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: ‘THE 
_ MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


GEOLOGY 


. ; ay gy RY erm peas eet 


NATURAL SCIENCE; 
3 é : _ EXHIBITING THE PRESENT STATE AND PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE IN 


a - ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, MINERALOGY, COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, CHEMISTRY, 

4 L Soar ee METEOROLOGY, PHYSICAL NATURAL AGENTS, AND Eales 

Me a = ANTIQUITIES AND LANGUAGES OF THE , ey 
INDIANS OF THIS CONTINENT. : Yd Seok steele 


CONDUCTED BY 


G. W. ‘FEATHERS TONHAUGH, Bon, 
"Fellow of the Geological Society of London; Member of the American Philosophical Society 


of Philadelphia; of the New York x Lgccuntf Natural History; of the te ne) of Natural 
Sciences Philadelphia, &c. &e, &e. « 


JULY, 1831. 


TO BE CONTINUED MONTHLY. 


Ahtlavelphia : 


PUBLISHED: BY HENRY H. PORTER, 


aT THE OFFICE OF THE JOURNAL OF HEALTH, FAMILY LIBRARY or HESP?Y; ke. 
taney Rooms, 121 Chesnut Street. 


1831, * 
aes $3 50 ee annum, Ble en 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
Prospectus, - - - - “ Pro ate 1 | 
Introduction, - - - 2 8 . S 3 ’ La a 


Rhinoceroides Alleghaniensis, wie Aah tie Ma aR ay ee SR 10 
On the ancient drainage of North:America, and. the origin.of the 


Cataract of Niagara, . a Ss M4 : b: aint 14 
The Diary of a Naturalist, aieae ‘i if IN core 21 
On Nomenclature, - = > i = Ys i 28 - 


Adjudication of the Wollaston Medal, to William Smith, -  - 29 
The Earl of Bridgewater’s Becueie sia) Balt. am ets eS g 
Influence of climate on fruitfulness of ‘cee asia ep mia 4 36 
Report to the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, on Fossil 

Bones from Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, - ‘ <Uigace - Ce 
Mr. Cooper’s Denial, i Lain as A Nie Ba Aes 2 ae 
Dr. Harlan’s paper on a new species of Megalonyx and Fucoides - 45 
Biennial Election of the President of the Geological Society of London, 45 
Death of Captain Foster, of the Chanticleer, - - -  - 46 
Bone Caves in New Holland, sD Hees, i SN SSNs SS geno OM, 
New Publications, - “ F) Pa ee 4 A “ At 


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Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-one, by Henry H. Porter, in the Clerk’s Office of the 
District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Penn- 
sylyania. 


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MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 


GEOLOGY* 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. I. Puivapecpuis, Jury, 1831. No. 1. 
PROSPECTUS. 


Natura History, at this time, engrosses a conspicuous portion 
of the literature of Europe. In our own country, at no period 
of its history, has a growing inclination for the study of nature 
manifested itself so decidedly as at this moment. We perceive 
this, in the favour with which numerous European republica- 
tions are received here; in the general solicitude for an accurate 
exposition of the geology of this continent, and the impatience 
of our naturalists, restrained as they are from bringing forward, 
fairly and intelligently, the phenomena of American nature, and 
comparing them with those of trans-atlantic countries. 

In Europe, naturalists form an extensive community, governed 
by the pure love of the science of nature. There is not a 
branch of natural knowledge that is not under investigation there, 
by men eminent in science. The study of the structure of our 
planet, and of the causes of those frequent renewals of its ancient 
surfaces; the dawnings of vegetable and animal organization, 
and their subsequent progress in functionary importance through — 
those ancient surfaces, to the last order of creation, where man 
appears; the relation in which organized bodies have at all times 
stood to each other, both in respect to structure and subsistence ; 
and their general manifestation of the benevolence and power of 
God: in all these branches of natural knowledge, the European 
philosophers have deeply engaged themselves, drawing their illus- 
trations indifferently from every part of their continent. i 

Amidst these general contributions to science, it is painful to 


* At the suggestion of numerous friends we have added the word Geology to our title.. : 


Vor. 1.—1. 


h - ¢ a * oF : Nae a . on — 
z Prospectus. * 


perceive what conspicuous blanks are yet left for America to 
fill up, and especially in those important branches, American 
geology and American organic remains. This feeling is greatly 
increased by the occasional taunts and sneers we see directed — 
against us, in foreign scientific works. ‘They are aimed, it is 
true, against individuals insignificant enough to elude them, and 
therefore the larger body, the nation, is hit and wounded by 
them. Neither is there any defence open to us. We send 
abroad gigantic stories of huge antediluvian lizards, “larger 
than the largest size ;” and we ourselves are kept upon the 
stare at our own wonders, from Georgia to Maine, until we find 
out we have been’ exulting over the stranded remains of a com- 
mon spermaceti whale. At this present moment, a huge animal, 
dug out of the Big-bone-lick, sixty feet long, and twenty-five 
feet high, is parading through the columns of the European 
newspapers, after making its progress through our own. This 
is, what every naturalist supposed it to be, also a great imposi- 
tion. Within these few days, too, a piece of one of our common 
coal plants, has been, with great note of preparation, conjured 
into a petrified rattle-snake. All these jibes and reproaches we 
ought to have been spared. There ought to have been the ready 
means amongst us, together with the independence and intelli- 
gence, to put down these impostures and puerilities as they arose. 

It is for this object, as well as for the diffusion of the love of 
science at home, that this monthly journal is about to be esta- 
blished. Without any previous promise of patronage, it is offered 
to a numerous and intelligent community, and will seek to win 
its way to favour, by the industry, accuracy, and fair dealing 
of its editor, and by the enlightened philosophic spirit, unac- 
quainted with pedantry, of the minds that will preside over it. 
If it should fail of success, the editor will always be able to make 
an honourable retreat, and not before he will have done some 
good. But of this he is not afraid. Sustained by the gifted 
friends who will come to his aid, both from Europe and from this 
country, the proofs of which he soon hopes to submit to the 
public, he enters upon the undertaking with cheerful confidence. 
He sees in the now restrained talents and knowledge around him, 
and in the ample.domain of American nature, materials, that 
only wait to be touched, to start into life: and it is upon those 
talents he will call, and upon the public at large, to assist him 


ee ee 
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f . 


‘ ; Prospectus. 3 


to vindicate the natural history of America, and the reputation 
of American naturalists. 

It is proposed to issue one number of this work monthly ; each 
number to consist of fifty pages, with appropriate figures and 
illustrations, got up in an instructive and artist like manner. 

Each number will contain a continuous Essay on Geology as 
a science, treated in an elementary manner, divested of all 
technicalities; so that the great principles, from which philoso- 
phical views of the arrangements and operations of nature are 
drawn, may be lucidly brought forward. 

The various branches of Natural History, Zoology, Botany, 
Mineralogy, Meteorology, and the nature and forces of all physical 
natural agents, will be treated of and illustrated in a familiar 
and instructive manner. 

Comparative Anatomy, together with the habits and propen- 
sities of animals; also the phenomena attending vegetable na- 
ture, especially American nature, whether fossil or recent, will 
be liberally discussed in the pages of this journal. 

It is the intention of the editor to insert occasional papers on 
the aboriginal] antiquities of this country, and on the structure of 
the Indian languages. All communications which aim at illus- 
trating the physical and moral progress of our own species, will 
be favourably received. 

The state of trans-atlantic natural science will be reviewed 
in each number. All new discoveries, and able examinations 
of their bearing upon natural science, will be noticed. Chemistry 
will be included as applied to all changes in nature. 

Critical reviews and examinations of works on natural history 
will occasionally appear. Upon all these important subjects, 
approved original papers from correspondents, bearing the stamp 
of good sense, will be published on convenient occasions, leaving 
the writer responsible for facts and opinions. 

It being intended to make this work accessible to the greatest 
number of readers, with a view to the most extensive diffusion 
of the knowledge of nature, it will be issued at an expense to 
the public, as low as the experiment can possibly be made with 
reasonable hopes of continuing the work.—The price, therefore, 
for about six hundred pages annually, with at least twelve oc- 
tavo plates, illustrating a great variety of objects, is limited to 
$3 50 yearly. 


4 Prospectus. 


As it is indispensable to the support and continuance of this 
work, that the proprietor be not exposed to the losses and delays 
attending the collection of so small a sum, it will be required to 
be paid on subscription, and will not be furnished without. 

All scientific communications, post-paid, to be addressed, “To 
the Editor of the Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natu- 
ral Science, Philadelphia.” 

Communications on business to be addressed to “ Henry H. 
Porter, proprietor of the Literary Rooms, &c. 121 Chesnut street, 
Philadelphia.” 

The work will be conducted by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Esq. 
Fellow of the Geological Society of London, Member of the 
American Philosophical Society, &c. &c. 

Joun Marvon, Bookseller, No.30, Jewin Crescent, Jewin street, 
Aldersgate, London, England, Agent. 

Philadelphia, May 20th, 1831. 


ae 


INTRODUCTION. 


WE are pledged in the Prospectus, to give in each number “a 
continuous Essay on Geology as a science, treated in an elemen- 
tary manner, divested of all technicalities: so that the great 
principles, from which philosophical views of the arrangements 
and operations of nature are drawn, may be lucidly brought for- 
ward.” 

A series of such Essays, carried on, as we love to hope it will 
be, for a long period of time to come, will comprehend particu- 
lars of the highest importance, and form, at length, a work of 
some magnitude. Moved, therefore, by a desire to open the most 
ample field for the instruction and amusement of our-readers, we 
propose to begin to redeem that pledge, by drawing up an epitome 
of the progress of Natural Science. But first we would re- 
mark, that there are many persons who have not yet turned their 
attention to Natural History, and who are still deterred from 
doing it, by the apparently insurmountable difficulties presented 
by the multifarious objects in nature, and the technicalities and 
names, so far apart from the ordinary terms of language. Such 
persons are agreeably disappointed, when they come to discover 
how gentle the gradations are between each step in the order of 


a 


—————————— |, 


i ie igs Bm 


Introduction. 5 


nature. A nomenclature raised upon artificial systems, and 
which has not for its basis the general harmony which connects 
all the parts of creation, is as repulsive, as it is unprofitable; for 
it disconnects the student from nature, the sole object of his pur- 
suit. Such nomenclatures are becoming unpopular, natural sys- 
tems are taking their place. The progress of science is uncer- 
tain and unsatisfactory, when it is attempted by any other means 
than practical observations of the affinities of the parts of nature. 
This is the true basis of all classification. Direct agreements be- 
tween any two natural objects, form a true nucleus for natural 
families, which we increase by the accession of other individuals 
existing under the same conditions. The division of animated 
nature into two great groupes, vertebral and invertebral, affords 
great facilities to the student in zoology. ‘Thus, all animals hay- 
ing backbones and skulls, are separated from all those without 
them, and which are protected by shells, and other external 
coverings. Here there is an apparent gap in the order of na- 
ture. Although we can profitably avail ourselves of the advan- 
tage this zoological division affords us in the study of nature, 
yet it by no means authorizes us to say, that nature has here 
made a jump from one scheme of structure to another, but 
rather it becomes us modestly to suppose, that our own observa- 
tion is at fault, and that this apparent gap will ere long be filled 
up by the industry and genius of man. Liberal and active minds 
rejoice most in the contemplation of difficulties of this character; 
and certainly it is wiser, instead of being astounded at this spe- 
cious transition, and proceeding to raise systems upon it, to take 
comfort in it, as hiatus non deflendus. Each of these great 
divisions contains innumerable objects, and by subdividing them, 
and classing those together, which have the most marked affini- 


ties for each other, we at length come to know all the individuals 


in nature, by designations drawn from features, which not only 
separate them from the rest, but which at the same time reflect 
their true place in nature; as the prismatic rays do for the 
beam into which they naturally blend themselves. In this man- 
ner the Conchologist, the Entomologist, the Botanist, the Miner- 
alogist, acquire without effort the knowledge of several hundreds 
of thousands of objects in nature. We advise our readers, then, 
not to be deterred by difficulties which are more apparent than 
real; and not, on this account, to avert themselves from the great 


6 Introduction. 


object of existence, the study of the Creator through his works. 
In the conduct of this periodical, we hope to give proofs that our 
intention is to make ourselves understood: to treat our subjects 
in an elementary and perspicuous manner. In short, we propose 
being useful to our readers, and not to occupy ourselyes with 
making a specious parade of attainments, far short of what it 
becomes us to possess. 

There is another, anda very numerous class of persons, that has 
been deterred from entering upon the study of natural history, 
by prejudices conceived against Geology, a science, which has 
not at all times been fairly treated either by its friends or 
enemies. Geology, in its most comprehensive sense, denotes the 
history of nature ; for its various phenomena present themselves 
to the consideration of the naturalist, in relation with all the 
physical sciences. When geology, therefore, became obnoxious 
to the suspicion, that it was hostile to reyealed religion, the 
study of its branches, to a certain extent, was looked upon with 
distrust, as disposing the mind to scepticism, and to the belief, 
that the parts of nature were independent of their Creator, be- 
cause they partook of the perfection of all his works. The modern 
leaders of geology, have, by their industry, learning, and pru- 
dence, almost eradicated these groundless opinions. 

In the by-gone days of theological zeal, when the majority of 
zealots almost amounted to unanimity, every writer on geology 
was supposed bound to confront all the physical phenomena with 
the construction given in a not very enlightened age, to that brief 
account of the origin of the world, contained in a venerable re- 
cord devoted to the moral instruction of men. . The Theologian 
said to the Naturalist, “« You will find it recorded in the Bible, 
that the world was created out of nothing, about six thousand 
years ago, in the space of six days of our modern computed time ; 
and that about four thousand years ago, it was overwhelmed by 
a deluge of water, which destroyed all living things that did not 
enter into the ark of Noah. The curious petrifactions you say 
you find, are the remains of the animals and plants, which lived 
from the creation to the deluge. This is what you must believe, 
if you will not run the risk of being driven from society as irre- 
ligious and anti-social,” 

In using the terms “ brief account of the origin of the world,” 
in reference to the Mosaic account, it is the construction given to 


Introduction. 7 


a short passage in that Record, which it is mean to impugn, and 
not the record itself, in the reverence of which the writer of 
these pages has been educated. In the ancient patriarchal times, 
men believed the sun went round the earth, in consequence of 
the apparent motion of that luminary. It is stated in the Bible, 
that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, when he encom- 
passed Gibeon; and that “it stood still, and hasted not to go 
down a whole day.” In recording events of a miraculous 
character, it is evident the historian spoke in such figures only 
as could be understood. Had the sacred writer said, that Joshua 
had commanded the earth to stand still, he would not have been 
comprehended. ‘The assertion perhaps would have been deemed 
blasphemous, as contrary to God’s laws. Connected with this 
natural prejudice, the force of education had given an ancient 
construction to the account in Genesis of the creation of the 
world, the effect of which has been to put physical and moral 
truths, apparently at variance with each other. But as truth 
cannot conflict with itself, we must look for the cause of this dis- 
crepancy in human errors. 

It is not with a view to state how utterly hopeless it is to look 
for explanations of physical phenomena in pages consecrated to 
moral instruction; or how equally hopeless, and reprehensible too, 
it would be, to rashly look into revelation by the light of 
geology, that a recurrence to this passage in Genesis, will here 
be made; but rather to reconcile the theologian to a very sim- 
ple construction of the passage alluded to, and which is found in 
the very opening of the Bible. “In the beginning God created 
the heavens and the earth.” Now let the rule of the theologian 
be applied to this passage, and let it receive a Jiteral construc- 
tion. We here find the first notice of creation. We do not find 
it stated that the heavens and the earth were created six thou- 
sand years ago, or at any other definite period of past time. It 
is simply said, “In the beginning,” a term, in the contemplation 
of which, the human mind is lost, amidst feelings of conscious | 
weakness, and inexpressible humility. What that beginning is 
coeval with, we cannot conceive; we cannot come so near to 
that Being, to whom all time is but one present existence: but 
we can conceive painfully, after our human mode of thinking, of 
the solitary existence to which those would assign the universal 
Creator during the immeasurable period that preceded the six 


8 Introduction 


thousand years, at the commencement of which they choose to 
suppose the heavens and the earth were first created. These 
words, then, cannot mean the beginning of eternity, which has 
no beginning, nor are they placed there to assert that creation 
had a beginning, which would be superfluous, since we cannot 
conceive of an act without a beginning. Without reference, 
then, to any time whatever, we must regard it as a declara- 
tion, that the heavens and the earth were created, and by 
God, leaving room for no inference that they existed without 
a maker. 

