we find an additional fact, alone almost
decisive with regard to its origin, in its containing boracic
acid. Boracic acid is often evolved about volcanoes or in vol-
canic regions. The hot lagoons of Tuscany, and the volcano
of Lipari, are the most noted examples.

Although ]>oracic acid has never been detected in sea- water,
there can be little doubt of its occurring in it. The usual
modes of analysis by evaporation would dissipate it, and, of
course, it could not thus be detected, except with special care,
and by operating on a large quantity of water. Borate of
soda (boracite) is found only in beds of salt and gypsum, —
both sea- water products. Moreover, borate of lime has been
lately found on the dry plains in the northern part of Chili,
along with common salt, iodic salts, gypsum, and other ma-
rine salts ; and all are so distributed over the arid country,
that the region has been lately described as having been be-
yond doubt once the bed of the sea. These facts render it
altogether probable that sea-water which gains access to
volcanic fires is the source of the boracic acid in volcanic
regions.*

If this be its origin, the necessity of heat and pressure
must be admitted, in order to produce the chemical combina-
tions in datholite. Its elements are not those of the felspar
or other trap minerals, like the zeolites superimposed on it ;
but they have come from an extraneous source, and none is
more probable than the sea-waters, which were heated at the

* The only other known source is the mineral tourmaline, quite an improba-
ble one in the case before us. It is possible that tourmaline may have received
its boracic acid from the sea during granitic eruptions, and the occurrence of
this mineral in the vicinity of trap-dykes is explained in the same manner.

270 Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals.

submarine eruption, and permeated the bed of molten rock
shortly after ejection. Thus placed in circumstances of pres-
sure and confinement, along with silica in solution, the vola-
tile boracic acid might enter into the combination presented
in datholite.

An interesting fact bearing upon the history of datholite,
was observed by Dr Jackson at Keweena Point, Lake Supe-
rior. The datholite is often formed there in veins with native
copper, and is associated in some places with a curious slag
of boro-silicate of iron and copper. Sometimes the crystals
of datholite, as well as the Prehnite and calc-spar, contain
scales or filaments of native copper. These very important
observations seem to establish the same origin for the three
minerals — for Dr Jackson states that they appear to be co-
temporaneous ; and if calc-spar has been deposited from a
solution, the same holds true of the others. They have all
been formed subsequent to the copper filaments of the cavi-
ties, for they were deposited around them ; yet may have been
the next to form during the cooling of the rock. The boro-
silicate of iron and copper has resulted from the same causes.

Analcime approaches the zeolites in composition, but like
the Prehnite and datholite, it contains less water, and is very
different in its crystallization. We have less evidence as to
the heat necessary for its formation ; yet it was probably
formed at a somewhat elevated temperature.

With regard to the other amygdaloidal minerals, we are in
still greater doubt as to the necessity of heat. We cannot at
present fully appreciate the efiiciency of chemical agents in a
nascent state, acting slowly without heat through long periods.
Many of them may require heat, and some may be the last de-
positions from the filtering waters, after they have nearly or
quite attained their reduced temperature. But the formation
of zeolitic stalactites in caverns favours the view that some at
least may form at the ordinary temperature, by the slow de-
composition of the containing rock after it had emerged from
the waves.* Kersten has lately described a modern stellated
zeolite forming incrustations on the pump-wells of the Him-

* Annales des Mines, ii. (4th Ser.) 465, 1842.

Mr J. D. Dana on the Origin of Trap Minerals. 271

melsfurst mine near Freyberg. It consisted of silica, oxides
of iron, and manganese and water. Further examination will
probably bring more of these modern products to light.*

The formation of particular minerals in certain regions de-
pends, of course, upon the supply of the necessary ingredients.
Where the supply of lime has been large, we should expect
to find some of the minerals, Prehnite, Heulandite, Laumo-
nite, stilbite, scolecite, dysclasite, chabazite, for carbonate of
lime decomposes the silicates of potash or soda. Instances
of this association of the lime-zeolites, with a large supply of
lime in the vicinity, are common. When there is little or no
lime, or only the results proceeding from the decomposing
rock, the other zeolites are formed — the hydrous silicates of
alumina and potash or soda, occasionally with some lime. But
if a salt of baryta or strontia is present, the decomposition of
the silicates of the alkalies takes place as by the lime, and
the mineral harmotome or Brewsterite is produced.

In the above explanations we have scarcely appealed to one
source of amygdaloidal minerals admitted in the outset — ^tlieir
proceeding from vapours rising with the erupted rock ; for it
seems to be of but limited influence. Besides the arguments
already brought forward, we state that the vapours which rise
at the moment of eruption are insufficient. They inflate the
rock, or blow up the cavities ; but the little vapour required
to open the cavities most assuredly could not afford, by con-
densation, the mineral matter necessary to fill them, — to pro-
duce stalactites, stalagmite, and successive layers of minerals.
The vapours, then, if the source, must have continued to rise
for some time afterward. But is it possible that vapours
should rise up through the solid rock % Such does not hap-
pen about recent volcanoes ; for fissures are first opened, and
then the vapours escape. And could it happen with the water
above pressing down into the rock with the force of an ocean
even a mile deep ?

* Carbonate of iron seems never to form from water at the surface, its solu-
tions depositing a hydrated peroxide of ii*on instead of the carbonate: it may
therefore require a submerged condition of the rock, although not necessarily a
raised temperature.

272 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

There may be instances of this mode of formation ; but that
it should be the usual mode is irreconcilable with the many
facts stated. The form and condition of quartz or chalcedony
in geodes, as well as the vast amount of this mineral in some
cases, —the relative positions of the zeolites, and their occur-
rence as incrustations on rocks, or as fillings of cavities or
seams, and never in disseminated crystals through the texture
of the rock, — ^the green coating of the nodules, which is some-
times a carbonate of copper, when there is a native copper in
the rock to undergo alteration, — the correspondence between
the elements of the minerals and the composition of the in-
cluding rock, and at the same time their contrast in being hy-
drous, while the constituents of the latter are anhydrous, —
and the known formation of zeolites in caverns, — these various
facts appear to establish infiltration as the principal means
by which amygdaloidal minerals have been produced.

Observations on the Principle of Vital Affinity , as illustrated by
recent discoveries in Organic Chemistry. By William
PuLTENEY Alison, M.D., F.R.S.E., Professor of the Prac-
tice of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.

(Concluded from p. 146.)

We may consider, then, the selection and extraction, from
a previously existing compound fluid, by the agency of a pre-
viously existing compound solid, of certain portions of that
fluid already elaborated, as a chemical action, essential to all
living beings, and so peculiar to them that it may be, at least
with high probability, termed an exercise of a vital affinity.
And, in regard to this simplest kind of such action, the fol-
lowing points may be considered as ascertained : —

1. It seems to be always performed, in the perfect vege-
table or animal, by an agency, not of vessels, as was formerly
supposed, capable of a vital contraction, and of changing the
nature of their contents by the degrees of that contraction,
but of cells^ either pre-existing in the solid structure, or car-
ried about in the nourishing fluid, and having the name of the

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital A^nity. 273

globules or corpuscules of that fluid. Most of the textures
seem to be formed by the gradual transformation, elongation,
or flattening of cells, which have sprung from nuclei attached
to previously existing cells ; and it seems to be only by the
successive formation, distension, rupture, and disappearance
of cells, that secretions make their way into the excreting
ducts of glands, or on the surface of membranes.

The dependence of all living structures, and of all secre-
tions, not simply on vascular action, by which nourishing
fluids are circulated through them, but on cellular action^ by
which this nourishing fluid is changed, appropriated, and re-
tained, or restored to the circulation, is the great step which
has been recently gained in physiology by the use of the
microscope ; and seems to me to be one of the clearest proofs
of the dependence of all vital phenomena on peculiar attrac-
tions and repulsions, actuating both solids and fluids, and
causing motions in the latter, — not on any vital powers re-
siding exclusively in solids. When it is stated, e.g, by Mr
Paget, that " the purpose to which the capillaries are habitu-
ally subservient, is only the passive one of conveying blood
close to those parts of the body which either grow or secrete,
and that it is proved that if a part be only able to imbibe the
fluid portion of the blood from an adjacent vessel, it nourishes
itself as completely, and after the same method, as one whose
substance is traversed by numerous capillaries,'^* — it be-
comes obvious that the movements of the fluid portion of the
blood, whereby they are applied to growth and secretion, must
be determined by causes quite distinct from the contractions
of vessels.

2. Living and growing cells, therefore, whether acting on
the nourishing fluid just taken into the system (as in the case
of the intestinal villi, or the tufts of the placenta), or on the
blood brought to them by the capillaries (as in the nutrition
of the different textures), appear always to have two functions
to perform, — to extract from the nourishing fluid the matter
of which they are themselves composed, and to extract from

* R«port in Forbes's Medical Review, July 1843.

274 Dv Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

it, likewise, the matter which is contained within them, — i. e.,
in the organs of secretion, the secreted fluids, and in the dif-
ferent solid textures, that additional matter which is always
found, whether lignin, oil or fat, fibrinous, cartilaginous, or
bony substance, in a granular or less definite form, incrusting
the walls of the cells. It does not appear possible to explain
what is distinctly seen in all these cases, without supposing
that the pre-existing cells exert a peculiar attraction or affi-
nity, both for the matter by which they are themselves to be
nourished, and their successors to be reproduced, — and like-
wise for another matter, different in the different parts of the
structure, by which they are to be filled or distended. And
in the case of vegetables, there seems to be this general dis-
tinction between the two, — that the former is a matter desti-
tute of azote, and the latter one containing that element.

3. The cell, growing always by attracting to itself a com-
pound matter, existing in the fluid state, and giving it a simple
increase of aggregation, the nature of the change which takes
place as this matter becomes solid, is simply consolidation,
not precipitation, just as the fibrin of the blood, differing from
the albumen only in its stronger (vital) tendency to aggrega-
tion, is consolidated in its compound form from the liquor
sanguinis in the act of coagulation. And thus it happens
that these organic solids possess (as was particularly noticed
by Dr Prout) that peculiarity which, in the inorganic world,
is observed only in fluids, that even the minutest portion of
them contains the very same ingredients (whether earthy or
saline, animal or vegetable matters) as is found in the whole
mass.

The absence of all crystalline arrangement, and the com-
plex nature even of the smallest particle of an organized body,
are the characteristics of matter which has assumed the solid
from the fluid form, — not by a chemical precipitation, or sepa-
ration from matter formerly united to it, but by a vital attrac-
tion, subjecting it to " the invisible cause by which the forms
of organs are produced."

4. In the next place, we may inquire what difference ex-
ists among the cells in different parts of the same structure,
to explain the great difference of the compounds which are

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity, 275

deposited in them from the same nourishing fluid ; and I ap-
prehend, that, on this point, we must come to the same con-
clusion which Cuvier drew from examining, throughout the
animal kingdom, the structure of the different glands, the
vessels entering them, and the ducts passing out of them,
viz., that there is no difference of structure or of composition,
corresponding, in the slighest degree, to the great difference
of the products which appear. All cells in the vegetable
kingdom appear to consist of the same matter, cellulose, and
in the animal kingdom of the same matter, protein ; and in
the first instance they are quite similar to one another.
When we attend to the early stages of the existence of a liv-
ing body, when the difference of textures is only beginning
to appear, we find only that a fluid passing through similar
capillary vessels, and effused into similar cells, in different
parts of the structure, acquires different properties. And
when we carry our inquiries farther back, and observe the
first development of cells themselves out of the granular mat-
ter inclosed within the sac of the yolk, it appears obvious that
the particles of this matter are attracted, not into cells al-
ready existing, but to points where cells are about to be formed.
The facts known as to the evolution of the chick in ovo from
the matter that lies in contact with the germinal membrane,
sufliciently indicate that the powers which effect the separa-
tion of the different component parts of that matter, so as to
form the beginning of the different textures and organs, re-
side, not in pre-existing cells of different composition or struc-
ture, but simply in different points of a pre-existing mem-
brane, which, in the first instance, is homogeneous. The ex-
pression of Liebig, that " the chemical forces in living bodies
are subject to the invisible cause by which the forms of or-
gans are produced," when the action of that cause is duly
considered, implies, that they are subject to a cause which
undoubtedly acts differently at different points of the same
matter; but the difference of the action of which, at these
points, is determined by no other condition, that we can see,
than their position.

This mode oQimitation of the vital affinities, by which the
selection and appropriation of living matter is effected, is only

276 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

a statement of fact, and the most general fact tliat has been
ascertained ; and it seems highly probable, that it will be
found an ultimate fact, in this department of science. It may
serve to familiarize our minds with this principle to observe,
firsty that it is precisely analogous to the principle which is
now well established as a first truth in the physiology of the
nervous system, that portions of nervous matter, precisely
similar in structure and composition, have perfectly different
endowments according to the anatomical position which they
occupy; and, secondly^ that the same principle seems distinctly
exemplified in various cases of diseased action. The pheno-
mena of inflammation, and especially the easy recurrence of
inflammation once excited at any one spot in a living animal,
indicate that certain vital attractions and affinities existing
among the particles of the blood, and between them and the
surrounding textures, are peculiarly modified, not merely in
a particular manner, but exclusively at a particular spot.
From the spot where it commences [e. ^., on a serous mem-
brane), this alteration of vital actions extends, as from a
centre, to parts that are contiguous to, although having no
vascular connection with, that where it commenced, as we see
in tracing it from one fold of the peritoneum to another. And
when we examine the results of the inflammation in the dead
body, we see what clearly shews the operation of a force,
producing chemical changes of the kind we are now consider-
ing, but acting only at one part, and in one direction. " The
capillaries which have taken on the appearance of inflamma-
tion are all on one side of the fine membrane, and the serum
and lymph, effusions from these vessels," by which the diseased
state is essentially characterized, " are all on the other." —
(Goodsir, Anatomical and Fathological Observations^ p. 43.)

In saying that the fundamental property of chemical selec-
tion, essential to the growth of all living bodies, is strictly a
vital property, we do not overlook the fact that various sub-
stances, composed of inanimate or inorganic matter, have
likewise different powers of attraction for different elements
or compounds brought into contact with them. It appears
to be only by reference to this property, that. we can explain
the well-known phenomena ofendosmose and exosmose, in which

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 277

different fluids, brought in contact with a solid body, are at-
tracted into its pores with very different degrees of force.. It
is not the nature of the process by which the selection, in the
case of the living body, is effected ; but the peculiarities of
the selections themselves, their great force, and yet uniformly
temporary existence, that entitle us to regard them as indi-
cating a vital property.

II. But when we attend to the peculiar changes effected
by living solids on the fluid matters which are brought in con-
tact with them, we find that these are by no means confined
to the selection and appropriation, at particular points, of com-
pounds pre-existing in that fluid ; but that, under the influ-
ence of the living solid, /raw^or//2o//(?w5 or new arrangements
of the chemical elements take place, and new compounds are
formed.

In regard to tlie precise nature, or seat, of some of these
transformations, there is considerable difficulty, but we are
at present concerned only with the principle ; and may state
in illustration of it, two cases of transformation, of which
there is no doubt, the change from carbonic acid and water
to starch in the cells of plants (oxygen escaping), and the
change from starch to fat in the cells of animals (carbonic acid
and water escaping). And that I am correct in asserting
that the organ which exercises this and other chemical powers
in living plants is not only of the simplest construction, but
of uniform construction, while the products of its action are
very various, will appear from the following statement by
Mulder.

" Pure cellulose is easily obtained from the pith of the elder-
tree, from very young roots, and from other young parts of
plants. From these parts it is prepared by digesting them,
after being minutely divided, with alcohol, ether, diluted pot-
ash, hydrochloric acid, and water. In this manner, the starch,
gum, fats, resins, vegetable alkalies, salts, sugar, — and at the
same time the peculiar woody matter, are separated."

** After the action of these solvents, and especially of the
alkali, the cellulose, which was formerly solid and dense, ap-
pears in a spongy form. We may state as a tact, that the

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. T

278 Dr Alison on the VHnciple of Vital Affinity .

proper tissue of all plants which have been previously exposed
to the influence of these solvents, leaves a substance which is
identical in all of them, a substance which contains carbon and
the elements of water." — {Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal
Physiology, pp. 188-195.)

Mulder annexes to this statement a speculation in regard
tO" the influence o^ forms in organized bodies, as affecting their
chemical powers or properties, which, so far as I can under-
stand ity I think fitted to convey an erroneous impression.

" One of the first and chief laws visible in organic nature
is that the form has as much influence on the character of the
phenomena as the substance of which that form consists. The
eff'ects of the primary forces existing in the molecules, have
become, by the combination of elements into hollow globules,
altogether peculiar.''

*' In organic nature, besides all the peculiarities existing in
the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, we must suppose, as a chief
consequence of this, a tendency to form membranaceous, con-
cave, spherical little bodies, in which, because of this form, new
peculiar properties manifest themselves, which cannot be
brought out by other forms. Thus, by matter and form, all
that we observe in nature is, to a great extent determined."^
— {Ibid., p. 189.) If by this it is meant that the acquisition
of the form is the physical cause of the existence of the pro-
perties which cells, or any other organized structures present
in the living state, two questions immediately present them-
selves, ^r*/. How are the cells themselves formed {e.g. on the
germinal membrane of the ovum) out of a matter which is
originally without form, otherwise than by those very pro-
perties which are here ascribed to their existence ? and, se-
condly. If the properties are dependent only on forms, why do
they not exist in the dead state, when the forms are, in many
instances, still perfect \ The enunciation of these questions
seems to me sufficient to shew, that the correct expression of
the state of our knowledge on this point is that already quoted
from Liebig, that the chemical forces in living bodies are sub-
ject, not simply to an influence of forms, but to " the invisible
cause by which the forms of organs are produced,'"' i. e., that we
must include under the head of vital properties, both the me-

Dr Alison on the Principle of Fital Affinity. 279

chanical, or simply attractive power, by which cells or other
organs are formed out of amorphous matter, and likewise the
chemical powers with which these cells are endowed.

It is no objection to what has been stated, of the strictly
vital nature of these chemical powers, to admit that their ac-
tion is very often analogous to the principle to which the name
catalysis is given by chemists, and which is exemplified like-
wise in the chemistry of inorganic compounds, where the com-
bination of two substances is determined by the presence of
a third, which nevertheless takes no part in the combination
itself; or that it is analogous to that disturbance of the equi-
librium of chemical compounds, by which the fermentation of
an organic compound is transferred to another in contact with
it, although the changes in the two go on separately, and the
compounds formed are different. It is quite true, that those
modes of chemical action resemble and illustrate the man-
ner in which living solids, themselves undergoing continual
changes of composition, determine new arrangements of the
elements of the compound fluids which are brought in con-
tact with them. But this analogy is far from being an ex-
planation or resolution of the one phenomenon into the other.
In the first place, the analogy is essentially defective ; be-
cause although it is true that in any living being, already ex-
isting, different chemical compounds already exist in different
parts of the structure, which may act in these modes on the
nourishing fluid, and determine distinct transformations of
these at different parts ; yet this does not apply, as already
observed, to the first formation of each of the textures, at its
appropriate point, from a homogeneous semifluid matter.
But farther, although we were to admit the analogy of all the
chemical processes going on in living beings, to these forms
of simply chemical action, we should not thereby be autho-
rised to conclude that the vital processes have not that pecu-
liarity which makes it incumbent on us to regard them as a
separate class. We say that the decomposition of carbonic
acid, the combination of the carbon with the elements of water
to form starch, and the evolution of the oxygen, is a vital ac-
tion,— not because it is a change different in kind from the

280 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

decomposition of w^ater and evolution of the hydrogen by iron
and acid, — but simply because it indicates an affinity peculiar
to the state of life ; — ^because in no other circumstances,
when the elements of water are brought into contact with
carbonic acid, is any such decomposition effected. So also,
although it is true that the presence of spongy platinum en-
ables oxygen and hydrogen to unite and form water, or the
presence of fermenting yeast enables sugar to undergo trans-
formation into carbonic acid and alcohol, still these facts do
not interfere with those essential peculiarities on which the
doctrine of vital affinity depends, viz., that the presence of
living cells composed of carbon and the elements of water^
determines both the addition of new matter, from a compound
fluid, to those cells, and likewise the formation of other com-
pounds within the cells, varying in different parts of the same
structure, — all these compounds being different from any
which the chemist can form out of the same elements, and
different from those to which the same elements inevitably
return, after the phenomena of life are over. The physical
principle of catalysis may be said to illustrate the transfor-
mations in living bodies, as that of endosmose illustrates the
selection and appropriation of chemical elements or com-
pounds in living structures ; but these principles, as exempli-
fied in dead matter, include none of the peculiarities of the
vital chemical actions, and therefore furnish no explanation of
them.

The materials of which animal bodies are composed, have
been now so generally fonnd to have been prepared for them
by vegetables, that it has been reasonably doubted whether
any such power of decomposing the fluids presented to them,
and forming new compounds, exists in animals. There are
some cases, however, in which it appears certain that an ac-
tion of this kind goes on in living animals, and that it is
effected, as in vegetables, by an agency of cells. Thus, there
is good evidence that, in the natural state, much of the bile
which is discharged into the intestines from the liver is re-
absorbed in its passage along the Primae Vise ; yet it never
appears in the chyle, nor, in the natural state, in the blood ;

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 281

which seems to imply that it is decomposed, and its elements
thrown into other combinations, in the course of the cellular
action which attends the absorption of chyle.

In like manner, the formation of fatty compounds out of
starch, or its kindred principles, as illustrated by the recent
precise observations on the formation of wax by bees, and
the formation of gelatine in the living animal, are undoubted
instances of chemical trani>formations thus effected. The pre-
cise scene of these transformations is not yet ascertained, but
we have strong reason, from analogy, to suppose that they
are effected in the course of the circulation. And as we are
certain that the greatest of all the chemical changes which
are peculiar to living beings are effected within the cells of
vegetables, it seems in the highest degree probable, that the
corpuscles or cells (both red and white) which form so large
a part of the blood of animals, are concerned in the chemical
transformations which take place in blood ; and therefore,
that we are to regard organized and living cells as the agents
or instruments employed by nature in effecting all those
chemical changes which are peculiar to the state of life. And
if we consider this principle as established, it goes far to ex
plain several facts, long regarded as obscure, in regard to
the structure and position of the lymphatic and lacteal ves-
sels. We know that the mode of origin of these vessels gives
time and opportunity for cellular action {i. e.^ the develop-
ment, growth, and rupture of cells), and consequent chemical
changes, at their extremities ; we know that such cellular ac-
tion does in fact go on there, particularly in the lacteals;
and we know that the substances absorbed there, and pro-
bably elsewhere, by these vessels, are in fact altered, and so
far assimilated, in the act of absorption ; as in the case, al-
ready mentioned, of bile absorbed from the intestines. Thus
we are led to see the importance of these vessels being placed
at all points where substances are to be absorbed, which are
foreign to the animal economy, or require chemical change,
in order that they may be introduced with safety or good
effect. Hence, also, we see the use of the lymphatic glands,
at which another opportunity for cellular action, for chemi-
cal changes an4 assimilation, according to the observations

282 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity .

of Mr Goodsir, is provided.* And this also enables us to
understand a general fact, which, although disputed, I be-
lieve to be both true and important in pathology, — that a
substance destined for excretion, but retained in the blood by
reason of disease of its excreting gland (particularly the bile
or urine), is more injurious than the same matter when se-
creted by the gland, but re-absorbed from a mucous surface,
and consequently subjected to cellular action, and thereby to
chemical change.

III. Another general fact appears to be sufficiently illus-
trated by observations on the chemical changes in living bodies,
— viz.. That the vital properties by which these are effected
are trans/erred from the portions of matter already possess-
ing them, to those other portions of matter which are either
taken into their substance, or deposited in their immediate
neighbourhood. It is, indeed, obvious, that if we are right
in saying that living matter possesses these peculiar vital
properties, the act of assimilation which we know to be con-
tinually going on in living bodies, is not merely the attraction
and addition of new matter, but must include this transference
of vital properties to the matter which is continually added
to the existing solids.

" The force with which life is kept up," says Professor
Whewell, " not only produces motion and chemical change,
but also vitalizes the matter on which it acts, giving it the
powder of producing the same changes in other matter, and
so on indehnitely. It not only circulates the particles of
matter, but puts them in a stream, of which the flow is de-
velopment as well as movement." — {Philosophy of Inductive
Sciences^ vol. ii., p. 52.)

Several facts which are known in physiology and patho-
logy, may be noticed as more special exemplifications of this
principle. Thus, we know that vessels in any part of the
body communicate certain properties to the whole mass of
blood which lies in contact with them, so as to modify or sus-
pend for a long time the coagulation of such blood ; — that W\q

* See Carpenter's Manual of Physiology, § 493.

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital AJinittj. 283

blood which enters the vessels of any part where inflamma-
tion has been excited, has peculiar properties impressed on
it, and even changes on its composition effected, merely by
coming in contact with the portions of vessels where that
process is going on, and with the portions of blood previously
subjected to it ; — that the exudation from inflamed vessels
acquires peculiar properties from the contact with the living
surface on which it lies, first arranging itself as an organized
structure, and then selecting and appropriating, from the
neighbouring bloodvessels, those materials by which it is as-
similated to the texture witli which it is connected ; — again,
that, in tiie sound state, every portion of matter which is de-
posited from the bloodvessels, to form part of a muscle or of
a nerve, immediately acquires the peculiar vital properties
of the part which it nourishes ; and, in the case of muscles,
even, that the change produced in a portion of a fibre by the
application of a stimulus, is instantly communicated to the
whole length of that fibre, and to many adjoining fibres. It
appears to be nearly in the same manner that every porti<3n
of carbon and water which enters into tlifi composition of any
living vegetable cell, acquires the power of exerting tbe same
vital affinities as actuated the matter which it replaces, or to
which it is added.

IV. Another principle, at least equally important and cha-
racteristic, may be stated in regard to this communication of
vital properties to the materials which are added to living
bodies, viz., That such powers are imparted only for a brief
period of time, and that long before the time of the death of
the structure to which they belong, all those materials lose
the vital properties whicli have been given to them ; perhaps,
as has been lately stated, as a consequence of the exercise of
their peculiar vital powers, perhaps merely as a general law
of vitality ; but equally, whether the peculiar properties which
they acquire in living bodies are of the nature of nervous ac-
tions, vital contractions or attractions, or vital affinities. But
as this principle is best illustrated by reference to the pheno-
mena of excretions, we delay doing more than merely enun-
ciating it at present.

284 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity,

Having so far considered the general nature of the chemi-
cal changes which are peculiar to living bodies, and the kind
of apparatus provided by nature for carrying on these changes,
we may next take a more special view of the different che-
mical changes themselves, beginning with the greatest and
most fundamental of all, the formation of the amylaceous
matters by vegetables, acting on the water and carbonic acid
with which they are supplied, both in the liquid form by their
roots, and in the gaseous form by their leaves, — and the con-
sequent evolution of oxygen. In regard to this grand func-
tion of living plants, the following facts seem the most im-
portant that have been ascertained.

1. We see this change effected, in the present order of
things, only by the agency of one of the amylaceous princi-
ples themselves, although the quantity of that pre-existent
matter, in the case of the seeds of many vegetables, is exceed-
ingly minute. We need not enter on the question how far,
besides the pre-existence of matter capable of forming cells,
in the textures of the plant itself, previously existing organ-
ized matter, in the dead state, is essential as part of the nu-
triment of vegetables, — farther than to observe, that, as the
seed of every plant contains a store of organic compounds
already formed, there is certainly a strong presumption that
a certain quantity of such compounds, formed by previous
living processes, is highly useful, if not necessary, to the
nourishment of vegetables, as well as animals. This, how-
ever, appears most important in the early period of the exist-
ence of plants, when their power of decomposing the carbo-
nic acid has not yet attained its full intensity. The evidence
of the greater part of the nourishment of vegetables being
from carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, applied to their
leaves, or absorbed by their roots, is quite conclusive ; and
when we consider that vegetables preceded the appearance
of animals on earth, that the first vegetables (as is well ob-
served by Liebig) were of the kind which depend least on
their roots and most on their leaves for subsistence, and that
the kind of animals which first inhabited the earth, were
those which consumed the smallest quantity of oxygen, and
can live, therefore, in air highly charged with carbonic acid,

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 285

it appears in the highest degree probable, that a gradual pu-
rification of the atmosphere by the agency of vegetables ab-
stracting carbon, was a necessary prelude to the introduction
of animals, especially of warm-blooded animals, into the world:
and that the greater part of the carbon now existing in the
soil on the earth's surface, originally existed in the form of
carbonic acid in the atmosphere, and has been gradually
fixed, and enabled to become the chief support of all living
beings, by this vital affinity of vegetables, and of those tribes
of the lowest marine animals, which have been found to pos-
sess the same property, whereby carbon is separated from
oxygen, and combined with the elements of water, to form
the amylaceous matters.

2. The dependence of the exercise of this property on the
presence of light, and its connection (according to the state-
ments of Dr Draper), not with the heating portion of the rays,
nor with those which effect other chemical changes, but sim-
ply with the luminous portion of the rays, shews distinctly
that all living action on this globe is equally dependent on
light as on heat, althongli it is, and may long be doubtful, in
what manner the influence of light is exerted in producing
this change ; whether the theory long ago proposed by Sir
H. Davy is admissible, that light enters into the composition
of oxygen gas, when disengaged from any solid or liquid com-
pound containing it, or whether the agency of light may be
better expressed by saying, that it is the necessary stimulus
to that kind of vital action which leads to this primary trans-
formation of the elements of which organized beings are com-
posed.

3. It is unnecessary to enter here on the varieties of this
amylaceous matter which are formed in different vegetables
or parts of the same, the cellulose of which the cells are formed,
the starch, tlie dextrin, the gum, the inuline, which are depo-
sited in different species and in different parts. All these
appear to have the same simple fundamental composition,
consisting almost entirely of carbon with the elements of
water, and all are formed out of the same compounds, and by
a vital affinity essentially the same ; it may be partly owing
to some imperceptible difference in the relative position of the

286 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

ultimate atoms, partly to differences in the minute quantities
of inorganic matter, and of other organic compounds not yet
mentioned, which enter into their composition, that so many
varieties are found, not only in these compounds themselves,
but in the qualities which they present as found in different
species of plants, and even in different individuals of the same
species. In the case of a graft inserted on the stem of an
individual, or even of a species, different from that which fur-
nishes the shoot, we see that the vital affinities of the par-
ticles composing the shoot are capable, not only of extract-
ing from the nourishing fluid of the stock all the compounds
required for its development, but of imparting to the living
textures formed of those compounds which they extract, all
those peculiar properties of form, of colour, of smell, of rough-
ness, smoothness, &c., by which species, and even individuals
of the same species, are characterized. And when we con-
sider these facts, I apprehend we must admit that, under
the influence of the vital affinities which operate in the cells
of living vegetables, much more minute differences of com-
pounds are produced, than can be detected and explained by
any chemical analysis.

4. An important question here is. Whether the carbonic
acid of the air is decomposed in the leaves where it is chiefly
taken in, the amylaceous compounds immediately formed
with the help of water, and the oxygen set at liberty, or
whether that acid is taken into the juices of the plant, as we
now know that oxygen is into the blood at the lungs, and
gradually decomposed there, letting its oxygen escape gra-
dually, and aiding in the formation of different com[)ounds,
besides the varieties of starch ? That the latter is the more
probable supposition may be inferred, partly from the analogy
of the action at the lungs of animals, but chiefly from the
fact, that a separation of oxygen is equally required for the
elaboration, which certainly takes place in vegetables, of
other compounds, of the varieties of oil, and of protein, which
are chiefly deposited in other parts of their structures.

5. The relations of compounds of this class to sugar, de-
mand more special notice. It seems doubtful whether this
is ever the first compound formed ; it appears in the sap of

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 287

various plants when the fluids from the soil are ascending
and dissolving the starch which had been formed and stored
up by the living actions of the preceding year ; it appears in
almost exactly the same circumstances during the germina-
tion of seeds, and in both these cases is useful, as giving a
greater degree of solubility to the starch whence it is formed.
In both cases it disappears, and probably is converted into
some of the varieties of starch, as the vital actions of the
plant become more vigorous. Its composition, in its dif-
ferent varieties, as given by most analysts, C12 Hn Oji, Cio
Hio Oio. or even C12 Hu Ou, denotes that if it be formed
from the starch, C12 Hjo 0^^ it must be either by the ad-
dition of the elements of water, or by the abstraction of car-
bon ; and as its formation, during the germination of seeds,
is attended with evolution of carbonic acid, it seems most
probable that, in that case at least, it is formed in this last
way, under the influence of the oxygen of the air. It appears
again in the nectaries of flowers, and in the ripening of fruits,
as one of the latest results of the vital action of plants, in
those parts of them which are fully exposed to air and light,
but at a time when we may reasonably suppose that the vital
affinities are becoming comparatively ineff'ective, and when
carbonic acid is again evolved. It may be formed by the
chemist from some of the varieties of starch by a kind of fer-
mentation, excited by diastase, as in malting; or by a cata-
lytic action of sulphuric acid ; and it is formed from starch
merely by the agency of cold, as in frozen potatoes, and from
inuline merely by continued boiling in water ; so that its for-
mation from starch in vegetables seems to be most probably
a simple chemical change, not the eff*ect of a vital affinity.
Farther, it is a compound which takes the crystalline form,
essentially diff'erent from any form assumed by those parts
of organized structures which exhibit truly vital phenomena,
and retains its properties when exposed to air and water bet-
ter than any of the matters of which organized forms are
composed. From all these facts it may be inferred, with
great probability, that sugar, as it appears in the living ve-
getable, is generally to be regarded as a first product of de-
composition of starch, by the agency of water, and of the

288 Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity,

oxygen of the air, which appears to be the great agent in
the resolution of those compounds, which the vital affinities
have built up.

6. On the other hand, the relation of starch and cellulose
to the lignin, which forms the greater part of the solid mat-
ters of dicotyledonous plants, seems to be nearly the reverse
of their relation to sugar. This matter is always found in-
crusting, or incorporated with, the cells of vegetable tex-
tures ; it gives them their solidity and strength, which all
decompositions by chemical agents impair ; it cannot be
formed from the compounds of starch by artificial means,
but is formed from them in greatest quantity when the vital
actions of plants are strongest ; and its composition is al-
ways stated as differing from the amylaceous compounds, by
containing more carbon, and less oxygen, in proportion to
the hydrogen, than exists in the composition of water; its
formula being stated as C40 H23 Ois. This, therefore, would
appear to be clearly the result of truly vital affinities, conti-
nuing to actuate the elements of starch, after the formation
of the starch from carbonic acid and water has been com-
pleted, and effecting a decomposition of part of the water, as
well as of the carbonic acid, presented to the living vege-
table.

In studying this first and most striking of all the changes
which are to be ascribed to vital affinities, it is especially ne-
cessary to understand the parts assigned to carbon and oxy-
gen ; and, in taking this general view, we must regard vege-
tables and animals as inseparably linked together, and look
to the whole series of chemical changes which intervene be-
tween the origin of vegetables and the death and composition
of animals. We must regard the carbon, originally existing
in combination with oxygen in the atmosphere, in the pro-
portion of one equivalent to two, as the great agent employed
by Nature in the formation of the whole organized creation,
insomuch that all organic chemistry may be said to be the
chemistry of compounds of carbon. — [Gregory'' s Chemistry^
p. 241.) That it may fulfil this office, it is invested with pe-
culiar but temporary powers ; it is separated at particular
points, and under certain conditions, from the oxygen, and

Dr Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity. 289

attaches itself to the elements of water, always present where
vegetables grow, and so forms various compounds, beginning
with the varieties of starch ; in all which it is the principal in-
gredient. The compounds thus formed next attack and par-
tially decompose the water, and appropriate the hydrogen,
thus causing a farther evolution of oxygen, and forming oil ;
and afterwards nitrogen, in small quantity, is introduced, and
fresh transformations take place, by which the protein com-
pounds are formed . All the solid structures of vegetables, and
indeed of organized beings generally, are made up of these
compounds of carbon, in which oxygen exists, either in the
proportion to hydrogen, which forms water, or in a less pro-
portion than that ; and the formation of these may be confi-
dently ascribed to vital affinities. But it is easy to conceive,
that other compounds of carbon, with hydrogen and oxygen,
will exist in plants in which the oxygen will be in larger pro-
portion than this, without supposing oxygen from the air to
be added ; because the vital affinities may not have been in
sufficient force to separate the oxygen completely from its
original union with carbon, and these, therefore, may be re-
garded as compounds of carbon, water, and undecomposed
carbonic acid. Such are the different organic acids (the ci-
tricl2C8H140 = 9C + 8HO + 3C02, the malic 8 C 6H
10O = 6C + 6HO-f2CO2, the tartaric 8C 4H 10 0 = 50 +
4H0 + 3C02,tlie oxalic 4C2H 80 = 0 + 2 HO + 300 J which
are found in the juices of many vegetables, particularly in
the immature state.

Again, it is always to be observed, not only that all orga-
nized bodies are destined ultimately to revert to the water,
carbonic acid, and ammonia, from which they were originally
formed, but that, in the case of animals at least, there is a
process always going on during the state of life, by which
these same inorganic matters are continually evolved from
the living frames. Therefore, we cannot be surprised to find
that the fluids of all living animal bodies contain other com-
pounds, in which the characteristic predominance of carbon
is not perceived ; because they are those which are formed in
circumstances where the vital affinities are losing their power.

290 Dr. Alison on the Principle of Vital Affinity.

and where a step has been made towards that final dissolu-
tion of organic compounds, when the oxygen is to resume its
power over the carbon, and this is to revert, directly or indi-
rectly, to the condition of carbonic acid. This general prin-
ciple as to the respective offices of carbon and oxygen in liv-
ing bodies, — the one the main agent in nourishing and sup-
porting living structures, the other in maintaining the excre-
tions by which these structures are continually restored to
the inorganic world, — we shall find to be applicable, not
only to the excretion of carbonic acid and water by the skin
and lungs, as compared with the amylaceous compounds
taken into animal bodies, but likewise to the excretions by
the liver and kidneys, as compared with the two other great
constituents of the food of animals, viz., the oily and the al-
buminous substances.

Oxygen, in its elementary state, although indispensable to
all living action, — although a condition of vitality equally
universal as heat, — yet hardly enters, if it enters at all, into
any of the combinations which are due to the vital affinities.
Although taken into the interior of every living being, it ap-
pears to comport itself there almost, if not entirely, as it does
in acting on dead matter. The expression of Liebig, that
the action of the oxygen of the air in living bodies is destruc-
tive, is perhaps fitted to convey an erroneous idea, but we
are certain that its chief, if not its sole, action in the animal
economy, is on those portions of matter which have no vital
properties ; either because they are redundant, — not required
for the nourishment of the tissues, — or because they have
been re-absorbed from them, having lost their vital affinities ;
and with these it unites, only to carry them off in the excre-
tions, particularly in the great excretion by the lungs. We
now know that the speculation as to the connection of the
oxygen of the air with vital action, long and ably maintained
by the late Mr Ellis, viz., that its sole use is to dissolve and
carry off excreted carbon, and therefore that in the bodies of
animals it goes no farther than the lungs, was erroneous ;
but we may assert with much confidence, that it goes no far-
ther than the circulating blood ; and that, although its action

Br Anderson on the Properties of PicoUne. 291

there is essential to all the metamorphoses which are there
accomplished, yet all the combinations into which it actually
enters, are destined to immediate separation from the living
body, — being, in fact, the media by which all living bodies,
at all periods of their existence, are continually resolving
themselves into the inanimate elements from which they
sprung. This principle will be better illustrated, however,
by a review of the leading facts lately ascertained as to the
formation of the other compounds peculiar to organized bodies,
and the excretions of animals.

On the Constitution and Properties of Picoline, a new Organic
Base fr(mi Coal-Tar. By TiiOMAS ANDERSON, M.D.,
F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Chemistry, Edinburgh.

(Concluded from p. 156.)

Combinations of PicoUne.

Picoline forms a series of compounds which are generally
closely analogous to those of aniline, but present in a less
marked degree the regularity and facility of crystallization
which are so characteristic of the salts of the latter base. It
forms, however, with the greater number of acids, salts which
can be obtained in a crystalline form. These are all highly
soluble in water, and some of them are even deliquescent;
they are also for the most part readily soluble in alcohol, even
in the cold. They are most readily obtained by evaporating
their aqueous solutions at 212°, and not by adding an acid to
the etherial solution of the base ; as in the latter case the
presence of even a minute proportion of water causes them
to precipitate in the form of a semifluid mass. Picoline
forms a number of acid salts, in which respect it differs from
aniline. Its salts are less readily decomposed in the air
than the corresponding aniline compounds, but they do event-
ually become brown, although without presenting any of the
rose- red colour which the latter salts assume.

292 Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline.

Sulphate of Picoline. — I obtained this salt by supersaturat-
ing sulphuric acid with picoline. The solution obtained was
perfectly colourless, and when evaporated in the water-bath,
it evolved picoline in abundance, and formed a thick oily fluid,
which, on cooling, concreted into a tough mass of transparent
and colourless crystals, apparently of a tabular form. Ex-
posed to the air, it deliquesces rapidly into a transparent and
colourless oil, which, after a time, acquires a slight brownish
colour. It is insoluble in ether, but readily in alcohol, both
hot and cold. It is not deposited in crystals by allowing the
hot alcoholic solution to cool. I analysed this salt by eva-
porating to dryness in the water-bath, in a weighed platinum
crucible, and allowing it to cool under an exsiccator. It was
then rapidly weighed, dissolved in water, and precipitated
by chloride of barium : —

4-364 grains of sulphate of picoline gave

5'230 ••• sulphate of baryta=z41-20 per cent, of anhydrous sul-
phuric acid.