The next verse is still more explicit—“and the earth was 
without form and void.” Here is a declaration that the earth 
was ; that its creation had been effected, antecedently to that 
period of time usually called the six days of creation. Such we 
may suppose to have been the geological state of the earth, void 
of all living forms, at the period immediately preceding the 
establishment of the present order of nature, and which is stated 
to have been effected in the distribution of the six days’ work men- 
tioned in Genesis. Now we find no allusion in the Bible to the 
geological periods which preceded the restoration of. the surface, 
or to the mineral and organic evidences which we now find, un- 
der such various circumstances, in the crust of the earth, and 
many of which lie at vast depths from the present surface. The 
inspired historian, had he been competent to the disclosure, 
would probably have deemed it foreign to the moral purpose he 
had in view, and would have preferred leaving such discoveries 
to the restless inquiries of man, always seeking to enlarge the 
boundaries of knowledge, and destined to construct, out of geo- 
logical phenomena, one of the strongest bulwarks of natural 
theology. 

It is evident, that it was not a principal object in the narrative 
of the Jewish cosmogony, to make such allusions, or to treat the 
physical subjects spoken of with any particular accuracy. The 
evenings and the mornings of the first, second, and third days are 
enumerated, before the creation of the sun is mentioned; and 
yet evening and morning can correspond to no portions of time, 
save those fixed by the setting and rising of the sun. It is on the 
fourth day only, the creation of the sun is mentioned. From these 
considerations, it may be reasonably maintained, that the ac- 
count of the creation, in Genesis, concerns only the present order 


> Introduction. 9 


of nature, and is by no means involved with the ancient geologi- 
cal periods that precede all records. Under the influence of a 
spirit of mutual candour, we see here a common ground for the 
Theologian and Geologist to stand comfortably upon. One which 
brings prejudice neither to religion nor science, and which ad- 
mits of our mutually co-operating to eradicate entirely the an- 
cient errors, that our small planet was the sole motive of universal 
creation, that it is the centre of the universe, that the sun rolls 
round it, and that no part of it existed more than six thousand 
years ago. The greater part of this mass of error has indeed been 
in modern times, isolated and extirpated, but its influence still 
exists, in that most erroneous opinion which substitutes for the 
creation of the earth, the renovation of its surface. 

It results from this method of considering the subject, that our 
planet is immeasurably more ancient, than the period assigned for 
its age, by the chronological constructions that have obtained so 
long, and that this immense antiquity is by no means at variance 
with the account in Genesis. - 

We shall close this first part of the duty we have imposed upon 
ourselves with these remarks. In our next number we propose 
entering upon an epitome of the rise and progress of natural 
science. At our opening of this great subject, we have been 
anxious to point out, what, in our opinion, have hitherto constituted 
material objections to the study of natural history. The first ob- 
jection, connected with nomenclature and technicalities, it will 
be our duty to obviate; and we shall study to make our various 
subjects both instructive and agreeable, by explaining nature in 
such language as may befit the simplicity of her own operations. 
And in relation to the other point, we have no intention, and 
think we run no risk, of wounding the tenderest conscience. Our 
own opinions have long gravitated to a point far short of the ex- 


tremes of bigotry and scepticism. Experience has made us indif 


ferent to all theories which cannot be sustained by admitted facts, 
and a steady advance from the known to the unknown. 

About to be booked in the mail for a long journey with our 
readers, over a country we are familiar with, we shall upon all 
occasions, endeavour to communicate what we know, in an un- 
pretending and friendly manner. We shall not entirely rely upon 
the ducks, the geese, and the hay-stacks to be seen on the road, 
for conversation. And when we part, and our readers continue 

Vox. J.—2 


10 Rhinoceroides Allegh aniensis. 


their travels without us, we are not without hopes that some of 
them will kindly say of us, that we were a useful and pleasant 
travelling companion. Eprror. 


RHINOCEROIDES ALLEGHANIENSIS. 


Extract of a letter addressed to the Rev. Dr. Buckland, Oxford, containing a de- 
scription of a fossil fragment of the jaw of an extinct animal, forming a new 
genus of the order Pachydermata, and provisionally named Rhinoceroides Alle- 
ghaniensis.—Vide Plate I. 


“In a former communication to Roderick J. Murchison, Esq., 
which was read before the Geological Society, the 2d January, 
1829, I observed, that no trace of the Rhinoceros had been yet 
discovered on this continent. 

“ About fourteen months ago, I was so fortunate as to come into 
the possession* of a fossil having some very peculiar characters. 
I communicated to some friends at the time, that I had strong 
grounds to believe in the ancient existence here, of an animal ap- 
proximating to the genus Rhinoceros. The anomalous character 
of this fossil, which consists of part of a jaw and two teeth, in fine 
preservation, made me hesitate about the publication of it. After 
much deliberation, I have at this time great confidence that there 
is no fallacy to be apprehended, and therefore I transmit a very 
excellent cast of the fossil to you, requesting you to present it, to- 
gether with this communication, to the Geological Society, in my 
name. The cast being a composition of wax and lime, has shrunk 
in length half an inch, and otherwise in proportion. I shall, as 
soon as it is finished, transmit an engraving of the fossil, having 
the proper proportions. 

“The mineral composition of this fragment, gives it a very 
anomalous character, and is a circumstance entitled to the par- 
ticular consideration of geologists. ‘There is nothing of the nature 
of bone about it, except the form: the whole substance, the teeth 
included, being constituted of an aggregate of small quartzose 
particles; and presenting the appearance, not of a gradual sub- 
stitution by mineral infiltration, to osseous matter, but of a cast of 
part of a jaw and teeth, formed of small quartzose grit, and giv- 

* By the kindness of my friend Benjamin Wright, Esq. He received it from 


Robert Fulton, Esq., who has obligingly furnished me the details of the locality 
where he obtained it. 


Rhinoceroides Alleghaniensis. 11 


ing a semi-translucency to the teeth, which is wanting to the 
more opaque jaw. ‘These circumstances are somewhat imitated 
in the cast. 

“Tt was found about three feet from the surface, lying imme- 
diately beneath the roots of an oak tree, 24 inches in diameter, 
which had been blown down, and was entirely rotten. The soil 
from which it was dug, was the common superficial soil, or dilu- 
vium of the country, as it is represented to me. I hope to visit 
the place this summer, and shall then have an opportunity of as- 
certaining whether the soil is alluvial or diluvial. Being found 
on the Castleman river, it may probably be the first—for I am 
not yet in possession of authentic evidence, that any organic re- 
mains of terrestrial quadrupeds, have been found in this country, 
in that deposit we are accustomed to call diluvium. The locality 
is in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on Castleman’s river, about 
13 miles above the village of Turkey-foot. The superficial soil 
reposes on the mill-stone grit and shale, which is there superin- 
cumbent on the carboniferous lime-stone. There is much bitu- 
minous coal in that region. ; 

“Dr. Harlan, of this city, an experienced comparative anato- 
mist, was kind enough to take the comparative dimensions be- 
tween this fossil, and the corresponding jaw of a rhinoceros indi- 
cus; a skeleton of which animal, lately imported from India, has 
been admirably set up by him, in the hall of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, in this city. ‘Those dimensions, which I now 
add, have been since verified by myself. 


DESCRIPTION OF A FOSSIL FRAGMENT OF A JAW, WITH TWO INCISORS. 


Comparative dimensions between it and the corresponding Jaw of the 
Rhinoceros Indicus, of Cuvier. 


RHINOCEROS INDICUS, CUVIER. FOSSIL FRAGMENT. 
Inch. 10ths. Inch. 10ths. 


Length of the right intermaxillary bone, infe- 
rior border, on a level with the avs 3 0 
process, : 

Length of the rae eae, 

Greatest height of intermaxillary bone, . 

Greatest thickness, 

Distance from the duteitxiMloary sila a 
the place of the first molar, 


oOo K WER 
oO mm dw oo 


12 Rhinoceroides Alleghaniensis. 


Inch. 10ths. Inch. 10ths 


Shortest diameter in height of the superior 2 17 
maxillary bone, anterior to the molars, 
Length of the single incisor, . . . .. ae 
Wosokthe 2, cisors,*. ee eo eune es: 
Height of the same, . . vf 8 
Distance from the anterior eorenaaet wid 
to the curve upwards, to form the anterior 6 be 5 
nares, : : 
Length of the Biting ah ao the piers 1 2 
incisor of fossil, sana 
Do. 5 2b 4 WOOF the: aE do. do. Fic 
Total eet ef the fossil fragment, . : 6 


“Tfind nothing in the works of Baron Cuvier, or any other na- 
turalist, which indicates any knowledge of this animal in Europe; 
and it is, as far as I am apprised, the first specimen of the kind 
discovered in America. Notwithstanding the affinity, which the 
agreement of these comparative dimensions appears to establish 
between it and the genus rhinoceros, still, the great space be- 
tween the intermaxillary suture, (very distinct in the fossil,) and 
the place of the first molar, being in the fossil twice as much as 
in the recent R. Indicus: also the occupation by two incisors in 
the fossil, of the space allotted to one incisor in the R. Indicus, 
are conspicuous characters, which establish it as a new genus of 
the order Pachydermata. 

“T forbear to ground any argument for a great antiquity to this 
fossil, from its mineral structure ; and I leave to more experienced 
naturalists to determine, whether its period ought to be referred 
nearer to the Paleotherium, than to the elephant; the last of 
which animals, has left many remains here. 

“Unwilling to designate it by any fanciful or philonymic ap- 
pellation, and thinking that by some naturalists it may be judged 
to stand in the same relation to the genus rhinoceros, that the 
elephant does to the mastodon, I have provisionally named it 
Rhinoceroides Alleghaniensis, by which appellation I have at- 
tempted to convey in the simplest terms, its con-generic relation, 
and its territorial habitat. J remain, my dear sir, most faithfully 
yours, G. W. Fratuersronnaven. 

Philadelphia, April 3, 1831. 


Mito tS 


Rever Niagara 


i, Ae Shore 


G.%ible Rock, Carboneferous L 150F* Pryen’ 
H. Ridge of Dituviunt OF! above Table Rovk « 
: 


Opper Canada Shore and overying wd. 


Goa Wsland. 
Horse A Shoe Fadel 
Schlosser Fake 


| . Phe Rapes on the Cherty Beds of y-€ Carbs 
J. West Brow of Goaé [sland 198 Ftlerjnen.” 
163 F* FerzeenK. Width of Brow 1287 F'¢ 
W074 W cde 


From Coal lslan@ loTable Rok...../281 Fé 
Gurratire of Horse Shoe Fall......-.... 36 . 
Width of the River Niagara trom the) 

gee : (,,. S940. 
hast End of Goat [stared | 


FLAT VIEW OF THE 
CATARACT OF NIAGARA. 


Ancient Drainage of North America, fc. 13 


ON THE ANCIENT DRAINAGE OF NORTH AMERICA, AND THE 
ORIGIN OF THE CATARACT OF N IAGARA. 


By G. W. Featherstonhaugh. 


I suatt in this paper make some general observations upon 
the ancient drainage of North America, and then apply the 
operating principle to the history of the origin of the Cataract 
of Niagara. 

Mr. Ure, in his new system of Geology, when discussing the 
influence which streams have had upon their beds, observes, 
(page 356,) “ Historical documents all concur to prove, that 
streams possessing the greatest power that can be ascribed to 
them, have no appreciable erosive action upon the rocks over 
which they run.” If this passage were limited to the influence 
they have upon the surface of their beds when covered with 
water, it could not be so easily disproved; but as it seems to in- 
clude every possible mode by which streams can act upon their 
beds,—and these are various ;—it deserves some consideration. 
The beds of many rivers of this continent, remain dry during a 
great portion of the year. The floors shrink and expand, as 
the weather alternates from moist to dry. Almost all the shales 
disintegrate, and indeed it may be said of all rocks laid bare, 
that they gradually yield to the influence of weather. The 
returning floods bear away the loosened fragments, and thus, in 
long periods of time, streams come to have a powerful action over 
their beds, widening their courses, and wearing their beds to 
great depths. But there are other circumstances, differing from 
these again, under which streams are constantly acting, and which 
prove that they exercise a remarkable erosive influence over 
their beds. These will be adverted to in treating of the origin 
of the cataract of Niagara. 

There are many persons, among the great number who 
annually visit this magnificent waterfall, who cannot be made 
to comprehend, that it is a reasonable matter, to suppose the 
cataract, in ancient times, went over the Queenstown ridge, now 
near six miles distant from the present falls; and an engineer* 
of the state of New York, who appears to have had much expe- 
rience in the surveys of that State, has published a paper in the 
proceedings of a learned society,+ in which he denies that suppo- 


*. Mr. Geddes. t The Albany Iastitute. 


14 Ancient Drainage of North America, §:c. 


sition, and supposes the ravine between Queenstown and the falls, 
through which the river Niagara flows, to be a natural gorge. I 
shall in this paper attempt to settle this question upon strict geo- 
logical principles, and in a manner consistent with those obvious 
features which the physical geography of the lake country 
presents. 

All our fresh waters are first derived from the atmosphere. 
If the surface of the earth had been smooth, without any ine- 
qualities, rains and floods would have abraded and torn it up. 
It would have been irregularly furrowed out in the manner we 
often see fields with a slight inclination. The waters would have 
been constant to no channel. In the train of consequences in- 
volved in such a state of things, we perceive the earth would 
have been uninhabitable. But it was not ordained so: the earth 
was intended to be the cheerful home of countless myriads of 
animals, susceptible of benevolent pleasures. The “ dry land” 
was made to appear. Mountains were raised by subterranean 
power, and valleys were consequently formed. Instead of some 
parts of the earth being deluged with rains, and others remaining 
for years without refreshing showers, we find atmospheric action 
influenced by those mountains, and the rains drawn down upon 
their summits and flanks, furrowing out channels down their 
slopes, to unite themselves hereafter at the lowest levels, where 
the navigable rivers are found, that have contributed so much 
to the civilization of man. The accumulation of snow too upon 
these summits, is an immediate means of the continuity of streams. 
The inequalities of the earth’s surface, form one of the most 
important features of the economy of nature. The face of the 
earth is constituted by a series of elevations and depressions. 
Where the chains of mountains are contiguous, the breadth of 
the valleys is comparatively small. In many instances, such 
valleys had their present terminations anciently obstructed, and 
at such time contained bodies of water. It is an interesting 
study for young Geologists to detect these ancient lakes, and 
find out the points where the waters have been able to discharge 
themselves. Where the chains of mountains lie at great dis- 
tances from each other, the intervening country is to be consi- 
dered as a vast valley or basin, the great rivers flowing through 
the lowest levels, and their tributaries joining them from the 
more elevated terraces of the basin. It is by this admirable 


Se 


a 
ae 


Ancient Drainage of North America, &c. 15 


adaptation of causes, that continents are drained, so many great 
purposes answered, and the whole volume of atmospheric waters 
finally returned to the ocean, whence it is again drawn up into 
the atmosphere, to be again and again distributed upon the earth, 
for its fertilization. 

In seeking the lowest levels, the great rivers frequently em- 
brace in their course, depressions or basins that do not conform 
to their mean breadth. These larger bodies of water, when 
spreading themselves far beyond such mean breadth, are usually 
called lakes. Others, from their extent, are well entitled to be 
called “inland seas.” The origin of such lakes is various, and 
will not be considered at this time. Of the lake of Geneva, how- 
ever, which forms part of the course of the Rhone, it may be 
remarked, that there are geological considerations belonging to 
it, which suggest, that in ancient periods, the vast basin in which 
its waters now rest, did not exist; and that it is not improbable an 
inclined solid plane existed between the Alps and the Jura. The 
small lakes of St. Francois, St. Louis, &c. on the St. Lawrence, are 
instances of this widening of rivers into basins. Lake Superior, and 
the. great body of water constituting lake Michigan and lake 
Huron, belong to the class that might be called inland seas. 

In that very useful and popular volume, “ Darby’s view of 
the United States,” the author has had to struggle,——and not 
very successfully occasionally—through some interesting branches 
of a subject, he has, upon the whole, treated in an able manner. 
The language he holds, at page 65, of the mountains of the 
Appalachian system, being specifically and generally distinct 
from the hills, would, if not quite satisfactory, have been less 
obscure, had he, before venturing on a work of such importance, 
paid proper attention to a science, the value of which does not 
apparently rank very high in bis estimation. Considering that 
his work was published in 1828, this is very surprising. In 
the preface we find the following passage. “Geology, as it 
stands in our books, being a science, (if it deserves the name of 
a science,) of conjecture, I have rejected, as far as practicable, 
terms that teach nothing definite.” What books are here referred 
to, Mr. Darby has not stated; but this may be most truly said, that 
books were extant before 1828, the study of which would have 
enabled him to define, in a very precise manner, the particulars 
upon, which every branch of physical geography depends, and 


16 Ancient Drainage of North America, &c. 


especially, above all the rest, a system for mountain ranges. 
No man can reason luminously about the origin of mountains, or 
concerning their specific or generic character, to use Mr. Darby’s 
terms, who is not a competent practical geologist. This im- 
portant branch of American geology, remains yet to be judi- 
ciously treated of. 

In this paper, the leading features only of this branch will be 
adverted to. A great portion of this continent is occupied by 
a central basin, the walls of which are constituted by ranges of 
mountains lying at great distances from each other. Long’s 
Peak, is 15,000 feet high; this is the greatest known elevation 
of the Chippewayan or Rocky mountains. From thence the 
country slopes eastward. The plains on its east flanks, are 
about 3000 feet high, being near the medium elevation of the 
Alleghany mountains, which may be considered the Eastern wall 
of the basin. At the mouth of the Platte river, we have a re- 
duced elevation of 680 feet above tide water, corresponding to 
the elevation at Pittsburgh on the west flank of the Alleghanies. 
At the mouth of the Ohio, where it joins the Mississippi, the de- 
“pression of the basin, is only equal to 300 feet above tide water. 
The central line of drainage of this great basin, is occupied by 
the Mississippi, which receives from its northern and eastern 
slopes, the Wisconsan, the Illinois, the Ohio, &c. The longest 
line! of drainage is occupied by the Missouri, north and west 
of the Mississippi, and receives from its western slope, until it 
joins the Mississippi, the Muddy, the Yellow Stone, and the Platte 
rivers, and afterwards the Arkansa and its tributaries, the Red 
river, &c. In about 50° N. lat. another chain of high lands,* 
connected with the Chippewayan mountains, begins, and runs 
N. E. between lake Winnipec, and the great Slave lake, of 
which region it is the water shed. South of this chain, the mean 
elevation of its table land is about 1200 feet. This chain, which is 
probably connected with the highlands running north of lakes 
Superior, Huron, &c. may be regarded as the ancient northern 
wall of the great basin now described. The table land is full 
of lakes, many of which have no connection with each other, 
except in the rainy season, when the Assinaboin and Red river 
of Hudson’s bay, which run north, are said to mingle their wa- 
ters occasionally with those of St. Peters, which flow southward 


* Accurate details of this region are much wanted. " 


Ancient Drainage of North America, &c. 17 


into the Mississippi. ‘The south-east slope of this table land, 
furnishes the great eastern line of drainage of this continent. 
At some remote geological period, it is evident all the parts of 
this basin have been under water, which has subsequently re- 
treated to the ocean; leaving behind those subordinate basins 
or inland seas now called lake Superior, lake Michigan, lake 
Huron, lake Erie, and lake Ontario, which are the true heads of 
the line of drainage by the St. Lawrence. Lake Superior is 
595 feet above tide water. Lakes Michigan and Huron, which 
constitute one body of water, are 571 feet above tide water ; 
whilst lake Erie is 565 feet, and lake Ontario only 231 feet. 
Thus whilst in the distance between Rainy lake, and lake Su- 
perior, consisting of 150 miles, we have a superficial depression 
of 505 feet, in the short distance of 25 miles between lake Erie 
and lake Ontario, we have a depression of 334 feet. 

West of this depression, the conformity of level is such, that 
part of the waters of the great eastern line of drainage before 
spoken of, pass, in the rainy seasons, from their proper line, into 
the tributaries that feed the Mississippi. Boats have occasionally 
passed from South Michigan into the Illinois river: the differ- 
ence of level between lake Huron and lake Erie may be rated 
as not exceeding 10 feet. 

Such are the principal lines of drainage of this continent, all 
of which are well illustrated in Mr. 'Tanner’s recent maps. But 
we are yet in want of many levels and projections of chains of 
mountains, to assist us in detecting the various basins where the 
waters have been held up, and the slopes and gorges by which 
they have issued. The immense boulders of primitive rocks, so 
profusely scattered over the face. of this continent, attest alike 
the partial destruction of their ancient barriers, and the violence 
of the torrents which have borne them to such great distances. 
There is not one of the inland lakes, all of which may be con- 
sidered as subordinate basins to the great American basin before 
spoken of, but furnishes the proof of a gradual subsidence of 
level. The ridges south of lake Erie, and from which the lake 
is now distant more than five miles, clearly attest that the lake 
at some period has washed their base, and discharged its waters 
into the tributaries of the Mississippi. In like manner we find 
evidences of a change of level in the waters of lake Ontario, in 
og! ae of the ridge on the south shore, now several miles 

ou. L—3s. 


18 Ancient Drainage of North America, &c. 


distant from the water; the corresponding banks of which are 
found on the north side of the lake, at great distances from the 
water, and extending far eastward into Canada. It was only 
when the waters began to contract themselves into lower levels, 
and when Ontario found an outlet by the St. Lawrence, that 
its ancient banks were abandoned, and the waters of Erie began 
to flow over the ridge which was continuous between Queens- 
town and the opposite shore of Lewistown. 

In ancient times, when the whole country was under water, 
and Ontario and Erie were ona level, the cataract of Niagara 
did not exist: but when the general subsidence of waters took 
place, when Erie fell below the level of the Illinois, and Ontario 
below the level of the Queenstown ridge, the waters of Erie 
would of course take a direction to join the great eastern line of 
drainage. This we see they have done, and the following details 
will show the exact difference of level now existing between Erie 
and Ontario. It will be remembered that lake Erie is 565 feet 
above the level of tide water, and lake Ontario 231 feet. Although 
the levels heretofore enumerated in this paper, are to be con- 
sidered as approximations made by intelligent travellers, and only 
in a few instances—from the necessities of the case—the result 
of accurate admeasurement; yet those hereafter to be spoken 
of, are accurate admeasurements, and entitled to confidence. 
Those explanatory of the cataract of Niagara and its environs, 
were carefully made by Mr. George Catlin, a very ingenious ar- 
tist, for the purpose of constructing a model of the falls of 
Niagara upon scale, which was executed in a yery admirable 
manner ; and from which the flat view of the cataract, appended 
to this paper, was taken. 

The distance from lake Erie to lake Ontario, is about 364 
miles. The particulars of the fall of water in this distance, are 
shown in the following table : 


Feet. Miles. 
Fall from lake Erie to the rapids of the cataract 
of Niagara, - - - - - - 15 23 
Fall in the rapids to the edge of the cataract, - 51 4 
The Horse-shoe fall, - - - - - 150 
From the Horse-shoe fall to Lewistown, — - - 104 
From Lewistown to lake Ontario - . 2 es 
322 364 


Ancient Drainage of North America, &c. 19 


The Queenstown ridge, which crosses the line of the Niagara 
river about six miles south of lake Ontario, is a little to the west 
of Queenstown, about 347 feet above the level of lake Ontario, 
‘and consists of the lower limestone shale of British geologists ; 
having the carboniferous limestone superincumbent upon it, and 
the common diluvium or superficial soil of the country resting 
upon this last. In travelling up the gorge from Queenstown to 
the cataract, where the bed of the Niagara flows, this geological 
arrangement is constant, and at the cataract we find the shale 
80 feet thick, and the carboniferous limestone lying upon it, 70 
feet thick to the edge of the cataract. Higher up the stream, 
other beds of the carboniferous limestone appear, containing 
seams and patches of dark-coloured chert, which have furnished 
the name of Black Rock to a village at the mouth of lake Erie. 
This formation constitutes the floor of that lake, and may be 
said to extend through the whole western country. 

At the general subsidence of the waters, before spoken of, it 
is evident that when the level of Ontario fell below the summit 
of the Queenstown ridge, the western waters would follow them, 
seeking the great east line of drainage. Here then we find the 
origin of the falls of Niagara, which would have their perpendicu- 
lar height increased with the progressive subsidence of the waters 
of Ontario. These waters would soon clear themselves a passage 
through the superficial diluvium, and the manner in which the 
whole gorge has been excavated from Queenstown, to the point 
now occupied by the cataract, is attested by what we observe 
going on in our own day. The loose friable shale is loosened and 
washed out by the re-action of the fallen waters, and the super- 
incumbent limestone losing its only support, yields to the weight 
of the water, and falls into the gorge. The well known Table 
Rock is an instance of this. The shale has been completely 
washed out from beneath it, and great portions of it have fallen, 
as other parts belonging to the edge of the cataract are con- 
stantly doing. It is also particularly deserving of notice, that 
the limestone beds immediately above the shale, are much thinner 
at the opening of the gorge, and the rock less capable of resisting 
attrition, than the superior beds which are so well compacted 
with the chert, and which the cataract is only now approaching. 
That the greatest portion of the rock which has hitherto fallen, 
has been comminuted, and washed away by the stream, as the 


20 Ancient Drainage of North America, &c. 


whole of the shale has been, appears not unreasonable, and may 
account for the absence of a great portion of the fragments. 
There is scarce a single circumstance connected with this ma- 
jestic cataract, which does not assist in the explanation of its 
retrocession. 

As to the period which has elapsed since the waters first be- 
gan to open the gorge, it is difficult to open a plausible ground 
upon which a reasonable calculation could be made; but there 
is one circumstance connected with them, which marks a differ- 
ence of progress, at certain points of their retrocession. The 
distance from Queenstown to the falls, is between six and seven 
miles by the line of the gorge, the average breadth of which on 
approaching the falls, is about 1200 feet. By areference to the 
plan,* it will appear, that up to the period when the waters which 
fall on the American side, first divided Goat Island from the 
main land, the whole force of the river Niagara, was exerted in 
one volume, upon a surface of 1200 feet in extent, forming the 
width of the gorge. Since that time the operative power of 
the water, has spread itself over a greater surface ; for the stream 
on the American side, is 1072 feet wide, and the curvature of 
the great Horse Shoe fall 2376 feet wide, making a surface of 
3448 feet long, being near three times the extent of the line it 
previously exerted itself upon. 

This diminished exertion would necessarily be attended by a 
retardation in the retrocession of the cataract. There is also 
another circumstance which at present adds to this cause of re- 
tardation. The Horse Shoe fall has reached a point, where the 
limestone beds begin to thicken, and the foam of the rapids,+ 
marks the presence of the terraces of cherty layers, which are 
here found superincumbent, and giving additional strength and 
durability to the limestone strata. I might offer as evidence of 
the very prolonged projection of the waters at this point, the 
deep basin in the bed of the river, immediately at the foot of 
the falls, which does not occur in the narrower parts of the gorge, 
and which has been hitherto unaccounted for. 

It has often been proposed to mark in some well regulated 
manner, the future disintegration of the bed of this cataract, 


* Vide plate 2d. 
+ On the British side where the current is most rapid, the bed of the river is 
13 feet lower than on the American side. 


mate Ate 


Diary of a Naturalist. 21 


with a view to compute the period of its age.* If I have not mis- 
conceived the operation of this river, it will now be seen that 
the elements of this problem are too complicated and vague, to 
offer any hopes of a satisfactory solution. Under the view I have 
taken of it, its future retrocession will be very slow. Time, how- 
ever, will last longer than the carboniferous limestone can 
probably resist such influences as it has already yielded to. 
When the cataract shall reach lake Erie, geology will possess 
one great monument of the power of water to excavate gorges 
of great length and height. 


THE DIARY OF A NATURALIST. 


Or Memoranda of the weather ; arrival of birds; flowering of plants, &c. for the 
spring of the year 1830. Kept at the “ Bartram Botanic Garden,” on the right 
bank of the river Schuylkill, below the city of Philadelphia. By John B. Carr. 


TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL. 


Dear Sir—I send you for publication “The Diary of a 
Naturalist,” kept at my particular request, during the spring of 
1830. If the observations are not so complete as the interest of 
the subject might imply, it must be recollected that the author 
seldom extended them beyond the immediate sphere of his daily 
occupations.—Having the most perfect reliance on the ability 
and talents of Mr. Carr for pursuits of this nature, I have pe- 
rused the “ Diary” with much satisfaction, and cannot doubt 
that the subject which it embraces will be viewed with similar 
interest by yourself and readers——I have the honour to be most 
respectfully, &c. R. Harwan. 


March 1. Wind, a strong north-east, with snow and rain. 
Large flights of robins, (rurpus migratorius,) feeding on the red- 


* Mr. Lyell, in his principles of Geology, (Vol. I. p. 181,) has,—supposing that 
the disintegrating power of the volume of the Niagara river, will at all times be 
equal, at every point of its course—ventured on a computation, that, at the rate 
of fifty yards in forty years, lake Erie will be reached in the course of thirty 
thousand years. That the recession of these falls is effected as Mr. Lyell supposes, 
we have never doubted ; but a long and familiar acquaintance with the cataract, 
has induced us to adopt the opinion we have just seen announced by the Rev. 
W. D. Conybeare, (Annals of Philosophy, No. 52. April, 1831. Page 267,) that 
in forming the first estimates of this computation “some partial degradation of the 
strata has here been mistaken for the general retrogradation.” 


22 Diary of a Naturalist. 


cedar berries, (sun1PERUS virginiana,) in the vicinity of the garden. 
—A small flock of cow-birds, (emBEriza pecoris,) were observed 
feeding in the woods, with many blue-birds, (moracttia stalis,) 
which have probably been deceived by the mild weather of the 
last week of February.—Spring, or winter aconite, (ERANTHIS 
hyemalis, vel HELEBORUS hyemalis,) snow-drop, (GALAN THUS nivalis,) 
hearts’-ease, (viota tricolor.) and skunk cabbage, (porHos fatida,) 
in flower. In the hot-house we have a fine amaryLLis in flower, 
from Rio de Janeiro. This afternoon two vessels sailed up the 
Schuylkill, the first this season. 

2. Snow has fallen all night, and this morning is three inches 
deep—continuing to snow all day, and at sunset is eight or ten 
inches deep—wind NE. moderate—at 8.,P. M. clear and freezing. 

8. Fine sleighing in the morning, but commencing to thaw in 
the middle of the day—in the evening the sleighs were going 
through the mud—wind NE.—at sunset clear and cold, wind SW. 

4. A fine March morning; the winter wren, (moraciLta tro- 
glodytes,) crested titmouse, (parus bicolor,) and black capped tit- 
mouse, (PARus alricapillus,) are singing about the house as merry 
as crickets. ‘The flowers are several inches under the snow yet 
—wind NE., and freezing. 

5. A fine thawing day. Wind SW.—Thermometer 54° at 
3 P.M. During the morning the jay-birds, (corvus cristatus,) 
kildeer plover, (cuaraprius vociferus,) and flicker, (Picus auratus,) 
were observed—snow beginning to disappear. 

6. Rained until noon—3 P. M. thermometer at 50°—in the 
afternoon very foggy—blue-jays and large flocks of meadow 
larks, (ALAUDA magna,) are flying about—wind SW. 

7. Morning warm and drizzling—very foggy—blue-jays, win- 
ter wrens, blue-birds, kildeers, crested titmouse, é&c. about the 
house. In the morning there was a shower of rain from the W. 
with thunder in the distance. Lightning in the SSE.—wind 
brisk from the SSW. 

8. A clear warm morning: about 10 A. M. wind changed to 
NW.—weather colder—saw a flock of wild pigeons (corumBa 
migratoria,) and cow-buntings. Began freezing about 5 P.M. 