This result corresponds with the formula C12 Hy N + 2 H 0,
S O3, as is shewn by the following calculation : —

Experiment.

. 41-20

Theory.

2 Eq. Sulphuric acid
1 ... Picoline

. 1000-0
. 1164-5

• 41-84

. 48-74

2 ... Water

. 225-0

9 42

2389-5 100-00

The sulphate of aniline dried at 212° has a different con-
stitution ; it gives 28-67 per cent, of sulphuric acid, which
corresponds to the formula C12 II7 N, H 0, S O3.

Oxalate of Picoline. — This salt is obtained by mixing oxalic
acid and picoline in excess, and evaporating the solution over
quicklime. When the solution is reduced to a very small
bulk, it is deposited in the form of short prisms radiating from
a centre; and on further evaporation, the whole concretes into
a solid mass. The crystals evolve the odour of picoline in the
air ; they are highly soluble in water and alcohol, both abso-
lute and hydrated. When heated to 212° it fuses and evolves
abundance of picoline vapours, and on cooling it forms a thick
fluid which slowly deposits crystals in the form of fine needles.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline. 293

These are probably an acid salt. I did not obtain the oxalate
in a state of sufficient purity for analysis.

Nitrate of Picoline is obtained as a white crystalline mass,
when a mixture of picoline and dilute nitric acid is evapo-
rated to dryness at a moderate heat. At a higher tempera-
ture it sublimes in white feathery crystals.

Hydrochlorate of Picoline may be prepared by mixing pico-
line and hydrochloric acid, and evaporating on the water-
bath. On cooling, the thick fluid which remains consolidates
into a mass of prismatic crystals. When heated to a high
temperature, it sublimes easily, and deposits itself on the sides
of the vessel in transparent crystals, which deliquesce rapidly
in the air.

Chloride of Platinum and Picoline. — This salt is easily ob-
tained by adding picoline to a solution of bichloride of pla-
tinum, containing an excess of hydrochloric acid ; it deposits
itself immediately, if the solution be concentrated, but when
moderately diluted, it makes its appearance only after the
lapse of some time. The crystals which are deposited are
rather liable to retain an excess of picoline, which renders it
advisable to redissolve them in a dilute solution of chloride of
platinum with a little hydrochloric acid. From this solution
it is deposited pure, on cooling, in the form of fine orange-
yellow needles, which can easily be obtained half an inch long
even when operating on very small quantities. It is much
more soluble both in water and alcohol than the aniline salt,
and indeed than the platinum salts of the organic bases gene-
rally. It requires only about four times its weight of boiling
water for solution.

The crystals of this salt, after washing with alcohol and
ether, and drying at 212°, gave the following results of ana-
lysis:—

10'032 grains of chloride of platinum and picoline gave
8*862 ... carbonic acid, and
2-760 ... water.

The determination of the platinum, as formerly mentioned,
gave in two different trials 32544 and 32522 per cent., the
mean of which is 32*533. The analysis corresponds with the
formula C^^ Hr N, H CI, Pt 01^.

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. U

294 Dv Anderson on the Properties of PicoUne.

Theory.

Experiment

Ci2 = 900-0

24-07

24-09

He = 100-0

2-67

3-05

N = 177-0

4-73

rr>

CI3 = 1330-4

35-59

• ••

Pt = 1232-0

32-94

32-533

3739-4 100-00

Chloride of PicoUne and Mercury. — When picoline is added
to a concentrated solution of bichloride of mercury, a white
eurdy precipitate immediately falls. If, however, the solu-
tion be dilute, it is not precipitated for some time, and then
appears in the form of radiated silky needles. It is sparing-
ly soluble in cold water, more readily in hot. It dissolves
pretty abundantly in boiling alcohol, and the solution, on
cooling, deposits it, sometimes in prismatic, sometimes in
feathery crystals. It dissolves readily in dilute hydrochloric
acid, with the formation of a peculiar compound which I have
not particularly examined. Boiled with water it is decom-
posed, picoline being evolved, and a white powder being de-
posited.

In the analysis of this compound I interposed, between the
combustion tube and the chloride of calcium apparatus, a small
tube in which the mercury and water were condensed, and at
the conclusion of the process, a current of dry air, heated to
212^, was drawn through the tube, by means of which the
water was conveyed into the chloride of calcium apparatus.
The salt was dried simply by exposure to the air, as it loses
picoline when heated ; when analysed it still smelt of picoline,
which accounts for the excess of carbon obtained.

The following are the results of the analysis : —

10-962 grains ichloride of mercury and pieoline gave
8-245 ... carbonic acid,
2-168 ... water.

This corresponds to the formula Ci2 H7 N + Hg CI2, which
gives the following results : —

Theory.

Experiment

C12 = 900-0

19-63

20.51

H7 = 87-5

1-90

2-19

N ir ir-7-0

3-86

• ...

Cla = 887-0

19-35

. • r*

Hg = 2531-6

65'2Q

...

45831

100-00

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline. 295

This salfc differs in constitution from the aniline salt, which
is represented by the formula 2 (C12 H7 N) -f 3 Hg CI2 ; it
tallies, however, perfectly with the compound of chinoline and
bichloride of mercury, which is C18 H« N + Hg CI2.

I have not particularly examined the other compounds of
picoline.

Products of Decomposition of Picoline.

The small quantity of picoline at my disposal has hitherto
prevented my examining particularly the products of its de-
composition, a branch of the subject which presents numer-
ous points of interest. Such results, however, as I have ob-
tained, indicate a striking difference between the products
afforded by it and aniline.

When treated with nitric acid of specific gravity 1*5, pico-
line is immediately dissolved, but without communicating to
the fluid the fine indigo-blue colour which aniline produces
under similar circumstances. On the application of heat
there is produced an extremely slow evolution of nitrous
fumes, which contrasts strikingly with the tumultuous action
which aniline produces. After very long-continued treat-
ment with nitric acid, the fluid was evaporated to a very
small bulk, when it deposited large crystals in the form of
rhomboidal tables. These crystals, on being treated with
potass, evolved picoline unchanged. The potass solution was
red, but it contained no carbazotic acid, at least no carbazo-
tate of potass was deposited on evaporation.

An excess of bromine water added to picoline causes an
immediate and abundant precipitate of a reddish colour,
which, on standing during the night, deposited itself in the
form of a transparent reddish oil. This substance is desti-
tute of basic properties, and is readily soluble in alcohol and
ether, but not in water. Aniline, when treated in the same
manner, gives, as is well known, the bromaniloid of Fritsche,
which is solid, and crystallises in silky needles, fusible at
232°. It seems probable that the oily fluid obtained from
picoline may possess a constitution similar to that of broma-

296 Dr Anderson on the Properties of Ficoline.

niloid, in which case it would have the formula Ci2(H4Br3)N,
and would receive the name of bromopicoloid. I had not
enough of it for analysis.

The action of chlorine on picoline is remarkably analogous
to that which it produces on aniline. When passed into
anhydrous picoline it is rapidly absorbed, and colourless
crystals, apparently of hydrochlorate of picoline, are deposit-
ed. In a short time, however, the fluid becomes dark brown,
and is finally converted into a resin. This resin was mixed
with water, and a current of chlorine passed through it for
some hours. The fluid was then introduced into a retort,
and distilled, a crystalline substance passed over along with
the water, and after all the water had passed, another sub-
stance made its appearance, while a large quantity of carbon
was left in the retort. The quantity in which I obtained
these substances was far too small to admit of their particu-
lar examination, but it appeared to me that the odour of the
latter substance was different from that of chlorophenesic
acid, which is produced by the action of chlorine on aniline.

The preceding investigation is sufficient to establish the
identity, in constitution and difference, in properties of pico-
line and aniline. These substances are then isomeric, in the
strict sense of the term, possessing the same composition per
cent., and the same atomic weight.

Although isomerism has been recognised in a great va-
riety of different classes of compounds, I believe the present
to be the first instance in which it has been satisfactorily
proved among organic bases. Two instances, indeed, have
been previously described, but in neither can the evidence be
considered absolutely conclusive. One of these cases is that
of two bases discovered by Pelletier and Couerbe* in the
husks of the Cocculus Indicus, to which they have given the
names of Menispermin and Paramenispermin. The charac-
ters which they have assigned to these substances are suffi-
ciently distinct, but their analyses of both lead to the formula
Ci8Hi2N02. This result, however, is unsupported by any

* Annales de Ohimie et de Physique, vol. liv.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline. 297

determination of their atomic weights, without which tlie
isomerism cannot be admitted as proved. The other in-
stance is that of bebeerine, which, according to the analyses
of Dr D. Maclagan,* is isomeric with morphia, both being
represented by the formula C35 H^o N Og ; and as this result
is supported by the analysis of the platinum compound, the
probability of their isomerism is much higher than in the for-
mer case. Unfortunately, however, another source of fallacy
enters into the question in the amorphous condition of be-
beerine, which renders it impossible to determine with cer-
tainty its freedom from impurity ; even the constitution of
morphia, by far the most definite of the two substances, can
scarcely be considered as fixed, Gerhardt, for instance, re-
presenting it by the formula C^ H19 N Og, and not by that
formerly given.

With aniline and picoline, however, these uncertainties
disappear. Both substances are possessed of definite boiling
points widely different from one another, and of all the other
physical characters of pure substances. The lowness of their
atomic weight also precludes any possibility of doubt regard-
ing the true formula, and enables us to speak with certainty
as to the identity of their constitution. The isomerism of
these substances is, moreover, of much higher interest in a
theoretical point of view. Menispermin and morphia are
isolated substances, entirely unconnected, in constitution or
general relations, with any other substance. Aniline, on the
other hand, is a member of one of the most extensive, widely
distributed, and interesting groups of substances, with which
the recent discoveries of organic chemistry have made us
acquainted, the Indigo Salicyl and Benzoil series. The
members of this large group already present a variety of
instances both of isomeric and polymeric compounds, a few
of which I have here brought together in the form of a table,
which does not pretend to any scientific arrangement, its sole
object being to point out the remarkable relations of aniline
and picoline to the group.

* Pi-oceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, No. 26.

298

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline.

Indigogene, .

CxeHcNOa

Indine.

Indigo, .

C.eHaNO^

...

Isatine,

C,6H5N04

...

Anthranilic acid, .

CuHyNO^

...

Salicylic acid,

CuHeOe

?*

Nitrosalicylic acid, .

CuH,(NO,)Oe

...

Benzoic acid, .

CuHeO^

Salicylous acid.

Nitrobenzoic acid, .

CuH5(N0,)0,

Nitrosalicylous^ acid.

Chlorobenzoic acid, .

CUH5CIO4

Chlorosalicylous acid.

Hydruret of benzoil

CuHeO^

Benzoine.

Benzonitril, .

CuH.N

Azotide of Benzoil.

StUbene,

CuHg

...

Phenol, .

C^^HeO^

...

Aniline,

C,2H,N

Picoline.

Tribromaniline,

Ci^H^BraN

Tribromopicoline ?

Benzin, .

Ci^He

?

Nitrobenzid, .

C,,H,(N04)

...

The facility with which aniline can be obtained by the de-
composition of different members of this group, renders it by
no means impossible to anticipate the artificial production of
picoline also.

As we can start from benzoic acid, and convert it into ben-
zin, benzin into nitrobenzid, and that finally into aniline, by
the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, it seems by no means
improbable that salicylous acid, the isomeric of benzoic acid,
may be made to undergo a similar series of changes, the final
result of which would be the formation either of picoline, or
of some other compound isomeric with it and aniline. In
oder to subject this hypothesis to the test of experiment, I
mixed salicylous acid with equal weights of slaked lime and
caustic baryta, and distilled in the oil bath, with the view of
obtaining a substance which should be isomeric with benzin.
The greater part of the salicylous acid, however, passed over
unchanged ; but by agitation with solution of potass, there
was left undissolved an excessively minute quantity of a solid
crystalline substance. Finding this mode of operating unsuc-
cessful, I passed salicylous acid over spongy platinum heated

* Gerhardt has observed (Precis de Chimie Organique, torn, ii., p. 21), that
benzoic acid, when fused with hydrate of potass, evolves hydrogen, and gives
the potass salt of a new acid. This may possibly be isomeric with salicylic acid.

Dr Anderson on the Properties of Picoline,

to a very low red heat in a glass-tube. A dark viscid oily fluid
passed over into the recipient, of which the greater quantity
dissolved in caustic potass, but left behind a larger quantity
of the solid substance than was yielded by the first experi-
ment. By distillation with water this substance passed into
the receiver in the form of oily drops, which solidified on cool-
ing, and formed a crystalline mass in which minute needles
could be detected. It had a peculiar pleasant smell which
resembled that of benzin ; but the quantity which I obtained
was much too minute to admit of its analysis, or of any at-
tempt to convert it into picoline.

Postscript,

Although the analogy existing between picoline and the
other oleaginous bases is perfectly sufficient to warrant the
assumption of the absence of oxygen in that substance, I have
thought it advisable to append here an experimental deter-
mination of the nitrogen. As the volatile bases cannot be
readily analysed by Varrentrap and Will's method, I made
a combustion of the platinum salt, and determined the pro-
portion by volume of the carbonic acid and nitrogen in four
tubes, which gave the following results : —

I. 94 volumes gave 8* nitrogen.
II. 240 ... 18-

III. 84 ... 6-5 ...

IV. 421 ... 35- ...

839 67-5

These results give the gases in the proportion of 11^ to 1;
in other words, they shew a slight excess over the theoretical
result, according to which they should be in the proportion
of 12 to 1. They confirm perfectly, however, the absence of
oxygen.

300 Dr Davy on the Cause of Induration

On the Cause of Induration of some Siliceous Sandstones. By
John Davy, M D., F.R.S., London and Edinburgh, Inspec-
tor-General of Army Hospitals. Communicated by the
Author.

There is a remarkable contrast between the sandstones of
the neighbourhood of Edinburgh and Glasgow and those of
" Scotland," — a hilly district so called in Barbadoes. Whilst
many indications denote that they belong to an analogous
formation, their character, as to induration, is widely differ-
ent. The siliceous sandstones of the neighbourhood of Edin-
burgh and Glasgow, owing to their firmness, and the mode-
rate degree of cohesion of their particles, are, as it is well
known, excellent building stones ; but most of those of the
district of this island mentioned, are unfit for such a purpose,
from the looseness of their texture, some of them actually
falling to pieces when immersed in water. When chemically
examined, however, no well-marked diifference is discovered
in their composition. In a crumbly siliceous sandstone, the
strata of which are nearly vertical, constituting the seaward
face of a singular hill in this island, called " Chalky Mount,"
I have detected minute portions of alumine, lime, fixed alkali,
and phosphate of lime. In the fine-grained compact sand-
stone of Craigleith quarry, near Edinburgh, I have detected,
also, a very little carbonate of lime, and magnesia, and oxide
of iron, with a trace of phosphate of lime and organic matter.
The one stone, that of this island, disintegrates in water, ren-
dering it slightly turbid, falling to pieces, reduced to sand, as
the water penetrates between the grains ; and more rapidly
so when acted on by an acid. The other stone, after the ac-
tion of an acid, retains its original firmness unaltered. I
speak of the pure siliceous kind, such as I examined.

On what does this difference depend ?

When the two sandstones are reduced to powder or sand
(the more compact one is easily so reduced by gentle attri-
tion under water), and they are placed under the microscope.

of some Siliceoua Sandstones. 301

the sand of the loose sandstone is found to have a different
character when compared with the sand of the compact stone ;
one is seen to be water-worn, even the minute crystals of
quartz which may be occasionally observed ; the other is found
without marks of being water-worn, the grains with sharp
edges and angles, and many of them crystalline. When
fragments of the two different sandstones are similarly ex-
amined, the loosely-cohering one exhibits the water-worn
grains separated by matter in a much finer state, of chalk-
like appearance ; whilst the compact one displays the angu-
lar sharp-edged crystalline grains in contact, and as it were
entangled, without any finer granular matter intervening.

Does not, then, the cause of the difference under consider-
ation, exist in the circumstances which the microscope brings
to light? Is not the compactness of the Edinburgh stone
owing to its being crystalline, the crystalline grains ad-
hering together % Is not the looseness and want of cohesion,
under water, of the Barbadoes stone, owing to its grains hav-
ing been all deposited water-worn, without any crystalline ce-
ment, and having interposed a finer granular matter, a kind
of clay, absorbent of and yielding to w^ater ?

I have said that these two sandstones belong apparently
to analogous formations. Perhaps, farther inquiry may prove
that whilst the crystalline rock is of the group of the old red
sandstones, the other, without a crystalline siliceous cement,
belongs to one of more recent origin, — or the group of new
red sandstones.

Though most of the sandstones of this island are of the
character pointed out, there are exceptions, — indeed in the
district referred to, as regards the equality of firmness, a
complete gradation is often observable from loose uncoher-
ing sand to compact sandstone, and that in contiguous strata.
A hill near " Chalky Mount" consists of such strata; here
may be seen a layer of loose siliceous sand, resting on a thin
stratum of loose sandstone, and covered by one that is com-
pact, and this to the extent of many alternations. Where
there is any compactness in these strata, they are found to
owe it either to carbonate of lime, or to peroxide of iron, or

302 On the Cause of Induration of some Siliceous Sandstones.

to both ; which are, I believe, the common cementing princi-
ples of the generality of sandstones, whether siliceous or cal-
careous.

I may mention incidentally, as tending to shew the ana-
logy alluded to between these strata of sandstone in the
hilly part of Barbadoes, and those occurring in the Lowlands
of North Britain, that the former are associated with, or suc-
ceeded by, beds or strata of various clays, — ^by beds of silice-
ous matter composed almost entirely of the remains of infu-
soria, and by beds of chalk abounding in similar infusoria,
with seams or deposits of bituminous coal interspersed, — in
one instance mixed with anthracite, and with strata having
the character of volcanic ashes, — besides others. Thus ex-
hibiting, in a small space, an extraordinary variety, and this
the more remarkable from the contrast as to geological struc-
ture of by far the larger portion of Barbadoes, remarkable
for its uniformity. Its prevailing rock is an aggregate or
fragmentary one, consisting chiefly of shell and coral lime-
stone, and freestone, in many places abounding in species of
shells and corals identical with species existing at present in
the adjoining seas.

It has been supposed by those who have hitherto written
on the geology of Barbadoes, that the shell and coral lime-
stone is lower in the series of rocks than sandstone, and the
other strata mentioned. But this is clearly a mistake. The
shell limestone may be seen resting on clay in some of the
sea-cliifs ; and some of the summits of the hills in the lesser
district are capped with freestone or shell limestone, in which,
in one instance, I have found the teeth of two different spe-
cies of shark.

Paebadoes, 29«A May 1846.

( 303 )

Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Geologi-
cal Society of London, on 20 th February 1846. By Leonard
HoiiNER, Esq., V.P.R.S., President of the Society.

(Concluded from p. 128.)

Metallic Products.

The protrusions of igneous rocks along the line of the
Urals were accompanied throughout a great part of the chain
by the formation of numerous and extensive metallic veins,
particularly on the eastern flanks, the chief seat of the me-
tallic riches of Russia, especially in copper and iron. The
geological details connected with these metalliferous rocks
constitute a large and interesting part of Sir R. Murchison's
work. One of the most important geological features con-
nected with them, and it is one which appears to be well
established, is the comparatively recent date of the eruptions
which brought these metallic products of nature's crucibles
within the reach of man. The accounts of the rich gold de-
posites are curious, and the ejection of the rock in which that
metal is contained appears to have been very modern — little,
if at all, anterior to the destruction of the mammoths, whose
remains are entombed in the gravel which is found every-
where in the depressions of the Ural chain, and which covers
vast regions of Siberia. The matrix appears to be quartz in
the form of veins ; but to find the gold in that state is ex-
tremely rare. It is found in lumps and grains that have
been rolled, mixed with other detrital matter. A lump
weighing about seventy-eight pounds English, found in 1843,
is now in the Museum of the Imperial School of Mines at
St Petersburg.

Several curious facts are adduced to shew that some of the
ores of copper, particularly the green carbonate or malachite,
are aqueous productions, derived from pre-existing ores, as
calcareous stalagmites are derived from limestone rocks.
In the copper mine of Nijny Tagil sk, at a depth of 280 feet
from the surface, an immense irregularly- shaped botryoidal

304 Horner's Geological Address.

mass of solid pure malachite was found, of a bulk estimated
at upwards of half a million of pounds weight, presenting in
its interior the wavy radiations and silky structure of that
beautiful mineral ; almost identical in structure with many
calcareous semi-crystalline minerals, of whose aqueous origin
no doubt exists.

All the best iron of Russia is brought from the Ural chain
and its flanks. It is found in veins in greenstones, and in-
termixed with the mass of erupted rocks of that class, often
in great abundance at the junction of the igneous and strati-
fied rocks, these last being in a metamorphic state. Mag-
netic iron ore is the chief form in which the metal is found,
and it constitutes vast masses, sometimes^worked in an open
quarry.

Changes in the Relative Level of Sea and Land.

You are well aware that proofs of changes in the relative
level of the sea and land along certain shores, particularly
in the Baltic and Mediterranean, since our continents and
adjacent islands were bounded by their present lines of coast,
had attracted the attention of some of the earlier geologists ;
but it is only within a comparatively recent period that the
discovery, in numerous instances, of the action of the sea at
elevations far above its present level, in what have been
termed raised beaches, has excited due attention to this most
important class of geological phenomena ; changes which
may almost be said to come within the range of our expe-
rience, and which appear to afford a key to the right solution
of many analogous changes during periods long antecedent.
We have for some time known that eroded rocks, and long
lines of level beds or terraces of shingle, sand and clay,
mixed with broken shells like what we now find at the sea-
shore, are met with along the coasts of Sweden, and in Nor-
way and the islands adjacent, from the Naze to the North
Cape, and even to Spitzbergen. These beds of detritus,
which have been found at elevations of 600 feet, and are
sometimes above 160 feet in thickness, usually rest on the
solid rock, and frequently contain shells in a perfect state of

Changes in the Belative Level of Sea and Land. 305

preservation as to freshness and colour, the bivalves, which
are identical with species now living near the shore of the
adjoining sea, retaining their uniting ligament ; indicating
that the changes have occurred, either during the latter part
of the tertiary period, or at the commencement of the exist-
ing geological period. These facts are described in the writ-
ings of Playfair, Von Buch, Keilhau, Sefstrom, Lyell, and
others, and some very remarkable cases have recently been
given in a memoir by M. Bravais,* who resided a year in
Finmark, between the seventieth and seventy-first degrees
of latitude, and who has measured with great care a series
of terraces or raised beaches in the Alton Fiord, which ex-
tend over a line of coast from fifty to sixty miles.

The western coast of our own island has also, as you know,
afforded some most remarkable instances of these changes of
relative level of sea and land, from the north of Scotland to
Cornwall, and in some cases at a much greater elevation than
in Norway, as at Moel Tryfane in Caernarvonshire, more
than 1000 feet above the sea. That they have not been
found in as continuous extent in Britain as in Norway is
perhaps owing to this, that the shores of our island being
cultivated, these banks of loose materials would gradually
become obliterated.

But it is not the shores of Europe alone that have afford-
ed proofs of these changes ; the continents of North and
South America exhibit them on a far grander scale, both on
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. We are indebted to Mr
Darwin for descriptions of many remarkable instances ; and
some of these which have recently come again under our no-
tice, in the second edition of his " Journal,'' published within
the last few months, I will draw your attention to. I know
no geologist whose observations, and the inferences he draws
from them, are more to be relied upon ; for he examined the
country he describes evidently uninfluenced by any precon-
ceived opinions. They have, besides, a bearing upon some

* A translation of this valuable memoir is given in the fourth number of the
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.

306 Horner's Geological Address,

fresh accessions to our knowledge of facts of this description,
both in Europe and North America, during the past year.

At Coquimbo, in northern Chile, five narrow, gently slop-
ing, fringe-like terraces, rise one behind the other, and, where
best developed, are formed of shingle. At Guasco, farther
north, the terraces are much broader, and may be called
plains, and they run up the valley for 37 miles from the
coast. Shells of many existing species not only lie on the
surface of the terraces, to a height of 250 feet, but are im-
bedded in a friable calcareous rock, which is in some places
as much as from 20 to 30 feet in thickness ; and these mo-
dern beds rest on an ancient tertiary formation, containing
shells apparently all extinct. " The explanation of the forma-
tion of these terraces must be sought for, no doubt, in the
fact, that the whole southern part of the continent has been
for a long time slowly rising, and, therefore, that all matter
deposited along shore in shallow water must have been soon
brought up and slowly exposed to the wearing action of the
sea-beach.'' * He describes a great valley near Copiapo,
reaching far inland, the bottom of which, consisting of shingle,
is smooth and level ; and states that he has little doubt that
this valley was left, in the state in which it is now seen, by
the waves of the sea, as the land slowly rose.f He then goes
on to state, " I have convincing proofs that this part of the
continent of South America has been elevated near the coast
at least from 400 to 500, and in some parts from 1000 to
1300 feet, since the epoch of existing shells. "J Speaking of
the neighbourhood of Valparaiso he says, — " The proofs of
the elevation of this whole line of coast are unequivocal ; at
the height of a few hundred feet old-looking shells are nu-
merous, and I found some at 1300 feet. These shells either
lie loose on the surface, or are imbedded in a reddish-black
vegetable mould. I was much surprised to find, under the
microscope, that this vegetable mould is really marine mud,
full of minute particles of organic bodies." §

So far for instances of changes in the relative level of sea

* Journal of a Voyage round the World, 2d edit., p. 344. t Ibid., 365.
+ Ibid., 367. § Ibid., 254.

Changes in the Belative Level of Sea and Land. 307

and land on the western shores of the continent ; they are
no less conspicuous on the Atlantic side. *' The land from
the Rio Plata to Tierra del Fuego, a distance of 1200 miles,
has been raised in mass (and in Patagonia to a height of be-
tween 300 and 400 feet) within the period of now existing
sea-shells. The old and weathered shells left on the surface
of the upraised plain still partially retain their colours. The
uprising movement has been interrupted by at least eight
long periods of rest, during which the sea ate deeply back
into the land, forming at successive levels the long lines of
cliffs or escarpments which separate the different plains, as
they rise like steps one behind the other."*

Now it is important to observe, that in some of the above
instances, and also in others which Mr Darwin gives, the
proofs of change are not in terraces or raised beaches only, but
that there are broad expanses of land far from the sea-coast,
where marine shells of existing species lie near the surface
and upon it ; in other words, that we have that which re-
cently was a sea-bottom now forming an elevated part of the
continent.

The authors of the " Geology of Russia" have described a
sea-bottom, extending nearly 200 miles inland from the shores
of the Arctic Ocean, which they were the first to discover. In
ascending the Dwina, which flows into a bay of the Icy Sea
at Archangel, they discovered at about 150 miles from that
city, near where the Vaga, a tributary, falls into the Dwina,
a profusion of shells having a very modern aspect, regularly
imbedded in clay and sand of about ten feet in thickness,
which, covered by about twenty feet of the coarse gravel and
detritus of the country, reposed on red and white gypsum,
subordinate to red marls of the Permian system of rocks.
They traced these shelly beds to a distance of about 8 miles.
Some of the shells preserved in the blue clay or marine sand,
and thereby excluded from atmospheric influence, have re-
strained all the freshness of their original colour, with their
valves often united ; and the whole, even when blanched, are
generally in a good state of preservation. What they col-

* Journal of a Voyage round the World, 2d edit, p. 171.

308 Horner's Geological Address.

lected were carefully examined by skilful conchologists. Dr
Beck of Copenhagen considered all he examined to be iden-
tical with those now existing in northern seas which range
from 42° to 84° south latitude. Mr Smith of Jordan Hill
was of opinion, that, though many of these species are recent,
some are of peculiar varieties, now found in desiccated and
elevated sea-beaches only. Mr Lyell recognised the group
as identical with that which he had described from Udde valla
in Sweden, a distance of a thousand miles from the Dwina ;
and Mr G. Sowerby stated, that the shells, though on the
whole an association of existing species, have yet among
them forms seldom, if ever, found except in raised sea-bottoms
of a subfossil character. The authors estimate the place
where these shelly beds occur to be about 150 feet above the
sea at Archangel, and consider them to afford undoubted
evidence, that the land, from the Vaga to Archangel, was a
sea-bottom during the period of existing species. A similar
estuary appears to have existed about 300 miles eastward,
in the valley of the Petchora ; for Count Keyserling found
fragments of sea-shells, apparently of existing arctic forms, at
a distance of 180 miles from the present embouchure of that
river, strewed upon argillaceous slopes in the depression of
the valley. He further observed, that they do not occur in
the adjoining plateaux ; and that these higher grounds are
occupied by sand, gravel, and clay, containing here and there
bones of the mammoth, from which he infers, that the shelly
deposites were formed in a bay of the sea that extended far
into low lands, which were then inhabited by great extinct
mammalia.

In the sketch given by the same authors of the structure
of Siberia, they adduce a body of very satisfactory evidence
to justify the inference they draw, that the vast region in
which the bones of mammoth, rhinoceros, and bos iiriis, are
so abundantly dispersed, and especially the wide and low tract
of northern Siberia, and all the low promontories between
the Obe, the Yenessei, and the Lena, were elevated at a pe-
riod long subsequent to the time when large herds of these
animals for many successive generations inhabited that re-
gion. Following up the views first propounded by Mr Lyell,

Changes in the Relative Level of Sea and Land. 309

to whom they do full justice, they infer that the change of
climate, the diminished temperature, occasioned by the in-
crease of land when the sea-bottoms of these estuaries and
shores were upraised, caused the extinction of these great
quadrupeds.

Although the great tract of country from the Baltic to the
elevated region westward of the Ural Mountains has not
been locally broken up by eruptive rocks, there is ample evi-
dence to prove that it has been subjected to the action of
subterranean forces, which elevated the whole region, after
the deposition of Miocene tertiary beds, and after the land,
while submarine, had assumed its present form. " From
the German Ocean and Hamburgh on the west to the White
Sea on the east, a vast zone of country, having a length of
near 2000 miles, and a width varying from 400 to 800 miles,
is more or less covered with loose detritus, including erratic
crystalline blocks of colossal size, the whole of which blocks
have been derived from the Scandinavian chain." The
eastern and south-eastern boundary of these erratic blocks
mark the line of coast westward of which all the land as
far the shores of the Baltic was then submerged. Betw^een
that line of coast and the Urals is the region that constitutes
the Government of Perm, Viatka, and Orenburg ; and for a
considerable space to the west of the Ural, there is not a
vestige of any superficial deposite which can be referred to
the influence of the sea. " We believe, therefore," says the
authors, " that the region so characterised was really above
the waters, and inhabited by mammoths, when the erratic
blocks were transported over the adjacent north-western sea."
The amount of this elevation, subsequent to the covering of
the sea-bottom by the northern drift, must have been at least
from 800 to 1000 feet ; for the tops of the Valdai Hills, a
range on the eastern borders of Lithuania, and to the south
of the Government of St Petersburg, which rise in some
places to that height, are covered with these blocks on their
southern slopes.

Mr Lyell, speaking of the country near Savannah in North
America, says, '* It is evident that at a comparatively recent
period, since the Atlantic was inhabited by the existing

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. X

310 Horner's Geological Address.

species of marine testacea, there was an upheaval and lay-
ing dry of the bed of the ocean in this region. The flat
country of marshes was bounded on its inland side by a steep
bank or ancient cliif, cut in the sandy tertiary strata ; and
there are other inland cliffs of the same kind, at different
heights, implying the successive elevation above the sea of
the w^hole tertiary region." In a letter which I received from
him a few days ago, dated from Savannah, Mr Lyell tells me-
*' that he had seen on the coast of Georgia quite a counterpart
of the terraces, or successive cliffs of Patagonia, cut out of
the tertiary deposites." But there are also evidences on that
coast of a downward movement at the present time. Mr
Lyell says, " there have also been subsidences on the coast,
and perhaps far inland ; for in many places near the sea there
are signs of a forest having become submerged, the remains
of erect trees being seen enveloped in stratified sand and mud.
I even suspect that this coast is now sinking down at a slow
and insensible rate, for the sea is encroaching and gaining at
many parts on the freshwater marshes. . . .Everywhere there
are proofs of the coast having sunk, and the subsidence seems
to have gone on in very modern times." Speaking of some
phenomena connected with a boulder formation at Brooklyn
near New York, he says that he had come to the conclusion,
" that the drift was deposited during the successive sub-
mergence of a region which had previously been elevated and
denuded, and which had already acquired its present leading
geographical features and superficial configuration." In the
region near the Falls of Niagara, on Lake Ontario, and in
the valley of the St Lawrence, he enumerates many unequi-
vocal proofs of emergence and submergence during the mo-
dern period now under consideration. He states, that in the
valley of the St Lawrence he seemed to have got back to Nor-
way and Sweden, passing over enormous spaces covered by
deposites so modern as to contain exclusively shells of recent
species, resting on the oldest palaeozoic and older non-fossi-
liferous rocks. Wide areas are covered with marine shells of
recent species, at the height of 500 feet above the sea, and
where all the rocks can be shewn both to have sunk and to
have been again uplifted bodily, for a height and depth of

Changes in the Belative Level of Sea and Land. 311

many hundred feet, since the deposition of these shells. At
the village of Beauport, three miles below Quebec, he made
a collection of shells from a cliff consisting of a series of beds
of clay, sand, gravel and boulders ; and he states that when
they arrived in London, Dr Beck of Copenhagen happened to
be with him ; and " great was our surprise," he adds, " on
opening the box, to find that nearly all the shells agreed spe-
cifically with fossils which, in the summer of the preceding
year, 1 had obtained at Udde valla in Sweden, and figured in
my paper * On the Rise of Land,' &c. in the ' Philosophical
Transactions' for 1835. Among the species most abundant
in these remote regions (Scandinavia and Canada) were Saxi-
cava rugosa^ Mya truncatay M. arenaria, Tellina calcarea, T.
Grcenlandica, Natica clausa, and Balanus Uddevallensis. All
of them are species now living in the northern seas ; and
whereas I had found them fossil in latitudes 58° and 60° N.,
in Sweden, Captain Bayfield sent them to me from a part of
Canada, situated in latitude 47° N."

Ascending the St Lawrence, he found near Montreal, at a
height of about sixty feet above the river, great numbers of
the Mytilus edulis, retaining both valves and their purple
colour, associated with Tellina Grcenlandica and Saxicava ru-
gosa, in horizontal beds of loam and marly clay. He found
the same shells at ninety feet associated with boulders of
gneiss and syenite three feet in diameter, characteristic of the
Canadian drift ; and he was afterwards conducted to a hollow
between the two eminences which form the Montreal moun-
tain, where he found a bed of gravel six feet thick, containing
numerous valves of Saxlcava rugosa and Tellina Grcenlandica.
This bed he estimates at 540 feet above the sea, 306 feet
above Lake Ontario, and only 25 feet below the level of Lake
Erie.

Such comparatively modern changes in the relative level
of the land and sea, were ascribed by the earlier geologists,
and are by some still ascribed, to a rising or sinking of l/ie
sea. Playfair, nearly half a century ago, combating this
opinion maintained by the Swedish naturalist Celsius, de-
monstrated the untenable nature of such an hypothesis; it was
he who first shewed that these changes of relative level are

312 Horner's Geological Address.

alone explicable by the movements of the land, and that a per-
manent change of level of the sea, in detached regions of the
earth's surface, is physically impossible. " The imagination,"
he says, " naturally feels less difficulty in conceiving that an
unstable fluid like the sea, which changes its level twice every
day, has undergone a permanent depression in its surface,
than that the land, the terra firma itself, has admitted of an
equal elevation. In all this, however, we are guided much
more by fancy than by reason ; for, in order to depress or
elevate the absolute level of the sea, by a given quantity, in
any one place, we must depress or elevate it by the same
quantity over the whole surface of the earth ; whereas no such
necessity exists with respect to the elevation or depression of
the land. To make the sea subside thirty feet all around the
coast of Great Britain, it is necessary to displace a body of
water thirty feet deep over the whole surface of the ocean.
It is evident tha*t the simplest hypothesis for explaining those
changes of level, is, that they proceed from the motion, up-
wards or downwards, of the land itself, and not from that of
the sea. As no elevation or depression of the sea can take
place but over the whole, its level cannot be affected by local
causes, and is probably as little subject to variation as any-
thing to be met with on the surface of the globe."*

Notwithstanding that this unanswerable doctrine was thus
clearly laid down so far back as 1802, we still find geologists
of authority speaking of the sea having risen or fallen, in their
endeavours to explain certain phenomena. I have within
the last year heard this said repeatedly in this room ; and in
a recent excellent paper of my friend Mr Maclaren of Edin-
burgh, on boulders and grooved and striated rocks observed
by him on the shores of the Gare Loch in Dumbartonshire, an
excellent observer, and in general a sound reasoner, I find
such expressions as the following : — " The anomalous pre-
sence of granite boulders at Gare Loch seems best explained,
by assuming that they were floated on icebergs from Ben Cru-
achan, Ben Nevis, or some other of the lofty granite mountains
of the north . . . The sea must then have stood perhaps 1500

* Illustrations of the Iluttonian Theory, p. 446.

Changes in the Relative Level of Sea and Land. 313

feet above its present level, to permit the rafts of ice to pass
over the lowest part of the barrier .... An iceberg start-
ing from the West or North Highlands, and floating in a sea
1500 or 2000 feet above the present level of the Atlantic, is an
agent perfectly capable of effecting the transportation of the
stone, and offers, I think, the only conceivable solution of the
difficulty .... When the sea stood, as it certainly once did stand,
1000 feet or more above its present level, a current would set
eastward through the gulf then occupying the low lands, of
which the estuaries of the Forth and Clyde form the extre-
mities." Speaking of an ancient beach 32 feet above the
present high water line on the shore of Gare Loch, he says,
" We may infer that, when the glacier occupied the valley of
Gare Loch, the sea stood higher than it does now by at least 30
feet, and probably a great deal more."* It is possible that
these may be mere inaccuracies of expression in describing
changes of relative level of sea and land ; but if they are so,
they ought to be guarded against, for they may be very easily
misapprehended ; and they tend to perpetuate an error that
leads to the most false reasoning on many changes on the
earth's surface.

If the land of Norway had been immovable, if the sea had
fallen from a higher level, the lines of its former shores, as
it sank at intervals, would have been continuous and paral-
lel ; but the raised beaches are, within short distances, at
different elevations. Other observers had marked this ; but
it is to M. Bravais that we are indebted for the iirst exact
measurements of the relative positions of the successive ter-
races, and these have demonstrated that their parallelism is
only apparent. During his residence on the Alten Fiord,
near North Cape, he extended his levellings over a space of
from 9 to 10 myriametres, that is, from about 55 to %2 Eng-
lish miles ; and he ascertained, that the two great lines of
ancient level there, which are on a slope rising from the sea,
come nearer and nearer to each other as they approach the
present shore ; their greatest elevation is in the upper part

* Jameson's Edin. Phil, Journal, Jan. 1846.

314 Horner's Geological Address.

of the Fiord, and they are there widest apart. It is evident,
therefore, that the movement of the land has been different
in different parts of the Fiord. It seems as if the continen-
tal mass had been elevated with an inclination seaward, the
axis of motion corresponding nearly to that of the great chain
of the mountains of Norway. It is most desirable, that mea-
surements similar to those of M. Bravais should be made in
all places where there are terraces or raised beaches, one
above another, along our coasts. Mr Darwin's explanation
of the parallel roads of Glen Roy, that they are ancient sea-
beaches, appears to be now generally accepted ; and it would
be most interesting, if it were ascertained by exact levellings,
such as those of M. Bravais in the Alten Fiord, whether they
are really parallel; because, as M. Bravais well remarks,
they may seem so to the eye, which can take in only a small
part of the space they occupy, while exact measurements
might prove that the appearances are deceptive.

That land, in various parts of the earth, has undergone
movements of elevation and depression, and that it has been
subject to such oscillations at all times, up to the present day,
admits, I think, of no doubt. Without, therefore, going quite
so far as my friend Mr Darwin, who tells us, that " daily it is
forced home on the mind of the geologist, that nothing, not
even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of the
crust of this earth ;" still, I believe, it may be safely af-
firmed, that the stability of the sea, and the mobility of the
land, must be acknowledged to be demonstrated truths in
Geology.

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks.

The geologically modern changes in the relative level of
sea and land, are intimately connected with the history of the
vast accumulations over Northern Europe and North Ame-
rica of detrital matter, in the form of sand, clay, gravel, boul-
ders, and huge erratic blocks, and of the grooved, striated,
and polished surfaces of hard rocks, which usually accompany
them. This great problem, complicated in its nature, and
full of difficulties, has of late years more particularly arrested
the attention of geologists ; and it must long continue to do

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks. 315

so, before a sufficient mass of observations can be collected
on which a satisfactory solution of it can be founded. Al-
though, as regards Europe, many important local facts, ex-
hibited in limited districts, have been well described by seve-
ral geologists, both of this country and of the continent, we
are indebted, for the most extended observations and the
most comprehensive views of the subject, to the labours of
Keilhau, Sefstriim, Durocher, Murchison, De Verneuil, and
Forchhammer. The geologists of the United States, and
Lyell, have brought together a great body of evidence re-
specting the same phenomena in North America. There is
reason to infer, from the limited observations that have been
made along the shores of Siberia, that the boulder formation
extends also over Northern Asia.