9. Ice this morning an inch in thickness. Clear and cool, wind 
NW., moderate. In the middle of the day thawing in the sun— 
crow blackbirds, (cracuta quiscala,) are seen about the house, 
very tame—freezing in the evening—wind WSW. 


Diary of a Naturalist. 23 


10. Fine moderate day—wind SW.—at 3 P. M. thermometer 
44° in the shade. Robins are observed flying about. This morn- 
ing commenced work in the garden. 

11. Warm and hazy—8 A. M. thermometer 40°—wind SSW. 
rather brisk—clouded at 11 o’clock with every appearance of 
rain—evening foggy, wind N. and cool—large flocks of red- 
winged black-birds, (srurnus predatorius,) passing to the north, 
and large numbers of ducks in the Schuylkill. The snow has 
not entirely disappeared, but I have observed the beautiful early 
veronica in flower; (this lovely blue flower has puzzled 
our botanists;) common mouse-ear chick-weed, (ceRAsTium vul- 
gatum,) appears as if it had flowered all winter, as there are ripe 
and half ripe seeds, and flowers on the same plant at present. 

12. Warm and clear—wind SW.—thermometer at noon 47°. 

13. Morning cloudy—thermometer 38°—at 10 A. M. cleared 
up warm—wind SW., very strong.—Frost flower, (pRABA verna 
vel EROPHILA vulgaris,) in bloom—wild geese, (Anas canadensis,) 
- passing to the north—evening cloudy. 

14. Fine spring morning—large flocks of red-winged black- 
birds and crow black-birds flying toward the north—wind brisk 
from NW.—thermometer at noon 48°. 

15. Warm and clear, wind NW.—planted peas, potatoes, &c. 
this day. 

16. Cloudy and cool—wind NE.—thermometer in the morning 
34°—at noon 40°—primroses, (pRimuLA vulgaris,) in flower in 
the open border. 

17. Rain, and strong NE. wind in the morning—SW. in the 
afternoon—NW. in the evening. Rained all day—the pewits, 
(muscicaPa nunciola,) have arrived. 

18. Rain continues—wind SW.—about 10 A. M. shifted to 
NW.—Filberts and hazlenuts, (corytus,) in flower. 

19. A fine lively morning—a little ice and frost—wind NE.— 
thermometer at 10 A. M. 45°—3 P. M. 54°—wind NNW. Last 
evening the spring frogs, (RANA flavi-viridis,) were heard for the 
first time this season. In the evening a fine light breeze from 
the west. 

20. Fine morning—wind SW.—thermometer at 9 o’clock A.M. 
45°—at 3 P. M. 54°—evening 50°.— Flickers singing. 

21. Drizzling in the morning—wind SW.—thermometer at 9, 
3, and 5 o’clock, 58°, 60°, and 54°. Shad frogs, (raw halecina,) 


24 Diary of a Naturalist. 


and leopard frogs, (RANA palustris,) have made their appearance 
-~a pair of winter wrens are building their nest in one of the 
green houses—song sparrows, (FRINGILLA melodia,) cheer us with 
their music to-day. 

22. Morning clear and warm—large flocks of wild geese flying 
towards the NE.—11 A. M. distant thunder towards WSW.— 
commenced raining at 4 P. M.—cleared at sunset. 

23. Last night experienced a heavy thunder storm, accom- 
panied with heavy driving rain from WNW.—morning fine— 
robins singing—wind NW.—afternoon blustering and cool. 

24. A slight skim of ice this morning—weather clear and fine 
—wind NE. 

25. Fine day until evening—robins continue their song—com- 
menced snowing toward evening—wind NE. 

26. Rain—stormy wind from NE.—large flights of wild pigeons 
flying toward the south—the whole township up in arms shooting 
at them. 

27. A fine moderate day—wind SW. Henbit or archangel, 
(Lamium amplexicaule,) in flower. 

28. Morning clear, with a blustering wind from the NW.— 
afternoon fine weather—thermometer at 3 P. M. 54°. 

29. Warm and slightly hazy--wind NE.—-kingfisher (atcepo 
alcyon.) flying about—red owl, (stR1x asio,) hooting—blue-flowered 
houstonia, (Houston1A cerulea,) in flower. 

30. Weather fine and warm—Claytonia Virginica, and speed- 
well, (vERoNIcA arvensis,) in flower. 

31. Raining nearly all day—wind NE.—in the afternoon chang- 
ed to NW. and cleared about sunset. 

April 1. A fine day—wind SW.—apricots in bloom—peaches 
nearly open—shad fishing has commenced in Schuylkill-—at 8 
P. M. raining. 

2. Continued raining all day—martens, (aiRUNDO purpurea,) 
have arrived from the south. 

3. Weather fine and clear—wind SW.—Dutchman’s breeches, 
(corypauis cucullaria, vel DictyTRA cucullaria,) in flower—pewits 
beginning to build their nests. 

4, Fine weather continues—wind SW. Colts-foot, (russtLaco 
plasites,) witch hazle, (HAMMAMELIS virginica,) weeping willow, 
(satix babylonica,) and cornelian cherry, (cornus mascula,) in 
flower. 


Diary of a Naturalist. 25 


5 & 6. Clear and warm—wind SW. 

7. Clear and cool—wind N.—red-headed wood-peckers, (Picus 
erythrocephalus,) are seen about the garden. 

8. Clear and pleasant—wind SW.—apricots, peaches, red 
maple, (Acer rubrum,) hazlenut, primroses, narcissus, jonquils, 
&c. in flower. 

9. Morning cloudy, with every appearance of rain—wind NE. 
—clear at noon—ground ivy, («LEcHomA hederacea,) and puccoon, 
or Indian paint, (saneurnaria canadensis,) in flower 

10. A NE. drizzling wind has continued all day. 

11. A fine clear day—wind ESE. and S.—spice wood, (Laurus 
benzoin,) Lombardy poplar, (porutus dilatata,) and skunk cabbage 
in flower—the little sparrows (rrinerua socialis,) are plenty 
now. 

12. Clear and warm—wind SW. 

13. Fine weather continues—wind NE. Barn swallows, (n1- 
RUNDO americanus,) and purple martins are now plenty. 

14. A cold, disagreeable day—wind NE.—afternoon showery. 

15. The finest day we have enjoyed this spring—catTHa 
palustris, TRILLIUM sessile, TRILLIUM grandiflorum, JEFFERSONIA di- 
phylla, anpRoMEDA calyculata, and service-tree, (PYRUS botryapium,) 
in flower. 

16. Fine weather continues—wind NE. 

17. Warm and pleasant—in the afternoon wind SW. 

18. Warm and cloudy—wind NE.—at 10 A. M. cleared up. 

19. Morning and part of the afternoon clear and fine—in the 
evening cloudy, with the wind NW. 

20. Morning disagreeably cool, with white frost—afternoon 
fine weather—hyacinths in full bloom. 

21. Clear and warm—goldfinches, (FrineiLua tristis,) have 
arrived. 

22. Fine weather continues—chimney birds (HirunDo pelasgia,) 
and house wren, (moracitia domestica,) have arrived—cow bunt- 
ings are pairing. 

23. Very warm—the plants suffer much from the prevailing 
drought—wind SW.—red bud, (cErcis canadensis,) and European 
horse chestnut, (ascuLus hippocastanum,) in flower—wood-robin, 
(rurDus melodius,) chewink, or tohee-bunting., (ZMBERIZA ery- 
thropthalma,) and summer yellow-bird, (sytv1a citronella,) have 


arrived. 
Vor. L—4 


26 Diary of a Naturalist. 


24. Clear and dry—wind SW. and W. 

25. Very foggy and warm—wind E. and ENE. and variable. 

26. A very acceptable rain which terminates the 11 days 
drought. 

27. A smart frost last night—ice was formed from the con- 
densed vapours of the green house—wind NW. 

28. Clear and warm—wind SW.—crrastium tenuifolium, 
STELLARIA pubera, tulips, horse-chestnuts, magnolias, double-flow- 
ering cherries, sweet scented shrubs, (carycanTHus floridus,) and 
lilac, (syrinea vulgaris,) in full bloom. 

29. Morning cool and cloudy—afternoon fine and warm—wind 
SW. Made a visit to New Jersey—observed the siLenE penn- 
sylvanica, EUPHORBIA ipecacuanha, ARABIS lyrata, ANTIRRHINUM 
canadense, HELONIAS latifolia, &c. in flower. The night-hawk, 
(CAPRIMULGUS americanus,) Was noticed. 

30. Clear—pleasant SW. wind. The whole garden appears 
‘animated with birds—orioles, sparrows, fly-catchers, warblers, 
thrushes, humming birds, (rrocuitus colubris,) &c. are seen in 
every direction. 

May 1. Clear and fine—wind SW. The shad fishing recom- 
menced this morning, having been suppressed since Monday, 
April 26, on account of the freshet—Birds as plenty as yester- 
day—garden overrun with visiters. 

2. Fine weather continues—wind SW. 

3. Morning warm, with showers—afternoon steady rain— 
wind SE. and NE. 

4, Clear and warm—wind SW.—seeds of the white maple 
(acer dasycarpum,) ripe and shedding. 

5. Clear and warm—reed birds (mMBerRiza oryzevora, now 
ICTERUS agripennis,) have made their appearance—night-hawks 
are observed flying about, and the whip-poor-will (caprimuLeus 
vociferus,) was heard during the evening. 

6. Fine and warm—removed the plants from the green house 
to-day—sTELLARIA pubera, SPIREAS, and VIBURNUMS in bloom. 

7. Morning cool—slight frost—wind NW. 

8. Clear and warm—wind SW. 

9. Weather pleasant—wind NE. and SW. 

10. Fine weather continues—yellow breasted chat, (GARRULUS 
australis,) singing. 

11. Warm and dry—wind SW.—night-hawks setting. 


a ee 


te 


Diary of a Naturalist. 27 


12. Morning cool—a few humming birds were shot to-day. 
These birds are not so plenty this year, as they were last season. 

13. Morning drizzlng—wind NE. light—afternoon cloudy but 
no rain. 

14. Light rain in the morning—afternoon clear. 

15. Clear and warm-—wind SW. 

16. Clear and warm—rode up to the gulf mills, about 17 miles 
NW. of Philadelphia, and observed some plants of ginseng, (pANAx 
quinquefolia,) and Grrarpia quercifolia growing near the road. 
Caught a rare species of scarabeus. 

17. Morning foggy—remainder of the day clear and warm. 

18—21. Warm and clear—southerly winds prevail. 

22. Warm and clear—evening cloudy, with every appearance 
of rain—wind SE. 

23. Cloudy—commenced raining at 2 P. M. and continued 
until evening. 

24. Clear and warm—occupied in preparing plants, rare 
flowers, fruits, &c. for the Horticultural exhibition, to be held by 
the society in Philadelphia, on the 25th and 26th. 

25. Cool and cloudy in the morning—wind NE. brisk. 

26. Warm and clear. 

27. Clear and warm—brought the plants home from the ex- 
hibition uninjured. 

28. Fine weather continues—the humming birds are building 
their nests. 3 

29. Very warm—wind SW. 

30. Drizzling all day—wind ESE. 

31. Clear and warm—wind SW. 

June 1. Morning cloudy, and drizzling—the humming birds 
have commenced incubation. 

2 and 3. Clear and warm-—wind SW. 

4, Rain—wind NE. 

5. Clear and pleasant--a few of the periodical or 17 years 
locust (cicapa) singing. 

6. Rain—wind NE. 

7. Clear and warm.—Summer has commenced. 


28 On Nomenclature. 


ON NOMENCLATURE. 


We are glad when French naturalists attack the false nom- 
enclatures that spring up on this side the Atlantic. This has 
been done in the March number, for 1829, of the Bulletin des 
Sciences Naturelles et de Geologie. No doubt they have had 
some reason to amuse themselves at our expense ; we are not 
the less afraid on that account, of their giving us credit for some 
sober views of Natural Science. With few exceptions, the 
naturalists of this country appear decidedly opposed to conjec- 
tural and fantastical speculations, and are averse to seeing 
science trifled with, in any quarter whatever. But they cannot 
shut their eyes to the innovations of some of the more conspicuous 
French writers. It is admitted that natural history is under the 
deepest obligations to the labours and genius of Cuvier. Every 
man in France, however, does not possess the sound judgment of 
that great naturalist. Science is occasionally tricked out in that 
quarter, with a frippery that disguises it. 

The invention of the terms ophiolite, euphotide, phyllade, &c. 
&c. as substitutes for serpentine, saussurite, slate, &c. &e. is 
likely to be a failure, as far as it concerns us on this side of the 
Atlantic. We venture to predict as much for the extraordinary 
nomenclature proposed in the article “ Theorie” in the 54th Vol. 
of the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles: an article replete 
with geological learning and acumen, but so endimanché, that 
we are really ashamed to go into such company with hammers 
and chissels about us. In this article, all geological phenomena 
are divided into two periods. The Saturnian, comprehending 
every thing that occurred before the last revolution, (???) and the 
Jovian, comprehending what has occurred since. The superficial 
soil, or deposits of diluvium, as we have been in the habit of call- 
ing them, we are now asked to call “ Terrains Clysmiens.” The 
upper fresh water, “ Terrains Epilymniques.” The upper marine 
“ Terrains Proteiques.” 'The London clay “ Terrains Tritoniens.” 
The gravel beds of the plastic clay “ Terrains Clastiques.” ‘The 
chalk “ Pelagique Cretacés.” 

The old Saxon weald clay is to be again subdued by the Nor- 
man French, and to be called “ Mons argile veldienne.” Kimmer- 
idge clay is christened over again, and is called “marne argileuse 
havrienne ;” there being a handful of it at Havre, and a world of it 


Adjudication of the Wollaston Medal. 29 


in England, where it was first recognized and named. Then come 
the “ Terrains Yzemiens Abyssiens,” the “ Pecilien,’ the “ Psam- 
mite,” the “ Hemilysiens,” the « Agalysiens,” all of which are our 
old friends in fancy ball-dresses; the Lias, the gypseus red sand- 
stone, the old red, the transition limestone, and the primitive rocks. 
-The trap rocks are “ Terrains Typhoniens,” because the giant 'I'y- 
phon is buried in the earth, and is constantly endeavouring to 
heave up the crust!!! We give the following passage, as a spe- 
cimen of this new geological language, and will endeavour to 
translate it. 

“T will content myself then, with saying, that I will place in 
the clastic groupe of the Tritonian Thalassic beds, the deposits com- 
posed of rounded pebbles, which, by their superior position to the 
cretaceous beds, cannot be placed in the clastic beds of the 
pelagic deposits: and by their position below paleotherian tha- 
lassic beds, cannot be associated with the gompholites of the 
proteique groupe.” 

This is the solemn determination come to, in favour of some 
puddingstone beds, below the London clay of Morlage and other 
places. We know of nothing equal to it, out of Pinkerton’s 
; Petralogy ; where Sidereous, Diamictomic, Transilient, Hyponomes, 
Micronomes, and heaven knows what nomes beside, dance the 
mazes. 

We see where the shoe pinches. The English language, 
especially in geological matters, is overshadowing the langue 
universelle. Point de reméde! The English blood and tongue 
are doing wonders, physically and morally, all over the world. 
What unborn millions have to succeed us here, when we shall all 
be quietly stowed away in the Terrains Clysmiens! It animates us 
to think what great things will be achieved here, when the love 
and knowledge of nature will be diffused through this vast 
continent. G. W. F. 


ADJUDICATION OF THE WOLLASTON MEDAL 
TO WILLIAM SMITH. 


We were surprised to see in Dr. Brewster’s “ Edinburgh 
Journal of Science,” for April 1831, some observations in article 
XIII. on the late adjudication of the Wollaston medal to William 
Smith, which would dispose persons at a distance from England, 


30 Adjudication of the Wollaston Medal. 


to believe, not only that “ English science was in a degraded and 
declining condition,” but that “the few rewards which genius 
can command, are not judiciously conferred.” 

The late Dr. Wollaston left the Geological society £1000, and 
directed the interest to be applied in “ promoting researches con- 
cerning the mineral structure of the earth, or in rewarding those 
by whom such researches might hereafter be made; or in such 
manner as should appear to the council of the said society for 
the time being, conducive to the interest of the society in par- 
ticular, or the science of geology in general.” He also enjoined 
the society “not to hoard the dividends parsimoniously, but to 
expend them liberally, and, as far as might be, annually, in fur- 
thering the objects of the trust.” 

On the 18th of February, 1831, the first award of this valuable 
and most honourable medal, was made to Mr. W. Smith, “in 
consideration of his being a great original discoverer in English 
geology ; and especially for his having been the first in this country, 
to discover and to teach the identification of strata, and to determine 
their succession, by means of their embedded fossils.” 


William Smith, a mineral surveyor by profession, drew up his | 


tabular view of the strata exhibited in the district of Bath, in 
1790. Upon this he subsequently raised the great geological 
truth of the regular succession of the formations. In 1815 his 
geological map of England appeared. This astonishing perform- 
ance of an unassisted individual drew praises from all Europe. 
D’Aubuisson said of him, “That which the most distinguished 
mineralogists have effected for a small portion of Germany, in 
half a century, William Smith has undertaken and done for all 
England.” What Newton did for our knowledge of the universe, 
by announcing the law of gravity, William Smith has done for 
our knowledge of the systematic structure of the crust of the 
earth, by making us acquainted with the unerring language of 
embedded fossils. To one mind only, belongs the glory of opening 
the eyes of mankind, to each of these great truths. That glory 
is indivisible in its nature. No human being, whilst time and 
civilization shall endure, can, from the nature of the case, ever 
dispute Mr. Smith’s claims to this distinction. 

We put it to the candour of Dr. Brewster himself, a distin- 
guished benefactor to science, whether, upon the first distribution 
of Wollaston’s honour, it was not justly and nobly done by the 


Sse exert 


0 ee 


ie el ee ee ae 


Adjudication of the Wollaston Medal. 31 


members of the Geological society, who owe so much to his 
labours and genius, to draw Mr. Smith from his retirement, and 
confer upon him, by common consent, what he could so justly 
claim to receive; instead of practising the more calculating 
policy of opening a door to it for themselves, by his exclusion. 
Our private letters, from various friends present at the delivery of 
this medal, speak of the occasion as both impressive and affecting. 
It was a tribute publicly paid, by some of the most enlightened 
minds in Europe, to a pre-eminent leader in their science, 
in his old age. ‘The act itself was, to us, a sufficient proof that 
English science was not in “ a degraded and declining condition.” 
Looking at the wonderful progress geology has of late years 
made, and assigning their proper share of the merit of advancing 
this most liberal and attractive pursuit, to the English geologists ; 
we should be inclined to hold up the progress of science in Eng- 
land to the admiration of the world. 

We congratulate Mr. Smith most cordially upon the distine- 
tion conferred on him. Of a respectable, yet unpretending origin, 
he has been raised by some generous minds, to the rank of a 
prince of the order of nature. The thing has been well done. 
We know and honour the men who have done it, and many a 
happy day have we geologized with the venerable and amiable 
man they have delighted to honour. 

In the admirable address of the Rev. Adam Sedgewick, presi- 
dent of the geological society of London, on the delivery of the 
Wollaston prize, after recapitulating the interesting history of 
Mr. Smith’s discoveries, we find the following passage touching 
the difficulty he found in attracting the public attention to his 
labours. “ He suffered, as many men of genius have done before 
him, in his peace and his fortune, from what, in our estimation, 
constitutes his chief honour—from outstripping the men of his 
own time in the progress of discovery.” 

* We also quote with pleasure, the following eloquent passages. 

“T for one can speak with gratitude of the practical lessons I 
have received from Mr. Smith: it was by tracking his footsteps, 
with his maps in my hand, through Wiltshire and the neighbour- 
ing counties, where he had trodden nearly thirty years before, 
that I first learned the subdivisions of our oolite series, and 
apprehended the meaning of those arbitrary and somewhat un- 
couth terms, which we derive from him as our master, which 


32 Adjudication of the Wollaston Medal. 

have long become engrafted into the conventional language of 
English geologists, and through their influence, in part, also 
adopted by the naturalists of the continent. 

« After such a statement, gentlemen, I have a right to speak 
boldly, and to demand your approbation of the council’s award. 
I could almost dare to wish, that stern lover of truth, to whose 
bounty we owe the “donation fund’”—that dark eye, before the 
glance of which all false pretensions withered, were once more 
amongst us. And if it be denied us to hope, that a spirit like 
that of Wollaston should often be embodied on the earth, I would 
appeal to those intelligent men who form the strength and orna- 
ment of this society, whether there was any place for doubt or 
hesitation? Whether we were not compelled, by every motive 
which the judgment can approve, and the heart can sanction, to 
perform this act of filial duty, before we thought of the claims of 
any other man, and to place our first honour on the brow of the 
father of English geology. 

“Tf, in the pride of our present strength, we were disposed to 
forget our origin, our very speech would bewray us; for we use 
the language which he taught us in the infancy of our science. 
If we, by our united efforts, are chisseling the ornaments, and 
slowly raising up the pinnacles of one of the temples of nature, 
it was he that gave the plan, and laid the foundations, and erected 
a portion of the solid walls, by the unassisted labour of his hands. 

“The men who have led the way in useful discoveries, have 
ever held the first place of honour in the estimation of all, who, 
in aftertimes, have understood their works, or trodden in their 
steps. It is upon this abiding principle that we have acted ; and 
in awarding our first prize to Mr. Smith, we believe that we 
have done honour to our own body, and are sanctioned by the 
highest feelings which bind societies together.” 

We now quote the following passage from article XIII. of the 
Edinburgh Journal of Science, as furnishing the complete refuta- 
tion of the general censure intended by it. “ When a philosopher, 
however, carries on his inquiries by the sacrifice of a half, or 
even a third of his whole professional income, and when this loss 
is increased by the purchase of expensive apparatus; the acqui- 
sition of a pecuniary reward cannot be unwelcome, independent 
of the honour with which it is accompanied. Upon this principle, 
prizes should always be adjudged to the person who really 
deserves them,” &c. &c. 


Mg 
Earl of Bridgewater's Bequest. 33 


' This is Mr. Smith’s case exactly; he has devoted the whole 
of his fortune towards the illustration of the geology of his native 
country: and this noble prize, founded by one of the ornaments 
of our race, has been adjudged to him, because he, more than 
any man alive, really deserved it. F. 


THE EARL OF BRIDGEWATER’S BEQUEST. 


Tue unjust censure which has been lately passed upon the 
Geological Society of London, for using the discretionary powers 
vested in them, in awarding the first Wollaston Medal to Mr. 
William Smith, will eventually lead to an inquiry into the man- 
ner in which all similar trusts have been executed both in Eu- 
rope and this country. We therefore present our readers with 
the following very interesting statement. We ourselves consider 
Mr. Davies Gilbert to have acted with great judgment upon this 
occasion. Had he announced this splendid prize for the thousand 
and one writers, ever ready to enter the field, and to cabal with 
their friends for the preference, he would effectually have ex- 
cluded the eminent persons he has appointed. They are not 
men to devote their time to objects of uncertain attainment. At 
present the world may be sure the important trust will be wor- 
thily executed, being confided to individuals who have every mo- 
tive that can urge men to distinguish themselves, comprehending 
their own and their country’s reputation, and being well paid for 
their labours. Epitor. 


“Statement respecting the Legacy left by the late Earl of Bridgewater, for 
rewarding the authors of works, to be published in pursuance of his Will, 
and demonstrative of the Divine attributes, as manifested in the Creation.” By 
Davies Gilbert, M. P. V. P. R.S. 

TO THE EDITORS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE AND ANNALS. 

Gentlemen,—The following short statement respecting the late 
Earl of Bridgewater’s legacy of eight thousand pounds, and of the 
final arrangements made in consequence of it, may possibly be 
thought not unworthy of a place in your Journal.” 

The Rey. and Right Honourable Thomas Henry Egerton, Earl 
of Bridgewater, died in the month of February, 1829, at Paris, 
leaving his last will and testament, bearing date on the 25th Feb- 
‘ruary, 1825, in which be desired and directed his trustees to lay 
Vou. 1—s5 


34 Earl of Bridgewater's Bequest. 


out and invest in their own names, in some one of the public 
stocks or funds of Great Britain, the sum of eight thousand pounds 
sterling; the said sum, with all accruing dividends thereon, to be 
held at the disposal of the President, for the time being, of the 
Royal Society of London, to be transferred, paid, and applied, 
according to the order and direction of the said President of the 
Royal Society, in full, and without any diminution whatsoever, 
in such proportions, and at such times, according to his direction 
and judgment, and without being subject to any control or re- 
sponsibility whatever, to such person or persons as the said Presi- 
dent, for the time being, of the aforesaid Royal Society, should 
or might nominate, or appoint, and employ. And he thereby de- 
clared his will and particular request to be, that some person or 
persons should be nominated and appointed by the said President, 
to write, print, publish, and expose to public sale, one thousand 
copies of a work on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as 
manifested in the Creation; illustrating such work by all reason- 
able arguments; as, for instance, the variety and formation of 
God’s creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; 
the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion; the construc- 
tion of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of other argu- 
ments; as also, by discoveries, ancient and modern, in arts, 
sciences, and the whole extent of literature. And he desired that 
the profits arising from and out of the sale of the aforesaid work, 
should be paid by the said President of the Royal Society, as of 
right, as a further remuneration and reward, to such person or 
persons as the said President of the Royal Society should so no- 
minate, appoint, and employ; with a further power to advance 
the sums of £300, and of £500, during the writing and printing 
of the said work. 

The testator appointed John Charles Clarmont, Thomas Phil- 
lips, and Eugene Auguste Barbier, Esquires, executors and trus- 
tees of his will. And these gentlemen, on the 14th July, 1830, 
invested the devised sum of £8000, in the purchase of 3 per cent. 
consolidated Bank Annuities, which now stand in their names for 
the above specified purposes. 

The late President of the Royal Society having ascertained 
from a noble Lord immediately connected with the deceased, 
that his family were desirous of having the objects of the bequest 
executed, proceeded as follows :— 


Earl of Bridgewater's Bequest. 35 


He was fully aware of the duty imposed on him to select persons 
amply qualified for discharging in an adequate manner the task 
they would have to perform ; and he was also impressed with the 
conviction, that, however carefully a selection might be made, 
several gentlemen must be omitted, possessing the requisite quali- 
fications, equally, perhaps, with those who received the appoint- 
ment. 

For the purpose, therefore, of acquiring the most able assist- 
ance, and placing the whole transaction above even the suspicion 
of favouritism, or partiality, the late President was induced to re- 
quest the aid of two individuals, as highly distinguished by their 
abilities and by their learning, as by the eminent stations which 
they hold in the hierarchy of this country, where able and in- 
trepid champions have never been wanting to vindicate the na- 
tural and moral attributes of the Divinity against the equally 
dangerous attacks of infidelity, fanaticism, and imposture. 

The two distinguished prelates, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
and the Bishop of London, most readily condescended to afford 
their assistance ; and after much deliberation, and with the con- 
currence of the noble Lord above alluded to, the work has been 
placed in the hands of the following eight gentlemen. 

The Rev. William Whewell, M. A. F. R. 8S. Fellow of Trinity 
College, and Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cam- 
bridge. 

The Rev. John Thomas Chalmers, Professor of Divinity at 
Edinburgh. 

John Kidd, Esq. M, D. F. R. S. Regius Professor of Medicine 
in the University of Oxford. 

The Rev. William Buckland, D. D. F. R. S. Canon of Christ 
Church, and Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. 

Peter Mark Roget, Esq. M. D. Sec. R. 8. 

Charles Bell, Esq. F. R. S. Surgeon. 

The Rey. William Kirby, M. A. F. R. S. 

William Prout, M. D. F. R. 8. 

Each being pledged to take a part, as designated by the testa- 
tor, most adapted to his acquirements and to his pursuits: and 
thus it is confidently hoped and expected, that a work entrusted 
to such individuals, will appear, as a whole, worthy of the age 
and of the country about to give it birth. 


36 Influence of Climate on the Fruitfulness of Plants. 


"INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON THE FRUITFULNESS OF PLANTS. 
By a Correspondent. 


Tue cultivated plants yield the greatest products near the 
northernmost limit in which they will grow. 

Ihave been forcibly impressed with this fact, from observing 
the productions of the various plants, which are cultivated for 
food and clothing in the United States. The following instances 
will go far to establish the principle, viz: 

The cotton, which is a tropical plant, yields the best staple, and 
surest product, in the temperate latitudes. ‘The southern parts 
of the United States have taken the cotton market from the East 
and West Indies, both as regards quantity and quality. This is 
partly owing to the prevalence of insects within the tropics, but 
principally to the forcing nature of a vertical sun. Such a de- 
gree of heat developes the plant too rapidly—runs it into wood 
and foliage, which become injuriously luxuriant ; the consequence 
is, there are but few seed pods, and these covered with a thin 
harsh coat of wool. The cotton wool, like the fur of animals, is, 
perhaps, designed for protection; and will be thick and fine in 
proportion as the climate is warm or cool. Another reason is to 
be found in the providence of the Deity, who aims to preserve 
races rather than individuals, and multiplies the seeds and eyes 
of plants, exactly as there is danger of their being destroyed by 
the severity of the climate, or other causes. When, therefore, 
the cares and labours of man counteract the destructive tendency 
of the climate, and guarantee their preservation, they are, of 
course, more available and abundant. 

The lint plants, flax, hemp, &c. are cultivated through a great 
extent of latitude; but their bark, in the southern climates, is 
harsh and brittle. A warm climate forces these plants so rapidly 
into maturity, that the lint does not acquire either consistency or 
tenacity. We must go far north in Europe, even to the Baltic, to 
find these plants in perfection, and their products very merchant- 
able. Ireland is rather an exception as to latitude; but the in- 
fluence of the sun is so effectually counteracted there by moisture, 
and exposure to the sea air, that it is always cool: hence, the 
flax and potatoe arrive at such perfection in that region. 

It holds equally true in the farinaceous plants. Rice is a tro- 
pical plant; yet Carolina and Georgia grow the finest in the 
world; heavier grained, better filled, and more merchantable, 


ike 07 eae oe 


Influence of Climate on the Fruitfulness of Plants. 37 


than any imported into Europe from the Indies. The inhabitants 
of the East Indies derive their subsistence almost exclusively from 
rice; they must be supposed, therefore, to cultivate it with all 
skill and care, and the best contrivances for irrigation. Such is, 
however, the forcing nature of their climate, that the plant 
grows too rapidly, and dries away before the grain be properly 
filled. Indian corn, or maize, if not a tropical plant, was origi- 
nally found near the tropics ; and although it now occupies a wide 
range, it produces the heaviest crops near the northern limit of 
its range. In the West Indies it rises 30 feet in height ; but with 
all that gigantic size, it produces only a few grains on the bot- 
tom of a spungy cob, and is counted on only as rough proven- 
der. In the southern part of the United States, it reaches a 
height of 15 feet, and will produce 30 bushels to the acre; in the 
rich lands of Kentucky and the middle states it produces 50 or 60 
bushels to the acre; but in New York and New England, agri- 
cultural societies have actually awarded premiums for 150 bushels 
to the acre, collected from stalks only seven feet high. The heats 
of a southern sun develope the juices of this plant too quickly. 
They run into culm and blade, to the neglect of the seed, and 
dry away before fructification becomes complete. 

Wheat is a more certain crop in New York, the northern part 
of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in the Baltic regions of Europe, 
than in the south either of Europe or America. In the north, 
shows accumulate, and not only protect it from the winter colds, 
but from the weavil, Hessian fly, and other insects that invade 
it; and in the spring it is not forced too rapidly into head, with- 
out time to mature fully, and concoct its farina. 