Many new observations have been made known to us dur-
ing the last year, by the authors of the " Geology of Russia,"
by Mr Lyell, in his " Travels in the United States, Canada,
and Nova Scotia," and by M. Durocher, in an additional me-
moir which he read last December before the Geological So-
ciety of France, describing observations made by him in Nor-
way during the preceding summer.

You are aware that Agassiz and Charpentier have at-
tempted to explain the phenomena, by supposing that, at a
very recent geological period, since the time when the land
had assumed its present form, Northern Europe was covered
with a vast mantle of ice ; and that the detritus and erratic
blocks have been formed and transported by the agency of
sub-aerial glaciers, in the same manner as moraines have
been accumulated, blocks transported, and rocks furrowed,
striated, rounded, and polished, by the glaciers descending
from the Alps. Abundant evidence has been brought for-
ward to demonstrate, that by no such action can the pheno-
mena be explained ; and all the geologists mentioned above,
who have carefully investigated them, reject the theory as
inapplicable to Northern Europe and America, except in a
very limited sense.

The Boulder Formation, or Northern Drift, and The
Erratic Blocks, are shewn, by the authors of the " Geology
pf Russia," to be two distinct classes of phenomena ; the lat-

316 Horner's Geological Address.

ter being usually angular, the materials of the former being
rounded and worn by attrition. It appears to me to have
been clearly proved, that the boulder formation is not the
work of a sudden transient action of short duration, but the
result of operations that were going on during the middle
tertiary deposites, and, in Europe, extended at least to the
Pleistocene period ; that the greater part of the accumula-
tions took place since existing species of testacea inhabited
the adjoining seas ; and that the transport of erratic blocks
took place at a later period. It seems to be no less clearly
established, that the boulder and drift accumulations and the
erratic blocks now covering the dry land, were deposited upon
a sea-bottom, which has been since upraised. Where the
smaller detritus and rounded boulders came from, and how
they were drifted into their present situations, are branches
of the subject involved in great obscurity. That fragments
of hard rock were the tools which grooved the furrows and
striae, and polished the surfaces of hard rocks they passed
over, is pretty evident ; but what held and guided the tool,
what force applied it, to what extent ice, and to what extent
water, was the agent, is not so clear : that both have acted,
there can be no doubt. It is, I think, very satisfactorily
shewn, that the erratic blocks must have been brought down
from lofty mountains, to the open sea that washed their bases,
by glaciers ; that they were floated to great distances by
masses of ice breaking off from these glaciers, to form ice-
bergs, in different directions from central points, and stranded
on elevated parts of the searbottom, without having been sub-
ject to much attrition ; and, moreover, that these erratic blocks
can, in a great number of instances, be traced to their parent
rock, though now separated some hundred miles. Some of
the evidence in support of these positions, supplied during
the last year, I will now bring forward. I regret that my
limits will not allow me to do greater justice to the authors
to whom we are indebted for it, either as regards their facts,
or their deductions from these facts.

The boulder formation and erratic blocks cover an enormous
area, from the Arctic Sea over a great part of Northern
Europe ; not continuously, but often uninterruptedly over vast

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks, 317

regions. The masses of clay, sand, and gravel, are sometimes
of so great thickness that it is impossible to detect a trace of
the subjacent solid rock, over very wide tracts, even in the
beds of the Volga and the deepest cutting rivers. M. Du-
rocher, in his first memoir,* did not trace the erratic blocks
farther east than the forty-second degree of longitude, nor
farther south than the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude ; but
the authors of the " Geology of Russia" have described them as
extending 500 miles farther east, and above 200 miles farther
south. As the parent rocks of most of these huge fragments
are in Scandinavia and Finland, they have been, in some in-
tances, transported to a distance of 800 miles in a direct line.t
It is possible that the boulder formation may extend somevrhat
farther, but probably not much ; for there is reason to believe
that land on the east and south was above the level of the
sea, as has been already stated, at the time the country to the
west and north was submerged, which would stop the advance
of the boulder formation and erratic blocks, but in an irregular
line. No erratic blocks of northern origin have been seen for
a considerable distance westward of the Ural Mountains.

There is a feature in the character of this superficial cover-
ing of detritus which is very important to attend to in tracing
its history, viz., that the materials are not always the same ;
that the principal mass in each district is of local origin, and
very clearly bespeaks its derivation to be in the subjacent
rocks ; and that the great northern drift is distributed in the
form of long sand-banks, " trainees^ or " osar,'' as they are
called in Sweden, often of great length and breadth, and ris-
ing sometimes more than 100 feet above the depressions be-
tween them, which last are occasionally of great width. These
trainees are often composed of finely laminated sand and clay,
containing shells identical in species with those now living in
the Baltic or in the northern seas ; they traverse, from the
shores of the Baltic, the Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous
regions in succession, deriving new materials from each zone

* Comptes Rendus, Janvier 1842.

t Map accompanying " Geology of Russia."

318 Horner's Geological Address.

of rocks crossed, but always indicating a southerly direction
of the drift, the Devonian detritus never being found in the
Silurian zone, nor the carboniferous in the Devonian zone.

Mr Forchhammer describes the boulder formation of Den-
mark as being of different ages. The oldest which affords
any distinct evidence to mark its age, consists of a congeries
of clays, marls, and sands, which have been traced to a depth
of several hundred feet, and contain boulders throughout the
entire mass, extending to the deepest part of the series. The
boulders, sometimes several hundred cubic feet in size, are of
granite, gneiss, porphyry, greenstone, and quartz rock, and
also of transition (Silurian) sedimentary rocks ; none of these
occurring nearer than Norway and Sweden. Besides these
travelled blocks, there are many parts of the formation com-
posed of chalk, identical with rocks upon or near to which the
boulder formation occurs. In the duchy of Schleswig, this
boulder formation alternates with beds of brown coal, a deposite
which exends over the greater part of Denmark, and which,
besides brown coal, consists of clays, limestones, and sand-
stones, containing fossils, that, in the opinion of Mr Forch-
hammer, mark it to be identical with the sub-Appenine group.
The causes which produced this boulder formation, in part at
least, were therefore in operation as early as the Miocene
tertiary period (if, as some maintain, the sub-Appenines are
of that age), during which the sea, overspread at its bottom
by this detritus, was inhabited by Mediterranean species.
There is clear evidence in the works of the authors I have
quoted, of the operation of the same causes long after the
northern seas were inhabited by existing species ; and
throughout the whole of this period, how long we have no
means of determining, all the land in Northern Europe over-
spread by the boulder formation must have been under the
sea. Thus the authors of the " Geology of Russia" describe
the deposite of recent shells in the valley of the Dwina, 150
miles inland from Archangel, as covered by sand and gravel,
which, they say, they would have great difficulty in separating
from the superficial northern drift ; and they add, that " a
recent excursion through Sweden has convinced them that in

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks. 319

the neighbourhood of Upsala, marine post-pliocene deposites,
containing the Tellina Baltica, are there covered by coarse
gravel and large erratic blocks, as stated by Mr Lyell."

The ingenious and ardent naturalists of Switzerland, who
have held that the boulder formations of Northern Europe
were produced by sub-aerial glaciers, never could have ad-
vanced so extravagant a theory had they visited that region,
and been even moderately acquainted with the facts above
stated, and others which as indisputably prove a submarine
origin. But there is every reason to conclude that glaciers in
high lands in Scandinavia, Finland, and Lapland, in very re-
mote times, had much to do with the origin of the erratic blocks,
in separating them from their parent rocks, and transporting
them to the coast. Sir R. Murchison informs us, that he was
assured by Dr "Worth, a distinguished mineralogist of St Pe-
tersburg, that, after a careful examination of the numerous
blocks scattered around that capital, there was not among
them a single example which could not be paralleled with its
parent rock in Finland. Speaking of the observations of him-
self and his companions, he states, that, near Jurievitz, on the
Volga, they found erratic blocks of a quartz rock associated
with others of a trap breccia peculiar to the north-western side
of Lake Onega, affording clear evidence that they had been
transported in a south-eastern direction, 500 miles from their
parent rocks.

If the blocks were encased in and transported by icebergs,
they would be accumulated chiefly on the ridges and higher
parts of the sea-bottom, by which the progress of the icebergs
would be arrested, and where the icebergs would be fixed until
they gradually melted, leaving their stony cargo on the spot.
Such we find to be the fact. The great accumulations of the
blocks are not in the valleys, but on the high grounds. The
summits of the clifi's on the south shores of the Gulf of Finland,
at an elevation of 150 feet above the sea, are covered with an-
gular blocks of the granite, gneiss, and porphyry of Finland ;
they are found on the hills adjoining Lake Onega, at elevations
from 400 to 600 feet above the lake ; the Valdai Hills, which
are in some places 1000 feet above the level of the Baltic, have
arrested large quantities of blocks from Finland, which are

320 Horner's Geological Address.

profusely spread over their southern slopes. In the sandy
plains east of Posen, not a block is to be seen for several miles,
until the elevations towards the Polish frontier are reached,
and they again become numerous. In the sandy plain the
blocks are usually small, but on the hills between Konin and
Kolo, vast numbers of large blocks are buried in and mixed
with sand, at heights of 300 or 400 feet above the sea.

A very important circumstance in the history of these erra-
tic blocks is pointed out by the authors of the " Geology of
Russia," viz., that they have not travelled from north to south
only, but in all directions from certain centres in Scandinavia
and Lapland. In Denmark they have come from north by
east ; in most parts of Prussia almost direct from north ; op-
posite the coasts of Finnish Lapland, where the granitic and
other crystalline boundary sweeps round to the north-east, the
direction of the blocks changes accordingly. Near Nijni No-
vogorod they must have travelled from north-west to south
east ; and in the Government of Vologda they have nearly an
eastern course. By the observations of Bohtlingk, we learn
that the erratic blocks of Scandinavia have been shed off from
the coast of Kemi into the Bay of Onega, and from Russian
Lapland into the Icy Sea, in north-eastern, northern, and north-
western directions ; and Norwegian detritus has been trans-
ported westward to the coasts of Norfolk and Yorkshire.

Russia in Europe, from the nature of its surface, cannot be
supposed to afford many proofs of furrows, grooves, and striae,
on hard rocks ; but on Lake Onega a hard greenstone and
siliceous breccia are rounded off, grooved, and striated, on the
northern face of a small promontory, the direction of the
grooves and striae being north and south, and the striae are to
be seen, through the transparency of the water, eight feet be-
low its surface ; they are also to be traced near the summit of
a low hill. On the south side of that hill, however, no such
traces of wearing or friction can be seen, " and thus," the au-
thors say, " we had before us, on the edges of Russian Lap-
land, the very phenomenon so extensively observed by Sefstrom
over Sweden, viz., a rounded, worn, and striated surface of the
northern sides of promontories, whose southern faces are na-
tural and unaffected by any mechanical agency."

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks. 321

M. Durocher visited the coasts of Sweden and Norway, in
the neighbourhood of Christiania, last year, and discovered
there many most remarkable instances of these furrows and
strioe, detailed accounts of which he has given in the paper read
before the Geological Society of France in December, which I
have already alluded to. He, indeed, describes effects of ero-
sion on a much greater scale than I remember to have read of
before; furrows so deep, that channels are a more appropriate
term, as he himself has thought, for he calls them canaux.
Both on the east and west coasts of the bay at the head of which
Christiania is situated, from Gothenborg on the Swedish shore,
and from Arendal on the Norwegian, to Christiania, distances
of 160 and 170 miles respectively, and especially among the
islands that skirt the Norwegian coast, he observed the i ocks
worn into deep channels and furrows, or striated, in directions
from north-west to south-east, and having their surfaces round-
ed and polished. These channels or furrows are of various di-
mensions ; some from twenty-five to fifty centimetres (ten to
twenty inches) in width, with a depth of from one and a half
to two and three metres (five to ten feet). In a great number
of instances, the sides of the interior of these channels are
grooved and striated in the direction of their longer axis.
Sometimes they divide into two or more branches, which after-
wards reunite into one. Many are rectilinear, but many are
undulating, and bent in short waves. The axes of the chan-
nels and the striae, in their interior, have the same general di-
rection as the depressions of the neighbouring country. The
north-western extremity of these channels, that is, the open-
ings made where the eroding instrument entered, are somewhat
wider than the rest of the channel, and are rounded off, po-
lished and striated.

Another very curious, and, as far as I know, a new class of
facts has been described by M. Durocher. These furrows, he
states, are frequently met with in horizontal lines on the under
side of overhanging rocks, and he has met with instances of this
description along the Norwegian coast to beyond Drontheim,
a distance from Gothenborg of more than 500 miles. One re-
markable case he gives, that occurs to the north of Drontheim,
where the furrows are cut horizontally in a pudding-stone rock

322 Homer's Geological Address.

of pebbles of granite and quartz, the hardest of which are cut
through as clean as the softer argillaceous cement. The erod-
ing tool has acted to the length of forty-five metres (about fifty
yards), on a surface inclined from 45° to 50°, and with a breadth
of from four to five metres (thirteen to sixteen feet). But my
limits oblige me to refer you to the memoir itself, and to the
report of the discussion to which it gave rise, for many most
interesting facts, and some important views as to the causes of
these remarkable phenomena.* For the same reason, I can
only very briefly allude to the descriptions contained in several
parts of Mr Ly ell's " Travels," of the boulder formation, the
erratic blocks, and the furrowed surfaces, that are met with
over a great part of the northern regions of North America,
presenting many features identical with those of Northern Eu-
rope.

In Europe the boulder formation has not been traced farther
south than 52° north latitude, but a similar kind of detritus,
sand, clay, gravel, and rounded blocks of great size, cover a
considerable extent of country in the neighbourhood of Boston,
which is ten degrees farther south, or about the latitude of
Valencia in Spain. It is not found within the range of the
Alleghany mountains ; but blocks again appear on their western
side, near the Ohio river, in latitude 40°, and some scattered
blocks have reached Kentucky, the northern boundary of that
state, in lat. 38| °. How far a boulder formation, erratic blocks,
and furrowed rocks, extend beyond the valley of the St Law-
rence, we have yet to learn ; but the scanty information we do
possess leads us to infer, that they exist on the shore of the
Arctic Sea.

Near Boston the boulder formation has been pierced to a
depth of more than 200 feet without the solid rock having been
reached ; and although mainly composed of the materials of
neighbouring rocks, huge rounded blocks brought from a great
distance rest upon them or are buried in them. Here, as in
Russia and Denmark, we have a boulder formation composed
of materials that have not been far travelled, intermixed in
some degree with, but more frequently covered by, that of

* Bulletin de la Soc. G60I. de France, tome iii., p. 65.

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks. 323

northern origin. An instance of this last occurs at Brooklyn,
near New York.

In the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, where the
gravel or drift has been removed, the rock immediately subja-
cent is very frequently furrowed and striated, and here and
there flattened domes of smoothed rock {roches moutonnees) are
met with. The furrows have been found in the New England
hills at all heights, even to as much as 2000 feet. In one place,
on the summit of a high hill of sandstone, Mr Lyell saw an
erratic block of greenstone 100 feet in circumference. The
erratic blocks and boulder formation have been transported
southwards along the same lines as are marked out by the di-
rection of the furrows : in New England, from NNW. to
SSE. ; in the valley of the St Lawrence, from north-east to
south-west.

With regard to evidence of the age of the boulder formation
of North America, I am not aware of any having been met
with that connects it with a period so early as in Denmark ;
it contains, in many places, shells identical in species with those
now living in the adjoining seas. The detritus in which the
bones of Mastodon are buried at Big-Bone-Lick, in Kentucky,
Mr Lyell is inclined to believe to be more modern than the
northern drift.

In a late number of Jameson's Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal are two valuable papers relating to erratic blocks, groov-
ed surfaces, and the action of glaciers; the one by Mr Maclaren,
to which I have already referred, the other by Professor James D.
Forbes. The paper of Mr Maclaren describes grooves and striae
which he observed last summer on the rocks on each side of the
Gare Loch, in Dumbartonshire, and these, together with blocks
and an accumulation of loose materials resembling a terminal
moraine, appear to indicate very clearly the former existence of
a glacier in the space inclosed between the hills that bound
the loch. He also observed numerous rounded blocks in the
same locality, which could not have been produced by the same
glacier, for they consist of granite, some of great size, as much
as five feet in diameter, at various heights on the hills — one
on the top of a hillock, 320 feet above the loch ; and no granite,
no parent rock to which they can be traced, is nearer than forty

324 Horner''s Geological Address.

miles to the north. But between the localities where they now
exist and that parent rock, there are ridges, over which they
must have travelled, that are 1500 feet above the present sea-
level. This, then, is a case analogous to that of the Valdai
Hills in Russia, on the southern flanks of which blocks of Scan-
dinavian granite are scattered, indicating that these hills, and,
in like manner, the summits of the barrier north of Gare Loch,
were a sea-bottom, upon which the blocks were dropped from
floating icebergs ; that sea-bottom being subsequently raised
to form the existing land.

The principal object of Professor Forbes's paper is to de-
scribe the topography and geological structure of the Cuchul-
lin Hills in Skye. He gives us much new and interesting in-
formation respecting the igneous rocks, of which they are com-
posed, particularly that comparatively rare variety, hypers-
thene rock : but he also describes these same rocks as being
furrowed and polished in several of the valleys, but especially
in the valley of Coruisk, the furrows there radiating from a
centre to the sea-shore ; and, in his opinion, they demonstrate
in as clear a manner as the subject admits of, the former ex-
istence of a glacier in that locality. All will admit that the
opinion of Professor Forbes on this subject is one in which
we may place entire confidence. The hypersthene rocks " are
smoothed and shaven in a direction parallel to the length of
the valley wherever their prominent parts are presented to-
wards the head of the valley ; but towards the sea, they are
often abruptly terminated by craggy surfaces, shewing the usual
ruggedness of the natural fracture of the rock, and exhibiting
the phenomenon of Stoss Seite and Lee Seite, so often described
in the Scandinavian rocks.*"

" When the same rock is traversed by claystone veins, or by
veins of crystallized hypersthene and magnetic iron, these va-
rious parts of such diff*erent hardness are all uniformly shaven
over, in conformity with the general form of the mass to which
they belong. This presents a striking analogy to the pheno-
mena of polished rocks in the Alps, where the quartz veins are
cut ofl" parallel to the surface of the bounding felspar. . . . The
furrows are not confined to the entrance of the valley, but ex-
tend to the upper part of it, and to a great height above its

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks. 325

level, particularly on the west side, where the faces of these
almost vertical cliffs of adamantine hardness are scored hori-
zontally, as potter's clay might be by the pressure of the fin-
gers, or like the moulding of a cornice by the plasterer's tool.*"

The question naturally arises, at what period were these val-
leys in Dumbartonshire and in Skye occupied by glaciers \ That
they were so after the land had been formed into the present
mountains and valleys is obvious ; but that defines no particu-
lar period. We have in the Gare Loch two distinct classes of
phenomena, which could not have been produced either by the
same agents or at the same time. We have proof of the
action of sub-aerial glaciers ; we have also proof that there are
erratic blocks that could not have been brought into their pre-
sent position unless the ground on which they rest had been
submerged : they were dropped, it is most reasonable to sup-
pose, from icebergs floating in a sea, and arrested by elevations
in the sea-bottom. During such submergence there could be
no glaciers in the valleys of Gare Loch or Coruisk. Are we
to suppose that after these valleys had been occupied by a gla-
cier, and the erosions had been made, the land sank down,
continued for a long interval as a sea-bottom, during which
time the glaciers melted away, and that the land again emerged,
bearing the erratic blocks upon it \ The subject is one of vast
difiiculty ; but the phenomena evidently involve great changes
in the condition of the land, and consequently, perhaps, in the
climate of that region.

It is an important feature in the history of the boulder for-
mation, that the mode of its accumulation, and the direction
of the channels, furrows and striae worn in the rocks, indicate
a force coming from the north, between NW. and NE. The
worn and polished surfaces of so many rocks facing the north,
while their rugged unworn surfaces point to the opposite direc-
tion, are farther proofs of the same movement. The travelled
rounded boulders and detritus from the middle of Sweden and
Norway southward, must therefore have been derived from
land existing north of that latitude.

Submarine currents are by many geologists supposed to have
been the moving power ; and it is also said, that the detrital
matter they hurried along smoothed and polished the rocks

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. Y

320 Homer's Geological Address.

they met with in their progress, and graved the furrows and
striae. We as yet know little of the existence, at great depths,
of submarine currents, or of their power of transporting heavy
materials. Sir R. Murchison, referring to the generation and
power of what Mr Scott Russell calls a wave of the first order,
or " the wave of translation,'* and to the application of Mr
Russell's researches and theory by Mr Hopkins, in his paper
" On the Elevation and Denudation of the district of the Lakes
of Cumberland and Westmoreland,"* considers that all the
phenomena of the boulder formation and drift of Northern
Europe (not including the erratic blocks) may be accounted for
by the action of such waves. But a sudden paroxysmal move-
ment of the bed of the sea is a necessary condition for the
production of a wave of translation. Mr Hopkins says, " If
the elevation were sufficiently gradual, no sensible wave would
result from it ; but if it were sudden, the surface of the water
above the uplifted area would be elevated very nearly as much
as the area itself, and a diverging wave would be the conse-
quence ;" and that " there is no difficulty in accounting for a
current of twenty-five or thirty miles an hour, if we allow of
paroxysmal elevations of from 100 to 200 feet ;" and he adds,
that "if the extent of country be considerable, the elevation
might occupy several minutes, and still produce the great wave
above described.'' It is to be observed that the wave would
be diverging, and therefore the currents would not be limited
to one direction. But however great the power of transport
of the sudden wave might be, its action would be transient,
and we must therefore suppose, either that the whole pheno-
mena were produced by one sudden elevation, or that there
was a succession of paroxysms. Whether such sudden violent
transport, such tumultuous hurrying along of the blocks, gravel,
and sand, be consistent with the forms and arrangements of
the detrital matter, the long " trainees," " the widely spread
and finely laminated sands,'^ and the included fragile shells,
can only be determined by special observations directed to such
an inquiry. It does not appear at all consistent with the for^
mation of the detritus of local origin, that which constitutes

•* Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. iii., p. 757. '

Boulder Formations and Erratic Blocks, 327

€0 groat a part of the boulder formation over the whole north-
ern region, and which seems to indicate a long continued action
over the same ground. We ought, besides, to have some inde-
pendent evidence of paroxysmal action in the same region ;
whereas there is the strongest proof of gradual upheavals :
take, for example, the whole continent of European Russia,
which exhibits scarcely any disruption, and which. Sir R. Mur-
chison is of opinion was elevated en masse.

But we must go further back in our inquiry, before the wave
of translation was generated. Whence the detrital matter
which the wave transported \ Are we to suppose that the same
paroxysmal movement broke up and shattered to fragments
the bottom of the sea, and that it was these fragments which
the transient wave transported and rounded into boulders \ Or
is it more reasonable to suppose, that the materials of the
detritus must have been derived from pre-existent land, the
rocks of which were broken by glacial and atmospheric action,
as rocks now are, to be afterwards rolled, rounded, and polish-
ed by currents of water ; as they unquestionably must have
been, however the currents may have been produced 1 Then
as to the power of such currents, transporting hard bodies, to
produce the furrows and striae, I should be disposed to refer
io the phi/sicien, to him conversant with the laws of mechanical
philosophy, the questions whether rounded blocks and gravel,
moving in water, passing over rocks, would be capable of pro-
ducing on them these deep furrows and striae ; or whether it
is not more probable that they were worn by angular fragments
of rock held fast in ice, and pressed, as the current floated the
iceberg, against the opposing rock, with a vast force derived
from the weight of the mass ^

We learn from the " Magazine of Natural History " of last
September, that letters had been received the preceding month
from Mr Harry Goodsir, attached, as Naturalist, to the Arctic
Expedition under the command of Sir John Franklin, dated
from Disco, in Baffin's Bay, the 7th of July last ; and it is
stated that " Mr Goodsir is making minute observations upon
the ice of the bergs, and as he purposes continuing them
throughout the voyage, there can be little doubt of his arriving
at valuable conclusions." It is added, " We also find some

328 Horner's Geological Address.

observations upon the action of floating ice upon the granitic
shores of the islands. All the rocks below h\gh-ivater mark^ and
some considerably above it^ are rounded off into long irregular
ridges^ with intervening hollows, by the half-floating masses of
ice.'''

Paheontology.

This great department of Geology is now cultivated with so
much industry by so many naturalists in Europe and America,
that scarcely a month elapses without some valuable additions
to our knowledge. It is not possible for me to do more than
briefly refer to some of the more important of those which I
have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with.

At the last meeting of the British Association at Cambridge,
Professor Edward Forbes made an interesting and important
communication to the Natural History section, in which he
pointed out a connexion of the present distribution of plants
with geological changes which took place during the later ter-
tiary periods. He maintains, for example, that the existing
flora of Britain belongs, not to the present epoch only, but is
composed in part of the remains of the floras of the pliocence
and post-pliocene periods. He considers that certain peculiari-
ties of the vegetation of the west of Ireland depend on an an-
cient geological connexion with the Asturias ; those of the
Scottish and Welsh mountains on the migration of plants from
Scandinavia during the glacial period, and the subsequent up-
heaval of the land, and consequent change of climate ; whilst
the great mass of the British flora migrated across the up-
heaved bed of the Pleistocene sea. He further holds, that
the determination of the date of the migrations of terrestrial
plants and animals will eventually aid in fixing the periods of
many geological events.

In the year 1828, M. Elie de Beaumont published in the
'* Annales des Sciences Naturelles" an account of some obser-
vations he had recently made at Petit-Coeur, a village in the
Tarentaise, east of Chambery ; where he had seen resting on
talcose gneiss and hornblende schist, a series of sedimentary
beds, which prevail over a great extent of that country, the
lowest of which, a micaceous sandstone alternating with a

Paleontology. 329

black slaty rock, is surinounted by a bed of fissile argillaceous
limestone containing belemnites, and this last passes insensibly
into a black slaty clay, containing impressions of plants identi-
cal in species with some of those belonging to the true coal
formation. M. de Beaumont concludes his detailed descrip-
tion in these words : — " II me parait done incontestable que le
sy steme de couches qui, k Petit-Coeur, contient les Belemnites
et les impressions vegetables, et qui s'enfonce sous toutes les
autres couches non-primitives de cette partie des Alpes, appar-
tient d la formation du liasy The plants were carefully ex-
amined by M. Adolphe Brongniart, and in an accompanying
memoir, descriptive of them, he states, '* que I'identite le plus
parfaite existe entre ces plantes et celles du terrain houiller,
tandis qu'il n''y a aucun rapport entre elles et celles qui se
trouvent habituellement dans le lias, ou dans les terrains
oolitiques.'' He enumerates among others of Petit-Coeur,
Neuropieris tenuifolia, found at Liege and Newcastle; and
Pecopteris polymorpha, one of the most common in the coal-
fields of France.

At the meeting of the Geological Society of France at Cham-
bery in autumn 1844, an account of which we have received
since our last Anniversary,* the attention of the members was
directed to this most remarkable fact, in a memoir by M.
Rozet ; and afterwards, several who attended the meeting
visited Petit-Coeur. The observations of M. Elie de Beau-
mont and M. Adolphe Brongniart were confirmed in every
particular; they found abundance of the vegetable remains,
and of belemnites below them. The report farther states: —
" II a ete evident aussi, pour tous les membres de la Societe,
que Ton ne pent aucunement admettre I'explication d'un plis-
sement qui aurait raproche les fossiles de deux formations et
produit une alternance apparente entre les couches a Belem-
nites et les couches a empreintes. Ce sont les memos schistes
et la meme formation qui renferment ces deux genres de fossiles
que Ton avait cru pendant longtemps appartenir a des epoques
geologiques tres eloignees I'une de I'autre." M. Sismonda, who
was present, stated, that in another locality he had found

* Bulletin de la Soc. Gcol. de France, vol. i., new series, p. 601.

330 Horner's Geological Address.

Ammonites in a prolongation of the same bed ; and in reply to
M. Agassiz, also present, affirmed, that he had found this bed
containing belemnites and coal plants over an extent of from
25 to SO leagues. We have thus the same species of plants
continuing to exist throughout the whole Carboniferous, Per-
mian, and Triassic periods, and into that of the lower portion
of the oolite age. I need not say how important a bearing
this remarkable fact has on the theories of climate, and of the
prevalence of an atmosphere loaded with carbonic acid gas
during the Carboniferous period.

M. Adolphe Brongniart, in his memoir above cited, thus
accounts for the anomalous position of these coal plants : —
A I'epoque o^ la formation du lias se deposait en Europe, notre
globe presentait tres-probablement deux regions tres-diverses
par leur climat et par les vegetaux qui y croissaient. L'une
comprenait TEurope et peutetre toute la zone temperee, et
6tait habitee par des vegetaux fort differens de ceux qui y crois-
saient a une epoque plus reculee, et qui avaint donne naissance
aux couches de houille ; I'autre s'etendant sans doute sur les
parties plus chaudes du globe, etait encore couverte des memes
vegetaux qui, dans des temps plus anciens, avaient habite la
region europeene, et forme les depots houillers. Les vegetaux
de cette partie du globe pouvant dans certaines circonstances,
^tre transportes dans les regions plus temperees, auraient don-
ne lieu a ces anomalies apparentes que presentent les terrains
d'anthracite des Alpes qui, d'apres les observations geologiques
et zoologiques, appartiennent ^ Tepoque de formation du lias,
et dont les vegetaux sent cependant les memes que ceux du
terrain houiller.'' This theory therefore admits that the same
species of plants existed through the whole series of ages that
passed from the time of the deposition of the carboniferous
series to that of the lias ; that they and belemnites were co-
existing, but in different regions. It is not very easy to con-
ceive how such delicate vegetable bodies should be drifted the
vast distance between a tropical and temperate zone, to form
parts of thin continuous strata thousands of square miles in ex-
tent, in successive layers of great thickness on the same spot,
in the depths of the sea.

It is extremely improbable that this case in the Tarentaise

Faloeontology. 331

is a solitary one ; future researches will probably bring to light
other instances of a similar kind. May not these facts be an
extension to plants of the recently advanced doctrine regard-
ing animals, that species which have had a wide range in space
have also had a long duration in time \ or, as it is expressed
by those who first brought it forward, — " That the species which
are found in a greater number of localities, and in very distant
countries, are almost always those which have lived during the
formation of several successive systems." The attention of
geologists, I believe, was first directed to this highly important
observation by Viscount d'Archiac and M. de Verneuil, in their
joint paper " On the Fossils of the older Deposites of the Rhe-
nish Provinces," read before this Society in December 1841 ;
and while these distinguished geologists announced the law as
applicable to the oldest fossiliferous beds, Professor Edward
Forbes has shewn the extension of it to existing species. He
found " that such of the Mediterranean testacea as occur both
in the existing sea and in the neighbouring tertiaries, were
such as had the power of living in several of the zones in depth,
or else had a wide geographical distribution, frequently both."
He adds, " the same holds true of the testacea in the tertiary
strata of Great Britain. The cause is obvious : such species as
had the widest horizontal and vertical ranges in space, are ex-
actly such as would live longest in time, since they would be
much more likely to be independent of catastrophes and de-
stroying influences than such as had a more limited distribu-
tion.'' Now we know that the same species of plants are
found in the coal-fields belonging to the pala90zoic carbonifer-
ous rocks of Europe and of North America, and in regions with
diflferences of more than thirty degrees of latitude ; and, there-
fore, they may have been able to live through the many vicis-
situdes of condition of the earth's surface that must have
occurred between the Carboniferous and Liassic periods.

The plants from the Permian system of Russia, collected by
Sir R. Murchison and his fellow-travellers, have been described
by Mr Morris, and further illustrated by the remarks of M.
Adolphe Brongniart. The species are few, not exceeding
sixteen in number. Three of these — Neuropteris tenuifolia^
Lepidodendron elongatum and Calamites Suckotvii — are pro-

S32 Horner's Geological Address.

nounced by M. Brongniart to be identical with plants of the coal
formation. The remainder are peculiar (as far as is hitherto
known) to the Permian system. All the genera are common
to this and to the carboniferous series ; the genera Odontop-
teris, Noeggerathia, and Lepidodendron, had been hitherto sup-
posed peculiar to the coal-measures. Altogether, the Permian
flora is evidently much more similar to that of the carbonifer^
ous system than to any other : it has no affinity to that of the
Gres bigarre, or of the Juras^^ic system.

Mr Morris has likewise described the fossil plants brought
by Count Strzelecki from the coal-fields of New South Wales
and Van Diemen's Land. Unfortunately the materials were
very scanty, the number of species being only eight ; and it is
singular, that of this number four are from the coal-field of
New South Wales, and four from that of Van Diemen's Land,
no one species having been found common to the two. Both
these Australian coal-fields are very remarkably distinguished
from those of Europe and North America by the entire ab-
sence of SHgmarice, Sigillariw, Lepidodendra, and Calamites.
In this respect they agree with the coal formation of Burdwan
in Northern India, to which, indeed, they have other points of
sti'iking similarity in the character of their vegetable remains.
The Glossopteris Browniana is actually common to the coal
formations of New South Wales and of India, and the Peeop-
teris australis of the former country comes very near to the
Indian P. Lindleyana. The tiora of the coal-fields of Austra-
lia has likewise a striking similarity to that of our Yorkshire
oolites. Glossopteris Browniana is nearly allied to Glos. Fhil-
Upsiij Pecopteris australis to P. Whitbiensis, and Pecopteris
alata to P. Murray ana. It is possible that the coal of Aus-
tralia and of Northern India may really belong to the Jurassic
system.

In the '* Geology of Russia,^' a work I have already so often
referred to, there is an immense mass of valuable contributions
to palaeontology, by different distinguished naturalists. The
following are the parts which relate to the Invertebrata : —

1. A very elaborate and important essay by Mr Lonsdale on
the palsepzoic Corals of Russia, abounding in minute details of

Pahjeontology.

structure, deserving the attention of evei'y one engaged in the
study of that class of organic bodies.

2. A full synopsis of the palaeozoic Radiata, Articulata, and
MoUusca, by M. de Vorneuil. The species are all admirably
described, and full details of great interest are given respect-
ing their affinities, synonyms, and distribution. A great num-
ber of new and curious forms are made known for the first
time. In that part which treats of the Brachiopoda, M. de
Verneuil has given the results of a critical investigation of the
genera, accompanied by tables of characters of the greatest
value. He has constituted a new genus, Siphonetreta, for the
reception of certain very curious fossils, which, while present-
ing much of the form of Terebratulce, are really allied to Orbi
culw, and have the same corneous texture of shell. Among
the palaeozoic Acephala, he has described a well-marked species
of Astrea, a genus hitherto having only doubtful claims to such
high antiquity. Among the Gasteropoda, lanthina, for the
first time, appears as a palceozoic genus.

In the account of the Badiata are interesting descriptions
and comments on the Russian species of Cystidece. Among the
Articulata is the genus Fusulina, a foraminiferous animal
abounding in certain beds of carboniferous limestone in Russia.
Hitherto, traces of such animals in such ancient beds have been
few and imperfect.

3. The Jurassic, cretaceous, and tertiary mollusca are de-
scribed in full detail by M. D^Orbigny, and their synonyms care-
fully elaborated, — a service for the rendering of which we can-
not be too thankful, since duplicate names have accumulated
to a most confusing extent. As an instance, it may be men-
tioned that M. D'Orbigny enumerates as synonyms of the Am-
monites Jason of Zieten, no less than fourteen distinct names.

The plates throughout are admirable.

The history of fossil radiate animals has received one of
the most important additions ever made to it, in the memoir
of M. von Buch on the Cystidece ; a memoir of the greatest
value to the naturalist, since it furnishes him with an elabo-
rate and philosophical exposition of the organization and af-
finities of a group of fossil animals hitherto misunderstood,

334 Horner's Geological Address.

and which fill up a blank in the series of Radiata. As these
fossils are now known to be by no means iinfrequent in the
British palaeozoic strata, though they have hitherto attracted
but little attention, the study of the paper, itself a model of
palseontological description, will well repay the attention of
geologists. They will find it at full length, translated by
Professor Ansted, in the last number of our Journal ; and I
may adduce it as an instance of the valuable assistance which
we afford to the geologists of this country, by devoting a por-
tion of our quarterly publication to original foreign memoirs ;
for how few there are who can have an opportunity of seeing
the " Transactions of the Berlin Academy," to say nothing
of those who do not read German !

M. Agassiz, that most indefatigable of living naturalists,
besides his important contributions during the last year in
that department in which he is universally acknowledged to
occupy the highest rank, has commenced a new series of es-
says under the title of " IconograpJiie des Coquilles Tertiaires
reputes identiques avec les especes vivantes, ou dans differens
terrains de Vepoque tertiaire.''* In the preface to the first part
he announces his views and object. He says that he has been
long convinced that the greater number of identifications of
tertiary shells with those of other tertiary epochs, or with
recent species, are incorrect. From his investigations he is
led to maintain, 1^^, That notable differences exist between
living and tertiary species ; and, 2dly, That in the tertiary
formations the different stages present distinct faunae. He
opposes classification founded on per-centages^ as purely arti-
ficial, and attributes the errors to the mistaking analogues
for true identifications. He holds that each geological epoch
is characterized by a distinct system of created beings (the
results of a new intervention of creative power), including
not only different species from those of the preceding system,
but also new types. At the same time he admits that the
" reiterated intervention of the created power" does not ne-
cessarily and absolutely imply a specific difference between
the beings of different deposites. He holds, however, the pro-
bability of such a difference existing; and his object in this

Palasontology . SS5

" Iconographie" is to prove that such diflPerence has been
overlooked. He goes the length of saying, that, even when
species are, so far as the eye can judge, identical, they may
not be so. " Perhaps," he says, " there may exist species so
nearly allied, as to render it impossible to distinguish them ;
yet even that would not be to my eyes a proof of their iden-
tity ; it would only prove the insufficiency of our means of
observation :" and further, " the animals might differ though
the shells are alike."

In the special part of his essay, M. Agassiz proceeds on
the position that the law of variation is not the same in all
classes, families, and genera ; iind selects his examples from
certain genera of Acephalous Mollusca in which the charac-
ters are very constant, viz. Artemis, VenuSi Cytherea, Cyprina,
and Lucina, on thirty-one forms of which genera, considered
by him as distinct species, he gives full comments and valu-
able details. One species only among them, the Cyprina
islandictty he admits to be at the same time recent and fossil.

M. Agassiz introduces the same doctrine in his Monograph
of the Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone. Thus he says, at
page xi., that the characteristic fossils of each well-marked
geological epoch are the representatives of so many distinct
creations, and affirms that he has demonstrated " pour un
nombre assez considerable d^especes^'^ that the presumed iden-
tifications are exaggerated approximations of species resem-
bling one another, but neveHheless specifically distinct.

"Whether species of Mollusca hitherto deemed common to
two or more of the tertiary periods be really, as M. Agassiz
affirms, distinct, is a doctrine that must await the concurrence
of experienced conchologists before it can be made the means
of overthrowing present generalizations, and the basis of new
ones. With regard to the Mammalia, certain eocene forms
have been repeatedly recognised in miocene strata, and the
continental miocene Mastodon has been satisfactorily deter-
mined as a fossil of our older pliocene (Norwich Crag). But
M. Agassiz is peculiarly unfortunate in citing Dr Falconer
and Major Cautley (p. xi.) as supporting, by their discoveries
of fossil animals in the Sub-Himalayan Mountains, his views
as to marked distinctions of the tertiary fauna, since they

33G Horner's Geological Address.

have done more than any other palaeontologists to prove the
progressive and undistinguishable blending of eocene into
miocene, and this into pliocene, by the mammalian fossils, and
have shewn that some species of reptiles actually exist at the
present day which were coeval with the Himalayan Anoplo-
there, Mastodon, and Hippopotamus.

The attention of several distinguished naturalists has lately
been directed to the investigation of the structure and clas^
sification of Trilobites. A valuable work on these singular
extinct Crustacea has been lately given to the world by Pro-
fessor Burmeister, who is now revising an English translation
of it, to be published by the Ray Society. In this work there
is a systematic arrangement of all the species known to the
author, and there are dissertations of great value on their or-
ganization. M. Emmerich has also published a very impor-
tant memoir on the structure of Trilobites, a translation of
which has lately appeared in Mr Taylor's " Scientific Me-
moirs." In Sweden, Professor Loven, a naturalist distin-
guished for his researches among the invertebrate animals,
has commenced the investigation of the Trilobites of that
country with great success. His papers may be found in the
Proceedings of the Swedish Academy for 1844 and 1845. All
the memoirs now enumerated are illustrated by excellent
plates. Lastly, in the " Geology of Russia" will be found an
interesting note on the affinities of Trilobites, by Professor
Milne Edwards.

In what I have said of the accession during the last year
to our knowledge of the Devonian rocks, I have referred to
the Monograph by M. Agassiz of the Fishes of the Old Red
Sandstone, which those most capable of appreciating its value
consider as one of his most important works ; and I have
reason to know that he himself views it in that light. I again
refer to it in this place on account of some peculiar views there
developed, which I do not find altogether assented to by those
whose judgments on this subject are much looked up to.