A cold climate also aids the manufacturing of flour, preserving 
it from acidity, and enables us to keep it long, either for a good 
market, or to meet scarcities and emergencies. Oats grow in 
almost every country; but it is in northern regions only, or very 
moist or elevated tracts, that they fill with farina suitable for 
human sustenance. Rye, barley, buckwheat, millet, and other 
culmiferous plants, might be adduced to illustrate the above prin- 
ciple; for all their habits require a more northern latitude than 
is necessary to their mere growth. \ 

The grasses are proverbially in perfection only in northern and 
cool regions, although they will grow every where. It is in the 
north alone that we raise animals from meadows, and are enabled 


38 Influence of Climate on the Fraitfulness of Plants. 


to keep them fat, and in good condition, from hay and grass alone, 
without grain. It is there the grasses acquire a succulence, and 
consistency enough, not only to mature animals, but to make the 
richest butter and cheese, that contribute so much to the tables 
of the luxurious. The grasses which do, often, in the south, grow 
large enough, are without richness and nutriment ; in hay, they 
have no substance; and when green, are too washy to fatten ani- 
mals; the consequence is, most animals in those latitudes browse 
from necessity, and are poor, and without size or beauty. It is 
the same hot sun which forces them to a rapid fructification, be- 
fore they have had time to concoct their juices. The sugar cane 
produces, perhaps, better where it never seeds, than in the tro- 
pics; for the juices will never ripen so as to granulate, until 
checked by frost or fructification. In the tropics, the cane grows 
twenty months before the juices ripen; and then the culm has 
contracted a woody, fibrous quality, to such a degree as to resist 
the pressure of the mills, and yields but little juice, and that te 
an increased effort. In Louisiana we succeed well with the sugai 
culture ; because, whilst the culm is succulent and tender, a white 
frost checks the growth, ripens the juices, and in five months 
gives us a culm, tender, full of juice, easy to press, and yielding 
much grain of sugar. When Louisiana, therefore, acquires all 
the necessary skill, she will most probably grow this article 
cheaper than the West Indies. 

Tobacco is a southern plant, but there it is always light and 
chaffy; and although often well-flavoured, it never gains that 
strong narcotic quality, (which is its only peculiar property,) un- 
less you grow it as far north as Virginia. In the south, the heat 
unfolds its bud or gem too soon, forces into full expansion the leaf, 
and drives it to seed before the narcotic quality can be properly 
elaborated. We may assert a general rule applicable to all an- 
nual plants, that neither the root, nor the leaf, acquires any fur- 
ther size or substance after fructification. 

The tuberose, bulbous, and other roots, cultivated for human 
and animal subsistence, are similarly affected by climate, and 
manifest habits in corroboration of the above principle. The 
Irish potatoe, although from or near the tropics, will not come to 
perfection but in northern or cool countries, or in moist, insular 
situations, as Ireland. It is in such climates alone, that its roots 
acquire a farinaceous consistence, and have size, flavour, and 


Influence of Climate on the Fruitfulness of Plants. 39 


nutriment enough to support, in the eminent way in which they 
are susceptible, animal life’ In the south, a forcing sun brings 
the potatoe to fructification before the roots have had time to 
attain their proper size, or ripen into the proper qualities for 
nourishment. In Ireland the plant grows slow, through a long 
and cool season, giving time for its juices to be elaborated, and 
properly digested ; hence that fine farina and flavour which cha- 
racterizes them. The sweet potatoe produces larger, better fla- 
voured, and more numerous roots in Carolina, where it never 
flowers, than in the West Indies. In the latter place this plant 
runs wild, covers the whole face of the earth with its vines, and 
is so taken up in making foliage, that the root becomes neglected, 
and is small and woody.—In order to have the onion in per- 
fection, it must grow through two years, swelling all the time its 
bulbs. In the south, however, it seeds in one year, and before it 
has made much bulb. Beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, 
and other roots, are equally affected by a hot sun, and scarcely 
worth cultivating far to the south. They all fructify before they 
have formed perfect roots, and make foliage at the expense of 
their bulbs; hence they will always be articles of commerce; 
the south will have to depend upon the north for them. 

The sallad plants are in like manner affected by climate, and 
give further proofs of our assumption. Cabbages, lettuces, endive, 
cellery, spinage, plants whose leaves only are eat, to protect 
their germs from cold, (through a kind of instinct,) wrap them up 
in leaves, which form heads, and render many of their other parts 
tender and crisp for use. These leaves, thus protected, are not 
. only tender, but more nutritious, because their growth has been 
slow, and their juices well digested. In the south, a relaxing sun 
lays open the very buds of such plants, gives a toughness and 
thinness to the leaves, and they are too unsubstantial for animal 
support, because of such quick and rapid developement. 

The delicious and pulpy fruits are, in a still more striking way, 
illustrative of our principle. The peach, nectarine, plumb, ap- 
ple, cherry, currant, gooseberry, apricot, and many other such 
families, are not in perfection in the south. It is in Pennsylvania, 
Virginia, Maryland, Jersey, and in the north of Europe, that we 
enjoy them, although, originally, they came from places near the 
tropics. The peach of the Carolinas is full of larvae, gum, and 
knots, and too stringy and forced to be Juicy and flavoured. The 


40 Influence of Climate on the Fruitfulness of Plants. 


apple of the south is too acerb to be either eaten or preserved. 
The plumbs, apricots, cherries, currants, gooseberries, &c. will 
not even mature until we go far north. All the trees which 
bear these delicious fruits will grow luxuriantly in the south, 
make much foliage and wood, with but little pulp, and that un- 
savory. ‘The kernel in the one-seeded fruit, seems to be the first 
object of nature in southern climes: that becomes strong, oily, and 
enlarged; and one of the peach family has so entirely neglected 
the pulp, that it has only a husky matter around the kernel, as 
the almond. The changeableness of the weather in the south, 
in the spring season, throws plants off their guard; the frosts at- 
tendant on those changes, destroy the young fruit; and it is only 
one year in three that the crop hits at all. The desiccated or 
dried state of these fruits enables us to enjoy them through the 
year; but in the south their acidity carries them into fermenta- 
tion or decomposition before they can be divested of their aque- 
ous parts. The climate of the south is equally against convert- 
ing them into cider, or any other fermented liquor, because the 
heat forces their compressed juice so rapidly into an active fer- 
mentation, that it cannot easily be checked until it passes into 
vinegar. For the same reason distillation goes on badly in hot 
climates, and cannot be checked long enough at the proper point 
to give much alcohol ; and whether we aim to enjoy the delicious 
freshness of these fruits themselves, sip the nectarin of their juices, 
refresh ourselves with their fermented beverage, stimulate our 
hearts with their brandies and cordials, or feast through the win- 
ter upon the dried or preserved stores of their fruits, we are con- 
tinually baulked by the severity of a southern climate, and for 
such enjoyment must look to the north. 

The melons are always affected by too great a degree of heat, 
even though their vines flourish so much in southern latitudes. 
The forcing sun hurries them on to maturity before they have 
attained much size, or acquired that rich saccharine and aroma- 
tic flavour for which they are so much esteemed. The cante- 
lope melon will rot, or have its sides baked by a hot sun, before 
it is fully formed; and the water-melon is always woody, dry, and 
devoid of its peculiar sweetness and richness in the south. Vines 
have been known to run 100 feet, and bear no melon. It is in 
Philadelphia, and its neighbourhood, and in similar latitudes, that 
the markets are loaded with delicious melons of all sorts, whose 


Influence of Climate on the Fruitfulness of Plants. 4] 


flavour so much refresh and delight us. It is there, near their 
northern limit, that we cultivate them with such uniform success. 

The orange, strictly a tropical plant, is more juicy, large, and 
delicious, at St. Augustine, (Florida,) than at Havana; and fruit- 
erers, in order to recommend an orange, will say that it is from 
some place out of the tropics. In the West Indies, the pulp of 
the orange is spungy, badly filled with juice, and has too much 
of a forced flavour to be pleasant. The hot-house forcers of 
Europe, or at Rome, anciently at first produced bad fruit; too 
dry, too small, and without flavour; because they overacted. 
They have lately found out that fact, and now the productions 
of the hot houses of London, Paris, &c. astonish and delight us 
with the quantity and excellence of the fruit. 'They have found 
out that gradual and uniform heat is the desideratum; counter- 
vailing the cold, rather than imparting much heat. Fruit thus 
produced, is pronounced better than any grown in the natural 
way, however perfect the climate. is 

The juices of the grape are best matured for wine near the 
northern limit of their growth. On the Rhine, in Hungary, the 
sides of the Alps, and in other elevated or northern situations, the 
wine is strongest, richest, and most esteemed. The French wines 
rank before the Spanish and Italian; and in no southern country 
of Europe or Africa, except Madeira, where elevation makes the 
difference, is the wine in much repute. The grapes of France 
are more delicious for the table than those of Spain or Madeira. 
In the southern part of the United States, the excess of heat and 
moisture blights the grape to such an extent, that all attempts 
have failed in its cultivation. The grape vine, however, whether 
wild or cultivated, grows there very luxuriantly. The vinous 
fermentation can also be best conducted in a climate compara- 
tively cool; and all the pressing, fermenting, and distillation of 
the juice of this delicate fruit, can be safer and more profitably 
managed in a mild region. | 

The olive, and other oleaginous plants, yield more fruit, of a 
richer flavour, and can be better pressed, and the oil preserved, 
ina mild climate. In France the tree is healthier, and the fruit 
and oil better than in Spain or Italy; and the Barbary States 
are known to import their oil from France and Italy. 

Mary other plants might be named, whose habits would 
equally support our position. It is presumed, however, that 

Vor. L—6 


42 Scientific Memoranda. 


enough have been cited to call the attention of philosophy to this 
curious subject, and enable us to give proper attention to it, in 
all the practical operations of agricultural pursuit. Much time 
and expense might be saved, and profits realized, if this were 
more generally understood. 

We have already observed, that the heat of the sun in southern 
climes forces plants to a false maturity, runs them on too rapidly 
to fructification, and renders dry and woody the culms, stalks, and 
leaves of the plants, where these parts are used. Hence the 
chaffiness of the leaf, the dryness of the culm, the lightness of the 
grain, and the unsavory spungy quality of the pulp of the plants 
in those latitudes. Hence the difficulty of fermenting their juices, 
distilling their essences, and preserving for use the fruit, juice, or 
blades of such plants. The prevalence of insects is another bar 
to the productiveness of southern plants: swarms of them invade 
and strip the leaves, bore the fruit, and lead to blight and de- 
composition; and just in proportion as the labours of man have 
rendered plants succulent, and their fruits and seeds sweet and 
pleasant, do these insects multiply on them, devour their crops, 
and defeat the objects of husbandry. 

The labour of man too is more conservative in northern cli- 
mates, because his arm is better nerved for exercise, his health 
and spirits more buoyant; and instead of saying, “ go and work,” 
he says, “come and work ;” treads with a cheerful heart upon 
his own soil, and assists in the cultivation, collection, and pre- 
servation of his own productions. It is in temperate climates that 
man can be most familiar with nature ; it is there he has the best 
opportunities of observing the guarantees which nature has for 
the preservation of her animals and plants against the devasta- 
tion of the elements; he sees an occasional apparent neglect of 
individuals, but a constant parental care of races. In every 
thing he sees the wisdom and benevolence of God. Ww. 


SCIENTIFIC MEMORANDA. 


We are indebted to our friends of the Lyceum of natural 
history at New York, for the following report. We announce 
for our next number a general paper on the osteological remains 
of extinct animals found at Big Bone lick, in which the bones 


Scientific Memoranda. 43 


noticed in this report will be examined in detail. The able friend 
to whose pen the scientific public will be indebted on this occa- 
sion, is a perfect master of the subject, and has personally exam- 
ined that remarkable Kentucky deposit. Eprror. 


Rerort of Messrs. Cooper, J. A. Smith, and Dekay, to the Lyceum of Natural 
History, on a collection of fossil bones disinterred at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, 
in September, 1830, and recently brought to this city, (New York.)—Read 
May 30, 1831. 


The Committee beg leave respectfully to report, that these 
bones, having been landed only within a very few days, sufficient 
time has not been afforded them, for the accurate determination 
of every imperfect, or mutilated fragment. The greater part, 
however, belonging to well known animals, were immediately re- 
cognized, and it is not believed that anything of much importance 
will be hereafter observed. They therefore submit, this evening, 
a general account of this collection, reserving, for a future occa- 
sion, such further particulars as may be deemed of sufficient 
interest. 

The remains of the great Mastodon compose more than one 
half the entire quantity of which this collection consists. Among 
them is a head, which, though not entire, is in better preserva- 
tion than any of this animal heretofore discovered. It enables 
us to form a better idea of the figure of this important part, than 
could hitherto be obtained. It is found to have the cranium 
much depressed, in which it deviates remarkably from the 
elephant. Both the tusks are preserved, one having been found 
still in the socket, and the other lying at a short distance off. 

Of other large tusks, there are besides, five that measure from 
six and a half to twelve feet in length, and many more large 
fragments of others. 

Six portions of upper jaws, all containing teeth. 

Fifteen portions of lower jaws, twelve of which contain from 
one to three grinders each. 

Besides these, there are seventy-three detached molar teeth 
of all sizes, some of them as large as any yet discovered. 

Of the large bones of the anterior extremity, there are 
five scapulz, seven humeri, three ulne, and one radius, more or 
less perfect. 

Of the posterior extremity, six ossa innominata, ten femora, 


44 Mr. Cooper’s Denial. 


and five tibia. Some of these are almost entire; others are much 
mutilated. 

It is necessary to observe, that although these large bones, as 
well as the detached tusks, have all been provisionally referred 
to the Mastodon, yet it is not improbable that on a further com- 
parison, a part may be found to belong to the fossil elephant. 
The mutilated condition of some, renders it extremely difficult to 
pronounce with certainty upon a slight examination. 

The remains of the fossil elephant comprised in this collection, 
are next in interest and number, to those of the mastodon. 

The first that we shall notice, is the head of a young individual, 
more complete than any known to your committee to have been, 
as yet, obtained in North America. It consists of the upper and 
lower maxillary bones, with six molar teeth in good preserva- 
tion. Isolated grinders of the elephant have been discovered in 
the United States in numerous instances, but generally without 
any portion of bone adhering to them. There are also of the 
elephant in this collection, several other large fragments of jaws, 
and twenty separate molar teeth. 

Of the horse, there are perfect teeth, and other portions, found 
under circumstances that favour the belief of their being of equal 
antiquity with the extinct animals whose remains are associated 
with them in the collection. The teeth are remarkably large 
and sound. 

Of ruminating animals, there are skulls and other parts of the 
Buffalo, Bos Americanus ; of the extinct species named by Dr. 
Harlan, Bos bombifrons ; and of a large species of Cervus, resem- 
bling C. alces. 

Finally, we have also discovered among these interesting relics, 
some considerable portions of the megalonyx, whose osteology is 
still so imperfectly known. The most important of these is a 
right lower maxillary bone, with four teeth in the socket, and 
another detached tooth which appears to have come from the 
upper jaw. There is also a tibia of the right leg, and perhaps 
some other bones which may prove to belong to the same animal. 


Mr. Cooper’s Denial——Mr. Cooper has requested us to state, 
that he never expressed the opinion attributed to him in the 
American Journal of Science and Arts, for April, 1831, respect- 


Megalonyx Laqueatus. 45 


ing a fossil supposed by Mr. Eaton to be a petrified crolalus. On 
the contrary, he told Mr. E., that he thought it a plant, and in 
writing to Dr. Torrey shortly after, mentioned that it was a 
plant of the family Lycopo diacex. It never entered into his mind 
to refer it to Arundo, which belongs toa very different tribe of plants. 

This public denial has been rendered necessary by the follow- 
ing passage of Silliman’s Journal, at page 173, in the number 
above alluded to. 

“One of our most accurate devotees to the study of recent 
organic relics, William Cooper, Esq. of the New York Lyceum, 
has examined it. He is in doubt, but is inclined to believe it an 
arundo, or some plant of that family. Eprror.” 


Megalonyx Laqueatus—Dr. Harlan read a paper, March 8, 
1831, before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 
descriptive of the fossil bones of a new species of the megalonyx, 
discovered in White cave, Kentucky. 

The bones of the megalonyx Jeffersonei, were discovered in 
1796, buried two or three feet beneath the surface of a cave in 
Green Briar county, Virginia. Those of the megalonyx la- 
queatus, now described, were found on the surface of the floor of 
White cave. They consist of two claws of the fore feet; a 
radius, humerus, scapula, one rib, and several fragments; the 
oscalcis, tibia, a portion of the femur; four dorsal, and one lum- 
bar vertebra ; a portion of a molar tooth, from the fluted appear- 
ance of which the specific appellation, (laqueatus,) is derived. 
Dr. Harlan has illustrated his paper with three lithographic en- 
gravings. 

On the same evening, Dr. Harlan read a paper descriptive of 
an extinct species of fossil vegetable of the family Fucoides. This 
paper, with a lithographic engraving, is published with the pre- 
ceding one in the Transactions of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia. The fossil appears to have been im- 
bedded in the millstone-grit formation: is singularly beautiful, 
and has been named by Dr. Harlan, “ Fucoides Alleghaniensis.” 


Biennial Election of President of the Geological Society of Lon- 
don.—At a meeting held at the Society’s Rooms, Somerset 
house, on the 18th February, 1831, Roderick Impey Murchison, 


46 Death of Captain Foster. 


Esq. F. R. S., &c. &c. &e., was elected President for the next 
two years, in the place of the Rev. Adam Sedgewick, whose 
term of office expired on this day. 


Death of Capt. Foster, of the Chanticleer—We had the pleasure 
of knowing this distinguished navigator, and can feel the extent 
of the loss science has sustained by his premature death. He 
was one of those untiring and judicious minds appointed to ac- 
company Sir Edward Parry in his adventurous expeditions into 
the Arctic Circle; and, had he lived, would have ranked as one 
of the most distinguished individuals of this very scientific age. 

At the close of the year 1827, the Royal Society’s Copley 
Medal was awarded to him for his observations at Port Bowen. 
In presenting the medal, the President expressed a hope, that so 
distinguished a mark of the approbation of the Royal Society 
might induce the government to bring forward a man of such 
bright promise as Lieut. Foster. On the very same evening he re- 
ceived a letter from the Admiralty, with his brevet, appointing him 
commander of the Chanticleer, with instructions to explore the 
high southern latitudes, and with liberty to sail round the world, 
without restraint as to time. He had been out about three years 
at the time of his death. This event will occasion a great sensa- 
tion amongst his numerous friends, who were looking for his re- 
turn with much anxiety. 

The accessions to physical knowledge, that the scientific world 
will owe to the energy and genius of this lamented commander, 
will be perused with a melancholy interest by all who had the 
satisfaction of knowing him. Eprror. 


From the Literary Gazette, April 1831. 


“Tt is with much regret we learn, by letters received on 
Thursday, the untimely fate of Capt. Foster, of his majesty’s ship 
Chanticleer, who had been employed the last three years on a 
scientific expedition, in various parts of the globe, and was about 
to return to this country. Capt. F. had left his ship for the pur- 
pose of making a series of rocket observations on the Isthmus of 
Panama, and on his return down a small and shallow river in a 
canoe, he is said to have fallen overboard, and to have been 
drowned. But strong suspicions exist for believing, that this young, 
gifted and meritorous officer was most treacherously murdered.” 


— 


ie le les 


— ae 


Bone Caves in New Holland—New Publications. 47 


Bone Caves in New Holland.—An interesting discovery has been 
made of osseous breccia and caves, about 210 miles west from 
Sydney. Major Mitchell, Surveyor General of New South 
Wales, has transmitted specimens and drawings of them to the 
Geological Society of London.. The caves are in a limestone 
formation, in Wellington Valley, and the bones were discovered 
in an inferior chamber of one of the caves. The breccia is found 
in the fissures of the limestone, consisting of bones imbedded in an 
ochreous cement. A few of the bones belong to the dasyurus, 
the rest to the kangaroo, wombat, koala, phalangista. All the 
bones, with the exception of one, which appears to belong to some 
large marine quadruped, are of the present races of animals found 
in New Holland. 

From a consideration of all the circumstances connected with 
this discovery, the following conclusions present themselves :— 

Ist. That the caves are of that class first brought into notice 
by the Rev. Dr. Buckland. 

2. That the osseous breccias of Gibraltar, Antibes, Nice, Na- 
ples, Dalmatia, the island of Cerigo, &c. containing the remains of 
animals of the same kind, are probably of the same age, and an 
effect of the same cause, with the breccias of New Holland. 

3. That this unexpected agreement strengthens the diluvial 
theory consequent upon elevation from below, and is opposed to 
that which attempts to account for the modification of the earth’s 
surface by local causes. 

4. That the present order of nature in New Holland, is of a 
great antiquity, and perhaps coeval with the insular position of 
the territory. Eprtor. 


NEW PUBLICATIONS. 

WE take this opportunity of stating the conduct we shall observe respecting new 
publications. Any blandishments laid in our way to procure praise for works which 
do not deserve it, will be thrown away upon us, as we shall never insert puffs of any 
kind. Tobe upon the most friendly terms with Booksellers, is our interest, as well 
as our inclination; but it is to the public at large we look for efficient patronage, and 
we are bound by every consideration to deal intelligently and fairly with it. On the 
other hand, we shall be most happy, upon all occasions, to notice in a favourable 
manner, works connected with the Study of Nature, which we have good reason to 
believe are of sterling value; and in announcing the following, which are about to 
appear, we cannot but express our satisfaction at such manifest evidences of the in- 
creasing demand for works on the Natural Sciences. Epiror. 


IN THE PRESS. 

Tue Animat Ktnapom, arranged in conformity with its organization: by Baron 
Cuvier, perpetual secretary to the Royal Academy of Sciences, &c. &c. &c. The 
Crustacea, Aracunipes, and Insecta, by P. A. Latreille, Member of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences, &c. &c, &e. Translated from the French, with notes and 
additions, by H. M’Murtrie, M. D. &c. &c. In four volumes 8vo., with plates. 
New York. G. & C. & H. Carville. : 

Dr. M’Murtrie’s translation of this great work is upon the eve of being published. 
We intend, in a future number, after its publication, to speak of its great merits, to 


48 Notices of Publications. ? 


which, having seen the book, we now bear ana Sermony. Thetranslator has given 
evidence, in this work, to the American public, that he possesses the requisite qualifi- 
cations of a scholar and a naturalist. It is printed by James Kay, jun. & Co. in their 
usual beautiful manner. 


NEW PERIODICAL. 


Dr. Troost, and Mr. Le Sueur, now residing at Nashville, Tennessee, are about 
to commence the publication of a periodical work, in which they intend to describe 
the natural productions of that state. They propose to describe its Geology and 
Mineralogy, and particularly its fossil organic remains; also its animals of various 
classes, accompanied with coloured engravings. ‘The known qualifications of these 
gentlemen, encourage us to look for very interesting contributions to natural science. 


AMERICAN EDITIONS OF ENGLISH WORKS. — 
IN THE PRESS. 


“ A PreLIMInary Discourse on THE Srupy or Natura Puriosorny, by J. F. 
W. Herschell, Esq. A.M. late Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge,” &c, &c. &c. 
Carey and Lea. 

e can most truly say of this work, that it is one of the noblest productions of the 
human mind. On rising from the perusal of it, the first thought is always to read it 
over again ; not because it is not comprehended, but because of the dignity, the beau- 
ty, pa the vast extent of knowledge, which the gifted author has imbued it with. 
If ever there was a work capable of teaching men how to think correctly, it is this 
highly philosophical production. 

The “ Journat or A NaTuratisT,” is also about to appear from the press of Carey 
and Lea. In this pleasing work the author has been true throughout to his attractive 


motip: f. Plants, trees, and stones, we note; 
Birds, insects, beasts, and rural things.” 


Messrs. Carvilles, of New York, have in the press “ Lindley’s New Elementary 
Work on the Natural Orders of Plants, with notes and additions by Professor Torrey. 
We think this work will be popular here; we know of no book that can supply its 
place with those who are desirous of obtaining a knowledge of the philosophy of 
Jants. Dr. Torrey’s name is a guarantee for science and fair dealing; we therefore 
A not doubt that his notes and additions will add to the intrinsic value of the publi- 
cation. Hitherto empirical note makers have too often been successful in bringi 
important British productions into discredit here; and we know of an instance where 
a celebrated English writer, cordially attached to this country, has been, by such 
means, taught to dread the republication of his works in the United States, where he 
was particularly solicitous to appear to advantage. We intend to keep an eye on 
these parasitical scribblers, and if any conspicuous individual of that genus shall in 
future come within the length of our Caduceus, we shall certainly give him a rap 
on the knowledge-box that will “‘ make the empty dome resound.” 


“ ORNITHOLOGICAL BioGrapuy; or an Account of the Habits of the Birds of the 
United States.” By J. J. Audubon, F. R. 8. E. & L. &e.—one vol. royal 8vo. 

This book is a worthy companion to Mr. Audubon’s great work, the “Birds of 
America,” which Cuvier has pronounced to be “the most magnificent monument 
which has until now been raised to Ornithology.” 

We shall give our readers an extract from it in our next number. 


A work on Baths and Mineral Waters, by John Bell, M. D., will soon be pub- 
lished at the office of the Journal of Health. It will be the object of the author to 
exhibit clearly and succinctly the benefits to be derived, in the preservation of health 
and the cure of disease, from the use of cold, warm, sea, and vapour baths; and to 
indicate the circumstances under which the use of each, respectively, would be preju- 
dicial. In the second part of the work, the author will introduce all the material 
facts and experience, as far as they can be collected, respecting the most noted Mineral 
Springs of the United States; and compare them with those of a similar nature in 
Europe, The precautions in respect to the diet and exercise to be adopted by 
invalids who have recourse to bathing and drinking mineral waters, will be laid down 
with suitable precision—The work will form about 300 pages duodecimo. 

From the known talents of the author, and the attention he has paid to the sub- 
jects embraced in this work, we have every reason to believe it will be one of standard 
merit. : 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES. 
= @ Ott 


Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, (2 copies,) Washington. 


General Gratiot, for the Engineer Department, do. 
Dr. Randolph, for the War Department, do. 
Department of State, ; sit $0 
Asbury Dickens, for the Treasury Department, do. 
Col. .R. Jones, for the Adjutant General’s Office, do. 
Col. Abert, for the Topographical Bureau, ae 
Maj. Gen. Macomb, Commander-in-Chief, do. 
ce Hook, of the Subsistence Department, 3 do. 
Col. Bomford, of the Ordnance Department, do. 
Col. Kearney, do. 
Major J. Cross, Quarter Mastei’s Office, ~ Aad. 
Lt. W. B. Dayidson, Adjutant General’s Office, » do. 
Capt. Thomas J. Hunt, do. 
Lt. W. G. Williams, of the Topographical Office, do. 
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Charles Bankhead, Esq. H. B. M. Charge d’ Affaires, do. 
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Lieut William ‘Turnbull, do. 
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_ Wm. Norris, Jr. Esq. Philadelphia. |P. A. Browne, Esq. _ Philadelphia. 
Dr. Francis Condie, do. Geo. C. Read, Esq. U. S. N. do. 
Wm. Hembel, Esq. do... _|Major Ware, d 


0. 
Professor Green, do. Clement C. Biddle, Esq. . do. 
J. J. Vanderkemp, Esq. _— do. Dr. J. K. Mitchell, do. 
North & Allen, . do. Thomas Biddle, Esq. do. 
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Dr. John Bell, do. Jesse Torrey, Jr. Esq. do. 
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Wm. Morrison, do. Edwin Carpenter, ~ - do. 


Dr. Alfred L. Elwyn. do, John Vaughan, Philosoph. Hall. 


William Morrison, 
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Northern Liberty Library 


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. Henry H. Bollman, 


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do.  do.Dr. Join Eberle, 


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_ 


GEOLOGY 


NATURAL cena 


| BXHIBITING 7 THE PRESENT Laie catn AND PROGRESS OF ENOWLEDGE IN 


NOR | m 
. 


“TooLUGY, ‘BOTANY, MINERALOGY, COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, CHEMISTR Y ° 
perenne, PHYSICAL NATURAL AGENTS, AND THE 

_. ANTIQUITIES: AND LANGUAGES OF THE ~ 
B INDIANS OF THIS CONTINENT; 


9 


See en . ge ret 
‘CONDUCTED BY ys > 


a W. FEATHERS TONHAUGH, Soe 


3 w of the Geological. Society of London; Member of the American Philosophical. Society 
G1 Ses xia of the New York byoom of N atural History ; of the Academy of Natural 
me of becca) ce &e. &os 


oes 


AUGUST, 1831. 


OE 


‘TO BE CONTINUED MONTHLY. 


; "PUBLISHED D, BY HENRY H. PORTER, - 
THE orrice OF PtH JOURNAL OF HEALTH, JOURNAL or ‘Law, &e. 


_ Lalerary Rooms, at 4 121 Chesnut Aires: 
: ie Aa OREN Es Raa 
Pre B ‘” pe se a in | adpance,. 


ag Oe | a wus 00 


CONTENTS. 


«POE 
An Epitome of the progress of Natural Science, he bi a Weer a GPO ae 
Tour tothe Cavesin Virginia, - - > - + - = 58 
New Metal, provisionally called Vanadium, and Professor Del Rio’s Letter, 67 — 
Experiment with Flowers, - -  - 3 Ae ay = 133 
Anthracite Coal applied to generate Steam Power, Sa eg A 
Description of the Jaws, Teeth and Clavicle ofthe Megalonyx laqueatus, 74 — 
The United States exempt from deserts, ey te ae - =. = 76 
Communication from a writer on Geology in the North American Review, 82 
N. K. System of Arrangement, - -  - - +) => = 92. 
A case where the Specimens required no locality, wie aE oe ae 
Preparations to receive a Royal Naturalist, - . : = es Us 02.8 
Anecdote ofa conflict between a Fire Fly and Spider, - - + 93 
Case of a Bee, self decapitated, - - - =e a OA 
Anecdote of a decapitated Ratile Snake, é = ty ee - 94 
Extract from the Journal of a Naturalist, - - ae - 95 © 


To Readers and Correspondents, - - Cee - 96 i 


Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-one, by Henry H. Porter, in the Clerk’s Office of the 
District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Penn- ; 
sylyania. 


from Childs éinimans Press 


* THE 
MONTHLY AMERICAN J OURNAL 
GEOLOGY -* 


Be AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. I. Puiapevpuia, Aucust, 1831. . No. 2. 


a 


AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OF NATURAL SCIENCE.* 


Ir, on opening the great subject to which we are about} to 
draw the attention of our readers, we begin with periods scarce- 
ly within the historical records of our race, it is not with a view 
to enter upon any controyerted points in the history of mankind, 
but in order to revive some recollections of the progress of the 
human mind, that our readers may pursue with us, in a more 
satisfactory manner, the history of the progress of natural science, 
and more especially of Geology. 

Geological information, is very important to the study of the 
antiquity of human society ; for opinions, which to a certain ex- 
tent have been established, would by many be considered vague 
and transitory, did not geology by its own monuments, which may 
claim to be called indestructible, give substance to the traditions 
of our earliest periods, and confirm the great event from which 
they spring, and which we even find recorded in a volume, which 
has been consecrated by the veneration of so many generations. 