M. Agassiz states, p. xxx., " que les poissons de I'Old Red
representent, par leur structure toute particuliere, I'age em-

Palaeontology. 337

bryonique du r^gne des poissons." A part of the peculiar
structure which he especially dwells upon is, " le developpe-
ment extraordinaire que presente le systeme cutane ;" but he
acknowledges that " malheureusement nous n'avons pas en-
core des termes de coraparaison avec les poissons de la crea-
tion actuelle assez nombreux pour apprecier la valeur de ces
caracteres." Another feature of the peculiar structure which
he points out is the continuity of the vertical fins. This cha-
racter, however, Sir Philip Egerton and Professor Owen in-
form me, is only of partial application ; the family of Cepha-
laspides he does not cite, but in Coccosteus^ the sole form of
Old Red fishes in which vertical fins have been observed, the
distance between them is considerable. In the Dipterians,
Dipterus has these organs very close, but in Diplopterus and
Osteolepis they have considerable intervals between them.
Diplopterus^ moreover, occurs in the coal measures. In the
Coelacanths the fins of Glyptolepis are very near each other, but
this family runs into the chalk. In the Acanthodians the fins
are quite distinct, and Acanthodes is found in the coal measures.
There are also recent fishes with their vertical fins quite as
little distinct as in the most exaggerated of the Old Red.
Neither is the heterocerque tail a character peculiar to the
fishes of the Old Red, for all the fishes older than the lias have
this form, as have the Sturgeons of the present day ; and it
is perhaps more important to find, that certain highly charac-
teristic genera of the Old Red, for example, Pterichthys,
Pamphractus and Coccosteus^ did not possess the heterocercal
tail.

Another character, viz., the flattened form of head, is not
peculiar to the Old Red, for the Siluridce and other recent
fishes have this character equally prominent. Then the non-
development of the vertebral column is found in the Sturgeon,
Lamprey, and other recent fishes. Persons seeking for sup-
port to the theory of progressive development might, on a
hasty perusal of this work, find sentences in favour of their
views ; but the above facts are irreconcilable with the theory
as ordinarily promulgated, and it would be a perversion of
M. Agassiz's undoubted opinions to quote detached sentences
from his writings in support of that doctrine. They will find

338 Horner's Geological Address.

for instance, at p. 23, a rectification of the error committed
by the ingenious Hugh Miller, in describing the jaws of the
Coccosteus as being vertical, like those of Crustacea, and thence
inferring that " it seems to form a connecting link between
two orders of existences ;" M. Agassiz having proved that
they are horizontal, and move vertically, as in other true
fishes. Then there are four species of Sharks of the Cestracion
division in the Devonian rocks of Russia, and the squaloid
fishes of the present day offer the highest organization of the
brain and of the generative organs, and make in these re-
spects the nearest approach to the higher vertebrate classes.

The work of Professor Owen on the fossil remains of Mam-
malia and Birds found in the British Islands, which has been
for some time in course of publication, is now completed, the
concluding part having been published within the last few
days. This valuable contribution to palaeontology, in which it
is the purpose of the author " to deduce from these remains,
by physiological comparisons, the living habits of the extinct
species, to trace out their zoological affinities, and to indicate
their geological relations," is another gift in the last year for
which geologists are indebted to the British Association. Pro-
fessor Owen, in his preface states, that the special researches
which have enabled him to fulfil in any degree the above-
mentioned design, were begun by the desire, and have been
carried on chiefly by the liberal aid of that body.

The concluding part contains a very interesting and in-
structive introduction, which will enable the reader to follow
with far greater pleasure, and more fully to appreciate the
value of the special details which follow. He begins by point-
ing out that first trace of the creation of mammalian quadru-
peds which was discovered in the Stonesfield slate of the ooli-
tic series; and it was certainly a most fortunate accident which
brought these minute bones within the sight of a geologist.
It is a very remarkable circumstance, that all the researches
of geologists, multiplied as they have been since that dis-
covery was made, have not yet brought to light another frag-
ment of the same order of animals, throughout the vast series
of deposites, the immense duration of time that intervened be-

Palcbontology. 339

tween the Stonesfield slate and the eocene tertiary deposites ;
notwithstanding that there are indubitable proofs of the ex-
istence during that interval of extensive continents, of forests
growing on that land, of its being tenanted by other races of
animals, and that birds and pterodactyls spread out their
wings in the air above it.

The land that supported the mammalia whose remains are
found in the eocene deposites of our island must have been sub-
merged, and must to a great extent have remained so during
the miocene period, when the adjoining continent was inha-
bited by the animals whose remains have been disinterred
there from the deposites of the miocene age ; for it is in plio-
cene and post-pliocene deposites that the mammalian remains
in the British Islands next present themselves. There is the
most conclusive proof that the animals lived and died, gene-
ration after generation, for a long succession of years, in the
land where their remains are now found ; evidence which
completely *' refutes the hypothesis of their having been borne
hither by a diluvial current, from regions of the earth where
the same genera of quadrupeds are now limited. The very
abundance of their fossil remains in our island is incompa-
tible with the notion of their forming its share of one genera-
tion of tropical beasts drowned and dispersed by a single ca-
tastrophe."

The author ably discusses the question how the various
members of that ancient fauna came into this island. Other
and independent geological proofs shew that the British
Islands were united with the continent when it received its
pliocene mammalia, and the zoologist finds the known habits
and powers of these mammalia to be in accordance with that
configuration of the land. He then considers the no less im-
portant question, — although it is one more difficult of solu-
tion,— ^by what processes they became extinct? The sub-
terranean movements which separated our islands from the
continent, and submerged other parts of these islands, must
have produced such changes in the means of subsistence, and
powers of migration of these animals, as must have been one
great cause of their diminution and eventual extinction ; the

340 Horner's Geological Address.

loss of a sufficient supply of vegetable food for the greater
herbivorous quadrupeds, and, by their diminished numbers,
the want of support for the larger carnivora which preyed
upon them. He enumerates other causes, which must have
operated for a long period before the agency of man aided
the work of extinction. He adduces many most curious and
interesting particulars in illustration of the laws by which
the geographical distribution of the mammalia of the pliocene
and post-pliocene periods generally appear to have been de-
termined; shewing that, " with extinct as with existing mam-
malia, particular forms were assigned to particular provinces,
and, what is still more interesting and suggestive, that the
same forms were restricted to the same provinces at the plio-
cene period as they are at the present day.''

In this work, eighty species of British fossil Mammalia
are described, of which the following (forty-two in number)
were either originally determined by the author as new spe-
cies, or were first recognised by him as occurring in a fossil
state. They were, for the most part, described in the publi-
cations of this Society.

Amphitherium Broderipii. Lophiodon minimus.

Arncola agrestis. Lutra vulgaris.

pratensis. Macacus eocenus.

Balaena afRnis. pliocenus.

definita. Machairodus latidens.

.— . emarginata. Meles taxus.

gibbosa. Palaeotherium magnum.

Balaenodon physaloides, crassum.

Bison minor. minus.

Bos longifrons. Palaeospalax magnus.
Cervus Bucklandi. Phascolotherium BucHandi.
Tarandus. Phocaena crassidens.

Chaeropotamus Cuvieri. Physeter macrocephalus.

Coryphodon eocenus. Rhinolophus ferrum equinum.

Dichobune cervinum. Sorex vulgaris.

Equus plicidens. Strongyloceros spelaeus.

Felis pardoides. Talpa vulgaris.

Hyracotherium leporinum. Trogontherium Cuvieri.

cuniculus. Ursus priscus.

Lagomys spelaeus. Vespertilio vulgaris.

Lophiodon magnus.

Of the eighty species described in this work, —

Faloeontology . 341

Three are of Oolite antiquity ;
Twenty from Eocene tertiary strata ;
Five from the Miocene Red Crag ;

Fifty-two from the older and newer Pliocene freshwater
and drift formations.

Of the newer Pliocene species of fossil Mammalia, seven-
teen became extinct before the historic period, viz. —

Macacus pliocenus. Hyaena spelaea.

Palaeospalax magnus. Felis spela3a.

Ursus priscus. Machairodus latidens.

Trogontherium Cuvieri.

Lagomys spelaeus. Hippopotamus major.

Elephas primigenius. Megaceros Hibernicus.

Rhinoceros tichorhinus. Strongyloceros spelaeus.

leptorhinus. Cervus Bucklandi.

Equus plicidens.

Five species came down to the age of tradition or history,
and have been extirpated in England, viz. —

Canis lupus, Wolf. Bison priscus, Aurochs.

Castor Europaeus, Beaver. Bos primigenius, or Great Urus. This

Cervus Tarandus, Reindeer. species is also extinct on the con-

tinent.

Twenty-six of the Mammalia, whose fossil remains testify
to their co-antiquity with the Mammoth, still exist in Eng-
land, as well as on the continent of Europe, viz. —

Vespertilio noctula, \tk \ Lepus cuniculus, Rabbit.

Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum, j * Equus caballus, Horse.

Sorex, Shrew, three species, asinus. Ass.

Meles taxus, Badger. Sus scrofa, Hog.

Putorius vulgaris, Polecat. Cervus elaphus, Red Deer.

ermineus, Stoat. ' capreolus. Roe.

Lutra vulgaris, Otter. Capra hircus, Goat.

Canis vulpes, Fox. Bos longifrons (probable source of

Felis Catus, Wild Cat. the Highland Cattle).

Mus rattus, Black Rat. Physeter, Sperm Whale.

musculus, Mouse. Balaenoptera.

Arvicola, Vole, three species. Balaena mysticetus. Whalebone
Lepus timidus, Hare. Whale.

You cannot but remember the great interest that was ex-
cited when Dr Royle, in March 1836, communicated to this
Society a paper by his friends, Captain Cautley and Dr Fal-
coner, then resident in India, on the remains of Mammalia

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. Z

342 Horner's Geological Address,

found in the Tertiary formations of the Sewalik Mountains,
at the southern foot of the Himalayas, between the Sutlej
and the Ganges ; discoveries deemed so important, that the
Council, at the following anniversary, awarded a Wollaston
Medal to each of these gentlemen. Besides the paper by
Captain Cautley, published in the fifth volume of our " Trans-
actions," numerous details respecting these discoveries are
contained in the '* Asiatic Researches," and in the " Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal." A magnificent donation
of these remains, contained in more than two hundred chests,
was made by Captain Cautley to the British Museum, and a
work of immense labour and research has been undertaken by
Dr Falconer, to describe, in conjunction with his friend, now
Major Cautley, these very interesting remains. Her Majes-
ty's Government and the Directors of the East India Com-
pany have supplied funds in aid of the successful progress
of the work. The first part has just appeared ; it bears the
title of " Fauna Antigua Sivalensis,^^ and consists of twelve
folio plates, and sixty-four pages of octavo letter-press. No-
thing has ever appeared in lithography in this country at all
comparable to these plates ; and as regards the representa-
tions of minute osseous texture by Mr Ford, they are per-
haps the most perfect that have yet been produced in any
country.

The work has commenced with the Elephant group, in
which, they say, " is most signally displayed the numerical
richness of forms which characterizes the Fossil Fauna of In-
dia," and the first chapter relates to the Proboscidea — Ele-
phant and Mastodon. The authors have not restricted them-
selves to a description of the Sewalik fossil forms, but they
propose to trace the affinities, and institute an arrangement
of all the well-determined species in the family. They give
a brief historical sketch of the leading opinions which have
been entertained by palaeontologists respecting the relations
of the Mastodon and the Elephant to each other, and of the
successive steps in the discovery of new forms which have
led to the modifications of these opinions. They state, that
the results to which they themselves have been conducted,
lead them to differ on certain points from the opinions most

Falceontology, 343

commonly entertained at the present day respecting the fossil
species of Elephant and Mastodon. As they differ in their
conclusions from those of Cuvier, De Blainville, and Owen, as
to specific differences, you will readily conclude that the proof
they adduce rests upon nice distinctions in anatomical struc-
ture ; to enter upon which would be quite unsuitable on the
present occasion, by even the most competent to judge of
questions in which such high authorities disagree.

Conclusion.

Although this Address has extended to so great a length,
those who are actively alive to what is going on in the seve-
ral departments of Geology, will have found many important
works of the past year unnoticed, many topics of interest left
untouched. This would not have been the case to so great
an extent, if I had had more time at my disposal. Even with
the opportunities I have had, I might have briefly noticed a
greater number of books published in our own and in foreign
countries, and memoirs contained in journals and transac-
tions ; but I confess to yielding to an inclination to dwell
upon topics that have more particularly attracted me in my
past geological studies.

It is highly gratifying to see so much activity in the culti-
vation of our science in almost every part of the civilized
world ; and still more satisfactory to observe, that it has been
for some time past pursued in a better spirit, with a dispo-
sition to greater accuracy and rigour in investigation, and
with a more strict adherence to the rules of philosophical in-
quiry. When we contrast the state of Geology now with what
it was when this Society was established, or compare the then
limited extent of our knowledge of Palaeontology with the
wide range it now takes, and when we think of the crude
hypotheses and hasty generalizations, founded on the most
scanty and imperfect observations, which were then misnamed
science, we may well look back with satisfaction to the work
of the last thirty years, to which this Society has contributed
no inconsiderable share.

It has hitherto too frequently happened, that geologists
have dealt with important questions of physics, chemistry,

344 M. Escher de la Linth 07i certain Phenomena

comparative anatomy, zoology, or botany, without an ade-
quate acquaintance with the principles and known laws of the
science essentially involved in the question. Now, unless our
conclusions will bear the test of the most strict examination
by those who are acknowledged authorities in the particular
science, it is obvious that we cannot make any secure pro-
gress. The study of Geology, more perhaps than that of any
other branch of natural science, has a tendency to create a
disposition to theorize ; this disposition, however, if kept with-
in due bounds, is rather to be encouraged than repressed, for
it has often proved a stimulus to accurate observation ; and
to arrive at a knowledge of a true theory of the earth, is, in
truth, the great aim of our inquiries. But we must carefully
guard against the error which the earlier geologists too fre-
quently fell into, of quitting the sober path of inductive phi-
losophy, and wandering into the regions of imagination. We
must indulge in no theory that is not in accordance with laws
of nature of which we have had experience, or which may be
fairly inferred from that experience, although the operations
we seek to explain may have been on a greater scale than
any of which we have certain knowledge. The cautious and
accurate Playfair was wont to inculcate upon those who
studied in the school of Hutton, the warning of the noble
aphorism with which Bacon opens his great work, the *' No-
vum Organum,'' — an aphorism which every geologist will do
well to bear in mind when he ventures to theorize on causes: —
" HomOf naturw minister et inter pres^ tantum facit et intelligit,
quantum^ de naturw ordine, re vel mente observaverit ; nee am-
pUus scit, aut potest.^^

On certain Phenomena presented by the Glaciers of Switzer-
land.^ By M. Escher de la Lintii. (With a Plate.)

I have just read, with much interest, the memoir of M.
Durocher on the erratic phenomena of Scandinavia, and am
glad to perceive that M. Durocher is of opinion, that the
agent which has produced furrows on the surface of Scandi-

* In this article there is some obscurity, probably owing to a bad manuscript.

Presented by the Glaciers of Switzerland. 345

navia, has been the same as that which produced them among
the Alps. In fact, the detailed descriptions and figures given
by M. Durocher, correspond so well to the furrowed surfaces
of our Alps, that I cannot perceive any important differences,
the contrast between the sides that have been abraded and the
sides that have been preserved, existing also among us, a cir-
cumstance of which M. Durocher himself mentions instances.
I likewise share with him the opinion, that the agents which
produced the furrows must have been flexible. M. Durocher
is of opinion, that, among the agents that have been proposed
to explain this phenomenon, water alone possesses this cha-
racter, and he, consequently rejects ice. It is worth while,
however, to examine whether the ice of glaciers is really des-
titute of the degree of flexibility necessary to produce this
efl'ect.

Now, without taking into account the results obtained of
late years by Messrs Agassiz and Forbes, relative to the
movements of glaciers, results which cannot well be ex-
plained without attributing to the ice of glaciers the proper-
ty of bending and becoming flexible, I am persuaded, that, if
we observe the curves and folds described by the blue and
white bands (elsewhere rectilinear and parallel to the length
of the glacier) in the neighbourhood of rents, and, in general,
wherever the movement of the glacier has been interfered
with by some obstacle, no one can refuse to admit that the ice
of glaciers is flexible, and suj/iciently ^enihle to enter, under an
adequate pressure, into all the anfractuosities of the ground
and of the walls of glaciers : in short, that it is sufficiently flex-
ible to accommodate itself to all the movements M. Durocher
requires in the grooving agent. If the ice of glaciers is not
very flexible in certain circumstances, how can we explain the
very sharp folds, and the insensible passage to fainter curves,
represented in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, Plate III., — curves which,
as has been already stated, are never found but when cre-
vasses, more or less frequent, intimate that the glacier is in-
teri'upted in its movement, and has obstacles to overcome ?
I ought to add, that, in nature, the curves are much more
regular, and better marked, than they are in the figures.
They are also much nearer each other, the breadth of the
blue and white bands varying from nearly 1 millimetre to 4

346 M. Esclier dc la Linth on certain Phenomena

centimetres. The figures merely give an idea of the form
of the curves.

Starting with the supposition that ice is rigid, M. Durocher
says that the glacier can exercise its grooving power only at its
bottom. Fig. 5, Plate III., representing the end of the western
arm of the glacier of Viesch, and its western wall overhanging
and furrowed, shews, in my opinion, with all the evidence de-
sirable, that the assertion alluded to is not correct. In fact, we
there see, from a height of nearly 2 metres above the ground,
the glacier resting immediately upon and against the granitic
wall, whose rounded and polished surface exhibits large fur-
rows a little inclined towards the horizon, and which extend
to a distance in a direction parallel to that of the glacier.
In the concave and convex parts of the granitic surface we
see, moreover, smaller and shallower furrows, from 2 to 5
centimetres broad, sensibly parallel to the great furrows ;
besides, we remark, principally in the furrows, a multitude
of extremely fine, scarcely visible, striae, parallel to the fur-
rows. Stones* were set in the ice, so firmly cemented with
it (evidently by the pressure of the superior mass of the gla-
cier, which rose 100 feet above the ground), that I had much
difficulty to detach some of them with a hammer. These
stones, a little rubbed on the side of the rock, were covered
on the same side by an extremely fine mud, almost unctuous
to the touch, owing to the fineness of its grain. This mud,
mingled with fine sand, likewise covered the accessible part of
the overhanging rock, separated from the glacier at the base
by an empty space, evidently produced by the influence of the
summer heat. This cavern continued to get narrower up
the glacier in such a manner that it was scarcely 20 paces
long. Some weeks earlier, one would, no doubt, have seen
the glacier skirting the rock to the base ; but then one could
not have seen the large furrows extending beneath the gla-
cier, as was then the case.t

* These stones had, no doubt, originally fallen from the higher parts of the
wall, or the surface of the glacier, in the interval which, on the surface of
glaciers, is so often found between the ice and the walls of its bed ; they were
then enclosed by the ice.

t There is considerable obscurity in this page, owing, probably, to a bad
manuscript.

Presented hi/ (he Glaciers of Sivitzerland. 347

It is clear that the stones imbedded in the ice must ad-
vance simultaneously with the glacier, and that they cannot
advance without being rubbed, and, according to the degree
of their own hardness, and that of the walls, produce fur-
rows and strisB in the latter, or receive such themselves (de-
tached stones, polished,^ furrowed, and striated). The mud
mentioned appears as the necessary produce of the friction
of the stones against the rock ; accordingly, we observe it
everywhere in the rivulets which issue from beneath glaciers.

The mode of producing polish, furrows, and striae, is thus
exhibited so distinctly to the eye, that every one, I should
imagine, ought to yield to the evidence of facts, and admit
that glaciers have the power of producing the phenomena
mentioned in all parts of their bed.

With regard to the deep and undulated canals, I confess
that in such canals, which are very frequent in the bottom
of our glacier beds, but rarely accessible to minute examina-
tion, I have not hitherto remarked the striated appearances
mentioned by M. Durocher. But, the flexibility of the ice
once admitted, there is not the least difficulty in conceiving
their production in such a canal, as soon as it is left by the
water and filled again by the ice. The frequent change of
water-courses under the glaciers is a phenomenon too well
known to render it necessary to enter into details on this
subject.

It appears to me, therefore, that M. Durocher's objections
to the theory of M. de Charpentier, which ascribes the fur-
rowing to glaciers, are refuted by the examination of what
we witness taking place in glaciers still existing.

Let us now see if facts are not to be found which require
properties in the furrowing agent, which are opposed to those
of a current of water or mud. It appears to me that there
are several.

1^^, The large furrows, as well as the fine striae we see in
countries now destitute of glaciers, are by no means, in ge-
neral, rectilinear ; on the contrary, they follow, in lines ge-
nerally almost horizontal, exactly the irregular circumfer-
ence, often very sinuous, and even almost at a right angle
with the walls. The instrument by which these furrows

348 M. Escher de la Linth on certain Phenomena

have been produced, has therefore followed exactly, in its
progress, this tortuous circumference. Now, of whatever
density we may suppose a current of water or mud to be, it
will always be less than that of stones, if it must possess a
considerable quickness. Stones, moving nearly in the direc-
tion of the current, will no doubt here and there go along the
walls of the bed ; but all those which reach the side-walls,
under whatever angle that may be, will be thrown back
towards the middle of the current, and it appears to me
altogether impossible that they can turn the least salient
angle.*

Admitting, for an instant, that a current may produce fine
striae, it is then necessary to suppose, with regard to such as
are not rectilinear, that, commencing with one stone, they
have been continued by a second, a third, &c., which, by an
accident the most improbable, should have continued the
striae exactly from the point where it had been left by the
preceding stone.

Again, when we consider that nearly horizontal furrows
shew themselves in the upper valley of the Aar, in a space of
many thousand feet in height, we must suppose, in order to
account for a simultaneous origin throughout the whole
height, a current, at least, of equal power, a current of a den-

* Ifo one, as far as I know, has ever pretended to have observed stria) of the
nature in question, produced by actual currents. Stones set in motion by a
torrent have neither the power to produce nor to receive striae, because in roll-
ing along they only rub others, and are rubbed themselves. In fact, we never
find striae either in the beds of torrents or on the borders of lakes, not even in
eboulements, such as those of the Deut-du-Midi, and Combe-Mauvoisin, near St
Maurice. It is true that the stones in the latter sometimes exhibit white spots,
a little elongated (the longest I have seen did not exceed an inch and a-half ),
produced by the rubbing of the stones against each other ; but these spots ap-
pear to enable us expressly to distinguish between what can be produced in this
way by debacles and glaciers. We find not one of these horizontal striae on
the surface of the walls, exceeding six inches in length, the edges well defined ;
in short, striae cut as with a graving tool. We will seek for them in vain on
the surface of detached stones, while they are very frequent, and sometimes of
astonishing perfection, on the surface of the calcareous pebbles of the moraines
of existing glaciers (glacier of Sustenhorn, at the foot of the Meyenthal), and
in the erratic formations of all Switzerland.

Presented by the Glaciers of Switzerland, 349

sity exactly similar to that of the stones, in order that, from
their primitive position, they may advance almost horizon-
tally. Besides, it is necessary not only to make the stones fly
like an arrow, but vv^e must assign a tortuous path to those
situate near the margin of the bed, without, however, making
them lose their speed. In order to account for a successive
origin, we must necessarily suppose that the valleys are ex-
cavated by the effect of currents, in order that the furrows
from above could be formed before those of the middle and at
the foot of the slopes.

I confess that the view of the labyrinth which either of
these suppositions opens up, alarms me much more than the
idea of countries covered with glaciers.

By admitting, on the contrary, that the polish in question,
the furrows and striaa of countries destitute of glaciers, are
the produce of glacial action, we only apply the effects of ex-
isting glaciers to forms exactly similar to those which the
glaciers continue, under our own observation, to give to their
walls ; their ice is sufficiently flexible to ply around the con-
tours of their bed, and sufficiently compact to press the
grooving body constantly against the wall. The action takes
place simultaneously over the whole circumference of the
glacier, where the gravel or stones are found at its edge, and
where it is not separated from the walls of the bed by some
void space ; a space, however, which will disappear sooner or
later in its turn, and be again filled with ice and stones.

2o?, It is not rare to find erratic blocks, especially of a cal-
careous^nature, but likewise, also, of a granite, having one of
the faces (to the extent of a metre square) flat as a table,
and rayed with furrows and striae more or less numerous.
Tliese flat surfaces are found in blocks which have travelled
upwards of fifteen leagues, and the circumstance appears to
me incompatible with transportation by currents, as much in
theory as in practice, since the blocks of currents never shew
us anything similar.

3flf, In some places, for instance on the western side of the
valley of the Rhine, near Oberried (Canton of St Gall), and
a league beyond the baths of Pfeffers, in the valley of Ta-
mina, we find on the surface of a polished calcareous rock, for

350 M. Escher de la Linth on certain Phenomena

a great extent, rays very nearly horizontal, and from one and
a half to four millimetres broad. In the very wide hollows of
these rays, small and transverse notches may be seen, almost
always more or less curved, usually about 0"" 3 distant from
each other, their convexity constantly turned up the valley.
These notches have all the appearance of the trace of an in-
strument like a chisel, which, moved by a slow mechanism,
and somewhat tremulous action, presses against the substance
submitted to its action, sometimes more and sometimes less
strongly. I believe that no one, on seeing this appearance,
would hesitate to ascribe it to a very slow movement, similar
to that of glaciers, and to consider it altogether incompatible
with a rapid movement.

The polished rock near Pfeffers, cleared a little while since
by a rivulet from the detritus which covered it and protected
it hitherto against the influence of the atmosphere (fig. 6,
Plate III.), presents still another peculiarity. Very nearly per-
pendicular to the furrows which follow the general direction of
the valley, we perceive numerous striae all very fine, of a depth
more appreciable, sensibly parallel to each other, and running
in the direction of the greatest acclivity. These stria? cross
the longitudinal furrows in some places in so distinct a man-
ner, that we perceive they are of newer formation. I know
not what explanation the advocates of currents would give of
this circumstance. In the theory of glaciers, it presents it-
self as the result of the slow movement which the detritus of
the surface of the glacier has been subjected to, during the
sinking and melting of the glacier, that is to say, during its
transport from a b to c d, fig. 7, Plate III.

In short, it appears to me that M. Durocher's objection to
the production of furrows and striae by the action of glaciers
are by no means plausible, and that the circumstances men-
tioned above prove, on the contrary, that it is glaciers which
have produced them, or, if such a view of the matter be pre-
ferred, an agent still altogether unknown, which gave rise
to effects absolutely identical with those of glaciers.

I refrain from entering into a comparison of mounds and
erratic deposits with the deposits of glaciers, and from shew-
ing that the transverse erratic mounds most distant from the

Presented by the Glaciers of Switzerland. 351

Alps — for example, those which surround the openings of the
lakes of Zurich, Greifensee, and Sempach, are connected
more or less intimately with the moraines of existing glaciers,
and that the mode of production in the one case is absolutely
the same as in the other. In general, it may be said, that the
more we study the erratic formation of the Alps the more we
find in it analogies with the deposits of glaciers, and the
more do the difficulties of the theory of currents multiply and
gather strength.

With regard to the lapias^ of which M. Desnoyers has
spoken in discussing M. Durocher's Memoir (p, 85 of the Bui-
letin)^ I may be permitted to add, that this phenomenon ap-
pears to me to be completely independent of the action of
glaciers. The prevailing character of the latter is to make
all the natural asperities of the ground disappear, and to pro-
duce forms more or less rounded and flat. The characteris-
tic property of the lapias is, on the contrary, to increase the
inequalities of the ground, to have a surface excessively rough
and covered with projecting points, hollows between the pro-
minences, and even the smallest intervals bearing pointed
projections and plates as sharp as a knife, &c. In it the
furrows are, in general, in the direction of the steepest slope,
and frequently terminate below in funnels sensibly vertical,
very deep, often corresponding to the tributaries of the great
springs, spouting out on the slopes, and at the bottom of moun-
tains (Hundsloch in Wseggithal, sources at Engelberg, at Bi-
sithal, &;c.) The formation of lapias, in my opinion, depends
on the want of perfect uniformity of substance in the rock,
taken in connection with its being of a certain consistency,
a consistency which admits of the parts not destroyed to re-
main standing, and increase in size in proportion as the chan-
nels become deeper by the mechanical and chemical action of
what falls from the atmosphere. In fact, it is only, as far as
I know, calcareous rocks which exhibit lapias; they never ap-
pear in sandstone and crystalline rocks. Among the calcare-
ous rocks of the Swiss Alps, it is that at Caprotina^ and the
compact, bluish-black, brittle limestone (representing the
middle oolite), which are most favourable to the develop-
ment of this form of surface, principally in elevated regions,

352 Mr R. Adie on Thermo- Electrical Experiments.

or where there is no vegetation to protect the surface against
the influence of atmospheric agents.

Explanation of the Figures in Plate III.

Fig. 1. Contorsions of the icy masses near the north edge of the glacier

of the Oberaar, 5th August 1842.
Fig. 2. Contorsions in the glacier of the Unteraar, near M. Agassiz's

gallery, 1st August 1842.
Fig. 3. Contorsions in the glacier of Aletsch, near Lake Moriel, l7th

July 1841.
Fig. 4. Contorsions in the glacier of Aletsch, half a league above Lalce

Moriel, 14th August 1841.
Fig. 5. Lower extremity of the western arm of the glacier of Viesch,

30th June 1841.
Fig. 6. Limestone rock, polished, furrowed, and striated, in the valley

of Tamina, a league beyond the Baths oif Pfeffers.
— Geological Society of France. Seance l^th Janvier 1846.

An Account of T her tno- Electrical Experiments. By Mr R.
Adie, Liverpool. Communicated by the Author.

In the present communication, I propose to resume the considera-
tion of some of those thermo-electrical experiments, which were pub-
lished in Nos. 70 and 71 of this Journal, chiefly for the purpose of
shewing that, in the joints of thermo-electric couples, molecular ac-
tion has no power to develop a current of electricity ^ U7iless the
bars are unequally heated.

Referring to the above mentioned papers for several facts which
go to shew that there is a molecular change in a joint, which has been
long engaged developing a thermo-electric current, I have since en-
deavoured to find a similar change in a joint which has been long
equally heated at a temperature a few degrees below boiling water.
One series of experiments extended through a period of sixteen
months, yet in no case have I met with a molecular change in the
joints of equally heated thermo-electric couples. From this we
should infer that unequal heating is necessary to produce the mole-
cular change ; then, reasoning from analogy, we should expect to
find that molecular change, without unequal heating, should, in like
manner, fail to throw an electrical current into circulation, a result
M'hich I shall endeavour to establish, by briefly running over a few
experiments.

In No. 74, p. 298, I have stated that I could produce no effect
on the galvanometer by the slow mechanical fracture of the solder-
ing of a thermo joint. The following is a much more satisfactory
method of testing this point. A couple of bismuth and lead were
connected in the usual manner with the galvanometer, and their

U^inLVeivJ'/ul.Jo

PLATEJII.

Fol.J'LI.ptu/e :ioZ.

T^JSJtr OMENTA or rax aLJL£IJSJLS
Escher dela Linth..

%

Fiif. 1.

Mr R. Adie on Thermo- Electrical Experiments. 353

joint, together with a portion of the bismuth bar, was placed betwixt
the chops of a strong vice ; on pincing the vice, the bismuth was
crushed together, emitting a crackling sound like tin, when bent back-
wards and forwards ; there was no decided action on the galvanome-
ter. Repeating this experiment with another similar in the vice-
joint placed between two cards in the vice, in order to prevent the
mass of iron in the vice from quickly withdrawing any heat which
the violent crushing developed, at the moment of compression the
galvanometer made a swing of 10° in the same direction, as if the
joint had been very slightly heated. Had molecular change been
alone able to develop an electrical current, the galvanometer should
have in both cases moved, and, if I apprehend rightly, the extent of
the action should have been very great.

In forming mercurial amalgams, abundant molecular change can
be produced without any perceptible variation in temperature. To
use mercury like a bar of metal in a thermo couple, a glass-tube,
open at one end, and fused at the other around a piece of platina wire,
was filled with mercury ; the platina wire was connected to one end of
the galvanometer wire, and a bar of bismuth, connected to the other
extremity, was made to dip into the mercury at the open end of the
tube. In this arrangement, the bismuth was slowly combining
with the mercury, yet there was no effect on the galvanometer so
long as care was taken to preserve equality of temperature through-
out the couple. The same was found for lead and tin. When
unequal temperatures existed, then the well-known thermo-electric
effects were noticed, where bismuth is the generating metal to mer-
cury, and mercury the generating element to lead or tin. From
some unseen cause, most probably connected with the circumstance
of one of the elements in these couples being a fluid, the density
of the amalorams form inor has no influence on the direction of the
electrical current developed ; for, when one equivalent of tin and
mercury are amalgamated, the specific gravity by experiment is
ir05, by calculation 12*15 ; and for one equivalent of bismuth and
mercury, the specific gravity by experiment is 12' 08, by calculation
12*55 :* the calculated specific gravity is on the supposition that the
metals unite without change of volume. Lead and mercury give
exactly the same density as calculation shews, but from the above
numbers it is seen, that the amalgam of tin undergoes a greater
change in volume than that of bismuth, yet the thermo-electric re-
lation of tin to mercury is nearly like that of lead, and quite difierent
from bismuth.

I have formerly mentioned cases of other metals where the influ-
ence of the molecular change is distinctly seen on the thermo- electri-
cal current generated. The two best examples of this kind may be

* The proportion of mercury was tried for luilf an equivalent and for two
equivalents, which only varied in degree the changes noticed.

354 Mr R. Adie on Thermo- Electrical Experiments,

briefly recapitulated. A piece of soft steel with a portion hardened
and reduced in density, by heating and plunging in water, gives a
thermo current passing from the hard or changing side to the soft
or more stationary side. A similar experiment with the part hard-
ened and made dense by hammering, gives the current passing from
the soft part to the hard. Bars of hard steel change their dimensions
by annealing at temperatures 20° above the weather. This I have
carefully observed by reading off their length with delicate microme-
ter microscopes. Further, I am informed, on excellent authority,
that the steel balance-springs of chronometers are subject to a change
extending over years ; it is by the rates at different temperatures
that this slow change is found out, — a truly beautiful method of de-
tecting minute alterations.

Antimony, when cast in a cold metal mould, has a low specific
gravity which rises by annealing ; when cast in the same mould
heated, the specific gravity is high, and reduces slightly by anneal-
ing at high temperatures. When an annealed bar of antimony was
connected with a soft bar of iron and the joint heated, the iron was
the generating metal ; but when a quickly cooled bar of antimony
was substituted for the annealed piece, then the antimony became the
generating metal, being a reversal of the natural relation, and con-
tinued so until the temperature reached 160°, where, although there
was unequal heating, and molecular change in so far as regards the
density of the bars, there was still no electrical current, most pro-
bably from the change in the two elements exactly counterbalancing ;
for higher temperatures the usual relation of iron to antimony was
established. These experiments with iron and antimony have always
appeared to me to be valuable for reconciling the action of a pair of
thermo-electric elements with an ordinary galvanic couple ; where
the molecular action corresponds to the chemical action, and the un-
equal heating in the thermo couple has to perform the same office
which the fluid has in those batteries excited by active chemical
agents, namely, to produce the electricity in a form that will circu-
late in a current. The facts shewn by the couples, where mercury
forms one of the elements, present difficulties which may serve to
stimulate more able inquirers to endeavour to explain.

The results which I formerly gave of metallic silver, precipitated
by astral and solar influence, acting on the thermo-electric batteries
described No. 70, fig. 1, I have since repeatedly verified ; but for
this climate the quantities of metal obtained are much too small to
serve any purpose, beyond proving that silver may be so precipitated.
The experience of three years now makes me prefer the arrangement
described (No. 70, p. 348), as a sensitive instrument for telling at
all times the rate of radiation to or from the earth.

There are molecular changes in metals, either immersed in water
or exposed to the moisture of the weather, which are very rapid. A
piece of thin brass wire exposed to the weather soon becomes brittle,

Dr Davy's Account of Cole*s Cave, Barbadoes. 355

and cannot be bent without breaking ; while its original pliability
may be restored by annealing at a dull red heat. The same fact has,
I believe, been observed for pieces of copper immersed in battery
cells for electrotype purposes. That these changes are connected
with the water surrounding the metals is at once shewn by the fact,
that portions of the metals kept dry, but engaged conducting an elec-
trical current like the wet parts, remain unaltered. They are evi-
dently of a quite different character from the slow change in thermo-
electric joints at high temperatures, where the heated metal surfaces
are always in a very dry state. To detect a similar action in joints
at lower temperatures I have experiments of now near three years'
duration ; but from all I can observe, this space of time falls far
short of what will be required.

Account of a remarkable Cave in the Island of Barbadoes,
commonly called " Cole's Cave'' By JoilN Davy, M.D.,
F.R.S. Lond. and Edin., Inspector-General of Army Hos-
pitals, &c. Communicated by the Author.

It is not my intention, in the present communication, to
enter into any minute account of this well-known cave ; — it
is my wish, chiefly, to point out some of its peculiarities, and,
most of all, certain appearances which seem to me interest-
ing in relation to geology.

I may premise, that Cole's Cave is nearly in the central
part of the island, on an estate called " the Spring," — a name
derived, it is said, from a spring in the cave, the source of a
subterraneous rivulet. It is distant about six miles from the
principal town. Bridge- town ; and may be about five or six
hundred feet above the level of the sea, and about thirty feet
deep, measuring from the surface above. The descent to it
is steep, but not difficult. The entrance is narrow, and, con-
sequently, the descending rays of light are soon lost, and the
interior of the cave is dark within a few feet of its mouth.
The cavern may be briefly described as a subterraneous chasm
or rent, of variable dimensions, and varying in the most irre-
gular manner, with branches from it. That of greatest ex-
tent has never been followed to its termination ; and it is yet
a problem whether its termination is in the direction of the
low coast to the southward, or the contrarv, inland towards

356 Dr Davy's Account of Golems Cave, Barbadoes,

the hilly part of the island, in a northerly direction. There
is a stream on each side, which may be adduced in favour of
either hypothesis ; but the course the chasm takes, so far as
it has been penetrated, favours most the latter. The cavern
occurs in a calcareous rock, — an aggregate exceedingly va-
rious in different situations, — often abounding in shells and
coral, often having the character of freestone. This applies
to the formation generally.

"Water is plentiful in the cavern; there are few places
where there is not a dropping of it from the roof, and, as al-
ready mentioned, a spring of water rises in it. This occurs,
it may be, about fifty yards from the mouth. It is copious.
Its temperature, when I tried it about noon on the 11th July,
was 77° Fahr., which, probably, is about the mean annual
temperature of the spot. It gushes from the rock with force,
and immediately forms a pretty and clear rivulet, which, af-
ter flowing some way, is lost, and a little farther reappears,
and continues sometimes running sluggishly, forming pools,
sometimes rapidly, as far as this the main chasm has been
traced. It may be mentioned, that another chasm, communi-
cating with this, is without a running stream. In its bed,
however, are some pools of water, and large deposits of clay,
which also occur in the first mentioned at intervals ; clearly
indicating that during floods, the consequence of heavy rains,
the cave is liable to be inundated, the clay suspended in the
water subsiding on rest ; and thus farther indicating, that
the outlet of these chasms is very narrow, so as to admit
of a small stream only flowing out, and, consequently, of
accumulation and rising of the water and of a partial rest
within. The clay or mud traces on the walls of the cavern
shew that the depth of the collected water, when highest, is
many feet.

Though so moist, and though all the other circumstances
of the cavern seem favourable to vegetation, excepting one —
the exclusion of light, — there is a total absence in it of vege-
tation, even of the lowest kind ; not even a mucor is to be de-
tected, at least I sought for such in vain. The only living
things known to be found in its recesses are a few of the fresh-
water crayfish of Barbadoes in the stream, some insects of the

Dr Davy's Account of Cole's Cave, Barbadoes. 357

cricket kind on the walls, and numerous bats, which make its
drier parts their roosting-places. I have not been able to
learn that any lizard, analogous to the Proteus, has been
found in its pools.

Where water is always flowing, and commonly dropping,
it is not surprising, especially considering the nature of the
rock- formation, that deposited carbonate of lime should
abound. Its character seems to me the most interesting cir-
cumstance connected with this cave. I have specimens now
before me, which I broke off myself, evidently formed from
deposition in water, exhibiting a very remarkable variety,
not only as regards forms, but also structure ; in brief, there
is a tolerably complete series, from a kind resembling moun-
tain limestone, to another very little different in appearance
from Parian marble. Even in the strata of the smaller sta-
lactites and stalagmites, such and other differences are ob-
servable ; thus, one part may be very fine-grained in thin con-
centric layers, another confusedly crystalline, and a third
more regularly so. In one specimen, and that a stalactite,
the general structure is radiated, shewing a tendency to the
prismatic form of crystallization, accompanied by transversei
lines, as it were, of cleavage, denoting the rhomboidal form ;
the one approximating to arragonite, the other to calc-spar.
Moreover, there are, in particular situations, strata formed
on the bank of the rivulet very like tufa, or a porous freestone,
and somewhat similarly constituted, being formed of carbo^
nate of lime in crystalline grains, acting the part of a cement,
and of a portion of sand or a little clay.

I have thought it worth while to examine chemically some
of these specimens exhibiting the greatest variety of charac-
ter ; and I shall briefly notice the results of the trials.

The pure white crystalline specimen resembling Parian
marble appeared to consist of carbonate of lime alone ; no-
thing else could be detected in it.

That resembling mountain limestone, of a fawn colour,
finely granular, and in part minutely crystalline, besides car-
bonate of lime, contained a minute quantity of alumine, with
a trace of peroxide of iron, and a small quantity of matter in
a finely divided state, not soluble in an acid, which, under the

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. 2 A

358 Dr Davy's Account of Cole^s Cave, Barbadoe$.

microscope, had the granular appearance of particles of clay,
with which were intermixed a few grains of excessively fine
quartzose sand.

The tufa-like specimen, or that resembling porous sand-
stone, it has been already mentioned, consisted of crystalline
grains of carbonate of lime, and of a little clay or sand. With
this carbonate of lime a minute portion of phosphate of lime
was detected. The sand that remained undissolved by an
acid mixed with a little clay, consisted partly of water-worn
particles of quartz, and partly of particles like those of vol-
canic ashes, being angular with sharp edges ; — -such was the
appearance of both, as seen under the microscope with a high
power.

Lastly, the clay was found to be very eottipounded, and to
contain carbonate of lime in small quantity, a little carbonate
of magnesia, a minute portion of alumine soluble in an acid,
and a minute portion of phosphate of lime, besides a portion
of sand, and a large proportion of clay not readily soluble in
dilute muriatic acid. Its compound nature was also indicated
by its fusibility before the blow-pipe. Amongst the speci-
mens I brought with me from the cavern, there were two
kinds I have not yet noticed. One was a fragment broken
from the wall of the cave : it consisted of incrustation of
carbonate of lime, coloured brown, and in part almost black*
Its colouring matter I found to be peroxide of magnesia,
mixed with some peroxide of iron. The other were small
masses, either spherical or oval, the largest not exceeding an
almond in size. They were numerous in one part of the bank
of the stream. When taken up they were soft and most
easily broken ; after exposure to the drier open air (the air
in the cavern tried by the moistened bulbed thermometer,
was found saturated with moisture) they increased in firm-
ness. Many of them when broken were found to have an
ochry nucleus, giving the idea that they might be embryo
concretions of clay ironstone, that in process of time the
proportion of oxide of iron might increase, and that ultimately
they might become included in a bed of clay.

What are the influences which are to be drawn from the

Br Bavy^s Account of Cole's Cave, Barbadoes. 359

other specimens^ That the material of them, so Various, was
either deposited from water from a state of solution, in con-
sequence of the separation of carbonic acid, or was a subsi-
dence from water, having been mechanically suspended in it,
in a very finely divided state, seems to be unquestionable.
The main inference then is, that so many varieties of rock as
those mentioned may be formed by deposition and subsidence
from water ; the pure white crystalline-like marble by depo-
sition of carbonate of lime alone from a state of solution ;
that like mountain limestone, by a like deposition, with an ad-
mixture of a little sediment of foreign matter ; and the tufa-
like kind, or sandstone, from a greater admixture of sediment,
and that sediment composed partly of quartz sand, and partly
of what I believe to be volcanic ashes.

Now, as the calcareous deposition and the other deposits
are constantly increasing in this cavern, judging from what
is now to be witnessed, it requires no great stretch of the
imagination to conceive a time, and that not very remotely
distant in the future, when the fissure may be completely
filled up, and its contents be like the contents of a vein, ac*
cording to the old Wernerian hypothesis ; and which, if
broken into and quarried, may exhibit in^egular beds of mar-
ble in connection with rock having the character of mountain
limestone, and other rock having the character of free-
stone. In parts of the island where excavations have been
made, or natural sections occur, phenomena of the kind are
to be witnessed at present. The one seem to elucidate the
other.

As regards the materials entering into the composition of
the rocks now forming in the cavern, it is not difficult to find
their source. It is unnecessary to point out whence the car'^
bonate of lime is derived ; the worn honey-comb appearance
of the calcareous rocks on the higher grounds, at the surface
exposed to the action of rain-water holding carbonic acid in
solution, obviously explains it. The clay of the cavern is very
like the finest portion of the surface soil; and, doubtless,
has been washed out of the soil. The particles contained
in the tufa-like deposit resembling volcanic ashes, have also

860 Dr Davy's Account of Cole^s Cave, Barbadoes,

probably been washed out of the soil, and are a portion of the
shower which fell on the island at the time of the last vol-
canic eruption which took place in St Vincent, and of which
a thin layer is often now to be seen a few inches below the
surface, in spots where the soil has not since been disturbed.
Of the manner in which the different varieties have formed,
I shall not here speculate. Composition probably will be
found to be the most important governing circumstance ; and
that one kind has the character of marble, because formed of
pure carbonate of lime ; another, the character of tufa, be-
cause composed of carbonate of lime, mixed with foreign mat-
ter. Nor shall I speculate on the question whether the cYy^
stalline stalactites acquired their peculiar structure immedi-
ately as they formed, or subsequently after the deposition of
the material, in consequence of an internal molecular action
and movement, favoured with the presence of water. In al-
luding to this last, I would express the hope that it may have
the attention paid to it which it seems to deserve.

In conclusion, I would remark, that as there are few, if any,
objects in this interesting island more deserving of being
seen by the casual visitor than " Cole's Cave," if he has any
curiosity in such scenes, it is easily gratified. A good car-
riage road through a pleasant country will bring him to with-
in a hundred yards of the mouth of the cavern ; and of a deep
ravine contiguous, itself worthy of a visit. In an hour he may
reach it from Bridgetown. He will have no difficulty in find-
ing a guide on the spot. If he intends to explore the re-
cesses of the cavern, he should come provided with a change
of clothes, and of shoes, and with two or three wax candles.
No lantern is necessary, as there is not any strong current of
air below. And, however far he penetrate, he need have
no apprehension of suffering from the state of the air, which,
so far I went, and we were three hours in the cavern, wading
and wandering, appeared to be as pure and as respir^ble as
the open atmosphere. This, I specially mention, because the
Rev. M. Hughes, in his " Natural History of Barbadoes,"
published nearly a century ago, states in his account of an ex-»
eursion he made to this cave, that " near a quarter of a mile

Sir R. Schomburgk on the 'Natives of Guiana, 3B1

from the entrance was his ne plus ullra^ being so much fa-
tigued, and wanting air so much, that he durst not, without
presumption, proceed any farther." I have recommended
wax-lights, because they are greatly preferable to lighted
bundles of dried, or partially dried, cane stalks, which, when
parties are formed for descending into the cave, are often
used to the great discomfort of the company, heating the
otherwise cool air, and filling it, otherwise pure, with oppres-
sive and obscuring smoke.

Barbadoes, 21«f July 1846.

On the Natives of Guiana. (With a Plate.) By Sir Robert
Schomburgk. Communicated to the Edinburgh New Phi-
losophical Journal by the Ethnological Society of London.*

So great is the similarity in appearance of the aborigines
of America, in provinces far removed from each other, and
differing in climate and productions, that accurate observers
have been struck with the surprising resemblance in figure
and aspect. Pedro de Cicca de Leon, who had an extensive
knowledge of the American Indians, writes, — " The people,
men and women, although they are divided into many na-
tions, inhabiting different climates, appear, nevertheless, like
the children of one family."

Though the inhabitants of the northern, compared with
the southern parts of America, are tall and robust, a national
resemblance may be easily traced, especially in women. In
both men and women the head is large in comparison with
the body, and the trunk with the limbs. The hair, though
occasionally of a red colour, is in general black, straight,
coarse, and of luxuriant growth. The iris of the eye is black,
the eyelash long, and the eyebrow finely arched and slender.

Read before the Ethnological Society of London, 27th November 1844.

362 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

Thus the Guianese, with the advantage of a fine proportioned
figure, may vie w^ith the European. In some individuals an
obliquity of the eye is very apparent, the external canthus
being raised towards the temple. The distance between the
eyes is perhaps a peculiarity which the American shares with
the Mongolian. The greatest difference of the long to the
short diameter of the osseous cavity of the eye is j^j ^^^ t^®
least difference -^^ of an inch. The nose is, generally speak-
ing, prominent, long, and thick towards the nostrils, the
openings being directed downwards, as in the Caucasian.
The mouth is rather large, the lips protuberant, without ap-
proaching the thrown-up lip of the African. The teeth, which
are seldom good, are destroyed at an early age owing to the
practice of chewing the cassada bread, for the purpose of
making it into an intoxicating drink ; and thus, without any
farther examination, the skull of a native Guiana woman may
Be recognised. The pelvis is well covered, and apparently
of a capacity equal to the Caucasian, The hand is small and
slender. The inferior extremities are well proportioned. The
foot is, if anything, somewhat broad compared with the Cau-
casian, and in proportion to the difference^ strength and soli-
dity appear to be the result ; for the Indian of Guiana, in^
walking, far surpasses the African, — children from six to
eight years of age having been known to march sixteen miles
m a day without complaining of fatigue. The skin of the
female is of a soft texture, notwithstanding the pores are
much larger than in the European.

The South Americans are generally short, and differ in this
respect from their brethren of the North. Indeed, the ave-
rage height of the Indians I have seen, amounts to no more
than five feet four inches ; the tallest was five feet eight and
a quarter inches. Hearne, the north polar traveller, saw
among the Indians in Canada, individuals who measured six
feet four inches, and the Muscogulges and Cherokees of North
America are taller than Europeans, many being above six
feet, and few under five feet eight inches. In this particular
the following measurements are interesting, —

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana, 363

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364 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

nent, and not falling back. In the Chiquitos the same cha-
r'acter is exaggerated, and the head is nearly circular, while
in the Moxos it is more oblong : this last form is very nearly
that of the Guarani or Paraguay Indians."* Dr Prichard also
cites the observation by Dr Morton, ♦ that the heads of the
Caribs, as well of the Antillas as of Terra Firma, are natu-
rally rounded.' "f

" The skulls of the Indians, which Sir Robert Schomburgk
has done me the honour to submit to my examination, include
specimens of the Carib, of continental South America, of the
Taruma, the Wapisiana, the Arawaak, and the Macusi In-
dians, all natives of Guiana, and belonging to the Caribee
division of the great Basilio-guarani group of M. D'Orbigny's
classification of the South American Aborigines."

" The tribe which still retains the name of ' Carib' in Guiana,
has long ceased the practice of artificially flattening the head,
which characterised the Caribs inhabiting the neighbouring
Caribean Islands. The skull of the individual of the con-
tinental tribe, a female, is ovate, viewed from above : the
occiput is not flattened as in the Peruvian and Californian In-
dians, but is moderately prominent, rounded, and rather nar-
row. The forehead is narrow, and slopes with a gentle curve
directly from the interorbital space, which is more promi-
nent than the superciliary ridges, and has no medium verti-
cal impression. The alee of the sphenoid present a margin of
half an inch in length to join the parietal. The cheek-bones
and lower border of the orbit are moderately prominent.
The nasal bones are continued with a very slight depression
from the interorbital prominence. The superior maxillary
bones are slightly protruded. The lower border of the malar
process of the maxillary bone is slightly concave. The lower
border of the orbit is a little more concave than the upper
one : the spheno-orbital fissure widely open anteriorly. The
length of the skull is 6] inches : its greatest breadth 5| : its
height from the vertex to the lined margin of the foramen
magnum 5 inches."

" Of the three skulls of the Taruma Indians, all of which are

* Uistory of Man, 8vo., 1843. f lb., p. 364.

Sir R. Schomburgk on the l^atives of Guiana. 365

jpemale, two have rather more prominent foreheads than the
Carib : in the third it curves backward in the same degree
from the interorbital prominence ; the nasal bones are broader
and flatter; in other respects they closely agree with the Carjb
skull : one of them,^ young female about 14, presents an ab*
normal elevation of the upper and right side of the frontal
bone."

" The Wapisiana skull presents the ovate form, but thfe oc-
ciput is rather more prominent, and the prominent part more
circumscribed: the interorbital space is slightly depressed,
owing to the projection of the supraorbital ridges : the fore^
head is a little more convex than in the Carib ; but the gene-
ral resemblance is as close as that which usually obtains be-
tween the skulls of two individuals of the same race.

" The cranium of the Macusi Indian is more oblong and el-
lipsoid viewed from above : the forehead is broader, the parie-
tal region narrower, or at least not broader than it is in thre
shorter crania of the Carib and Taruma tribes. The frontal
sinuses cause the supraorbital ridges to project beyond the
interorbital space : the nasal bones are more prominent than
in the Carib and Taruma Indians ; the malar bones are equally
prominent : the outer angle of the malar process of the maxil-
lary bones overhangs the concave line leading thence to the
alveolar processes. The general character of the facial part
of the skull resembles that of the Patagonian Indian ; but the
prominent convex occiput, and general form of the cranium
approaches nearer to the Carib form."

*• In one Macusi skull, the spheno-orbital fissure is as much
dilated anteriorly as in the other Caribeans ; but in a second
specimen, it was as narrow as in the Patagonian* The nasal
bones are flatter in the second than in the first specimen of
Macusi cranium/'

" All the Indian skulls manifest the sahie inferiority in the
size of the true molar teeth, as compared with the teeth of
Negroes and Australians ; the incisors, canines, and premo-
lars, or bicuspides, are not smaller than in the Black races."
" They all agree in the roundness or convexity of the occi-
pital region, and diff*er in this respect, as well as in their more
symmetrical figure, from the skulls of the Peruvian, Chilian,
and Patagonian Indians."

366 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

Although a difference in language is not an argument
against the descent from a common stock, where similarity
in form and structure exists, it may safely be concluded that
tribes speaking allied languages were earlier or later related.
In the language of the Northern and Southern Indians, the
greatest uniformity prevails, which is particularly exemplified
in that of the Wapisiana and Delaware, or Lenape tribes. M.
Du Ponceau has called attention to the compound words in
the North American languages, by which means they can be
increased to any extent. The same remark may be applied
to the Wapisiana language. The language of the Northern
Indian is remarkably copious ; so is that of the Wapisiana.
The words for brother and sister are manifold ; and their sig-
nification shews whether the brother or sister is older or
younger than the speaker, whetlier married, and in possession
of one child or children. For every case in this respect the
Wapisiana have a word, the abstract of which is brother or
sister, but which points out the comparative age and domes-
tic history of the individual spoken of. The adjective in the
language of the European becomes a verb in that of the De-
laware and Wapisiana, and passes through moods and tenses.
The verbs to have and to be do not exist ; they are compound
with the possession and existence of a thing, and expressed
according as the noun is animate or inanimate. An example
of this peculiarity in the Cherokee language is recorded in
the Massachusetts Historical Collection, Examples of the
analogous, and frequently identical structure of the Delaware
and Wapisiana languages might be proved point for point,
according to the peculiarities which Du Ponceau, Pickering,
and other philologists have remarked.*

I now come to the question of origin. To guide the inquirer
through the intricacies of this labyrinth, to give him a notion
from whence came the nation of America, there is not a

* Blumenbach, Prichard, and Moi'ton, are of opinion, that tlie Aborigines
of Nortli and South America have descended from a common stock. In the
faithful portrait, remarks Humboldt, which an excellent observer, Mr Volney,
has drawn of the Canada Indians, we undoubtedly recognise the tribes scattered
over the meadows of the Rioapure, and the Coroni,

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana. 367

vestige of history, not a thread of tradition ; our knowledge
on the subject depends wholly upon hypothetical reasoning.

The opinions which at present have been promulgated with
regard to this subject may be divided into three heads,

I. They are indigenous, or coeval with the continent which
they inhabit.

II. They are of Asiatic origin, and, emigrating from that
continent, peopled first the South Sea Islands, and spread
thence over the American continent.

III. They arrived across Behring's Straits and the Aleutiai>
Islands, and spread thence over the New World.

It has been attempted to establish the hypothesis, that the
first germs of the development of the human race in America
can be sought for nowhere but in the so-called New World,
But unless it can be proved, that the laws of nature are in
direct violation of the Inspired record, which expressly says,
that *' God has made of one blood all the nations of men to
dwell on all the face of the earth,' ' we must still appeal to
that Holy Book for interpretation, and reject the hypothesis.

The Bible and profane history corroborate the narrative,
that ancient Egypt and Hindostan were invaded by a power-
ful tribe who introduced their peculiar customs into the con-
quered country, built temples and pyramids, and covered them
with hieroglyphics. Historians here allude to the Cushites,
who, after having erected a splendid empire, were dispersed
by the Almighty. They are traced chiefly by the ruins of
their mural defences in a north-easterly direction to Pales^
tine ; by the relics found in their tumuli, and their peculiar
zodiacal signs, to the north of Siberia, where all further
traces of them are lost. Similar tumuli, mural defences, hie-
roglyphic inscriptions, astronomical divisions of time, and
zodiacal signs, were used by the civilized aboriginal race of
America ; and as the geographical position of Behring's
Straits and the Aleutian Islands admit the possibility of emi-
gration from Asia to America, we are led to believe that the
Toltecans and Aztecs arrived that way. They were, how-
ever, expelled by succeeding hordes, and during the struggle
for occupancy, the earthen ramparts may have been con-
structed ; but the frequent attacks and the arrival of new

B'68 Sii* ll. Schotoburgk oh the Natives ofGmand.

hordes rendered their destruction inevitable, if they obsti^
nately persisted in remaining ; they, therefore, abandoned
the country to the conquerors, emigrated southward, and be-
came ultimately extinct. The descendants of the latter savage
tribes, the conquerors of the ancient Mexicans, constitute at
present the aboriginal inhabitants of North and South Ame-
Hca ; tribes, whose language, though dissimilar^ possess phi-
lological affinities^ and who are distinguished by the same
predilections for a nomadic or roving and savage life, and are
given alike to war and to the chase.

The Mongolian races of Northern Asia possess a similar
disposition ; but we may infer a still stronger affinity between
the Indians of North America and the nomadic tribes of
Northern Asia, from anatomical coincidences. Indeed, Dr
Prichard, in alluding to the Mongolian races and the North
American Indians, observeSj " we do not find that any clearly
defined difference has been generally proved between the two
classes of nations.'*

The present American race, if we do not enter into spe-
cialties, blended with the Mongolian to the north, spreads
over the greater part of the New World ; and, however feeble
their intellect may be, they surpass the more civilized, but
now extinct, races of Mexico, in their full belief of the exist-
ence of one Good Spirit and a future state.

The religious belief of a nation ought to be kept strictly
in view in tracing affinities and relationship. The absence
of all idolatry among the aborigines has struck the inquirer
as very remarkable.

The numerous instances of strong resemblance in manners
and customs of the Samoiedes and Yakutes in Erman's Reise,
struck me as very remarkable ; and I have no doubt that
further investigation will lead to remarkable results as to
the origin of the Guiana Indians.

The Samoiedes believe in the existence of a Supreme Being,
the creator and preserver of all things ; but they offer him no
worship^ because they suppose that he takes no notice of them,
and requires nothing of them. To another being, inferior to
the Supreme, but yet very powerful, eternal and invisible, but
inclined to evil, they ascribe all misfortunes.

Sir R. Schomburgk 07i (he Natives of Guiana. 369

They believe also in a future state, or that the soul wan-
ders forth from the grave, in which they accordingly inter
the clothes and the bows and arrows of the deceased, in order
that they may be ready for the use of their owner when he
stands in need of them.

If we substitute for the word Samoiedes, " Guiana abori-
gines,'' we have a statement of their religious belief. The
Maciisis name their good spirit Makunaima, the evil one
Immawari ; of the latter there are legions. The soul, which
leaves the body when man dies, is called Tecketong.

The religious rites of the Yakutes are similar to those of
the Samoiedes ; both tribes have priests or Biuhns, who are
reputed mediators between men and the gods, and connect
magical performances with their incantations.

The Piatzas or Piais of the Guiana Indians exercise simi-
lar functions, and constitute a powerful priesthood. The
Piatzas, when performing their superstitious customs, use
rattles and bells ; others, chiefly the Caribs and Wapisianas,
avail themselves of drums. A similar custom prevails among
the Yakutes and Samoiedes. There is another custom of
the ancient Yakutes, which is followed by the Warraus and
other Indian tribes in Guiana in a somewhat similar manner,
namely, the custom of burying alive or killing the oldest ser-
vants or favourites of a prince at his funeral, which, however,
is now abolished. At the funeral of one of their chieftains
or principal men, the Warraus place the favourite huntings
dog of the deceased, alive, with his former master, into the
grave ; or, as is now more frequently the case, the dog is
killed and buried with him.

When the Yakutes meet with a fine tree, they presently
hang up all manner of nick-nacks about it ; a custom which is
followed generally by the Indians of Guiana.

The pyramidal huts of the Indians in the interior of Guiana,
chiefly the Macusis, Wapisianas, and Tarumas, are remark-
able for their size, and the walls are sometimes made of clay,
sometimes of bark of trees, covered with palm-leaves, which
are rendered impervious to the rain, by clay being thrown
upon them.

In the winter the Yakutes inhabit jurte or yourds, which

370 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana,

are pyramidal huts made of boards, and covered with graSS
and mudi

The tents of the Samoiedes are made of pieces of bark,
covered with reindeer skin, and are made of a pyramidal form.

The description which the author of the Neue Nackrichten
gives of the appearance of the Samoiedes holds good in many
respects, if compared with the Guiana Indians ; but nothing
has struck me more forcibly than the observation, that the
females are often mothers at the age of ten or twelve years,
and cease to bear children at thirty.

The Indians of Guiana obtain their wives by purchase) or
by a three or four years' labour, if they do not possess the
required purchase-money. Early engagements, therefore, take
place, and the boy or young man is permitted to pay visits to
his intended in the interval till marriage takes place.

Erman was told by an old Yakuti, that among the northern
families of his tribe, who were not converted to Christianity,
polygamy was still prevailing, and that the men purchase
their brides, for a sum of money which is called Koliiim ; but
as frequently the family of the young man was not able to pay
the whole sum at once, they were betrothed at an early period,
to afford time to pay the sum by instalments, and during
which period the young man was permitted to visit his bride.

According to Erman, the language of the Yakutes pre-
serves the inflection of adjectives through case and gender,
a peculiarity which is worthy of consideration. This travel-
ler's observations with regard to their national songs and mu-
siC) refer likewise to the Indians of Guiana ; their song con-
sists only of a few notesj and the theme is constantly repeated
in short phrases, inspired at the moment, or caused by events
known to the singers. These songs are plaintive, and more
like a dirge than the effusion of a joyful spirit.

The similarity in manners and customs between the Yaku-
tes and Samoiedes and the Indians of Guiana, cannot be called
accidental coincidences, and urge us to inquire, whether ad-
ditional confirmatory proofs can be discovered of these tribes
being of a common origin.

But this similarity in manners, &c., does not refer solely to
the Yakutes and Samoiedes ; it may be traced through all

Sir R» Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana, 371

those tribes with which the two Asiatic races are connected.
Erman relates some festivities of the Chinese Mongoles, du-
ring which he was present at Mai-ma-tshen, — his description
of their song and dance will equally apply to that practised
by the Indians in the interior of Guiana.

Like many of the Indian tribes, and chiefly the Caribs, the
inhabitants of Mai-ma-tshen constantly change the /for r, and
vice versa, in the pronunciation of words. But what most
astonished me, was his observation, that the Maadjus, who,
form the higher classes of the Chinese subjects, wear a knob
made of a whitish rock, as a sign of the high caste to which
they belonged ; and cylindrical pieces of white rock, more or
less perforated, according to the descent of the individual,
and executed by manual labour, are worn by the Indians at
the banks of the Uaupes, in the province of Rio Negro, as a
token of high birth and chieftainship. Their religion acknow-
ledges a god of horses, of cows, &c. The Indians of Guiana
do not call these fancied spirits gods, but masters or lords of
the horses, cows, &c., and consider them to possess eternal life
and supernatural powers.

Notwithstanding the greatest similarity is traced in man-
ners and customs, I confess I have not been able as yet to dis-
cover any analogy, by comparing the vocabularies of the north-
ern Asiatic languages with those of Guiana* I do not de-
spair yet, that, with more time and more resources at my hand,
I may succeed in finding that similarity which is still required
to add the concluding link to the chain.

It has not been proved as yet whence the languages of the
Yakutes and Samoiedes originated; and may not one rather
expect that a race like the ancestors of the Guianese, emigrat-
ing to regions, under the sky of which nature exhibited her-
self in such various forms, and where life and the means to
sustain it obliged them to use different means, should, in the
lapse of centuries, operate upon a language which, not being
written, depended upon oral delivery 1 History informs us
of the rapidity with which tribes in adversity forget their lan-
guage ; and the Holy Bible instances the Jews in captivity,
who, in so short a period as seventy years, had forgotten the
Hebrew language.

372 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana,

From these general remarks, I turn to an enumeration
of the tribes, and some of the most striking characteristics of
the Indians who inhabit those parts of Guiana which I have
visited.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to form a close approxima-
tion to truth in calculating the number of aborigines within
the boundaries of British Guiana. Our imperfect knowledge
of the country and still more their wandering life increase
this difficulty. In 1840 I estimated the tribes who inhabit
the British territory at seven thousand. I fear much that
since that period they have materially decreased. Smallpoi^
was introduced among the Macusis, Wapisianas, and Atorais
in 1842, and has brought many to an untimely grave, so that
I think scarcely six thousand are left, in a territory whicli
comprises about 100,000 square miles.

The different tribes who inhabit Guiana consist of — -

Arawaaks. Atorais or Atorias.

"Warraus. Tarumas.

Caribs or Caribisi, Woyavais,

Accawais or Waccawaios. Maopityans,

Macusis, Pianaghotto,

Arecunas. Prios,

Wapisianas.
The Arawaaks and Warraus live in the coast regions, and
their small settlements extend scarcely one hundred miles
inland. They number about three thousand. The Caribs
inhabit the lower Mazaruni and Cuyuni. The settlements
at the Guidaru have been abandoned, and the population,
once the lords of the soil, does not at present exceed three
hundred.

The Accawais or Waccawaios inhabit the upper Demerara,
the Mazaruni, and Pataro. The two subtribes, the Waicas
and Soerikongs, inhabit, the former the regions between the
river Cuyuni and the Barima, the latter the upper river Ma-
zaruni, and unitedly amount to six hundred. The Macusis
live in the open country or savannahs of the Bupununi Pa-
rima, and the mountain chains Packaraima and Canuku.

Those who inhabit the British territory amount probably
to twelve hundred ; the whole tribe is probably not less than

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana, 373

two thousand five hundred. They are bounded to the north
by the Arecunas, who dwell . in the mountainous regions and
savannahs at the springs of the rivers Caroni, Cuyuni, and
Mazaruni. They are a powerful tribe, and in manners and
language closely connected with the Macusis. This does not,
however, prevent enmities and wars from breaking out among
them, and the Arecunas are accused of being poisoners and
night murderers. The number inhabiting British Guiana is
perhaps five hundred. The Wapisianas or Mauxinians are
a tribe belonging to the savannahs of the upper Rupununi
and the banks of the Parima. They have been reduced by
smallpox to four hundred. The Atorais are nearly extinct.
The same refers to the Dauris, a subtribe of the former ; and
to the Amaripas. Of the latter, Miaha, an old woman of
seventy or eighty years of age, whom I saw in 1843 in Watu
Ticaba, was the last of her tribe. The Atorais and Dauris
scarcely number one hundred individuals, of whom only thirty-
five or forty are pure Atorais and Dauris. The Tarumas, four
hundred strong, inhabit the tributaries of the upper Esse-
quibo. The Woyawais, a race who live in the regions be-
tween the sources of the Essequibo and confluence of the
Amazon, number about three hundred and fifty.

The Maopityans, Mawackos or Frog Indians, are rapidly
approaching extinction. They are now restricted to a single
settlement near the river Caphewin. Their whole number
amounted in July 1843, to thirty -nine individuals, viz., four- :
teen men, eleven women, eight boys, and six girls. They
were formerly divided into two small settlements, but lat-
terly they have united, and are now living in one great
circular hut, eighty-six feet in diameter, and of a propor-
tionate height, isolated from other Indians by thick forests
and high mountains, their nearest neighbours being the
Woyawais to the south, and the Tarumas of the Essequibo
to the west. The Wapisianas call them Maopityan, from
" Mao," a frog, and " Pityan," people or tribe, but they call
themselves Mawakwa. I have not been able, upon the most
minute inquiries, to learn that the flatness of head is the
result of artificial means. The average height of the men is

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. 2 B

374 Sir B. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

five feet six inches, that of the women four feet ten inches.
The bows of the Maopityans are longer than those of the
Maciisis and Wapisianas, being generally from six feet ten
inches to seven feet in length. The arrows are pointed with
bone, and when required, are poisoned with a preparation
made from a plant. It is not strong, nor does it preserve its
quality so long as the Macusi Urari. They are a very in-
genious people. The combs which they manufacture are
really beautiful. The teeth are made of hard palmwood,
and fastened into a piece of bone. At the distance of an
inch and a half below this bone are fixed two pieces of palm-
wood, one on each side of the teeth, and the space between
the two pieces and the bone is plaited with red and white
cotton, which serves for ornament, and gives the teeth a firm
fixture.

The Pianoghotto and Dries inhabit the upper Corentyne ;
but from the uncertainty of the boundaries of British Guiana,
I cannot form an estimate of the number which belong to the
British territory; therefore, not including the three last
tribes, I estimate them at six thousand eight hundred and
fifty.

The Indian tribes of Guiana paint their faces and bodies
with lines, sometimes straight, sometimes in imitation of the
Etruscan or Grecian patterns. A few, and among them the
Warraus, Arawaaks, and Macusis, slightly tatoo their faces.
The tatooing generally consists of a few curved lines at the
corners of the mouth, and over the eyebrows, giving to the
faces of the females, among whom it is more customary than
the men, a characteristic and not uninteresting expression.

They wear glass beads about their arms, neck, and ankles,
and when these cannot be procured, they substitute the teeth
of monkeys, peccaris, and divers seeds or shells. The dress
of the men is restricted to a piece of cloth covering the loins,
and of the women to a small apron formed of glass beads.
When they are able to procure a kind of blue cotton cloth,
which in the colony is called salempor, they give it the pre-
ference to their own manufacture, although inferior in dura-
bility. The way in which the cloth is worn, or a difference

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana. 375

in its size, in a great measure designates the tribe. The
Kirishanas, QEwakus, and some of the Maionkongs, dispense
with all clothes, and paint their bodies black and red with
pigment.

The form of hut is sometimes characteristic of the tribe ;
and while the hut of the Warrau, Arawaak, and Carib is a
mere shed, that of the Macusi and Wapisiana is frequently
built of mud, surmounted by a roof of a pointed form, of al-
most eastern character. These roofs are neatly thatched
with palm-leaves ; and whatever may be the form of the house,
this substance is generally used. The inner structure is
simple, and answers all the purposes for which it is intended.
The absence of nails and bolts is replaced by lianas or withes.

The hut of the Wapisiana is dome-shaped, and displays
considerable architectural skill. These houses, for the most
part, have only a ground floor ; I noticed, however, among
the Caribs, huts having one story, the communication being
eflfected by a ladder on the outside.

Several families will occupy a single hut, which is in no
way partitioned off". In every village there is a house exclu-
sively dedicated to the reception of strangers. It is usually
situated in the midst of the community, and is furnished
and provisioned by the chieftain and his family. This house
is called Tapoi by the Macusis and Wapisianas.

The (Ewakus and Kirishanas on the rivers Parima and
Orinoco, and the Muras on the Amazon, have no fixed habi-
tations. Like the gipsies, they hold little intercourse with
foreigners, wander from place to place, and build a tempo-
rary shed. No girdle surrounds their loins, no perizoma
hides their nakedness.

Although the same hut may be occupied by more families
than one, there is no community of utensils. These, as may
be presumed, are very simple, consisting of many sorts of
earthenware vessels of different shapes and sizes, resembling
in form the Etruscan vases. The women principally fiibri-
cate the pottery, and mould with the hand the largest vases,
containing from twenty-five to thirty gallons. These are
frequently ornamented with Greek and arabesque designs.
A few low stools carved out of a solid piece of wood, and re-

376 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

sembling the wooden pillows or head stools of the Egyptians,
the necessary utensils for the preparation of the cassada
bread, and the implements of the chase and of war, form the
furniture of the hut. The inmates usually sit on their stools,
or rest in their hammocks. Each tribe has its own hunting
ground, and each family its own plantations, which, after the
trees have been felled by the husband and grown-up sons,
are cultivated by the women.

Members of the same tribe frequently form small villages
of from six to ten houses ; over which communities a chief-
tain presides, called in the Carib language Yuputorikung,
and in the Macusi Toyeputori, whose authority is only ac-
knowledged to its full extent during feuds and wars. His
power and influence depend upon his personal superiority in
strength and enterprise. The hereditary dignity is derived
from the mother ; but it is rendered easy for any one who
has talent and courage to assume the command on the death
of his predecessor, without the advantage of relationship, and
his authority is more frequently retained by his undisputed
superiority than by any formal election.

It is customary among some nations, before a child is born,
for its parents to subject themselves to a rigid fasting. The
day after its birth it is carried into the air without a cover-
ing on its head, or, as among the Macusis, the head is daubed
over with arnotte or rucu. Their heads are generally more
covered with hair than those of European children, and they
learn to speak and to walk at an earlier period. They are
frequently nursed until they are five or six years of age. At
the birth of the child the husband receives the congratula-
tions of his friends, and the women of the village are atten-
tive to the wants of the mother, who is restored in a few days
to her wonted strength and occupation. Twins are seldom
born to them ; but I have nowhere found any reason to sup-
pose that one is always destroyed. - As a direct contradic-
tion to this assertion, I have seen the Carib and Macusi
mother with twins in her arms. The child is named by the
piaiman, piatsang, pache, or conjuror, who receives an offer-
ing of considerable value, and the strength of the incanta-
tions, which he pronounces on that occasion in a dark hut,

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana. 377

corresponds with that of the fee. An Indian who has been
named is supposed to be less subject to disease and misfor-
tune. The appellations are generally patronymic. The
borings of the lips, ears, and septum of the nose, take place
at an early age, and are kept open by pieces of wood. The
parents are exceedingly affectionate to their children, and,
Avith one or two exceptions, I have never seen them adminis-
ter personal correction ; they will bear any inconvenience, or
even insult, rather than inflict punishment.

The first delight of the boy is a bow and arrow. His little
hand grasps the light bow, and with the greatest self-satis-
faction and infantine prowess depicted on his face, he tries
his skill, and takes small lizards and locusts as his mark.
The girl assists her mother in the preparation of bread, of
the favourite drink, or, by means of a primitive spindle, of
thread from the indigenous cotton, for the manufacture of the
hammock. They accompany their mothers to the provision
fields, and help to cultivate the ground, and are accustomed
at an early age to carry the heavy cassada roots to their
homes. These wild children of the forest and savannahs are
modest, and, without being tutored by their mothers, are re-
served towards strangers.

I have not observed many games among the children, but
wrestling is frequently practised, and a kind of tennis, for
which purpose they use balls made of indigenous caoutchouc,
or the ears of maize or Indian corn. When the boys verge
into manhood, they have to subject themselves to severe la-
cerations on th^ir breasts, made with the teeth of the wild
hog, or the beak of the toucan. There are several other cere-
monies which appear symbolical of courage, fearlessness, and
endurance of pain, such as being put into a bag where there
are stinging ants ; and if they endure these without shriek-
ing, they are accepted as the companions of men. When a
Warrau girl arrives at womanhood, she is merely deprived
of her long hair ; but the young Mauhe, Mundrucu, and Mura
women, at the Rio Negro and Amazon, at this interesting
period have to undergo a most severe trial. Their ham-
mocks are slung under the roof of the hut, where they arc
exposed to incessant smoke, besides being subjected to strict

378 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana,

fasting. There are many instances where they have paid for
the ordeal with their lives. The Arawaaks and Warraus
celebrate this period with a feast and dance, at which the
young girl appears, ornamented with beads, and the white
down of birds, the latter of which, by means of a gummy
substance, is fixed to her head, shoulders, and legs.

Marriage is not accompanied by any religious rite. Al-
though it is customary to hold a courtship, the parents not
unfrequently arrange matters for their children in their in-
fancy ; in which case, the young man is bound to assist the
family of his wife till she arrives at womanhood. In the in-
termediate time, he is very particular in his attention to her,
presents her with beads, and brings her the best of what he
has been able to procure at the chase. At the time of mar-
riage, he leads her where he pleases, and establishes his
own household.

When the marriage takes place, the husband clears a suf-
ficient space of ground for raising provisions. When cleared,
it is made over to the care of the woman, who, from that
time, has the whole management of it.

The generality of husbands have only one wife, but poly-
gamy is allowed and practised by all those who possess the
means. I recollect an Arawaak chief in the river Berbice,
who had five, the youngest of whom was a handsome girl of
only thirteen years of age. The first generally pretends to
superiority in domestic affairs over the rest ; but it is fre-
quently necessary for the husband to exercise his authority
in order to restore tranquillity in his harem.

On the husband's return from hunting or fishing, his wife
prepares his meal, which usually consists of flesh or game ;
the latter is frequently boiled in the blood of the animal, and
well seasoned with capsicums or cayenne pepper. The male
part of the family all eat together, and, if the weather per-
mit, before the door, in the open air. Squatted on the
ground, the Indian dips his cassada bread into the pot which
contains the food, and helps himself with his fingers to that
piece of meat for which he has the greatest fancy. Their
meals last but a short time, and every one rises as soon as
he has done. The females do not eat with the men, but wait

Sir E. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana, 379

till they have finished. It frequently happens, however, that
a fiivourite dish is put aside by them for a period of undis-
turbed enjoyment.

The hog, cow, and fish of large size, are forbidden food.
The Caribs are very particular in this respect. The delicious
fish, the Sudis gigas, or pirarucu, one of the largest which
swims in fresh water, and which abounds in the Rupununi,
and different species of Siluridae, are considered unclean by
the Macusis and Caribs. In their native woods and savan^
nahs, where they are not degenerated through intercourse
with Europeans, the meat of the domestic hog is held in hor-
ror. I could never induce Irai, a Carib chieftain, who was
otherwise a sensible man, to taste the smallest slice of ham.
The herds of wild cattle on the savannahs of Rupununi and
Rio Branco, are unmolested by the Macusi Indians who in-
habit these regions, as the flesh is considered unclean. They,
however, eat their native hogs, the peccari and cairuni. The
cassada affords their chief sustenance. The root of this
plant (Janipha manihot), which, in its natural state, is so
poisonous, is, by a simple process, converted into nutritious
food. After it has been washed and scraped, it is grated and
pressed into an elastic tube, which is called a matappi, and
has been made of the plaited stems of a calathea. The tube
being filled, its upper end is tied to one of the beams in the
hut, so that its opposite end, which possesses a loop hole,
remains a few feet from the ground ; a long pole is pushed
through the loop-hole, the shorter end of which is fixed, while
the longer being pressed down, serves as a powerful lever,
and the elasticity of the tube presses the grated cassada for-
cibly together, and the poisonous juice escapes through the in-
terstices of the plaits. The mass, deprived of its juice, is then
gradually dried, and, if required, some of the flour, after it
has been sifted, is put upon a pan over a fire, and in a few
minutes a cake, resembling an oatmeal cake in appearance,
is ready. Violent as the poisonous juice of the cassada root
proves to be, its narcotic principle is so volatile, that it
escapes by being exposed to fire ; the Indian forms, there-
fore, a sauce of the juice, which resembles ketchup or soy.

380 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

Yams, bananas, and Indian corn, form the other articles of
food which they cultivate in their fields. They are particu-
larly fond of the half-ripe ears of the Indian corn, which they
parch ; this custom equally prevails in Egypt. In the morn-
ing the women rise first, and, after having taken the custom-
ary bath, they prepare their husband's breakfast. The In-
dian eats little at one time, but he eats often ; the general
hours are sunrise, ten, noon, three, and sunset. The chief
meals are breakfast and supper.

The Indians prepare different beverages of divers fruits
and Indian corn ; but the favourite drink is paiwori, which is
prepared from cassada bread. The bread is for that purpose
made thicker, and is carbonized on its surface ; it is then
broken into pieces, and, after boiling water has been poured
over it, the women begin to turn it about with their hands*
the large lumps being taken out and chewed, and then put
into the pot again. This process, they say, increases the
fermentation of the decoction, and renders it intoxicating.
Cassiri, which is a fermented liquor from the sweet potato
or yam, is made in a similar way.

The preparation of this beverage for a drinking feast will
occupy the women several days. A large trough, in the form
of a canoe, is an indispensable piece of furniture in a chief's
hut. Although it may contain from a hundred to a hundred
and twenty gallons, I have seen it emptied in the course of
the day by forty or fifty individuals.

The scenes incident to a feast of this description do not
present much variety. The invitations having been given
several days before, the young men of the village from whence
the invitation emanated, repair the preceding night to the
neighbouring settlements to repeat the summons. The guests
assemble the next day, their faces and figures being much
painted and decorated with feathers, necklaces of monkey
and peccari teeth, and seeds. The dancers arrange them-
selves round the trough which contains the intoxicating
drink, with their bodies bent forwards ; the one who follows
the leader has a calabash in his right hand, and in the left a
maraca or rattle ; the others seize upon any object which

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana, 381

falls first in their way, the men a war-club, a gun, or a
cutlass ; the females, a baby, a puppy, or a monkey ; and,
with eyes bent to the ground, the dance commences, the
measure of which is in triple time. It is accompanied by a
monotonous song, which is strongly marked by stamping
with the foot, or knocking the ground with a hollow cylinder
of bamboo, surrounded with the seed vessels of a species of
cerbera, which make a rattling noise. The words of the
dancers, which are extemporaneous, are frequently repeated.
They continue moving round and round, first one way and
then the other, or they follow each other in single file. After
this measured dance, which is intended to keep away evil
spirits, the leader of the column approaches the trough of
paiwori, and, taking the calabash from the hand of his neigh-
bour, dips it gravely into the trough, and takes a sip ; this
is announced by the recommencement of the song, and the
rattling of the maraca. The calabash is then presented
to the others, who help themselves at pleasure. Several
other dances follow, which are monotonous in song and move-
ment.

The paiwori resembles in taste our malt liquor, and when
taken in large quantities is intoxicating ; it has not, how-
ever, the injurious effects of spiritous liquors, but the scenes
which accompany such a drinking bout beggar all descrip-
tion. Unpalatable as this beverage must prove to a Euro-
pean, when presented to him as a pledge by his host it is
necessary that he should drink it ; the contrary would offend
the Indian and awaken distrust.

Dancing appears to be a practice which belongs as much
to the civilized nations of the world, as to those whom we
have termed savages ; and all the Indian tribes whom I have
had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with, delight in
this amusement.

They possess several instruments, chiefly flutes, made upon
primitive principles, some of reeds or bamboo, others of the
thigh bones of animals. The Warrau Indians have, in largo
settlements, the band-master or hohohit, whose duty it is to
train his pupils to blow upon flutes made of reeds and bam-

382 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

boo, in which a small reed, on the principle of the clarionet,
is introduced, and, according to the size of the opening, it
causes a higher or deeper sound, and this is in some instances
powerfully increased by a hollow bamboo, often five feet long,
which is called wauawalli. These rude musicians are taught,
according as their bandrmaster makes a sign, to fall in with
their instruments, and thus produce an effect similar to the
Russian horn-bands. The effect, chiefly at a short distance,
resembles strikingly that peculiar music of the Russians, and
the favourite melody of the Warraus has something musical
in its composition surpassing all others.

The quamah is a hollow flute of bamboo, of peculiar con-
struction, and mostly in use among the Caribs. The Carib
sounds it as he approaches his home in token of his arrival ;
and, as in the silent woods, or among the mountains, it is
heard at a considerable distance, preparations for his recep-
tion are immediately made. The music is peculiar, and,
probably descended for ages, is characteristic of that wild-
ness which has rendered the Carib so formidable. (Plate IV.

%.i.)

The Macusi Indians amuse themselves for hours, singing
a monotonous song, the words of which, Hai-a, hai-a, have
no farther signification. I add a copy, in Plate IV. fig. 2, of
this musical morceau, which is quite " sui generis."

The Indians are not without poetical feeling. Irai, the
chieftain of the Caribs, before he was converted, lost his child
in 1835 at the Rupununi. I became about this time ac-
quainted with him, and as we sojourned for some weeks at
his settlement, I heard him generally singing words in a
melancholy strain. I asked him the signification, and he
told me he bewailed his child. The words were addressed
to the child in the grave : —

" Come, dear child, to me. Come out a little ; let us speak
together. Why do you not speak to-day ? I hear the flute of
Donkaba Waehra. It is your uncle's flute which sounds ;
come out a little before your uncle comes.''

The strophe and antistrophe were frequently repeated.

The Arecunas, who live in the neighbourhood of the re-

Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana. 383

markable sandstone mountains, Roraima, always more or less
wrapped in clouds, sing, " Of Roraima, the red-rocked, I sing,
where with day-break night still prevails."

Generally speaking, the voices of the Indians are mellow,
but not strong ; and I have heard it repeatedly remarked from
such as are able to form a judgment, that the hymns which
they heard sung by the converted Indians, at the Protestant
mission at Bartika Grove, surpassed in sweetness any con-
gregation they had heard in the civilized part of the colony.

The funeral ceremonies of the Indians of Guiana differ in
some respects according to the tribe to which the deceased
belonged. If a man of consequence dies among the War-
raus, he is put into a canoe in lieu of a coffin, and all which
he possessed when alive, such as bows, arrows, clothes,
and beads, are buried with him ; over his heart they place a
looking-glass. They frequently kill the favourite dog of the
deceased, and put it with him into the grave. He is buried
in the house which he inhabited, and a fire is kept burning
on the spot for many nights. His relations assemble to be-
wail his loss with excessive and outrageous lamentations ;
and this is renewed at different times, and continues for many
months. The widow and children of the Warrau become
the property of his brother or next male relation. However,
should the widow refuse him, the incensed relations frequent-
ly satisfy themselves by subjecting her to a violent whipping,
after which she may live with whom she pleases.

If the individual be an influential man the hut is burnt
down, sometimes the whole village. The Macusis follow
the custom of the Warraus in burying the property of the
dead. His dog is buried alive, not only to assist him in
hunting in the other world, but likewise to watch over his
body. The Atorais are, as far as I am aware, the only na-
tion who put the dead body upon a heap of wood, and burn it.

The ceremonies of the Arawaaks are similar. Upon the
demise of a man of some standing, the relations plant a pro-
vision field with cassada roots, and bewail him with sudden
outbursts of lamentation. After the period of twelve moons,
the relations and friends of the deceased are called together,

384 Sir R. Schomburgk on the Natives of Guiana.

and the cassada which was planted at the time of his death
being now ripe, the guests are feasted with paiwori and
game. A dance is performed over his grave, and the dancers
flog each other with whips prepared for that purpose, which
they hang up in the hut of the deceased when the ceremony
is over. About six moons later another dance follows, when
these whips are buried, and with them the remembrance of
the dead, as well as any resentment which may have been
felt in consequence of the severe flogging which has been in-
flicted upon each other.

The Caribs put the body into a hammock, where it is daily
washed by the wives or nearest female relatives, and watch-
ed, that it be not molested by beasts of prey or insects.
After it has become putrid, the bones are cleansed, painted,
and put into a pacal or basket, and carefully preserved. If
they abandon this settlement, the bones are consumed with
fire, and the ashes collected and taken with them. The
women who cleanse the bones are considered unclean for
several moons.

The Indians undoubtedly possess some religious principle,
and believe in the immortality of the soul. They acknow-
ledge the existence of a Superior Being ; but say, that the
urgent business of keeping the world in order prevents him
from paying that attention to man which he would wish, and
numerous evil spirits are thus permitted to exercise a perni-
cious influence, thereby causing sickness and death. With
a view to counteract this influence, recourse is had to the
sorcerer, piaiman, or piatra, who, by incantations or magical
ceremonies, pretends to restore health, or to turn the evil
from such of his dupes who pay him well for his supernatu^
ral agency. It is therefore evident, that this individual
exercises the gi^eatest power over the community, and is rcr
garded with awe and respect.

( 385 )

On the Limits of the Atmosphere, and on Compensation Pen-
dulums. By Henky Meikle, Esq. Communicated by the
Author.

1. On the Limits of the Atmosphere, — ^Various attempts
have at different times been made to prove that the atmo-
sphere of the earth is not only finite, but of comparatively
small extent ; and there are some methods of reasoning which
have been long regarded as quite conclusive, in assigning
limits beyond which the atmosphere could not possibly ex-
tend. None of these, however, though they afford consider-
able probability, can be said completely to demonstrate the
thing. But without at all meaning to contend for the inde-
finite extent of the atmosphere, I shall briefly state some
doubts regarding one or two of the most usual modes of as-
signing its limits.

As to any evidence which the refraction may be supposed
to afford, I need only observe that such an idea, in a great
measure, assumes the thing to be proved. It assumes that
a limit exists, and thence infers where the limit is. For, did
the density of the air decrease till at a certain distance, and
then become uniform, the refraction could at best point out
where the uniform density commences ; because the refrac-
tion would have nothing to do with the air, which was uni-
form.

Neither does any proof, derived from the centrifugal force
of the rotation of the atmosphere, seem more to the purpose ;
because it depends entirely on the assumption that the earth
and its atmosphere revolve together in one rigid mass in the
space of a sidereal day : whereas, there is reason to think
that the higher parts of the atmosphere, especially about the
equator, revolve more slowly than the lower, or than the
earth's surface does. For if, as is generally admitted, the
principal motions of the air between the tropics, are from the
south-east and north-east towards the equator, where they
unite in one current whose particles move botli westward and
upward, the case will be very difi'erent ; because the angular
motion of such particles round the earth's centre, or com-

386 Mr H. Meikle on Compensation Pendulums,

pared with the earth's motion of rotation, would continually
decrease; and therefore their centrifugal force, instead of
increasing with their distance from the earth's centre, must,
on account of the westward motion over the earth's surface,
decrease something like the centrifugal force of a comet while
receding from the sun. Indeed, if it observed the same law
in respect of the earth as the centrifugal force of a comet does
in respect of the sun, it could never become equal to the
attraction of the earth — being at first less, and always de-
creasing in the same ratio as that attraction does. But, with-
out pretending to assign the precise law of such decrease, or
of that of the centrifugal force of a current of air which pro-
bably soon spreads again towards the poles in the upper re-
gions, enough of it has just been noticed to set aside any
proof of a limit to the atmosphere, deduced either from the
refraction or the centrifugal force.

Some plausible arguments of a very different kind were
advanced in the Philosophical Transactions for 1822, by the
late distinguished Dr Wollaston, to assign a limit ; but these
it will be unnecessary to discuss here, because they have been
completely disposed of by Dr Wilson, in the Transactions of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xvi., p. 79.

As to any solid shell which the late eminent mathematician,
M. Poisson, and others, have imagined to be frozen upon the
top of the atmosphere, and which is seriously referred to as
a reality, in various publications, it could scarcely fail to be
perceptible by its refracting and reflecting the rays of light ;
if, indeed, the dust which had been collecting on it for thou-
sands of years, would allow any light to reach us. None of
the other planets shew the least appearance of being enclosed
in any such shell. Nor would it better consist with the free mo-
tion of aeroliths and meteorites ; some of which are believed
to come from very remote regions, and could hardly be ex-
pected to treat such tender ware with sufficient delicacy.

2. On Compensation Pendulums. — At the Manchester meet-
ing of the British Association, the late lamented Professor
Bessel brought forward some speculations regarding pendu-
lums, and called attention to certain circumstances which he

Mr H. Meikle on Compensation Pendulums, 387

thought had till then been overlooked. As, for instance, the
defects of various compensations arising from the different
parts of a pendulum not being all at the same temperature,
and, in particular, the imperfections of the mercurial pendu-
lum on this account. But whoever will take the trouble of
looking into the article Pendulum of the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, will find that such ideas are by no means so new ; be-
cause I had there pointed out the same things, and they were
published more than four years before the illustrious astro-
nomer of Konigsberg took up the subject.

There is, however, I suspect, another defect in the mercu-
rial pendulum ; and which, so far as I am aware, has not yet
been attended to. The performance of that pendulum is al-
ways assumed to be exactly the same as if the mercury in it
were a perfectly rigid mass. But, since mercury is allowed
to be one of the most perfect of fluids, there can be no doubt,
that, when the pendulum is in motion, the surface of the mer-
cury, which is of considerable extent, must be in a state of
perpetual undulation. The precise amount and effect of this,
it will be no easy matter to determine ; but there is reason
to think that it must tend to retard the pendulum, and to
add to the inequality of the times of the greater and less vi-
brations. One way of nearly obviating it would be to use a
less mass of mercury, and put it in a bottle with a narrow
neck, the upper surface of the mercury being half way up
the neck. But this would not necessarily do anything towards
giving the same temperature to the whole pendulum rod, or
the mean temperature to the compensation, unless the centre
of gi^avity of the mass of mercury were near the middle of
the rod. In that form, however, the mercury could not con-
veniently serve as the principal mass of the pendulum.

Analysis of the American Mineral Nemalite. By Arthur
CONNELL, Esq., F.R.S.E., Professor of Chemistry, Univer-
sity of St Andrews. Communicated by the Author.

This mineral bears a striking resemblance to asbestus, so
that by the eye it can hardly be distinguished from it. It

888 Professor ConnelPs Analj/sis of the

was first chemically examined by Mr Nuttal, who ascertain-
ed that it differs entirely in constitution from asbestus ; and
concluded from his experiments that it consists essentially of
magnesia and water, with a little oxide of iron and lime. It
was subsequently examined by Dr Thomson, according to
whom, it also contains 12J per cent, of silica. The consti-
tuents the latter found to be :•—

Magnesia, ,

51-721

SiHca,

12-568

Peroxide of Iron.

5-874:

Water, .

2d-66Q

99-829*
Having lately obtained small specimens of thi^ mineral
from the locality of Hoboken, in America, I subjected them
to analysis, and obtained a result differing in some respects
from both the previous.

The specimens examined by me had the ordinary external
characters of nemalite, consisting of adhering fibres of a
fine silky lustre, and white colour, with a shade of yellow and
partial slight blue or green tinge. Their matrix was ser-
pentine, and in the analysis, any adhering particles of the
matrix were carefully removed. According to Mr Nuttal
and Dr Thomson, the mineral is soluble in acids, without
effervescence, at least in its fresh state. But on very care-
ful examination of what appeared to be perfectly fresh por-
tions of my specimens, there was sensible effervescence on
solution in acids, and this was still more manifest when the
experiment was performed in a tube, and a lens employed in
the observation. It appears to me, therefore, that carbonic
acid, although in much smaller quantity than in the native
carbonate of magnesia, is a constituent of the mineral, at
least of those specimens of it which I have obtained. Of
silica I found only a minute proportion, the mineral being
soluble in acids, with only an insignificant residue, particu-
larly when the acid is left some time on it. Mr Nuttal states
that it is soluble without any residue. The solution, when
made in a close tube, shewed protoxide of iron, with red prus-

* Transactions Royal Society, Edinburgh, vol. xi.

American Mineral Nemalite. 389

siate of potash. By ignition, the mineral assumed a light
brownish cast.

As the quantity of mineral in my possession was small, I
could only employ small portions in the analysis.

To ascertain the amount of the water, 7-51 grains of the
mineral were introduced into a weighed tube of German
glass, closed at one end. It was then twice bent, and a
quantity of fused chloride of calcium introduced into it, the
weight of which was ascertained. The open end was then
drawn oif, so as to leave a capillary termination, and the
closed end strongly ignited, for a quarter of an hour, over a
powerful spirit-lamp, with a double draft. The tube was
then cut asunder, between the mineral and the collected
water, and all the apertures immediately closed with pieces
of lute. By the necessary weighings, the loss of weight of
the mineral, and the weight of the collected water, were as-
certained. The water collected amounted to 27'96 per cent,
and the loss of the mineral to 32-62 per cent., the difference
being carbonic acid. This would only have given 4*66 per
cent, of carbonic acid ; but the following experiments shewed
that the heat had not been sufficient nor long enough con-
tinued to drive off all the carbonic acid.

Five grains of the mineral were treated with diluted muri-
atic acid in a little bottle having a tube containing chloride
of calcium connected with it, to retain moisture. The loss of
weight, from escaping carbonic acid, was ten per cent.

2*43 grains of the mineral were ignited during an hour in
a small open platinum crucible. The loss of weight was 39*27
per cent. The ignition was continued for a quarter of an
hour longer, but no farther loss of weight ensued. This
result shews, that the estimate of 27*96 per cent, of water,
and ten per cent, of carbonic acid, is not far from the trutli.
If the carbonic acid were computed as the difference between
the quantity of water and the total loss by ignition, it would
amount to 11*31 per cent.

To ascertain the proportions of the other constituents, the
before-mentioned solution of five grains of the mineral was
employed. Ammonia threw down a precipitate which, by
solution in acid, left 003 of silica, in which was included

VOL. LXI. NO. LXXXII.— OCTOBER 1846. 2 C

390 Prof. Connell on the American Mineral Nemalite.

all that the acid used in dissolving the mineral, had left
undissolved. The rest of the ammoniacal precipitate con-
sisted of 0-16 peroxide of iron, and 0*29 of magnesia, which
were separated by benzoate of ammonia. The solution which
had been precipitated by ammonia was evaporated to dryness,
and ignited after excess of sulphuric acid had been added.
From the sulphate of magnesia thus obtained, solution in
water separated 001 more of silica. The sulphate weighed,
deducting the silica, 7*6 grains, equivalent to 2585 of mag-
nesia. In five grains of the mineral, there thus were, of solid
constituents, —

Magnesia, 0-308

2-585
2-893

Protoxide of iron, 0*14:2

Silica, 0-03

0-01
0-04

3-075
And in 100 parts, —

Magnesia, , 57'86

Protoxide of iron, . . , • , 2-84

Silica, 0-80

Water, ........ 27*96

Carbonic acid, ...... 10*00

99-46

Considering the protoxide of iron as replacing a little mag-
nesia, it appears that the mineral is a combination of hydrate
of magnesia with a little hydrated carbonate of magnesia.
The formula, 5 MgO * HO + MgO • CO^ • HO, will nearly ex-
press its constitution, on that view, giving,

3ia, 61*67

Water, 27*24

Carbonic acid, . . , , , , 11*09

100-00
"We have an example of a mineral having an analogous
constitution, in the native hydrated carbonate of zinc (zink-
blUthe), for which M. Rammelsberg gi\%s the formula, 2 ZnO
•HO + ZnO-CO^-HO.

( 391 )

General Considerations on the Organic Bemains, and in parti-
cular on the Insects^ which have been found in Amber. By
Professor F. J. Pictet.

The history of the animals and vegetables which have lived
in epochs anterior to our own, presents a connected series of
remarkable facts, from which palaeontologists endeavour to
derive a knowledge of the laws which have regulated the de-
velopment of life, and the succession of organized beings in
the series of geological eras. The greater part of these laws
have, as yet, been established merely from the study of a
small number of classes ; and we may, therefore, entertain
some doubts as to their generality, the more so, as each of
these divisions exhibits numerous special features in its pa-
laDontological history. Animals are better known, in this
respect, than vegetables ; at the same time, the laws which
refer to this kingdom cannot be sufficiently established until
all the groups which compose it shall have been better studied
in their successive faunas, and more accurately compared.
Until then, we run the risk of deducing general rules from
special facts, and of transferring to animals in general, results
which are true only in reference to a portion of them.

Unfortunately, it is still required that the fossil remains of
all the classes should be equally well observed, and that we
could dare to expect for all that we should be able to com-
plete their history, which is often long and complicated.
"While some animals have transmitted to us, as a proof of
their existence, solid and well characterized remains, others,
on the contrary, softer and more delicate, have passed away,
without leaving any traces, because they had no parts suffi-
ciently hard to admit of preservation in a fossil state. The
vertebrates by their bones, the mollusca by their shells, and
a great number of polypes by their polypiers, furnish to the
palaeontologist the means of reconstructing, in his own mind,
the population of the remote periods, because these hard bo-
dies have been buried in the successive deposits left by the

392 Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber.

ancient seas. Many other animals, having neither skeleton
nor hardened integuments, have certainly lived in these same
seas, but their remains have not been preserved in the same
formations.

The articulata are not sufficiently solid to have been pre-
served in all deposits, nor so delicate as to have been always
destroyed ; accordingly, we find them in a fossil state only in
some special localities, where the formations are composed
of very fine-grained rocks, rather soft, and which, by decom-
posing into thin plates, permit us to observe the impressions
upon them. These deposits have, in general, been produced
by sudden cataclysms, and the beautiful manner in which the
organic remains are preserved, is partly owing to the animals
having been fossilized immediately after their death. These
localities, so valuable for the palaeontological study of this
class, are too rare not to leave immense blanks in its history.
Besides, it too often happens that the most essential charac^
ters of the animals are altogether concealed, and that, conse-
quently, we can form only very imperfect notions of the true
zoological relations of many species*

Yellow amber, or Succin (the Electrum of the ancients,
Bernstein of the Germans), often incloses the remains of in-
sects and vegetables, and the examination of it appears des-
tined to furnish materials of the highest importance, and to
complete, in an essential department, the palaeontological his-
tory of the articulata, the difficulties of which I have just
glanced at. The great number of species which have been
already found in this substance, the admirable preservation
of the greater part of the individual specimens, the transpa-
rency of the material, which enables us to see sometimes the
most delicate organs almost as well as in living nature, are
so many circumstances which impart interest to the study of
the fauna and flora of amber. We may, indeed, by a suitable
examination, hope to arrive at the knowledge of a numerous-
population, animal and vegetable, whose natural relations
may be fixed with a precision which it is impossible to obtain
in regard to the other deposits in which they are found.

It is, at the same time, only a short while since the import-

Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber, 393

ance of this study has been fully felt. It was necessary that
palseontological systems should have been advanced to the
point they have now reached, and that theoretical questions
should have been determined as they have been of late years,
before we could perceive the advantage that would result to
palaeontology from a perfect acquaintance with the remains
inclosed in amber. We find, it is true, among the old natu-
ralists, some works relating to this substance, and some in-
complete attempts to make us acquainted with the organic
remains contained in it. But it is M. Berendt who has first
attempted to develop this subject fully. After some special
works, he has conceived the plan of a great general work, in
which all the species should be described in a manner wor-
thy of the actual state of the science. An undertaking of
this importance cannot be completed by one man ; accord-
ingly, M. Berendt has obtained several individuals to assist
him. M. Goeppert has undertaken the botany ; M. Koch the
Crustacea, myriapodes, arachnides, and apterous insects ; M.
Loew the diptera; M. Germar the hemiptera and orthop-
tera, &;c. ; and M. Berendt has connected me with the work,
by entrusting to my care the study of the neuropterous in-
sects. The publication has commenced under the auspices of
the Queen of Prussia ; and there is every reason to expect
that in a few years this great project will be completed. We
shall lay before our readers some of the principal facts which
the successive parts of the work will disclose. I shall, for
the present, avail myself of what has already appeared, and
of what my own observations have taught me, in order to
give a general idea of the nature of amber, its formation, and
the principal features of the fauna and flora whose remains
are inclosed in it.

Yellow amber, as every one knows, is a transparent or
slightly opaque substance, varying from pale yellow to brown,
susceptible of becoming charged with electricity by friction,
diffusing a resinous odour when burnt, and containing a pe-
culiar acid known by the name of succinic acid. Amber re-
sembles the resin named copal, which flows from the trunk of
certain leguminous trees of warm countries, and also the resin

394 Professor Pictet on (he Insects found in Amber.

named animee, which comes from the Valeria Indica and Tror
chylobium Gaertnerianum ; and as these two substances fre-
quently contain insects also, it is of consequence to be able
to distinguish them readily, for they belong to the existing
epoch. We shall find, in some authors who were unable to
make the distinction, catalogues of truly fossil species found
in amber, mingled with existing species occurring in these
modern resins. M. Berendt, in the first number of his work,
has given some details as to the characters which enable us
to distinguish true amber. "We may consider the presence
of succinic acid among the most certain, for it is wanting in
the modern resins. The colour, besides, is pretty constant
in the latter, while amber presents great varieties in this
point of view.

Amber is found in many countries. It is particularly abun-
dant on the shores of the Baltic; but is also found in Sicily, the
Indian seas, China, Siberia, North America, Madagascar, &c.
M. Berendt's work is more particularly devoted to the study
of the amber occurring on the coasts of Prussia. We shall
not here enter upon the question, whether amber has been
formed in all these countries at the same epoch, and in the
same manner 1 Precise examinations of the composition of
this substance, taken from different" localities,. are necessary
for the solution of this question. Certain facts even appear
to indicate that amber is sometimes found in formations much
anterior to those in which it is usually inclosed.

Prussian amber is gathered more particularly on the shores
of the Baltic Sea, when it is cast out by the waves ; but it
is likewise found by digging into the soil. It is probable that
the greater part of the fragments have suffered from attrition,
for they are usually rounded, and found in many different
stages. If, therefore, it is not collected now, we may afterwards
find it buried in the arenaceous deposits at present forming
on the shores of the Baltic ; and many beds of sand and gravel
inclose fragments of it, which have been conveyed thither by
similar causes. The presence of amber in these recently
formed beds, proves nothing, therefore, against the antiquity
of this substance ; and it is probably through error that some

Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber, 395

authors have concluded, from these deposits, that it was of
more modern origin than the tertiary epoch. Sometimes am-
ber has been found even mingled with the remains of human
industry. Thus Steinbeck says, that a small metal bell was
discovered, near Brandenburg, under a bed, containing amber ;
and instances are mentioned of nails, wire, &c., having been
found in veins of amber. All these facts cannot be explained
but by admitting, as we have said, that fragments of amber
have been, at different periods, displaced by the sea, as hap-
pens in the present day, and deposited in formations poste-
rior to the tertiary period. We cannot, therefore, deduce
from them any argument for bringing the period when this
resin was formed nearer to our own day.

Other more important facts shew that the origin of amber
goes back to the tertiary epoch, and that it is to be assigned to
a resin which flowed from the trunk of certain trees belonging
to that era. The following are the proofs in favour of this view i,
1st, We find amber in beds of tertiary lignites, in the form of
numerous fragments lying between the trunks of amber trees.
It is true that this substance has never been found adhering
directly to any of the trunks ; but the position of the frag-
ments seems to admit of no doubt. 2d, The analogy between
copal and amber evidently indicates a similar origin. Their
consistency, their colour, their nature, and the fact that they
both inclose organic remains, prove this resemblance, and
concur in shewing that amber, like copal, and many modern
resins and gums, has flowed from the trunk and branches of
a vegetable. It is probable that the large and irregular
masses are the produce of the trunk, that the smaller ones
have come from the branches, and that those which have a
slaty structure have been formed by a series of layers. The
roots probably produced none. The great quantity thrown
up by the Baltic Sea, is probably owing to the existence of a
considerable bed, situate in the south-west quarter of the pre-
sent basin of that sea, towards 55° north latitude, whence the
winds convey it by diverging to the different points of the
coasts of Prussia. This must have been the principal place
where Baltic amber was formed, and the site of the forest

396 Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber.

which produced it. This forest probably flourished on a low-
island, which marine currents issuing from the north subse-
quently submerged and destroyed.

The lignites where amber is found belong to the period of
the Prussian molasse, or the deposits of this epoch are im-
mediately above the saline formation of Galicia, and infe-
rior to the argillaceous schists, to the cerithean limestones
and arenaceous deposits which, in this country, compose a
series of tertiary stages. The forests, whose trunks have
furnished amber, have therefore lived during the earliest ages
of this period. It remains, at the same time, doubtful, whether
the commencement of the tertiary epoch in Germany corre-
sponds exactly to the time during which the eocene forma-
tions of Paris were formed. Ought the fragments of this sub-
stance, found in the coarse limestone of Passy, to be regarded
as demonstrating that they are contemporaneous \ New geo-
logical researches can alone teach us this.

The animal and vegetable population of Prussia, during the
period when these forests flourished, is probably, then, con-
temporaneous with the tertiary pachyderms ; and the organic
remains inclosed in amber ought, consequently, to furnish
materials to complete the fauna and flora of this remarkable
epoch. "While this resin was still viscous and semifluid, it
has enveloped as it flowed fragments of vegetables ; and in-
sects, rashly lighting upon it, must often have been entrap-
ped. In many of them we notice positions indicating that they
have struggled, and vainly tried to escape. After assuming
a solid consistency, amber does not appear to have undergone
any important chemical modifications. It sometimes contains
small empty cells, which have been originally formed by drops
of water.

The amber-producing forests were principally composed of
Coniferse, and more especially of numerous species of Pine,
The most common of these species, that consequently to which
we most probably ascribe the amber, has been named by M.
Goeppert Pinites succinifer. (I know not why this skilful bo-
tanist has not used the name Pinus, for the trees whose wood,
cones, and leaves, he describes, cannot, according to him, be

Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber, 397

separated generically from existing pines.) This tree has a
great resemblance, in its wood, to the pines and firs of our
own countries ; but, for the abundant production of resin, we
can compare it with none of the coniferae of the present world
but the Bammara australis of New Zealand, and, among the
other families, the leguminee that produce copal. Along with
these pines we likewise find some trees whose foliage is not
that of the coniferae, and in particular shrubs of the family
ericaceao.

It is impossible, at present, to give a perfectly complete
idea of the fauna of amber, because there are still some orders
of insects which have not been studied. However, the re-
sults I have obtained by the study of the Neuroptera having
appeared to be confirmed, in a general manner, by what we
know of the other divisions, I shall here indicate the princi-
pal points. It is necessary to remark, before entering into
these details, that the insects preserved in amber cannot re-
present the totality of the entomological fauna of this epoch ;
for many of them, from their very nature, could not be pre-
served in this manner. Aquatic insects, for example, would
rarely come in contact with this resin ; accordingly, neither
the cases of phrygania3, nor any larva or insect, whose habi-
tation is exclusively aquatic, has ever been found in amber.
It must be remarked, moreover, that large insects, as well as
strong ones, and such as have a powerful flight, would most
frequently make their escape from the viscous matter which
was sufficient to arrest weaker and smaller insects. In these
two points of view, then, and probably in others besides,
blanks exist, which we must take into account in many com-
parisons. If we overlook this consideration, we shall erro-
neously conclude, for example, that the size of amber-insects
is less than that of the present race ; and, in the comparison
of the number of representatives of each family, we may fancy
that some of them were very rare, while the real fact may be,
that the insects which compose it have been able to make
their escape from the resin.

The small number of known species, is still another cir-
cumstance which ought to make us cautious in our general!-

398 Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber.

sations. We know about 800 fossil species in amber, a num-
ber certainly considerable relatively to that of the species
which have been described of late years, but very small, if we
compare it with the total number of insects of the present
European fauna, and consequently with the probable number
of those composing the fauna of which they are the repre-
sentatives. It is probable that, when their number shall in-
crease, the general results will remain nearly the same, for
there is no reason to believe that new discoveries will weaken,
in any considerable degree, the consequences that may be
drawn from the facts already known.

The first and most important of the results which the study
of the fauna of amber has furnished, is a complete confirma-
tion of the law'of the specialty of species. No neuropterous
insect sufiiciently well preserved has presented to me specific
characters identical with those of a living species. M. Koch,
on his part, has come to precisely the same result with respect
to the Crustacea, arachnides, and aptera ; and what we know
of the yet unfinished labours of our associates, leads us to be-
lieve that it will be the same in all the orders. This confir-
mation of a law so important, and so much controverted, is
of great interest ; for we have had to compare animals of the
tertiary epoch with those of the modern epoch, that is to say,
beings belonging to two creations, between which, it has been
believed, analogues have most frequently been discovered.
Our observations, besides, refer to a class which could not
hitherto be studied under this point of view. We may like-
wise af&rm that there is some interest in establishing these
complete differences between the aerial animals of the two
faunas. With respect to aquatic animals, these diff'erences
have often, in fact, been attributed (erroneously, in my opi-
nion) to simple organic modifications, produced by changes in
the nature of the waters. It is difficult to extend this mean-
ing regarding the subject to aerial animals, and to suppose
that the modifications of the atmosphere could be so sensible
as to exercise a very powerful action. It is necessary, be-
sides, to remark, that, in what relates to the discussion of this
law regarding the specialty of fossils, the mode in which the

Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber. 399

organic remains are preserved is of great importance. The
insects of amber are known to us by the whole of their body,
and, as I have said above, their essential organs may often be
observed with great precision ; we may, therefore, place cer-
tain confidence in the results furnished by the study of them.
The molluscs, on the contrary, are preserved only by the shell,
that is to say, by an accessory part of their organism, and
their vital organs are known to us only by a more or less
questionable analogy with the existing world. Now, it is
principally from the molluscs that those who believe in the
preservation of species in many successive epochs, derive
their arguments. Is it not reasonable to attach more import-
ance to results furnished by animals most completely pre-
served, and consequently to consider the insects in amber as
furnishing a strong proof in favour of the law of specialty of
fossils 1

But if the species of amber are all different from those now
existing, it is not necessary to conclude that the fauna of
these two epochs present very great differences in their gene-
ral physiognomy. A great number of the insects of amber
belong to genera now living. For some of them, it has been
necessary to establish new genera, and the number of such
as could not be classified in existing families is very limited.

The investigations undertaken for Mr Berendt's great work
have hitherto detected, in the insects of this fauna, only two
types which are sufficiently distinct from living insects to re-
quire the formation of new families. These are, 1^^, The fa-
mily of ArchoBides in the class of Arachnides, which has been
established by M. Koch, and which is characterised by a head
united to a spliericalthorax,byfourlozenge-shaped eyes placed
on each side, by mandibles longer than the head, prolonged
like teeth, and forming long pincers. 2c//y, The family of
PseudO'perlides, which I have been called upon to establish
for very remarkable insects, which had at first been con-
sidered by M. Berendt as the larva of Nemoura, and which
have some relation in their forms with this genus, and the
wings wanting, or rudimentary ; but the number of joints in
the tarsi, the form of the antennae and that of the abdominal

400 Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber.

appendages, approach nearer to the order Orthoptera, and in
particular to the family of the Phasmides. The Pseudo-per-
lides are probably, therefore, a family which forms a kind of
transition between the Orthoptera and Neuroptera. Some
doubts remain as to the question, whether the specimens we
possess are the larvae and nymphs, or whether they are perfect
insects with rudimentary wings, as often happens among the
Orthoptera.

The new genera are a little more numerous. I have, how-
ever, found only three among the Neuroptera ; but some of
my fellow-labourers have distinguished a greater number, and,
on consulting the parts of the general catalogue already drawn
up, we shall find that the number of genera special to the
fauna of amber, represents nearly one-fifth of the entire num-
ber. Besides these new genera, there are some which are
found in the presently existing fauna, but which contain spe-
cies strangers to Prussia, and even to Europe. Thus, among
the Neuroptera, I have mentioned a Chauloides, a genus at
present confined to North America, an Embia, whose conge-
ners now live in warm zones, &;c. One of the most remark-
able genera in this point of view is that of Termes, which are
very abundant in amber, both in species and individuals. By
supposing that the specimens we have it in our power to ex-
amine are in the same proportion as the insects were them-
selves when alive, we shall find that this genus has furnished
0*17 of the population of the Neuroptera of amber ! At pre-
sent we are acquainted with none of them in Europe, save
some small southern species, which maritime commerce has
naturalized a little farther to the north than their native coun-
try : the size of the fossil species greatly exceeds that of the
latter, and it is only in the Termes of the warmest quarters
of the globe that we now find their analogues in this point of
view.

If we attempt, by means of these facts, still in a very in"
complete state, to draw some conclusions respecting the cli-
mate of Europe during the epoch when amber was formed,
we can advance only very hypothetical conjectures. The great
number of Termes, and the presence of some species belong-

Professor Pictet on the Insects found in Amber, 401

ing to the warm zones of the globe, would seem to indicate
that the temperature has been higher than it now is, and that
the north of Prussia must have been placed in conditions in-
termediate between those which now characterise it and those
of the basin of the Mediterranean . I ought, at the same time,
to observe that considerations of this nature have an element
of uncertainty evidently attached to them. In fact, we com-
pare lost species with species which are not identical with
them, and we conclude, in general, that such as resemble each
other must have lived in similar climates, which is far from
being constantly demonstrated. But, while we acknowledge
that we must not assign too much importance to these com-
parisons, we are of opinion that it would be passing the limits
of a judicious caution to refuse altogether to take them into
account, the more so since the results they furnish agree with
what the study of other classes of animals establishes.

The Articulata appears, moreover, to be the only division
of the animal kingdom of which amber has preserved suffi-
ciently numerous remains to throw some light on their his-
tory. With regard to the Mammifera, nothing else has been
found in amber connected with them than tufts of hair, one
of which, examined by a microscope, appears to have belonged
to a bat. The feather of a bird has likewise been found.
Among the Mollusca nothing further is mentioned than a few
small shells imperfectly preserved. — {Bibliotheque Univer-
selle.)

( 402 )

Bemarks on Ancient Beaches near Stirling. By Charles
Maclaren, Esq., F.R.S.E. Communicated by the Author.*

f//y... V^^T^^J^'Mm^.

m

mM

¥

f^^S^^^-<^

2 TT^ile^

* This paper was read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in December
18-44, but has since received various corrections and additions.

Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling. 403

Explanation of Map,

Zf z, Zy z. The Carse, an alluvial plain, composed of stratified sand, clay,
and gravel, whose surface has the aspect of a dead level. Its
general elevation above the high water line at Cambusken-
neth Abbey, M, may be about 25 feet, but considerably less
at a few places, where the rivers overflow their banks, or have
changed their beds. At the head of the Carse, fifteen miles
westward, it is nearly 40 feet.
F, F, F. The river Forth.

T. The river Teith, the largest tributary of the Forth.

N. The river Allan, a considerable stream.

A. Abbey Crag, an isolated hiU, capped with greenstone, whose

summit is about 350 feet above the sea.

B. The village of Bridge of Allan.

C. The village of Causeyhead.

S. The hill on which Stirling stands, capped with greenstone, the

summit of which is about 350 feet above the sea.
R. Airthrey hill, whose summit is 500 feet above the sea.

D. A higher hill, which forms the western prolongation of De-

myat,
L, G, K. Hills bounding the plain on the south. The first is low, the
other two are elevated.

The dotted lines represent the two principal roads on the south
and north sides of the Carse.

The terraces are distinguished on the map by parallel shading
lines, the higher by vertical lines, the lower by horizontal.

The black figures below are sections of the terraces, with por-
tions of the contiguous hills. In these sections the line s «
represents the level of the sea at Cambuskenneth Abbey
(M, in the map) ; the white space above it, the elevation of
the surface of the Carse above that level ; and the depth of
the black horizontal bands represents the elevation of the
terraces above the Carse. For the sake of distinctness, this
depth has been made three times greater than it ought to
be in proportion to the length. In section 3, the length
or horizontal extent has been exaggerated for a similar
reason.
Xy X, A figure shewing the cardinal points.

About a mile northward from Stirling is the isolated rock of
Abbey Crag, which presents a steep acclivity on its western side,
covered with debris. From the foot of this acclivity a terrace of con-
siderable height extends westward to the river Allan, and beyond it,
forming the northern boundary of the Carse. This terrace seems to
mo to present very distinctly the characters of an ancient sea-beach,
or rather of two ancient beaches, a higher and a lower ; and there
ai-e remnants of corresponding beaches at other parts of the Carse.

The position of the terraces will be understood from the map pre-
fixed, which represents a small portion of the Carse or plain of Stir-
ling, with the hills bounding it on the south and north.

404 Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches 7iear Stirling*

The village called the Bridge of Allan, B, now much resorted to
for the Airthrey mineral waters, lies at the foot of the terrace, the
south side of which is very steep, and covered with growing wood.
Footpaths are cut in various directions on the acclivity. In pass-
ing along these we discover sand or gravel at every step, and where
a foot or two of the sand happens to be exposed, we observe traces
of stratification. On ascending to the top of the acclivity, we do not
see what is usually seen on the flanks of mountains, a series of knolls
or rounded undulations, rising towards the chain. On the contrary,
we find ourselves on a plateau or terrace (a, 6, c, c?, /, section 1, and
map), with a surface remarkably uniform and level, and terminating
abruptly at the foot of the steep hills R, D, which tower over the
Carse here to a height varying from 500 to 800 feet. Looking east-
ward, we see several hollows running across the terrace, cut by the
action of small streams or other agents, but the eye easily discovers
that the separate portions of the terrace rise to the same apparent
level. Looking westward, we see a great breach (N in section 1)
made across it by the river Allan, but beyond the river, at the dis-
tance of a quarter of a mile, the terrace reappears, a, 6, and as
nearly as the eye, assisted by a pocket-level, can judge, at precisely
the same elevation.

The well-marked part of the terrace ends on the west at Lecropt
Church near h ; on the east, at Lord Abercromby's east gate near/,
and at the foot of Abbey Crag e, where the village of Causeyhead is
built on it. The distance between these points is two miles. Beds of
sandstone rising from beneath Abbey Crag, and dipping eastward at
a high angle (e in section 1), are seen in the village ; they are seen
again in the bed of the river Allan (N, section 1), two or three yards
below the level of the Carse, and again at the level of the Carse near
Lecropt Church 6. Except at these points, and in the hill above,
rock is nowhere visible.

The terrace reappears nearly a mile west from Lecropt Church at
a, but in a difierent form ; for here it rests on 30 or 40 feet of rock.
Above the rock there is a deposit of sand and gravel to the depth
of perhaps 30 or 40 feet, and the surface exactly resembles that of
the eastern part of the terrace. There are distinct terraces also
within the grounds of Blair-Drummond. I was able to distinguish
three, with pretty well marked cliffs behind them ; but I cannot
speak positively as to their height.

I measured the height of the terrace at Lecropt Church, and at
the mineral well, by means of a pocket-level, fitted with a reflector ;
and at both places I found it to be about 92 feet above the Carse.
If we add 25 feet for the elevation of the Carse above the surface of
the Forth at Stirling, the height of the terrace above the water will
be 115 feet. But there is a slight swell to be afterwards noticed,
for which 15 feet must be added, raising the entire height to 132
feet. My measurements, however, being roughly executed, and with
no pretension to minute accuracy, I prefer giving them in fathoms,
and shall call this the " 22 fathom terrace."

Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling, 405

The internal structure of the terrace is shewn at several places,
and bears unequivocally the character of a deposit from water. In
a quarry near Lecropt Church, the materials are seen to be sand
and gravel rudely deposited in strata. At the River Allan sandstone
is seen under the bridge, in the water-course, above which all is
gravel and clay to the top ; but the gravel is coarse, such as a river
subject to floods brings down, and in which stratification is often not
apparent. A furlong east from this there is a quarry on the sum-
mit, about 5 or 6 yards deep, where three or four beds of gravel al-
ternate with as many of sand, all pretty correctly horizontal. The
sand and fine gravel shew stratification ; the coarse gravel does not.
Half a mile eastward there is a small opening in the wood only four
or five yards above the Carse level, where again we find sand and
gravel in layers, and there are other openings presenting similar ap-
pearances. At the cut made for the railway under the road at
Bridge of Allan, the bottom of the terrace was found to consist of
the blue boulder clay, inclosing a few rolled and striated boulders
from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. This clay, which rose to at least 30
feet above the Carso, and was covered with sand, probably forms the
lowest stratum of the terrace along a considerable part of its extent,
and by its compactness and tenacity may have contributed essentially
to its presei-vation.

The breadth of the terrace at Lecropt Church may be about 200
feet. At the mineral well, I found it to be about 900 feet, and
tov/ards the east end, within Lord Abercromby's grounds, it must be
nearly half a mile.

That the terrace does not owe its elevation to a nucleus of rock is
evident ; for, from Lecropt Church to Causeyhead, a distance of 2
miles, though various breaches and openings, 50 or 60 feet deep,
exist in it, no vestige of rock in situ is visible, except at the bridge
over the Allan, where the sandstone is seen many feet under the
level of the Carse.

Like our present beaches, the terrace, though nearly level, is not
rigidly so at every point. In the cross section at the mineral well
(section 2), the lowest part of the surface is that at a' next the hill.
Beyond this is a slight swell (6') rising 15 or 20 above a\ and melt-
ing gradually into the outer portion, which scarcely deviates from a
dead level. This outer portion terminates in an escarpment at c\
precisely such as we find in a bank of earth, exposed to the action
of a river or the tide. When the sea which deposited this terrace,
had sunk to a lower level, and merely washed its foot, the tides bad
eaten away, in the course of ages, all that portion which was towards
the centre of the valley, leaving this remnant as a witness of the
higher level at which the water once stood.

It is scarcely necessary to say that, in speaking of the sea rising
so many feet or yards above its present level^ or subsiding so many
feet or yards below it, the expression is put in this form merely to

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII.— OCTOBER 1846. 2 D

406 Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling,

avoid circumlocution. In common with nearly all living geologists,
I hold that the change of level is solely in the land — that the sub-
sidence of the sea is merely apparent, and is the effect of a real rise
in the land ; and vice versa ^ that an apparent rise of the sea is the
effect of a subsidence of the land.

An elevation like h' is seen at several parts of the terrace, near
the foot of the steep acclivity R, but not everywhere. It may be a
storm beach, or bank of shingle thrown up in a storm; or it may have
been produced in some cases by torrents from the hill R, sweeping
away the portion of sand and gravel nearest the strand. It is enough
that such banks are found within the high water mark on the shores
of the present sea.

The evidence furnished by these details, to shew that the terrace
was an ancient beach, may be thus summed up : 1. It is composed
of such water-worn materials as compose our present beaches. 2. These
materials are arranged as we find them in our present beaches ; that
is, they are disposed in beds or layers, approximating to a horizontal
position. 3. The upper surface of the unbroken parts of the terrace,
approximates to a dead level, as in our present beaches. 4. Like these
beaches, it meets the hill behind it abruptly ; and it is, as nearly as
the eye can judge, parallel to the surface of the Carse, which we know
to have once formed the bottom of the sea.

Now water is the only agent which could have arranged the ma-
terials of the terrace, and levelled its surface, as we find them ; and
the water must either have been that of the sea or a lake. But the
oyster, cockle, and mussel shells found in the Carse westward from
Stirling, assure us that the sea once covered it ; and with this evi-
dence before us, it would be unphilosophical to explain the facts by
assuming the existence of a lake.

The Airthrey whale, found in the Carse near Blair Logic, 22 feet
above the present high-water level, shews that the sea once stood
much higher than it now does. In the New Statistical Account of the
parish of Drymen, we are told that the surface of the Carse there is
nearly 40 feet above the sea. The fact is probably known from Mr
Smeaton's survey ; and, assuming it to be correct, the tides which
covered the carse must have flowed to that height at least. Again,
we have a bed of oyster-shells at the mouth of the river Avon in
Linlithgowshire about 37 feet above the present strand ; and as the
oyster inhabits deep water, we must add 20 feet for the tide. We
are thus furnished with evidence, that in a part of the Frith about
15 miles from Stirling, the sea stood at one time 57 feet at least above
its present level. It may have been twice as much, for the oyster is
known to live sometimes at the depth of one hundred feet.

If sea-shells had been found in it, the evidence of the terrace being
an ancient beach would have been complete. But shells, though not
observed hitherto, may yet be discovered in it; and even, if none
should be found, it does not follow that they never existed. Shells,

Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling, 407

as organic substances, are liable to decomposition when exposed to the
elements. Mr Darwin informs us, in his Memoir on Glenroy, that he
had found shells on the coast of Peru, in a gradually increasing- state of
decay as ho ascended from the beach, till at a certain height a mere
layer of calcareous powder, without a vestigo of structure, alone re-
mained. The higher parts of the shore having been first raised above
the water, the shells deposited on them had suffered most from being
longest exposed to meteoric action. He farther states, on the authority
of Mr Lyell, that on the coast of Forfarshire sea-shells are found in
gravel-beds up to the height of 50 or 60 feet, but are wanting in simi-
lar beds which exist at greater elevations. In Norway, again, where
deposits of shingle and sand exist up to the height of 600 feet, shells
are found only in those which are 200 feet or less above the sea.* We
can thus understand how the Airthrey terrace, though a marine deposit,
may be destitute of shells, while they abound in the Carse, at a lower
level by 100 feet. Much, however, may depend on the nature of the
envelope. Those embedded in a clay impervious to water may re-
main entire for a vast length of time, while those buried in sand or
gravel will decay rapidly. Fuller information as to the levels at which
marine remains exist in Britain, may be found in Mr Murchison's
address to the Geological Society for 1843.

The preservation of this remnant of the ancient beach or sea-bottom,
while the southern portion of it has been swept away, admits of a
satisfactory explanation. The sea may have subsided either by sudden
starts, as on the coast of Peru in 1821 ; or gradually and insensibly,
as on the east coast of Sweden ; or gradually, but with pauses at cer-
tain intervals, as on the coast of Lapland.f Let us suppose the change
to have been sudden. At each subsidence, the water would retire from
the sides of the valley towards the middle ; and after it had fallen
through a certain space, say 10 or 20 feet or yards, and come to a state
of rest, the tide, in advancing and receding, would attack those parts
of the ancient bottom which were above the low-water line. An open-
ing once made, a sea-cliff would be formed at the strand ; yard after
yard of the cliff would be undermined and swept away ; and if the sea
remained long enough at the same level, and its erosive action was not
stopped or turned aside by some firm resisting body, the whole of the
ancient beach would disappear, leaving no trace of its existence.

Such a resisting body we have in Abbey Crag, (A in the map and
section 1) which is 350 feet in height, and two-thirds of a mile in
breadth. When the sea was many fathoms above its present level,
the tide setting through the channel scarcely one mile in breadth be-
tween Stirling Rock (S) and Abbey Crag (A), would act with great
force in a north-west and south-east direction^ and rapidly cut away
the portion of the ancient beach in front of it, but the portion behind

* Darwin's Memoir on Glenroy, Phil. Trans., 1839. Part i., p. 63.
t Rapport Bur un Mcmoire de M. A. Bravais. Compter JRendus, SceanQe,
31st Oct. 1842.

408 Mr Maclaren oti Ancient Beaches near SUrling.

Abbey Crag, or northward of a line passing from C to B, would be
protected by that rock, which would act as a breakwater, and turn aside
the current. The course of that current would correspond with the
line of the valley of the Forth for ten or twelve miles below Stirling,
which is S. 55 E. or SE. by E., and NW. by W. Its principal
action would be in the direction indicated by the arrow X. Of
course the portions of the terrace northward of a line passing from C
to B would be in a great measure screened from its assaults. The
portions a h more directly in front of the tide, have not been swept
away ; and the reason is, that they have a basis of rock rising many
yards above the Carse.

A current would be maintained through the opening at / north of
Abbey Crag ; but from its course in reference to that hill (A), and
the declivity of the hill D, which is very steep, its action would be
comparatively feeble. Accordingly, though the terrace exists here,
its height is a third or a fourth lower than the average, and a hollow
has been scooped out in it in an east and west direction, part of which
forms the ornamental pond lying southward from g^ and indicated by
a black space in the map. I have spoken only of the current of the
flowing-tide ; but of course it will be understood that the ebbing-tide
would run in the same channels, and act in the same way, though with
less energy. There are two rounded masses A, £, on the east side of
Abbey Crag, apparently of clay or gravel, which the shelter of the
hill had also saved from destruction.

Besides the hollow containing the pond, there are two deviations
from the usual form of the terrace here, which demand attention.
The one is a small specimen of a lower terrace, extending from d
to e in the map, and from 30 to 40 foet above the Carse. This
terrace (which is distinguished by horizontal shading lines) com-
mences at Lord Abercromby's south gate, is about a furlong in
breadth, and somewhat more in length, and terminates at the village
of Causeyhead, C. It is level and regular in its surface (t" section 3)
and has a well marked sea c?iy behind it at k as sharply cut as if it
had only recently escaped from the action of the tides. The outer
marjrin of the terrace close to the road is about 30 feet above the
Carse, the inner margin at the foot of the cliff k,\s 10 or 12 feet
higher, that is about 67 feet above the sea. As the tide which
formed it must have reached to this inner margin, it may be described
as the " II fathom terrace."

Every part of the cliff k which I examined was of gravel or sand,
and I was informed by one of Lord Abercromby's labourers, that the
whole was of the same materials. It rises with a steep and sharp
acclivity facing the south, to the height of 90 feet above the lower
terrace, 30 above the higher, and 155 above the high-water level
at Cambuskenneth, according to my rough measurements. From its
summit it slopes 'very gently northward till it reaches the pond.
The form of the surface will be understood from section 3, where D
is the steep flank of Demy at ; t' the higher tcrpce on which Airthrey

Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling. 409

Castle stands ; p' the hollow containing the pond ; k the top of the
cliff forming a sort of ridge ; and f the lower terrace at its foot.
The ridge k is interesting, as an indication of the state of the surface
before the upper or ** 22 fathom terrace'* was formed. We may
regard it as a remnant of a still higher terrace, or an ancient shoal,
formed when the sea stood 1 65 feet or more above its present level,
and saved from subsequent destruction bj the bulwark of Abbey
Crag, which stands precisely in a position to screen it from the action
of a tide setting NW. by W.

Beaches are merely the outer portions of the sea's bottom ; and
I inferred that if the 22 and the 11 fathom terraces were remnants
of ancient beaches, something similar should be found at the opposite
side of the Carse. The inference proved correct.

Behind Whitehouse Farm, about a mile SW. from Stirling, (at t
in the map) there is a hill about a third of a mile in length, arid from
70 to 80 feet in height, above the Carse, from which it rises like an
island. It is connected with the hills behind it by a sort of isthmus,
while the Carse surrounds it on three sides. So far as I could judge
from walking over a considerable part of it, the whole consists of
alluvial matter. But there were no openings in it from which 1
could discover whether the matter was stratified. The north side t,
which looks to the middle of the Carse, presents an abrupt and steep
acclivity, precisely like that of the terrace at the Bridge of Allan.
Here, again, we are able to account for the preservation of this frag-
ment of the ancient sea bottom, while the rest was swept away ; for it
will be observed, that it exists in a sheltered recess, surrounded on
three sides by a high barrier of hills,' K, G, L. Rivulets descending
from the hills, pass near its flanks p and q, and may account for the
disappearance of the other portions of it, which no doubt once occu-
pied the low ground on its east and west sides. Section 4 represents
the form of this hillock, as seen from the north. Section 5 shews its
form transversely ; u the hill behind it, * its north front looking to
the Carse.

As Abbey Crag had protected one portion of the ancient sea-bot-
tom from destruction, it might be inferred that Stirling Rock would
protect another. Now this is actually the case. A little terrace,
flat in the top, (m, w, in the map), about 200 feet in breadth, and
30 or 35 in height above the Cai*se, encircles the south-west foot of
the rock under Stirling Castle. It commences at the village of
Raploch ; there is an artificial breach where the road passes through
it ; it terminates at a long flat hill of trap, L, and at this end has a
faim-house on its summit. Here the terrace is 40 or 45 feet high,
and it has a sharply cut declivity of alluvial matter facing the Carse.
Section 6 shews its form near Raploch ; S the steep declivity under
the Castle, m the terrace. We can explain also why so small a por-
tion of the ancient bottom was preserved here. On the south side of
Stirling Rock (at w in the map), the ground is probably not more

410 Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling.

than 40 feet above the Carse, and the tides would play freely through
the hollow hero, as well as through the great channel between S and A,
long after the passage at /, by the north side of Abbey Crag, was
closed.

There is another small elevation at o, one mile south-west of Stir-
ling behind the hill L, which looks like a terrace, but is ill defined
and equivocal.

In speculating on the changes which the alluvial deposits have
undergone from the action of the sea, at the different levels alluded
to, it may be proper to advert to the state of things which preceded
those changes. When the Forth and Clyde canal was projected,
Smeaton carried a survey over the low grounds east of Loch Lomond,
which separate the Carse from the basin of the Clyde. He found
the summit-level at the Bog of BoUat, in the parish of Drymen, to
be 222 feet above high water in the Clyde. When the sea therefore
stood at a higher level than this — say 250 feet — two long narrow
sounds (like the Sound of Mull) would extend across Scotland,
uniting the Friths of Forth and Clyde, one by the line of Kelvin
Water or the present canal (whose summit-level is 147 feet above
the sea), the other along the valleys of the Rivers Endrick and Forth ;
the Campsie and Gargunnock hills forming an island between them.
Our concern at present is only with the northern sound. While the
sea had a free passage here, strong currents like those of the Pent-
land Frith, would set through it, and not only prevent any new de-
posit of matter, but sweep away much of the old alluvium. When the
sea subsided below the level of the Pass of Bollat, the currents would
cease, and the destruction of the ancient deposits would be arrested.
The mud, sand, and gravel, poured in by the Forth, the Teith, the
Allan, and other streams, would no longer be swept away, but distri-
buted by the alternate motions of the tide, first along the shore, and
ultimately over the bottom of the valley, replacing those portions of the
older alluvium which had been carried off. Even when the currents held
their free course across this part of Scotland, portions of the older allu-
vium would escape their action, and remnants of terraces formed of it,
no doubt exist ; but, if my argument is good, continuous well-marked
terraces should not be looked for in the district alluded to, at an eleva-
tion much exceeding that of the Pass, which is 222 feet. To such causes
I think the extreme rarity of ancient marine terraces, except at low
elevations and in sheltered localities, may be ascribed. With regard
to the ridge k in section 3, therefore, neither its height (155 feet),
nor the absence of terraced deposits at corresponding elevations else-
where, form any valid objection to its being considered as part of the
bottom of the ancient sea. From its shape, and its evident trunca-
tion on the south side, I infer that it was once many feet higher, and
that it probably formed a shoal behind the barrier of Abbey Crag.
We find a similar shoal in the present Frith on both sides of Inch
Colm, where the water deepens suddenly from 3 fathoms to 15.—

Mr Maclaren on Ancient Beaches near Stirling. 411

(See Thomas' Survey). Taking its height as its stands, 1 shall call
it the " 26 fathom terrace." Portions of others, still higher, pi'obably
exist. The village of Doune, for instance, stands upon a terrace, th©
elevation of which above the sea I estimated at 180 feet.

In the part of the valley of the Forth below Grangemouth, the
action of currents would be greater and longer continued, the Pass
by the Kelvin being 75 feet lower than by the Endrick. Terraces
so distinct and continuous as the 22 fathom terrace, and at such an
elevation, should not consequently be looked for there. Four suc-
cessive terraces may indeed be traced on the ground extending from
Corstorphine Hill to North Leith, at various elevations up to more
than 100 feet above the sea ; but the higher ones, instead of being
level, have a considerable inclination to the east, and are, in other re-
spects, not so well marked as that in section 1. Besides, the straight
longitudinal furrows, two or three furlongs broad, on the surface of
the higher ones, seem to indicate that the alluvium of which they are
composed, had undergone a process of denudation, which materially
altered its external form.

Returning from this digression to the terraces above Stirling, I
have shewn that indications exist there of the sea having occupied suc-
cessively four distinct levels, exclusive of the present one.

First, The bottom of the sea was so much below its present level,
that its waters deposited the sand and gravel seen in the ridge k, in
section 3, which I have termed " the 26 fathom terrace."

Second, The bed or bottom of the sea rose 30 or 40 feet, laying
dry much of its ancient shores. The ** 22 fathom terrace" (a b, &c.,
in section 1, ^ in section 5, and if in section 3), is a portion of its
beach when it stood at this level, and it had remained here long enough
to eat away nearly the whole of the older terrace or shoal k.

Thirdy The bed of the sea again rose 50 or 60 feet, when the "11
fathom terraces" (e, in section 1, f in section 3, and m in section 6)
were formed, and were then portions of its beach (See also d e, m n,
and 0, in the map). It remained long enough at this level to eat
away all the ** 22 fathom terrace," except the fragment abcdf on
the north side of the valley, and the fragment p q on the south side
(See the Map).

Fourth, The bed of the sea again rose 35 or 40 feet, and the water,
of course, retreated into a narrower channel as before. It now merely
covered the Carse, the margin of which constituted its beach, and it
remained long enough here to eat away all the older beach of the
"11 fathom terrace," except the portions d e and mn and o, in the
map. Agreeably to the terminology adopted, the Carse might be
called the " 7 fathom terrace."

Fifth, The bottom of the sea rose 40 feet, the waters again retreated,
laid the Carse dry, and settled at their present level ; and the tides, as
before, are renewing their depredations on the land which they for-
mex'ly covered.

412 Mr Edmonds Jun. on Thunder-stonns

It must not be assumed that the surface of the Carse, when 1 as <-
under the sea, was as level as it now appears. The action of the
streams in meandering through it for some thousands of years, and the
growth of peal afterwards filling up the hollows, would contribute to
equalize the surface, which, after all, is not so level as it seems.

The deepest part of the present Frith is at Queensferry, where
the erosive action of the tide has been greatly increased by the con-
traction of the channel to a narrow gorge 1 mile in breadth. When
the sea covered the Carse to the depth of 60 or 100 feet, the space
between Abbey Crag and Stirling would form a gorge similar to the
Ferry, and we would expect to find it equally profound. Accordingly
Mr Bald informs us, that though a bore of 30 feet generally reaches
the rocky bottom eastward from Abbey Crag, no bore has ever reached
the bottom between Abbey Crag and Stirling. (Statistical Account
of Logic Parish).

There is a terrace on the east side of the road from St Ninians to
Stirling, which is probably a remnant of the *' 22 fathom beach ;" and
between Grangemouth and Falkirk there is a succession of terraces,
the highest of which, I think, has nearly the same elevation.

The western part of Demyat presents many abraded surfaces of
rock. They are well seen on the cart-road that passes up by Logie
Church. At one spot on the road, the height of which I estimated
at 500 feet, I found very distinct strise, whose direction was WNW.,
and ESE., which is very nearly the bearing of the valley of the Forth
from Stirling to Grangemouth.

On the Great Thunder-storms and Extraordinary Agitations
of the Sea, on hth July, and 1st August 1 846. By RiCHARD
Edmonds Junr., Esq. (Read at the Penzance Natural
History Society, on 11th August 1846.)

The extraordinary agitation of the sea in different parts of Mount's
Bay at the commencement of the great thunder-storm which passed over
Britain on the 5th ult., was noticed at the last meeting of this Society.*

* The following is the description given of it by Mr Edmonds : — " The pre-
cise time when the oscillation of the 5th of July commenced I cannot learn, but
it was observed at Marazion as early as half-past four in the morning, imme-
diately after a terrific thunder-storm, the tide being about four hours ebb. One
of the persons who witnessed the extraordinary motion and agitated state of the
water said, ' the sea seemed as if it had been struck by the lightning.' It was
observed at Penzance and Newlyn between six and seven a.m., when the at-
tention of a fisherman, in the latter place, was arrested by seeing the bows of
the boats, moored near the shore, not as usual facing the wind (then about N.)
but turned against a current which was moving alternately N. and S. Boats

and Agitations of the Sea. 413

I have now to notice a similar phenomenon observed at Penzance Pier
early in the morning of the 1st instant, when a still more dreadful thun-
der-storm visited the metropolis and other parts of England.

I would previously, however, make a few remarks on the storm of
July. It must have been felt on the Atlantic on the 4th, as much dis-
tant lightning from the S. and SW. was seen in Mount's Bay before
midnight, and continued until between 3 and 4 o'clock of the following
morning, when the fierce lightning and thunder from every part of the
heavens became truly alarming. As the storm proceeded from Mount's
Bay, throughout Cornwall, towards the E. and NE., it grew still more
violent and destructive. It readied Exeter between 8 and 9 a.m. ;
Windsor, between 2 and 3 p.m. ; and London at half-past three.*" In itg
progress towards the north it was felt throughout Somersetshire between
8 and 10 a.m. ; at Leeds about 3^ p.m.; at Pe;nrith, Dumfries, Ayr, and
Glasgow, between 3^ and 4 p.m. ; at Edinburgh soon after 5 ; and at
Dundee, and in Argyleshire, about 7 p.m. Thus the storm, as it advanced
from Mount's Bay towards the east, moved at the rate of only about 20
miles per hour, whilst its progress northward was about 30.

In many places both the lightning and the thunder were incessant
during most of the storm. A whirling, fitful, or " wild kind of wind,"
accompanied it, with heavy rain, and occasionally large hailstones. At
Ayr and Maybole it was preceded by a whirlwind of remarkable violence.
At Walsall a whirlwind tore up trees by the roots.

The temperature on the 5th of July was unusually high, not only in
most parts of England, but on the Continent. The thermometer at
Cheswick was 95^ ; at Boston, in Lincolnshire, 90° (the hottest day since
31st July 1826) ; at Manchester 87°; and at Paris 97^°.

Before the storm commenced in Kent, one of the largest flights of but-
terflies ever seen in this country completed its passage from France to
England. For many hundred yards it quite obscured the sun. " During
the passage the weather was calm and sunny, but an hour or so after they
reached terra firma, it came on to blow great guns from SW., the direc-
tion whence the insects came."

The storm of July was not felt in London and the eastern coasts of
Britain, so severely as on the western. But the storm of 1st August,
which visited the metropolis and its neighbourhood, was more terrible
than any experienced there since that of the 18th of May 1809. It com-
menced at 3h. 20m. p.m. In the MetedVological Report from the Green-
wich Observatory, it is stated that at Lewishara the hailstones " were
nearly all as large as pigeons' eggs." It was felt severely the same even-

which had been loft by the tide iu Penzance, St Michael's ilount, and New-
lyn, were again floated and left dry — the rise and fall being between three and
four feet. The interval from the commencement of one influx to that of the
next was about fifteen minutes. The flux and reflux were greatest in Penzance
Pier, but w^ere observed there only once j whereas, at Marazion and Newlyn,
they were noticed two or three times successively."

* In the Journal des Dchats was the following communication from Ilavre,
dated Gth of July : — " Yesterday, at five P.M., a violent storm suddenly rose
from the west, and still continues unabated."

414 Professor Forbes' s Eleventh Letter on Glaciers.

ing at East Walden, lieicester, and Nottingham, and before midnight at
Southampton and Paris. About 4 a.m. of this day an extraordinary agi-
tation of the sea was observed at Penzance Pier by the labourers em-
ployed there, the tide being about five hours ebb, and the sea very calm.
The water suddenly returned towards the shore, rising between 1 and 2
feet, and after an apparent pause, rushed back " like a river," to its for-
mer level — the time occupied in the influx and the reflux, including the
time the water appeared to be stationary, was about six minutes. The
flux and reflux were observed only once.

In London the thermometer on this day was 89 1° in the shade, and
116° in the sun (the latter the maximum for the year), and throughout
the previous night it did not descend below 70° ; at Paris it was 90° a
great part of the day. At Penzance the nights of the 29th, 30th, and
31st of July, were the warmest of the year. On the 30th a terrific
thunder-storm, with heavy rain and hail, occurred in Mount's Bay, and
throughout Cornwall, and also in Wales and Cumberland, from which
time, until after the great storm of the 1st of August, the atmosphere in
Cornwall, London, and probably throughout England, was not only very
sultry, but highly charged with electricity, whilst violent thunder storms
were experienced in various places.

An earthquake shock was felt along the Rhine on the evening of the
29th of July — the moon's first quarter was on the 31st— and the agita-
tion of the sea above described (the result perhaps of a submarine shock)
happened on the 1st of August.

In conclusion, I may remark that, with only one exception, all the
ahocks of the earth and extraordinary oscillations of the sea in Cornwall
during the present century, whose dates are known (and which are eight
in number), have happened nearer to the moon's first change or quarter
than to any other. The exception is the shock of the 20th of October
1837» the day before the moon's last quarter.

Eleventh Letter on Glaciers ; Addressed to Professor Jameson.
(1.) Observations on the Depression of the Glacier Surface.
(2.) On the Belative Velocity of the Surface and Bottom of
a Glacier. By Professor J. D. FOKBES. With a Plate.

My dear Sir, — In my Tenth Letter on Glaciers, which you
did me the favour to publish lately, a question was discussed
respecting the apparent depression of the surface of a glacier.
I had already pointed out in the first edition of my Travels,
that several causes combine to produce this depression, but
that observations were wanting to distinguish them. The
causes then enumerated were (if I mistake not) these : —
1. The actual waste or melting of the ice at its surface,

KdUi'^JewIfiU.. foumal.

FMTE Y.

VoLiri.Paije 415.

Fy3.

fyL

fyZ.

^0 :

SZaiks LUkaqil EcUn'.

Professor Forbes's Eleventh Letter on Glaciers. 415

2. The subsidence of the glacier in its bed, owing to the melt-
ing of its inferior surface, whether by the heat of the earth,
or that due to currents of water. 3. The effect of the draw-
ing out of the glacier where it is in a state of distension,
which tends to reduce the thickness of the mass of ice ;
(when a glacier is violently compressed the effect will be
contrary, or an elevation will result) ; to which may be added
the influence of the slope of the bed of the glacier, by which,
as it moves forward, its absolute elevation is diminished, or
the contrary if it ascends. I had also pointed out a method*
by which the first of these effects, or the absolute ablation
of the ice (as it has been termed by M. Agassiz), might be
distinguished from the other two, namely, by driving a hori-
zontal hole into the wall of a crevasse, and observing the
diminution of the thickness of the stratum of ice above it.
The partial and total effects I have observed in the following
manner, during the present summer, on the Mer de Glace of
Chamouni. A crevasse, nearly vertical, and of no great depth,
was selected, running in a direction transverse to the glacier.
The most vertical wall nearest A (Plate V., fig. 1) is always
that the least exposed to the sun, and the waste of its sur-
face is very small, unless in the case of rain. In this wall a
horizontal hole C was bored, to the depth of at least a foot,
and was renewed from time to time. The depth at which
this hole existed below the surface of the glacier was deter-
mined by stretching a string AB across the crevasse, and
measuring by a line the vertical height from C to AB. The
yariation of this quantity gives the actual fusion of the sur-
face, free from the errors mentioned in my former letter.
It is, of course, very variable, depending on the weather as
well as on the place of experiment. Opposite the Montan-
vert, about 200 feet from the side of the glacier, during the
hot weather of July and August 1846, the ablation amounted
on an average to 3-62 inches per day ; at a higher station
between the Angle and Trelaporte (opposite station Q of
the year 1844, see Eighth Letter), it was only 273 inches,

* Travels, Ist edition (1843), p. 154.

416 Professor Forbes' s Eleventh Letter on Glaciers.

the ice being also remarkably clean and white, and the dis-
tance from the western bank of the glacier 553 feet.

The subsidence of the glacier in its bed, or the difference
between the geometrical depression of the surface and the
ablation, was very easily and most accurately obtained in the
following manner. The theodolite being placed and levelled
on the ice in th6 neighbourhood of the place of observation
(not necessarily always on the same spot), the height of the
horizontal wire of the telescope above the horizontal hole
pierced in the side of the crevasse, was noted by directing
the level upon a measuring tape divided into feet and inches,
the ring at the extremity of which was passed over the bor-
ing instrument, which was then firmly adjusted in the hori-
zontal hole. The reading at the telescope gave the height
of the eye at the moment above the hole in question. The
level was then directed against a fixed object on the moraine,
where a cross had been cut in a stone as a point of departure
for the vertical height. The height of the eye above or be-
low the fixed point was measured, and the sum or the differ-
enceT^as the case might be) of this measure and the last gives
the difference of the level of the horizontal hole in the ice,
and the mark on the moraine. The following may serve as
an example : —

Station Z7, near Montanvert.

1846. Aug. 1, 4Jh P.M. Aug. 3, 6 p.m. Difference.

Ft. In. Ft. In.

Horizontal hole C below A ..B, 9 33 8 7-0 8-3 inches=ra6Za««<m.

C below Theodolite,

Cross ( + ) U below Theodolite,

Ft. In.
9 3-3

12 7-2
2 3-8

10 3-4

Ft. In.
8 7-0

11 9-8
1 50

10 4-8

C below (+) U, . . . I 10 3*4 10 4-8 1*4 \i\c\i^.Bz=. subsidence.

Of course the horizontal hole may be renewed as often as
convenient, all that is necessary being to ascertain the dif-
ference of level of the old and new hole.

In the preceding example (which has been selected by
chance), the subsidence bears an unusually small porportion
to the ablation. At the station in question, the average daily
ablation in July and August was 3*62 inches, the average
daily subsidence 1*63 inches. The sum of the two, or the
geometrical depression of the surface 5*25 inches, whereof

Professor Forbes' s Eleventh Letter on Glaciers, 417

seven-tenths were produced by ablation, three-tenths by sub-
sidence. These relations, together with those opposite the
old station Q, are shewn in one view in the following table of

:Mean Results.

Station U.
Station Q.

Slope of
Surface.

2°£

Daily Pro-
gression.

Inches.

18-7*
21-2

Daily
Ablation.

Daily
Subsidence

Inch.
3-62

2-73

Inch.

1-63
0-97

Geometr.
Depression

Inch.
6-25

3-70

Proportion due to
Ablation. Subsid*

•74

•31

•26

The last two columns shew the effects of the ablation and
subsidence in hundredth parts of the whole depression.

As we do not know coiTectly the slope of the bottom or bed
of the glacier, it is impossible to estimate how much of the
subsidence is owing to the declivity. It is probable, however,
that the greater pai*t of it may be thus accounted for. The
amount of geometrical depression agrees well with that as-
certained by me in 1842, at the Angle, which is in a position
intermediate between the stations U and Q, but nearest to
Q. During the height of summer, i. e., from the 26th June
to the 28th July, the daily depression was 41 inches. t

Relative Velocity of the Surface and Bottom of a Glacier,
The influence of the sides or walls of a glacier in retard-
ing its motion laterally, was demonstrated by my first obser-
vations in June 1842 ; and the same cause might well be pre-
sumed to influence the motion of the ice in a vertical plane.
That the superficial ice should overflow that which presses on

* Taken from the observation of the neighbouring mark D*2.
t As some numerical or typographical errors have slipped into the Table of
Depressions of the Level of the Ice at the Angle in 1842 (Travels, p. 154,
2d Edit.), I take this opportunity of correcting them, after a careful compari-
son with my note-books. The observed depression from June 26 to June 30
ought to be 1 ft. 4-5 in., instead of 1 ft. 90 in. ; and the daily depression should
be the following—

1842. June 26— June 30 4-1 inches.

June 30— July 28 4-09...

July 28— Aug. 9 392 ...

Aug. 9— Sept. 17 306 ...

418 Professor Forbes's Eleventh Letter on Glaciers.

tlie bottom, seems a simple corollary, from the fact that the
centre of a glacier flows past its sides. Even admitting the
irregularities of the bottom to be less than those of the late-
ral expansions and contractions of the valley, the enormous
pressure on the bed must generate a friction proportionally
great. Some persons have, however, found so much diffi-
culty in conceiving the fact of varying velocity in a vertical
plane (notwithstanding the evident analogy of a river), that
I was glad to take an unexceptionable opportunity of demon-
strating it.

I have already shewn, at the close of my Sixth Letter, that
the effect of friction in retarding the rate of motion, must be
most sensible nearly in contact with the soil ; and that when
the glacier is of great thickness, the upper part of it (to which
alone we have access) may be expected to move uniformly,
or sensibly so, which accounts for the approximate verticality
of most crevasses, during the limited period of their exist-
ence. It is, therefore, near the contact of a glacier with the
subjacent soil, that the most sensible effect may be looked
for. The circumstances which first suggested themselves to
me as the most favourable for such an observation, were
where a glacier emerging from a gorge, or from between a
double mound of its own formation, falls into a valley, and
presents for some space lateral faces of ice, not, indeed, quite
vertical, but still very highly inclined, and which repose im-
mediately on a bed of rubbish, which, if not flat, but sloping
somewhat towards the centre of the glacier, might be consi-
dered, beyond cavil, as the floor or bed on which it rests. But
a careful examination of several glaciers with a view to such
an experiment convinced me that, even if successful, it would
not be conclusive. For it almost invariably happens, under
these circumstances, that the glacier, being no longer con-
fined laterally, tends to scale off by means of fissures parallel
to its length (as in fig. 2.) ; and even if these fissures do not
give rise to a sensible sliding of the surfaces, they indicate
the direction of the twist to which the ice is exposed by the
more rapid motion of the centre. To avoid misapprehension,
I here repeat that such a tendency to scale by means of lon-
gitudinal fissures, occurs only where lateral compression is

Professor Forbes's Eleventh Letter on Glaciers. 419

wanting, and there, consequently, the veined structure is al-
ways feebly developed.

I succeeded, however (though not without difficulty), in
establishing points of observation in the terminal face of the
Glacier des Bois, at Chamouni, whose relative position will be
understood from the sketch of a front view of the glacier,
fig. 3, and from the vertical section parallel to the length of
the glacier in fig. 4. It will be seen by fig. 3, that whilst the
lateral parts of the glacier were fissured and scaly, in conse-
quence of the action described in the last paragraph, the cen-
tral mass was exceedingly compact and uniform. The ter-
minal face of compact ice was inclined, at the point selected
for experiment, at an angle of about 40° to the horizon, and
the three stations (1.), (2.), (3.), were selected one above the
other, in a vertical plane passing through this face in a di-
rection which w^as judged to be nearly that of the progressive
motion of the ice. Any variation in the motion of these three
points could only be imputed to the effect of the friction of
the soil, for by the progress of the glacier each would pass in
succession vertically over the same spot. The position was
also unexceptionable in this respect, that the glacier is here
subject to no extraordinary constraint. The sides are free,
and the base rests on a bed of rubbish and debris nearly flat,
therefore offering no fixed barrier to the forward motion of
the ice ; the retardation, if it exist, can only, therefore, be
due to the ligitimate effect of friction. The glacier, too, is
here seen from top to bottom, for the contact with the soil is
only concealed by the trifling mound of rubbish not many
feet in height, shewn at M in fig. 4, which it presses before
it ; the gravel between M and X being flat, and untouched
by the glacier for many years. The lowest mark (1.) was esti-
mated at not less than 4 feet, and not exceeding 12 feet from
the real base or soil of the glacier. The mark (2.) was 46 feet
vertically above (1.), and No. (3.) was 89 feet vertically above
No. (2.) From the analogy of the lateral friction of glaciers,
and from the phenomena of rivers, it was anticipated that
the retardation of (1.) upon (2.), and of (2.) upon (3.), would be
sensible, but that the former would be greatest, which the
results confirm.

420 Professor Forbes' s Eleventh Letter on Glaciers,

The progress of each point, as well in direction as in
amount, was rigorously determined by a trigonometrical
process, reference being had to two fixed stations, one of
which, X, seen in fig. 4 was in the original plane of the
points observed, the other was 75525 feet distant to the
right hand of fig. 3. The choice of stations was limited by
the peculiar local circumstances, and was not otherwise the
most desirable. The continual fall of blocks which bounded
with great velocity from the terminal face of the glacier,
rendered it necessary to consult the safety of the observer
and the instrument ; and in order to plant and maintain the
wooden pins which marked the points (1.), (2.), (3.), it was ne-
cessary to commence by laboriously removing the blocks and
rubbish from the surface of the glacier above, whose fall
would at every instant have threatened the safety and even
the lives of my assistants. Two men were laboriously em-
ployed for some hours at this task.

Circumstances prevented me from pursuing these observa-
tions for more than five days, which was to be regretted; but,
in this time, ample evidence was obtained of the existence
and amount of the effect of friction in retarding the lower
ice. Less than 50 feet of thickness between Nos. (1.) and
(2.) corresponded to an apparent acceleration of nearly half
the motion at the lower point. The ratios of the motion at (1.)
and (2.) were, by three independent sets of observations,

1 : 1-41 , 1 : 1-50 , 1 : 1-49
the acceleration of (3.) upon (2.) was (as anticipated) less
considerable, and also more difficult of correct estimation,
owing to the greater horizontal distance,* but the following
results appear to be worthy of confidence.

(1.) (2.) (3.)

Ft. Ft. Ft.
Motion from 13th Aug., 11 a.m., to

18th Aug., 3 P.M., . . . 2-87 4-18 4-66

Ratios, I'OO 1-46 1-62

Angle {<p) made by the motion with

the direction of X, . . . 5°.0 8°-3 10°-1

* The horizontal distances of the points (1.), (2.), (3.), from X were at the
commencement of the observations, 9579, 138-0, and 246*8 feet.

Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology and Geology. 421

The three points being approximately, 8, 54, and 143 feet
above the bed or floor of the glacier.

These results liave been computed by the following for-
mulae, which may be useful to those desirous of repeating the
observations : —

Let X and x be the two trigonometrical stations from
which the motion of the points (1.), (2.), (3.), are observed.
Let 6 be the angle under which X and z are seen from one of
these points. Let p be the linear transversal movement of
the point as seen from X (deduced from the apparent angular
motion and the known distance of X). Let q be the similar
quantity with respect to a*, which will have the same or con-
trary sign with p, as the apparent motion from the two sta-
tions is in the same or in contrary directions. Then the total
motion of the point observed (which is assumed to be small
relatively to the dimensions of the triangle, which has X, a:,
for two of its corners) will be

^=\/gr + (g cotan d— f cosec d)^

and the angle {<p) of the direction of motion with the visual
line through X, is found by this equation

sin a = -^-
^ r

I shall take the liberty of addressing you again, as to the
fai*ther observations which I have been able to make, in
another letter. — I remain, my dear Sir, yours very truly,

James D. Forbes.

Larqs, Ayrshire, 16«A September 1846.

To Professor Jameson. ,1,. , .

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

METEOROLOGY AND GEOLOGY.

1. Sulphur in the Atmosphere. — ^M. Boussingault lately made a
communication to the French Academy of Science on the much-dis-
puted point of the presence of sulphur in electricity. It is generally
stated that an odour of sulphur accompanies the electric fluid. This,
however, has been positively denied by many natural philosophers.

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXir. — OCTOBER 1846. 2 E

422 Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology and Geology,

M. Boiissingault concludes from some experiments on metallic sub-
stances, which have been exposed to the action of electric fluid, that
sulphur is always present in such cases.

2. On Cleavage of Slate-Strata. — Professor H. D. Rogers gave
the Meeting of the Association of American Geologists, in April 1845,
an oral abstract of a paper by himself, on the direction of the slaty
cleavages in the strata of the south-eastern belts of the Appalachian
chain, and the parallelism of the cleavage dip with the planes of
maximum temperature.

He prefaced his communication by a brief sketch of the researches
of Professor Sedgwick and Sir John Herschell, in relation to cleavage,
which prove that it is a structural condition in rocks, irrespective uf
their dip, and is the result of molecular forces developed in the strata
subsequent to their elevation and contortion.

He then proceeded to a description of the direction of the cleavage
planes in the Appalachian chain. By the aid of a general section
and a diagram, it was shewn that, throughout the south-eastern
belts of the chain, and in the region of the metamorphic strata still
farther towards the south-east, the strata lie in closely compressed
anticlinal and synclinal folds, the medial, or axis planes of which,
dip at a steep angle almost invariably to the south-east, or some
point between the south and the east. Now, it is a general fact,
established by his own observations and those of Professor W. B.
Kogers, that, from Vermont to Alabama, the cleavage dip is likewise
towards the south-east, and therefore nearly parallel in direction and
steepness to the anticlinal and synclinal planes. This prevailing
parallelism of the cleavage surfaces to the belts of maximum crust
and fracture in the strata, is suspected by the author to obtain also
in other countries, and is regarded by him as having an important
connection with the mode in which cleavage has originated.

He called attention to the circumstance, that the anticlinal and
synclinal planes constitute in these closely plicated strata, so many
parallel and steeply dipping belts of fissured and dislocated rock,
more readily permeable than any of the other parts of the mass,
to the intensely heated steam and gas, which he supposes to have
issued through the crust of the earth, while the folding of the strata
was in progress, as it now does to a less extent during modern earth-
quakes. The hot effluent vapours would impart their temperature
along the anticlinal planes ; and thus the whole body of the strata
would consist of a series of alternating belts of heat, or more pro-
perly of steeply dipping planes, alternately warm and cold. This
symmetrical and parallel distribution of the heat seems to bo precisely
that which ought to impart through the new polarities it would awaken
in the mass, a corresponding symmetry and parallelism in the planes
of maximum and miminum cohesion, or, in other words, the planes of
cleavage. The conjecture that they have been thus produced, finds
confirmation in some facts mentioned by Professor Philips, in his

Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology and Geology. 423

Treatise on Geology, in Lardner's Encyclopsedia. In the coal-
measures near Newcastle, the common shale loses its ordinary hori-
zontal lamination near the vertical sides of a basaltic dyke, and over
a width of a few yards, it presents numerous vertical divisional planes
parallel to the faces of the dyke, not more than half an inch apart,
and analogous to the cleavage planes of slate. lie likewise mentions
that a cleavage structure occurs parallel to the great Craven fault.
Professor Philips views the cleavage of slate as a metamorphic struc-
ture, produced by heat, exerted either primarily, or through the
agency of electricity, in superinducing a new polarity in the particles
of the rocky mass.

The main object of Professor Rogers is to state the general fact
of the approximate parallelism of the cleavage dip, and the anti-
clinal and synclinal planes of the closely folded strata ; and also to
point out the general law of their parallelism to the planes of maxi-
mum heat. — Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the As-
sociation of American Gi^ologists and Naturalists, April 1845,
p. 49.

3. Earthquake in Tuscany ^ Marseilles, X^th August. — By the
Virgile, just arrived from Naples and the Italian coast, we learn, that
on Friday, the 14th instant, a most violent earthquake was felt in
Tuscany. The church of St Michel, at Pisa, was greatly shaken ; in
the country, the earth opened at various places, and vomited forth
muddy and boiling water. At Leghorn, the bells in the different
church steeples rang of their own accord. The disastrous effects are
not so considerable in the town as in the neighbouring villages, where
many of the houses were thrown down, and the frightened inhabitants
flew to the open fields. The Grand Duke, informed of the disaster,
immediately ordered provisions of every description to be sent to the
unfortunate sufferers. The earthquake was first felt about one o'clock
in the afternoon of Friday the 14th instant. The village of Orciana,
about 20 miles from Leghorn, has suffered considerably. Of 120 houses,
only 2 remain standing; 59 persons were killed, and 65 wounded.
Most of the houses at Leghorn have large cracks in the walls. The
flags of the pavement were raised, but closed again immediately. The
event caused great anxiety at Leghorn, and the people took the pre-
caution of sleeping in the fields outside the town. At Pisa, the church
of St Michel was thrown down. An hour previously, the church was
crowded, and the door was scarcely closed when the roof fell in. The
shock lasted for three seconds, and was followed by a muffled and awful
sound, like the report of a distant cannon, and people staggered in
the streets. A letter from Leghorn, of the 17th, states : — *' Our
town has just been thrown into great alarm by an earthquake. On
the 14th, at 10 minutes to 1 p.m., the first shock was felt, preceded
by a rumbling noise ; the shock lasted 7 or 8 seconds ; the oscilla-
tions seemed to be at first perpendicular, as if the ground was raised
in a direction north-east to north-west. The inclination of the houses

424 Scientific Inteliigence — Palceontology,

was such at that moment, that it was difficult to stand upright in them,
and the cracking of the walls and beams warned the inhabitants, who
rushed into the streets. The women threw themselves on their knees,
imploring the aid of the Madonna de Montenon, patroness of the town,
and the men devoutly crossed themselves. During the night, different
other shocks were felt. The earth seemed to be in a state of convul-
sion ; the sky was cloudless, but there was a thick haze, which did not
fail to make a sinister impression. In the country, the effects were
more disastrous, principally in the Maremme, where ancient traces
of volcanic eruptions are numerous. Whole villages were destroyed
in the districts of Taulia, Laurenzana, Corciana, and Casciano. At
Voltena, a state-prison fell in, burying some of the prisoners in the
ruins. The number of lives lost is estimated at 38, and 140 wounded,
some dangerously. Various natural phenomena occurred ; near Lo-
renzuna, and at Treiona, muddy and boiling water issued from the
earth; a lake was formed in a hollow. All the villas on the hills
near Pisa have suffered considerably. For the last four days the ground
has not ceased to shake at intervals. In the present shaken state of
the houses, another powerful shock would be the ruin of Leghorn.
Part of the population has left the town, others live in tents, or have
sought refuge in boats." — Daily News, August 25, 1846.

PALiEONTOLOGY.

4. Discovery of New Species of Fossil Frog in the Tertiary
Formations of the neighbourhood of Osnabruck. — M. Duuker has
found small bones of frogs in the shelly and coraline gravels of Hel-
lern, not far from Osnabruck, which belong to the tertiary epoch.
M. H. de Meyer, who has examined them, has detected at least three
new species, which may be distinguished from each other by the
forms of the humerus. This same bone had already enabled this
skilful palseontologist to establish twenty-four species of frogs found
at Weisenau. None of the humeri discovered at Hellern are like
those belonging to these twenty-four species. The other bones,
such as those of the sacrum, the fore-arm, and pelvis, appear to in-
dicate more analogy between the species of these two localities. —
Leonh. and Bronn, N. Jahr 6. 1845, p. 798.

5. Two New Species of Fossil Bat in the Tertiary Formations
of Weisenau. — The Cheiroptera have rarely been found in a fossil
state in tertiary formations. "We know of none belonging to this fa-
mily, in deposits anterior to the diluvian epoch, except the Vesper-
tilio Parisiensis of the Montmartre schists, of which only one indi-
vidual is preserved in the museum at Paris ; and two small teeth
found in the eocene sand of Kyson, and referred, by Mr Owen, with
doubt, to the genus Vespertilio.

The species mentioned by Karg, at (Eningen, appears very uncer-
tain, and the original specimen has been lost. M. Hermann de

Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 425

Meyer has discovered at Weisenau, among a considerable mass of
remains of bones, a i^iyf bones belonging to two cheiroptera. They
consist of the half of a lower jaw, in which, although the teeth are
wanting, the sockets arc sufficiently preserved to give an idea of the
dental system ; of three humeral bones, two left and one right, which
bhew the existence of two species, and which render it probable that
there is even a generic difference between them ; lastly, of the half
of a radius, which can only belong to a cheiroptera. The two spe-
cies differ from that of Montmartre ; and M. H. de Meyer designates
them by the name of Vespertilio prcdcox and V. insignisy until their
generic affinities be distinctly ascertained.

ZOOLOGY.

6. The Lion, as an article of Food. — We were anxious to know if
there was any chance of another lion being found in the neighbourhood,
and were informed that, doubtless, there were plenty ; but such was
the nature of the ground, that, unless their exact haunts were known
(in which case they were generally killed), we might go out for a
fortnight, and never encounter a single beast. The skins of all lions
killed throughout the regency are sent to the Bey, who pays a hand-
some premium upon each. The flesh is eaten ; and, contrary to our
expectation, we found it excellent, and made a capital supper upon
the ends of the ribs stewed with a little salt and red pepper ; it tasted
like very young beef, and was neither tough nor strong flavoured. —
A Journey through Algeria and Tunis y hy Captain Clark Kennedy,
vol. ii., p. 205.

7' On a Gigantic Stag, Cervus Euryceros, Aldr. ; Megaceros,
Hart. ; Giganteus, Galde, By Dr E. Eichwald. — Cuvier, after hav-
ing described the fossil bones of the gigantic stag found in England,
Lombardy, and throughout the whole of western Europe, expresses
his surprise that none have hitherto been found in Russia and Siberia,
where stags are at present so widely distributed. M. Eichwald re-
cords, in a memoir on the discovery of the bones of the same stag in
the eastern part of European Russia, in the government of Simbirsk,
where M. Sagykoff found fragments of the cranium, and the horns
of two individuals. They have likewise been found in Siberia on the
north-west slope of the Altai, in the caverns of the arrondisement of
Kolywanowoskressenskisch to the east of Schlangenberg, and in the
vicinity of the river Tscharysch. In these deposits, the bones of the
stag are very abundant, as well as those of the lama, horse, rhinoceros,
hysena, dog, bear, gnawers, and bats.

The author adverts to the controverted question respecting the an-
tiquity of this remarkable species. The beautiful cranium of the
gigantic stag described by Goldfuss, had been found near Emerich
along with urns and stone hatchets, — tokens of the existence of man.
Another cranium was found in the peat- bogs of Lancashire in forma-

426 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology.

tions similar to those where a hoat was found. These historical facts
have led some authors to believe that this gigantic stag was the same
as the stag of Ireland, which disappeared in the twelfth century, and of
which ancient authors speak, being the same as the Scg of the ancient
Britons, and the Eurycerus of Appianus. A magnificent antler of
the gigantic stag of Bohemia, which the author has seen in the Im-
perial Museum of Vienna, and on which are engraved a ^qw words
in old Slavonian letters, indicate the origin of this animal ; and the
exploits of the chase related in ancient heroic poetry, justify the be-
lief that the gigantic stag was then known. This animal was pro-
bably the schelch which the poems in question inform us was hunted
along with elks, aurochs, &c. It is, therefore, very probable, that
being an object of chase, the gigantic stag disappeared from Europe
two or three centuries ago, as the elk has disappeared from Italy,
France, and Germany, and as the Bos primigenius and aurochs have
so diminished that they are no longer found, save in the great forest
of Bialowesha (in the government of Grodno), where, to prevent their
total destruction, immense provision of hay is made for them every
winter.

All these animals which were hunted in Germany probably lived,
in former times, along with the mammoth and rhinoceros, since we
find their bones intermingled in the same diluvian deposits. These
latter appear to have perished first, and the others, especially the
Bos primigenius and the gigantic stag, to have long survived them.
Ferocious animals, such as hasynas, lions, and bears, may have been
destroyed before them, in consequence of the interest man had in
preserving himself from their devastations, before they thought of driv-
ing away less hurtful animals. The last lion lived in Greece in the
time of Aristotle, near the rivers Acheloiis and Nestus. Pliny like-
wise mentions this animal as inhabiting Thrace and Macedonia.

Analogous occurrences appear to have taken place in America, for
it is probable that the mastodon lived in historical times ; and, just as
the gigantic stag survived the mammoth, it appears that the masto-
don survived the latter. This is demonstrated by the discovery of a
complete skeleton of the Mastodon or Missourium giganteum in the
valley of the Mississippi. The point of an arrow made of flint was still
under the right hip of the animal, a circumstance which completes
the evidence that these gigantic animals lived at the same time as
man.

It is useless to insist here on the confirmation which these facts
furnish to the opinion we have elsewhere advanced {Traite Elem. de
Paleontologie, tom. i. note A.) on the connection which exists between
the diluvian and the modern epoch. These two epochs ought not
perhaps to be distinguished ; and they are certainly not separated by
a destruction of species at the end of the first, and by a new appear-
ance at the commencement of the second. It is very probable that
all the existing species date from the origin of the diluvian epoch ;

Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 427

but that a part of them have been destroyed, and have not reached
our times. The changes of climate, and the influence of man, have
been the causes of these disappearances of species, some of which have
taken place at periods too remote to have left any traces in tradition,
but others of which are well known, and some are even taking place
under our eyes. — Professor Pictet.

8 . On the Respiratory Apparatus of Birds. By M. Natalis Guillot
and M. Sappey. — It is a fact generally admitted, that in birds the
air which reaches the lungs is introduced by permanent openings, in
the cavity of the abdomen, in the bones, and in diverse parts of the
body. M. Guillot has endeavoured to determine the position of the
aerial reservoirs, and to shew that it is an error to believe that the
air can be introduced into all the parts of the body of the animal.

He distinguishes the thoracic aerial reservoir and the abdominal
reservoir. The latter is composed of two large spheroidal bladders,
formed by a membrane of extreme tenuity, and separated by the me-
sentery and the mass of the intestines. Their origin is towards the
base of the breast, on a level with the last rib, where we perceive an
elongation of the lung pierced with many openings. The interior of
these receptacles does not communicate with the peritoneum ; they are
bladders full of air, and nothing more ; they are not celluUr, like the
thoracic reservoir.

When we place a living bird under water, and keep it there in
such a manner that the respiration is free, we may open the perito-
neum, without a single bubble of air making its escape. Neither does
any appear by cutting the cellular tissue, by raising the skin, and
cutting the muscular masses. The same thing does not always take
place after the death of the bird, for then, according to M. Guillot,
gaseous bubbles arise from the blood. This anatomist thence con-
cludes, that the air maintained by the envelopes of the two reservoirs
above mentioned, cannot enter but into the bones, and that it neither
enters into the peritoneum nor the cellular tissue ; in a word, that it
cannot diffuse itself through all the parts of the body during the life
of the animal.

In connection with this communication, M. Serres referred to the
analogous investigations of M. Sappey, demonstrator in the anato-
mical school of the hospitals ; and this latter anatomist himself read
a memoir to the Academy of Sciences (9th and 23d July 1846) on
the same subject. The conclusions of his memoir are the following :
Istf There is no pleura in birds; 2d, The membrane which has
been described under that name, is formed by the inferior bronchia
of the lungs ; 3(f , All the bronchial ramifications are periferal, and
produce, by leaning against each other, a true aeriferous envelope ;
4th, Not only does a diaphragm exist in birds, but it is an essential
agent in the pulmonary dilatation ; 6th, Observation rejects the ex-
istence of full cells, the communication of the respiratory apparatus
with the muscles, the cellular tissue, and the feathers ; 6th, The

428 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology.

aerial reservoirs, annexed to the lung, are five in number on each
side ; Ith^ These reservoirs, being of no use for respiration, are in-
tended to secure the equilibrium of the bird during flight, and to di-
minish its specific gravity ; Qth, The air which they contain becomes
rarefied during inspiration, and condensed during expiration ; 9i7t,
The presence of air in the bones has the effect of augmenting their
diameter and resistance, without increasing their weight ; \^th, Fi-
nally, this same fluid penetrates directly into the feathers by an ellip-
tical orifice, situate on their under side, and serves the same pur-
pose in these organs as in the bony levers.

These researches, it will be perceived, will probably have the efl'ect
of modifying greatly the notions generally adopted respecting the air
contained in the different parts of birds.

9. On the Comparative Anatomy of the Vocal Organs of Birds.
By Professor Muller. — For the earliest investigations into the vocal
apparatus of birds we are indebted to Cuvier ; and it is to this cele-
brated anatomist that we likewise owe the greater part of the facts
relative to their organization. At a later period, M. Nitzsch
attempted to derive, from the study of the inferior larynx, materials
for the classification of birds, which has always been, as is well
known, one of the most embarrassing problems in the natural systems.
M. Muller has made a long series of observations on the v.ocal
organs of the passerine tribes. The results of his labours are as yet
but partially known ; a detailed description will soon be published in
the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin. Meanwhile, we shall here
point out some of the general conclusions of that work, which is
impatiently expected, like everything else which comes from the pen
of the illustrious Berlin professor.

Professor Muller concludes, from the facts he has observed, that
the passerine songsters cannot form a natural division ; and, contrary
to the opinion of M. Nitzsch, he affirms that the Ficarice cannot be
separated from them. The most natural groups of the order of pas-
serine birds contain types which diff'er in the organization of the la-
rynx, and the variable nature of this apparatus renders it but little
fitted for the purposes of classification. It is the less so, since song
may be produced by arrangements of structure very different from
each other. The passerine order ought probably to be preserved in
its most extended limits, comprehending even the syndactyli and the
climbers ; and it ought to contain, at once, birds possessing the most
perfect vocal apparatus, and others which seem reduced to the
greatest degree of simplicity.

The two most common forms of the vocal organ among birds, are,
Is^, The vocal muscular apparatus, formed on the type of that of our
singing birds of Europe ; 2d, The form of a single muscle, thick or
slender. It is worthy of remark, that the first form prevails in
Europe and Africa, and that the second is most common in America.
Consequently, the forests of the Old World possess a greater number

Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 429

of birds truly songsters ; those of tho New World abound principally
in birds with a loud and clear voice, but of little variety, and resound
with cries rather than songs. Besides these two widely extended
forms, there are many other laryngical organizations of a more espe-
cial nature ; the most complicated is that of the parrot tribe.

M. Muller's memoir contains numerous facts of detail, and like-
wise plates explanatory of all the forms described.

10. Physiological Remarks on the Statics of Fishes. By J oh.
Muller. — Like all other animals, fishes have a very delicate sense
of the equilibrial position of their bodies. They endeavour to coun-
teract all change in this position, by means of movements partly
voluntary and partly instinctive. These latter appear in a very re-
markable manner in the eyes ; and they are so constant and evident
in fishes while alive, that their absence is sufficient to indicate the
death of the animal.

The equilibrium of tho body of a fish in the water is independent
of the swimming bladder; that organ may even be injurious to it.
The equilibrium of the fish, its horizontal position, with the back
upwards, depends solely on tho action of tho fins, and principally
that of the vertical fins.

Tho swimming bladder may enable a fish to increase or diminish
its specific gravity. By compressing the air contained in it, the fish
descends in the water; it rises by relaxing the muscles which pro-
duced this compression. Besides, the fish may continue in the deep
parts of the water in consequence of the mere pressure of the column
of water on the air contained in the bladder.

By compressing more or less the posterior or anterior portion of
the bladder, the animal, at pleasure, can make tho anterior or poste-
rior half of its body lighter ; it can also assume an oblique position,
which permits an ascending or descending movement in tho. water.
The arrangement of the swimming bladder in some fishes may fa-
vour this action. The Cyprinoides and Characins have two bladders,
one before the other, and communicating with each other by a nar-
row neck. The anterior bladder is very elastic, while tho posterior
is very slightly so ; accordingly, in proportion as the fish ascends in
the water, the anterior and more elastic bladder must increase in size
considerably, and tend to keep the head upwards, while the contrary
must take place when the fish descends.

1 1 . Red Colour of the blood in the Planorhis imhricatus. By M.
de Quatrefages. — By observing the Planorhis imhricatus by means
of a transparency, M. de Quatrefages has ascertained that this little
mollusc, which is very common in the fresh water around Paris, pos-
sesses blood of a red wine colour. Under a faint magnifier, tho
liquid may bo seen filling the cavities of the pericardium and ven-
tricles, and by its motions colouring pretty distinctly the whole gene-
ral caviiy of the body on its lower surface. M. de Quatrefages
could not perceive distinct globules in this liquid. Other Planorbes,

430 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology.

of very small dimensions, possess white blood. M. de Quatre-
fages presumes that these are the young of P. imbricatus, the blood
not acquiring its characteristic tint but by age; and he remarks,
that if this conjecture is verified by the observations which he pro-
poses to continue, the processes will go on in these molluscs exactly
as among the annelides.

12. On the Development of the Annelides. By M. Sars. — The
development of the annelides was only known, till of late years, by
works on the leech ; and it Mas erroneously concluded, from ana-
logy, that all these animals, on issuing from the egg, had the gene-
ral form of body exhibited by the adult. M. Sars has confirmed the
discoveries of M. Loven respecting the metamorphoses which certain
annelides undergo, by carefully describing the development of the
Polinbe cirrata, which is common on the coasts of Norway.

It is in the months of February and March that reproduction
takes place in this annelide. At first the eggs, in the body of the
mother, present the usual broken appearance observable in the young,
having at one period the aspect of a raspberry, and afterwards be-
coming smooth. They are ejected from the body by particular
openings in the dorsal surface of the animal, and are then aggluti-
nated in a mass by means of viscuous filan>ents, which likewise serve
to fix them on the back of the animal, under the branchiae, where
they remain till the exclusion of the embryo. When the embryo
issues from the egg, its form has no relation to that of the mother ;
it is oval, not annulated, and has only two eyes in the anterior part
of its body ; the middle of the animal is surrounded with a circular
crown of vibratile cilise, which serve for locomotion, and are the only
appendages of the body.

The annelides, we thus see, may undergo important metamor-
phoses. They thus approach the other annelides, and also the my-
riapodes, embryos of which quit the egg, according to Waga and New-
port, in a very imperfect state, and completely destitute of articulated
appendages.

13. On the Development of the Hearing Apparatus in the Mollusea.
By Dr H. Frey. — M. Frey's observations have been made chiefly
on the embryo of the Lymnia stagnalis. The auditory vesicle or
bladder does not begin to appear in this mollusc till the period when
the singular rotatory movements of the embryo have ceased, and the
animal is now creeping over the interior wall of its shell. We can
then notice, without difficulty, at the anterior part of the body, the
rudiments of the tentacula, the eyes with their pigment, the tongue
with its highly characteristic epithelium. It is on each side of the
base of the tongue that the auditory vesicles are found. They are
spherical, the contour simple, and the diameter about gV ^^ cV ^^ ^
line (0'038 to 0*04 millimetres). They appear at first to enclose in
their interior only a transparent liquid, and are at that time, as is
likewise the case with the eye, without connection with the central

New Publications. 431

parts of the nervous system. One or two small corpuscles are soon
doveloped in this liquid, whoso form, size, and oscillatory movements
are in every respect similar to those of the otolithes in the perfect
animal. The vesicle or bladder containing them has a double margin
round the outside, resulting probably from the walls becoming thicker.
The size of the otolithes is from ^\-^ to ^\^ of a line (0*005 to
0'0075 millimetre) ; their number goes on gradually increasing, and
reaches a score, when the lymnia quits the shell ; the diameter of
the vesicle or bladder, at this time, is about jV ^^ ^ ^^"g (0*066
millimetre). Besides the otolithes, other small corpuscles are found,
of smaller size, which often do not reach the dimensions of y^Vir
of a line (0*0023 millimetre). The number of otolithes, and the
size of the auditory vesicle or bladder, then continue to augment ; at
the same time the animal continues to grow. When in the adult
state, we can reckon from 100 to 200 otolithes, and the diameter
of the bladder varies from -^-^ to y'^ of a line (0*14 to 0*23 milli-
metre).

The development of the auditory apparatus presents the same
phenomena in the Physes, Paludines, and terrestrial Gasteropods in
general (helix, limaces, &c.) There is no difference except in the
size of the parts.

Among bivalves, the apparatus of the ear contains only a single
otolithe of a large size, which fills the cavity of the bladder. The
same disposition is found in the embryo of these molluscs before
issuing from the egg ; the otolithe, smaller than in the adult, exhi-
bits very lively oscillatory movements, as it does in the latter.

NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

1. A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds. By Richard
Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 8vo, pp. 560, with 237 woodcuts. John
Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, London. 1846. This original, able,
accurate, and important, contribution to the Palaeontology of Britain,
already more fully noticed in this volume of the Edinburgh New Philo-
sophical Journal, from page 338 to page 343, is, long ere this, in the
hands of every British Palceontologist.

2. Thoughts /)n Animalcules, or a Glimpse of the Invisible World,
revealed by the Microscope. By G. A. Mantell, LL.D., F.R.S. John
Murray, Albemarle Street, London. 1846. This beautiful and inter-
esting volume, like most of Mr MantelVs writings, has an agreeable
popular cast. It combines so much good scientific details and infer-
ences as will render it acceptable to an extensive class of readers.

3. A History of the Fossil Insects in the Secondary Rocks of Eng-
land. By the Rev. P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.S.S. John Van Voorst,
Paternoster Row, London. 1846. The Palceontological History of
Itisects has hitherto been so little cultivated that naturalists will receive
with pleasure Mr Brodie's valuable volume, which we recommend to the
particular notice of Palaeontologists.

432 New Puhlications.

4. Primary and Present State of the Solar System, particularly of
our own Planet. 1846.

5. The Thirteenth Annual Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic
Society. 1845.

6. Catalogue of Birds observed in South-Eastern Durham, and in
North-Western Cleveland. By John Hogg, M.A., F.R.S., &c., London.
1845.

7. Articles 1 and 2. On three several Hurricanes of the American
Seas, and their Relations to the Northers, so called, of the Gulf of Mexico
and the Bay of Honduras, with charts illustrating the same. By W. C.
Redfield. Mr Redjield is still cultivating, and with great success, " The
Natural History of Hurricanes," as is shewn in the work here quoted.

8. Structure and Classification of Zoophytes. By James Dana, A.M.,
Geologist of the United States Exploring Expedition, during tlie years
1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Philadelphia, 1846. The Natural
History of Corals, in a zoological point of view, and also as illustrative
of the doctrine of Roch formations, has now assumed a character of great
importance. To those engaged in the study of these beautiful departments
of science, we recommend Mr Dana's interesting work.

9. Provisional Report on the Meteorological Observations made at
Colaba, Bombay, for the year 1844. By George Buist, LL.D. Cupar,
printed at the St Andrews University Press, by G. S. Tullis. 1845.
This elaborate and valuable Report has been well received by British
Meteorologists.

10. Elements of Physics. By C. F. Peschel, Principal of the Military
College, Dresden. Translated from the German, with notes, by E.
West. Illustrated with Diagrams and Woodcuts. 3 volumes, 12mo.
Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, London. 1846. Cultivators
of Natural Philosophy in this country will prize Mr West's judicious
translation of the " Elements of Physics " of the distinguished Princi-
pal of the Royal Military College at Dresden — a work very favourably
known on the Continent, and which, ive doubt not, will be equally well
received in Britain. The numerous diagro7ns and ivoodcuts with
ivhich it is illustrated, are well selected ; and, what is of inip)ortance,
all the measures are reduced to English standards, and the centigrade
degrees of the thermometer are adapted to Fahrenheit's scale, and
those calculated for the centigrade division are likeivise retained, for
the convenience of any student who may have occasion to refer to fo-
reign scientific works.

11. Recherches sur la Systerae Nerveux de la Tete dij Congre (Mur-
cena Conger-Lacep.), Par Al. Pierre Prevost. Quarto. Geneve, 1846.

12. Essai sur la Theore de la Vision Binoculaire. Par Alexandre
P. Prevost. Geneve, 1843. These Memoirs we owe to an accomplished
young Genevese Naturalist.

13. Beclanann's History of Inventions. Tranlated from the German.
Fourth edition, carefully revised and enlarged. By Dr Francis and Dr
Griffith. Vol. I. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, Lon-
don. 1846. The reading public will be grateful to Mr Bohn for the
publication of this well got up and very cheap edition of Beckmann's
celebrated work.

^4. Observations in Natural History, with an Introduction on the Ha-

List of Patents. 433

bits of Observing, as connected with the Study of that Science ; also a
Calendar of Periodic Phenomena in Natural History, with remarks on
such Registers. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 1 vol.
8vo, pp. 440. London, John Van Voorst. 1846. This very pleating
and instructive work of the well known author of the ** Manual of Bri-
tish Vertebrate Animals," ought to be in the hands of all young Na-
turalists, and may also he read and consulted vnth advantage by ex-
perienced observers.

15. Experimental Investigation of the magnetic characters of Simple
Metals, Metallic Alloys, and Metallic Salts. By William Sturgeon, Esq.,
Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy at the Hon. East India Company's
Military Academy, Addiscombe. From Manchester Philosophical So-
ciety's Memoirs. 1846. Joseph Gullet, Bookseller, Manchester. 1846.
This valuable detail of experiments will be noticed on a future occasion.

16. Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands (of Scotland).
From the Journals of Charles St John, Esq. Published in Nos. 36 and
37 of Murray's Home and Colonial Library. London. 1846. We have
perused this very amusing volume with much pleasure. From, cur ac-
quaintance, not only with the country so well deso'ihed by the author,
but also with its quadrupeds, birds, (be, ive can answer for the faith-
fulness of his details; and are convinced no true lover of wild moun-
tain and river sports will hesitate in consideHng M. C. St John as an
intelligent observer, and, shilful sportsman.

17. Address on the Recent Progress of Geological Research in the
United States. Delivered at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Associa-
tion of American Geologists and Naturalists, held at Washington City,
May, 1844. By Henry D. Rogers, Professor of Geology in the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, Foreign Member of the Geological Society of Lon-
don. Pliiladelphia. 1844.

18. An Easy Introduction to Chemistry. By George Sparkes, Esq.
2d edition, pp. 88, 12mo. Whittaker & Co., London. 1846. This
agreeable Treatise we recommend to our Chemical readers, and also to
those commencing their Chemical Studies.

1 9. On the Oscillation of the Barometer, with particular reference to
the Meteorological Phenomena of November 1842. By William Brown
jun. Richard and John Edward Taylor, booksellers and printers, Lon-
don, 1846. A very valuable and accurate record of good observations.

20. Jahres-Bericht uber die Fortschritte der Chemie und Mineralogie.
Von Baron Jacob Von Berzelius. Tubingin, 1846.

21. The Journal of Agriculture, and the Transactions of the High-
land and Agricultural Society of Scotland. July 1846.

22. Journal of tlie Asiatic Society of Bengal. Three numbers for the
year 1846. ,

23. American Journal of Science and Arts. Conducted by Messrs
Sillimans and James D. Dana. May 1846.

434 List of Patents.

List of Patents granted for Scotland from 2bth Ju?ie to
21st September 1846.

1. To John Davie Morries Stirling, of Black Grange, in North
Britain, Esq., " certain new alloys and metallic compounds, with a method
of welding the same, and other metals." — 25th June 1846.

2. To John Mercer, of Oakenshaw, in the county of Lancaster, and
John Greenwood, of Church, in the same county, chemist, " certain im-
provements in dyeing and printing turkey red and other colours." — 26th
June 1846.

3. To Peter Fairbairn, of Leeds, Esq., " certain improvements in
atmospheric railways," being a communication from abroad. — 30th June
1846.

4. To Elijah Galloway, of 14 Buckingham Street, Strand, in the
county of Middlesex, civil engineer, " improvements in locomotive en-
gines."—2d July 1846.

5. To William Henry Burke, of Tottenham, in the county of Middle-
sex, gentleman, " certain improvements in the manufacture of fabrics,
which may, if required, be made air and waterproof, a part of the mate-
rials employed herein, when combined with other matters, being intended
to produce coverings for vessels of capacity." — 3d July 1846.

6. To John Fatham, of Rochdale, in the county of Lancaster, machine-
maker, David Cheetham, of the same place, machine-maker, and John
Wallace Duncan, of Manchester, in the same county, gentleman, " cer-
tain improvements in machinery, or apparatus to be used in the prepara-
tion and spinning of cotton and other fibrous substances." — 3d July 1846.

7. To Antoine Perpigna, of Paris, in the kingdom of France, advo-
cate, being a communication from abroad, " improvements in regulators
for qualifying the actions of mechanical powers." — 6th July 1846.

8. To George Leach Ashworth, of Rochdale, in the county of Lan-
caster, cotton-spinner, and Wilson Crossley, of the same place, mana-
ger, " certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for preparing and
spinning cotton and other fibrous substances." — 7th July 1846.

9. To William Pidding, of Wigmore Street, in the county of Mid-
dlesex, gentleman, " an improved process for preserving the flavour of
coffee and cocoa, or of any preparations thereof, from the effects of the
atmosphere."— 8th July 1846.

10. To Charles Hancock, of Grosvener Place, in the county of Mid-
dlesex, gentleman, " certain improvements in the manufacture of gutta
percha, and its application alone and in combination with other sub-
stances."—10th July 1846.

11. To Michel Borgognon, of No. 15 New Broad Street, in the city
of Jyondon, gentleman, being a communication from abroad, " certain
improvements in producing artificial basaltic lavas." — 13th July 1846.

12. To Charles Chinnock, of Seymour Place, Little Chelsea, gen-
tleman, " improvements in the construction and methods of extending
and compressing articles of furniture and domestic use, also applicable to
cutlery, workmen's tools, window blinds, shutters, and similar useful pur-
poses."—16th July 1846.

13. To Peter Taylor, of Hollinwood, near Manchester, machinist,
*' certain improvements in machinery for propelling vessels, carriages,
and machinery, parts of which improvements are applicable to drawing

List of Patents. 435

and propelling fluids, also improvements in the construction of vessels." —
21st July 1846.

14. To Nicholas Francois Corbin Desboissierres, of Rue St Pierre,
Montmaitre, in the kingdom of France, gentleman, *' improvements in
preparing and burning fuel." — 21st July 1846.

15. To GusTAF Victor Gustasson, late of Sweden, but now of War-
ren Street, Fitzroy Square, in the county of Middlesex, engineer, " cer-
tain improvements in steam-engines." — 22d July 1846.

16. To Henry Hiohton, of Rugby, in the county of Warwick, Mas-
ter of Arts, " improvements in electric telegraphs." — 23d July 1846.

17. To William Seed, of Preston, in the county of Lancaster, ma-
chine-maker, " certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for pre-
paring, slubbing, and roving cotton and other fibrous substances." — 23d
July 1846.

18. Robert Hodgson, of Neckinger Road, Bermondsey, in the county
of Surrey, gentleman, ** certain improvements in propelling vessels, and in
the machinery for working the same." — 28th July 1846.

19. To Augustus William Hillary, of No. 66 Cadogan Place, Chel-
sea, but at present residing at No. 146 Avenue des Champs Elysees, in
the city of Paris, Esquire, '* improvements in the manufacture of gas." —
29th July 1846.

20. To Lawrence Hill junior, of Glasgow, civil and mechanical en-
gLnecr, being a communication from Henry Burden, of Tfoy, in the
United States of America,, and partly by invention of his own, " im-
provements in the manufacture of iron for building ships and boats, and
other vessels, and in instruments, machinery, and apparatus to be used
in the said construction." — 29th July 1846.

21. To Hugh Greaves, of Hulme, in the parish of Manchester, in the
county of Lancaster, engineer, *' improvements in the construction of rail-
ways, and in the vehicles to be used thereon." — 3d August 1 846.

22. To David Yoolon Stewart, of Montrose, in the kingdom of Scot-
land, iron-founder, " implements in moulding iron and brass." — 5th Au-
gust 1846.

23. To John Augustin Alexis Sauvage, of tiie Rue Richen, Paris,
in the kingdom of France, mechanist, " improvements in condensing
the steam of steam-engines, and in supplying water to steam-engine
boilers."— 5th August 1846.

24. To Christopher Binks, of Friars Goose House, in the county of
Durham, chemist, '' improvements in the manufacture, and in the appli-
cation to useful purposes, of certain compounds of nitrogen and of car-
bon, more particularly cyanogen, ammonia, and their compounds." — 6th
August 1846.

25. To John Simson, of Riche's Court, Lime Street, in the city of Lon-
don, merchant, being a communication from abroad, " certain improve-
ments in machinery for preparing and spinning flax and other fibrous
materials." — 10th August 1846.

36. To John Brocklehurst, of Holburn, in the county of Middlesex,
laimp-manufacturer, " certain improvements in the hanging and discon-
necting of window sashes and frames." — 10th August 1846.

37. To Robert Robinson, of Strines, in the county of Derby, calico-
printer, and Thomas Bowden, of the same place, mechanic, ** certain im-
provements in machinery for washing and cleaj[\sing cotton, linen, or
woollen fabrics."— 13th August 1846.

436 List of Patents.

28. To Robert William Thomson, of Adam Street, Adelplii, in the
county of Middlesex, civil-engineer, " an improvement in carriage-wheels,
which is also applicable to other rolling bodies." — 13th August 1846.

29. To Richard Whytock (extension of a patent to), of Edinburgh,
manufacturer, for the term of five years, the original patent granted on
the 21st September 1832, for " an improved method or manufacture
which facilitates the production of regular figures or patterns on different
fabrics, particularly velvets, velvet-pile, and Brussels, Wilton, and Tur-
key carpets, with a saving of material." — l7th August 1846.

30. To Peter Claussen, of Leicester Square, in the county of Mid-
dlesex, Esq., "certain improvements in machinery for weaving." — 18th
August 1846.

31. To James Montgomery, of Salisbury Street, in the county of Mid-
dlesex, engineer, " certain improvements in the construction of steam-
boilers and steam-engines, and in steam-vessels and the machinery for
propelling the same." — 18th August 1846.

32. To William Nicholson, of Manchester, in the county of Lan-
caster, engineer, and George Wadsworth, of Sutton Glass- Works, in
the same county, manager, " certain improvements in the manufacture of
glass and other vitreous products." — 2d September 1846.

33. To Moses Poole, of the Patent Office, London, gentleman, being
a communication from abroad, " improvements in treating vegetable
fibres to render them applicable to the manufacture of paper." — 2d Sep-
tember 1846.

34. To James Warren, of Montague Terrace, Mile-End Road, in
the county of Middlesex, gentleman, " improvements in the manufacture
of cast screws." — 2d September 1846.

35. To John Spenceley, of Whitstable, in the county of Kent, master
blockmaker, " improvements in the construction of ships and other ves-
sels, and also improvements in apparatus to be attached to ships and
other vessels." — 3d September 1846.

36. To Frank Hills, of Deptford, in the county of Kent, manufac-
turing chemist, " a method or methods of treating certain gases and
manufacturing sulphuric acid, muriatic acid, acetic acid, and certain salts
of potasb." — 3d September 1846.

37. To Robert Nisbet, of Lambden, in the county of Berwick, Esq.,
" certain improvements in locomotive engines and railways," — 4th Sep-
tember 1846.

38. To Frederick Grace Calvert, of Paris, in the kingdom of
France, chemist, " improvements in the preparation of the article called
fute, rendering the same applicable for various useful purposes." — 9th
September 1846.

$•9. To Charles Dowse, of Camden Town, in the county of Middle-
sex, gentleman, " improvements in the manufacture and finishing of
fabrics, capable of being used as substitutes for paper." — 11th Septem-
ber 1846.

40. To James William Bowman, of Great Alie Street, Goodman's
the county of Middlesex, sugar-refiner, " improvements in re-
mimal charcoal." — 21st September 1846.
Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents, QQ
^ane, in the county of Middlesex, mechanical draughtsman,
mnicatiim from abroad, " certain improvements in machin-
ifacturing Screws." — -2l8t September 1846.

INDEX.

Adamson, Kev. M., on marine deposits on the margin of Loch Lo-
mond, 72.

Adie, R., of Liverpool, account of thermo-electrical experiments, 352.

Agassiz, Professor, on the ichthyological fauna of the old red sand-
stone, 17.

Alison, Dr, on the principle of vital affinity, 132, 272.

Amber, on the insects it contains, by Professor Pictet, 391.

Anderson, Thomas, M.D., F.R.S.E., on the constitution and proper-
ties of picoline, a new organic base from coal-tar, 146, 291.

Annelides, on the development of, 430.

Arago, M., Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences,
on prognostication of the weather, 1.

Arthur Seat, observations on its polished and striated rocks, by David
Milne, Esq., F.R.S., &c., 206.

Atmosphere, observations on its limits, by H. Meikle, 385 — Sul-
phur in, by Boussingault, 414.

Aurunci, ancient city of, its site, &c., by Dr Charles Daubeny,
F.R.S.. &c., 213.

Bat, fossil species of, found in the tertiary formations of Weisenau,

417.
Beaches, ancient, near Stirling, account of, by Charles Maclaren,

Esq., F.R.S.E., 402.
Birds, respiratory apparatus of, described, 427 — Vocal organs of,

described, 428 — On their classification, by John Hogg, Esq.,

F.R.S., &c.,50.
Blood, colour of, in Planorbis imbricatus, 429.

Cleavage of slate- strata, account of, 422.

VOL. XLI. NO. LXXXII. — OCTOBER 1846. 2 F

438 Index.

Cole's Cave in Barbadoes described, by Dr John Davy, 355.
Connell, Arthur, Professor, analysis of the American mineral Ke*
malite, 387,

Dana, J. D., on the origin of the constituent and adventitious mine-
rals of traps and allied rocks, 195, 263.

Daubeny, Dr Charles, on the site of the ancient city of the Aurunci,
and the volcanic phenomena it exhibits ; with some remarks on
craters of elevation, and on the distinction between plutonic and
Tolcanic rocks, and on the theories of volcanic action which are
at present most in repute, 213,

Davy, Dr John, his miscellaneous observations, chiefly chemical,
255 — On the cause of induration of some siliceous sandstones,
300 — Account of Cole's Cave in the Island of Barbadoes, 355,

Earthquake in Tuscany, Marseilles, on 19th August 1846, 423.

Eichwald, Dr E., on a gigantic stag, 425.

Escher de la Linth, on glaciers in Switzerland, 344,

Forbes, James, Professor, eleventh letter on glaciers by, 414.

Fluoride of calcium, its solubility in water, considered by Dr Wil-
son, 205.

Fleming, the Rev. John, on the recent Scottish madrepores, with
remarks on the climatic character of the extinct races, 203.

Fish, the statics of, considered, 429.

Frogs, new species of, found in Tertiary formations of Osnabruck,
424.

Glaciers, observations on, in Switzerland, by M. Escher de la Linth,

344 — observations on, by Prof. J. D. Forbes, 414.
Guiana, natives of, described by Sir R. Schomburgk, 361.

Hearing apparatus in the moUusca considered, 430.

Hogg, John, F.R.S., &c., on the classification of birds, and parti-
cularly of the genera of European birds, 50.

Horner, Leonard, F.R.S., President of the Geological Society of
London, &c., his anniversary address, delivered at the meeting
of the Geological Society, 75, 303.

Index. 439

Indian tribes of the north-west coast of America, by Dr Scouler,
168.

Lomond, Loch, marine deposits on its margin, noticed by Rev. J.

Adamson, 72.
Lion as an article of food, 418.

Maclaren, Charles, Esq., F.R.S.E., on ancient beaches near Stirling,
402.

Meikle, H., Esq., on the limits of the atmosphere, and on compen-
sation pendulums, 385.

Milne, David, F.R.S.E., his observations on the polished and striated
rocks of Arthur Seat, 206.

MoUusca, their organs of hearing considered, 430.

Moon, its surface considered, by Captain Rozet, 128.

Nemalite, an American mineral, analyzed by Professor Connell, 387.

Patents, list of, granted for Scotland, from 23d March to 22d June
1846, 208— from 25th June to 21st September, 1846, 434.

Reid, Governor of Bermuda, on the winds, 1 92.
Rogers, Professor, on the cleavage of slate-strata, 414.
Rozet, Captain, on the surface of the moon, 128.

Sandstones, siliceous, on their induration, by Dr John Davy, 300.
Schomburgk, Sir R., account of the natives of Guiana, 361.
Scouler, Dr John, on the Indian tribes of the north-west coast of

America, 168.
Scottish madrepores, observations on, by the Rev. Dr John Fleming,

203.
Stag, gigantic, account of, by Dr E. Eichwald, 425.
Stuart, J, G., on the turbine water-wheel erected at Balgonie Mills,

Fifeshire, 156.

Trap-rocks, the origin of their constituent and adventitious minerals,
by J. D. Dana, 195, 263.

Wilson, Dr G., on the solubility of fluoride of calcium in water, and

440

Index.

the relation of this property to the occurrence of that substance
in minerals, and in recent fossil plants and animals, 205.
Winds, on, as influencing the tracts sailed by the Bermuda vessels;
and on the advantage which may be derived from sailing on
curved courses, when meeting with progressive revolving winds,
by Governor Reid, of Bermuda, 192.

END OF VOLUME FORTY-ONE.

PmisTED BY NEILL AND COAU ANY, EDINBUKaH.