The exaggerated accounts of the great antiquity of the Chi- 
nese and Egyptians, which at one time were put forth with so 
much confidence, and which were so much at variance with 
chronology, have been reduced to insignificance, by the penetra- 
tion and assiduity of minds more learned and faithful than those 
which preceded them. The zodiacs, painted on the walls of the 

* It will not be expected that this rapid and imperfect sketch should oa 
references to authorities. It would look pedantic to refer to ancient authorities, 
when so many popular modern works are at hand, to enable the reader either to 
pursue the events of these ancient periods more in detail, or to verify them. The 


writer has mainly adopted the reasonings of Cuvier, and in many instances has 
made them the basis of his paper. : 


Von. 1.—7 49 


¢ 


50 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


temples of Egypt, and which, it was asserted, coftained proofs 
of a refined cultivation of astronomical science by the Egyptians, 
at periods that mock our chronologies, have been stripped of 
their romance. The most authentic notices we have of the ex- 
istence of astronomical knowledge, do not date beyond the eighth 
century pire Christ. The occultation of the heavenly bodies, 
we may of course expect to find recorded to some extent, by an- 
cient nations sufficiently advanced in civilization, to have invent- 
ed the means of transmitting the memory of great events. The 
geographical situation of some of those nations was favourable 
to the introduction of astronomical ebseryation, and some secular 
periods had been ascertained with sufficient precision, to have in 
some manner justified the inferences which have been drawn, of 
a supposed high state of astronomical knowledge. But in those 
early stages of society, this could have been accomplished only 
by miraculous interference, for the appropriate means of mea- 
suring time and space, were not alone wanting; the applica- 
tion of terrestrial mechanics to celestial motions, by such means, 
was equally essential. A vicious and hypothetical system of 
celestial dynamics, independent of physical laws, had, until the 
period of Pythagoras, limited the astronomical knowledge of the 
ancients, to observations unconnected with philosophical theory: 
and indeed, it was not until the time of Bacon, that the real 
foundations of natural science were laid. He first taught man- 
kind how to trace nature. through all her laws, in order to use 
our knowledge of her power, for the highest purposes. 
We shall now proceed to speak of four great nations, of whose 
existence we have historical proof fifteen hundred years before 
Christ. The Indians, the Chinese, the Babylonians, and the 
Egyptians. The Chinese, in whose favour such extravagant pre- 
tensions were set up, appear to possess no authentic observation 
of a greater antiquity, than an eclipse observed in the eighth 
century before Christ. Neither does any astronomical observa- 
tion made by the Chaldeans at Babylon, date farther back. 
Thus, although we have satisfactory evidences that those people 
existed as powerful and independent nations, seven hundred 
years before the date of these astronomical records, yet we can- 
not safely date the origin of science, before the eighth century 
preceding the christian era. Having thus reduced within rea- 
sonable bounds, the period of the first dawning of astronomy, the 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 51 


most obvious of the sciences, we naturally inquire how far that 
period is consistent with the most ancient historical notices of the 
origin of society. And here we observe a remarkable agreement 
in the records of two of those nations. The Hebrew text in Gen- 
esis, according to the most received chronology, ans 2349 
years B. C., as the period of a great deluge which almost extir- 
pated every living thing from the face of the earth, and the 
Chinese records assigning the period of 2384 years B. C., to the 
same event. It was about that period Confucius, their philosopher, 
represents their first king Yao, as occupied in draining the wa- 
ters which had ascended to the tops of the mountains. So that 
if we consider this as the last period when the earth submitted 
to the mastery of the waters, we find a period of about fifteen 
hundred years, to assign to the renovation of the human race, 
before man became sufliciently civilized to note the occultation 
of the heavenly bodies. It is to be remarked, that the earliest 
notices we have of the great nations that have been mentioned, 
represent them as settled on extensive plains of great fertility, 
capable of affording them abundant subsistence, and intersected, 
as they were, by navigable streams, of exchanging their com- 
modities with distant settlements, and thus laying a foundation 
for commercial habits. Such has at all times been the discrimi- 
nating providence of man; congregating upon the fertile alluvial 
soils of the great drainages of the country, and rejecting his sur- 
plus population, upon the less productive lands of greater eleva- 
tion. The Indians were thus settled on the rich plains of the 
Ganges; the Babylonians on the Delta of the Euphrates; the 
Egyptians along the banks of the Nile. But the elevated sandy 
plains, to the flanks of which these alluvial soils extended, were 
the homes of an unquiet pastoral people, whose continual irrup- 
tions were fatal to the arts of peace. We find the early history 
of China agitated by the invasions of the Tartar hordes; that of 
India by the Mongols; of Babylonia by the Assyrians, and of 
Egypt by the people of the Shepherd Kings, from whose do- 
minion she was redeemed by Sesostris. When we remember how 
effectually science and literature were oppressed, by the irrup- 
tion of the same barbarous nations into Europe, towards the close 
of the Roman empire, we can imagine how fatal the effects of 
similar movements must have been, upon the first dawnings of 
social improvement. We find here a sufficient cause for the 


52 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


protracted advancement of science, the influence of which will 
be still more apparent, when we come to observe how steadily the 
light of natural knowledge burnt, when it was removed beyond 
the current of these adverse circumstances. Strong as was this 
current, and unfriendly to historical accuracy, we still find the 
antiquity of society asserted, in various records of a remarkable 
character; suchas the sacred books of the Hebrews; the Vedas, 
or sacred books of the Brahmins; the U King, or five books of the 
Chinese; and the Institutes of Menu, the sacred volume of the 
Hindoos. The Indians have not, properly speaking, any histori- 
cal book. The Vedas contain an exposition of the religious 
philosophy of the Brahmins, written in the Sanscrit tongue, now 
a dead language. It appears to have been the policy of the 
Brahminical caste, to have kept back the knowledge of histori- 
cal truths, and to have substituted in their place, metaphysical 
speculations. In all times, the people of India seem to have sub- 
mitted to that caste, as the sole depository of all knowledge, 
sacred and profane. It was so in the most ancient times, and 
their religion, laws, and customs, are at this day, such as Alex- 
_ ander of Macedon found them.* Their mythology, their meta- 
' physics, they imparted to other nations, but the Indians never 
had an advanced astronomy, nor a regular geometry. 

In estimating the relative antiquity of the nations we have 
spoken of, there are four circumstances worthy of attention. 

1. The remarkable agreement between all the known written 
languages, and the Sanscrit. ' 
' 2. The great height of the Himmaleh mountains, the loftiest 
on the face of the earth. Javaher in Thibet, rises toan elevation 
of 25,745 feet, which is 500 feet more than Sorata, in the An- 
des of Quito. Mr. Gerard found the Tartars living on the table 
lands between the peaks of the Himmaleh, with their horses, 
dogs, and domestic animals, at a height of near 16,000 feet. 
Herds of yaks and goats browse in the still more elevated ac- 
clivities, where theorists have supposed eternal snows to reign, 
the limit of which was found not to be under 20,000 feet. A 
legitimate inference to be drawn from these facts, is, that the 
human family might have found a safe refuge here, when the 
plains of Babylon and Egypt were under water. 

3. The tenderness among those ancient people, of animal life, 

* 324 yeara B. C. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 53 


and aversion to dead bodies, even to skins of animals, at this day: 
as though their ancestors had known a period, when the very 
scarcity of animal life, had made it impious in their eyes to de- 
stroy it. 

4. The evidence we have that the religion of Egypt was de- 
rived from Ethiopia, or upper Nubia; and that civilization 
originally came into Nubia, from India. 

The fanciful cosmogonies which are found in many of those 
ancient records, appear to have sprung from the theologico-meta- 
physical studies, common to those ancient people. In all of 
them we find a surprising coincidence, as to the occurrence of a 
great deluge. In the institutes of Menu, which date, according 
to Sir William Jones, about nine hundred years B. C., the ac- 
count of the creation of the world by an omnipotent being, is 
made—in a passage bearing a close resemblance to the analogous 
passage in Genesis—to occupy a period of six days; but the con- 
struction given to the word day, makes it equivalent to a period 
of several thousand years. These coincidences show, that the 
human mind, in those distant ages, and in regions so far apart, 
by thus cherishing the memory of traditions with scarce a differ- 
ence of character, has done much to give to them the weight of 
historical truths; and the geological phenomena, which coincide 
so remarkably with those traditions, sustain the assertion we 
have before made, that geological knowledge is important to the 
satisfactory study of the antiquity of human society. We are far 
from seeking to reconcile the Mosaic and Hindoo narrations of 
creation, by considering the days as so many secular, instead of 
solar periods; the Hindoo construction is to be rejected as irra- 
tional to the judgment of common sense: for whether men choose 
to consider the sabbatical institution, as ordained for sanctifica- 
tion, or for relaxation from labour, it has one general character in 
our scriptures, about which we cannot dispute: it is a seventh 
part of the whole period, and the notion of praying or preaching, 
or abstaining from all kinds of labour, for a period equal to several 
thousand years, is an absurd hypothesis. To rest from labour 
one natural day in seven, is a convenient custom, grateful to the 
physical condition of man, and sanctioned by all civilized nations. 

In relation to the Egyptians, the great antiquity which was 
once attributed to them, is no longer admitted. The long list of 
their kings, which Eusebius, the bishop of Cesarea, has preserved 


64 ipitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


in the fragments of Manetho and Berosus, and by means of 
which it was endeavoured to strike the roots of their history so 
deep into time, has been reconciled to our established chronolo- 
gies. Instead of succeeding each other regularly, as it was pre- 
tended they had done, it appears that Egypt was divided, as 
England was in the time of the heptarchy, into independent 
states, and that the series was a contemporaneous one. The 
sacred books of Hermes, together with all the Egyptian books, 
are lost, and all that we know of the science and history of the 
Egyptians, is from the Greeks: for as the Egyptians had drawn 
their knowledge from India, through Ethiopia; so, the Greeks, 
to whom Europe and America owe so much, derived their 
knowledge from Egypt. It appears, however, that their sacred 
books, which were carried in procession before the priests, treat- 
ed of almost every subject they were acquainted with, except 
their history. In this they resembled the Indians, as well as in 
the exclusive appropriation, by the priesthood, of all learning, 
sacred and profane. 

In one very important particular, however, the Egyptians dif- 
fered from the Indians, and this difference was favourable to 
science. ‘The Ethiopians, from whom the Egyptians derived 
their religion, whilst they retained the impression the ancient 
Indian colonies had made upon them, had incorporated with this 
higher stage of civilization, their ancient usages, such as were 
peculiar to the hunter state, and which yet distinguish the In- 
dian tribes on this continent. In what precise manner the respect 
paid to animals, originated in Ethiopia, we know not; nor whether 
their tribes were named, or not, after particular animals; but it 
does appear that the Egyptian priests attached a particular 
animal to each divinity. ‘Thus the crocodile was consecrated to 
Saturn; the cow to Ibis; the hawk to Osiris; the dog to Anubis 
&c. The veneration paid to their deities, was extended to the 
animals associated with them, and which were brought up in 
the temples in which the deities were worshipped. Many of 
the emblems of their religion were borrowed from the animal 
kingdom: with: such favourable opportunities of observing the 
external forms and the habits of animals, a foundation for natural 
history was insensibly laid. A further obligation appears too, to 
have devolved upon them, that of embalming these animals 
when they died; and as it was equally the custom to embalm 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. .55 


human bodies after death, opportunities of observing the internal 
structure of animals and men, were constantly afforded. A foun- 
dation was thus laid for comparative anatomy, the which, al- 
though it never arose to a science in Kgypt, must still, as an art, 
have been highly advanced; since the Greeks resorted to that coun- 
try to study anatomy, and Galen himself went thither, for the ex- 
press purpose of examining a human skeleton, imitated in bronze.* 
Herodotus, when he travelled in Egypt, was told by the 
Egyptian priests, that the Delta, of which lower Egypt is formed, 
was the gift of the Nile. That river on its annual retreat, de- 
posits a layer of mud; and it results from a geological calculation 
made upon these principles, that 2000 years before our era, 
lower Egypt was not in existence. The pyramids themselves, 
by Manetho’s account, were constructed after Sesostris had de- 
livered the country from the dominion of the Shepherd kings; 
neither did they exist at the time of the Exodus, as we have a 
right to suppose, since they are not mentioned in the scriptures. 
As the pyramids were anterior to the columnar architecture of 
the Egyptians, we have thus evidence, coinciding with the geo- 
logical proofs, of the low origin of the Delta of Egypt, as well as 
of the comparative antiquity of the Egyptian nation. 
_ During the dominion of the Shepherd kings, which lasted about 
two hundred years, the progress of science.was necessarily re- 
tarded, as the priesthood was overthrown. Subsequent to the 
re-establishment of the public liberties, by Sesostris, there was a 
second invasion of the country by the Medes and Persians, under 
Cambyses, about six hundred years before Christ; but in despite 
of adverse circumstances, the prosperity of the Egyptians con- 
tinued to increase, together with their progress in the arts. The 
annual inundations of the Nile, introduced not only surveying, to 
distinguish private property, but the digging of canals, which 
eventually led to a knowledge of hydraulics. ‘The erection of 
their obelisks on the alluvial formations, shows that their ac- 
quaintance with mechanics was very extensive; and the relievos 
and intaglios upon these monuments, and the precious stones 
worked by:them, evince a perfection in the art of stone cutting, 
which has never been surpassed. Hence we infer a knowledge 
of the art of tempering metals. Specimens of bronze and gold 
have been found in their tombs, sometimes representing with 
* 445 years B.C. 


56 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


great fidelity the animals they were familiar with. ‘Their forms 
too, are reproduced in a very perfect manner, both in their 
sculpture and paintings. More than fifty species of animals are 
represented with such truth, as to be immediately recognized by 
naturalists. In one painting, representing people fishing, more 
than twenty species of fish, peculiar to that country, are depict. 
ed with similar fidelity. Of their physical and metaphysical 
theories, enough remains to convince us, that they were a most 
ingenious and philosophical people. One fiction of their mytholo- 
gy was raised upon the analogy nature presents, in producing 
organized animals from the egg. ‘This planet was supposed by 
them to be a mundane egg, brought into life by a metaphysical 
principle, after the manner of incubation. They believed also 
in the successive destruction and renoyation of the world, and if 
we are to believe, as we reasonably may, that the Pythagorean 
doctrines, as we find them sketched in Ovid’s metamorphoses, 
were derived from Egypt, the Egyptians may claim to be con- 
sidered as haying laid the foundation of some of the most impor- 
tant geological truths, which have been worked out in our own 
times. In enouncing the following truths, Pythagoras) is made, 
by Ovid, to speak in his own person. ied ‘i 

“ Nothing perishes in this world; things merely vary ad 
change their form. 

“ Sea has been changed into land; marine shells lie far distant 
from the deep. 

“ Valleys have been excavated by running water, and floods 
have carried the ruins of hills into the sea. 

“Islands have become connected with the main land, by the 
growth of Deltas, as Pharos to Egypt. 

“Peninsulas have been divided from the main land, and have be- 
come islands; according to tradition, Sicily has thus been separated. 

“Plains have been upheaved into hills, by the confined air 
seeking vent, as at Treezen, in the Peloponessus. 

“'The temperature of some springs varies at different periods. 

“The waters of others are inflammable. 

“ Volcanic vents shift their position; there was a time when 
Etna was not a burning mountain, and the time will come when 
it will cease to burn: whether it be, that some caverns become 
closed up, by the moyements of the earth, and others opened, or 
whether the fuel is exhausted.” 


y | 
s 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 57 


From the enumeration of these high attainments of the Egyp- 
tians, which, it appears from history, were peculiar to that peo- 
ple, we may reasonably expect, that all the vestiges of philosophy, 
which we find in the early history of barbarous nations, were 

. _ derived from Egypt. We shall see how true this is, in relation 
to the Greeks, when we come to consider the period of their 
connection with Egypt. But we must first advert to the cosmogony 
of the Jewish people, preserved in so remarkable a manner, in 
the book of Genesis: a venerable monument of ancient opinions, 
where the highest propositions of natural philosophy, are occa- 
sionally treated in a manner surprisingly consistent with the 
present received opinions of the order of nature. In conducting 
our readers along the historical chain of these ancient periods, 
they will be struck with the proper and natural order, assigned 
to the details of that cosmogony. It is there stated, that after 
the’ surface of the earth was prepared, and exposed to the in- 
fluence of light and heat, aquatic animals were first created, 
next plants, then terrestrial animals, and last of all, man, with 
dominion over them all. This order of succession is consistent 
with reason, and must have been narrated by a superior mind. 
Had this cosmogony been an idle invention, like some of the fan- 
ciful creations in the Vedas and Puranas, it is probable the order 
would have had a less natural character, and perhaps the inven- 
tor would have created the animals before their food. But here 
we see things luminously narrated after the true order of nature, 
and consistent with the most refined discoveries of geology. We 
must, however, remember, that Moses, to whom these ancient 
books of the Hebrews are attributed,* had been brought up by 
the Egyptian priests, and had been probably instructed by them 
in their arts, and their most recondite philosophy : he appears to 
have been in every sense fitted for the high station Providence 
had allotted to him, when he was constituted the deliverer, and 
the lawgiver of his nation. | 

About fifteen centuries before our era, the disturbances in 
Egypt caused various emigrations. Cecrops carried the mysteries 
of Isis, or Ceres, into Greece, and about sixty years later, Cadmus 
brought over from Pheenicia, the oriental alphabet, which was 


#1 will not escape the philologist, that the Hebrew words “Ish,” 2 man, and 
Bae % woman, are contained in the names of the Egyptian deities, Osiris 
and Isis. » 


Vor. L—s 


58 Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 


adopted by the Greeks, and of which the letters of the Roman 
alphabet, and our own, are imitations. Previous to these emi- 
grations, science, which had originated during the Africo-asiatic 
period of society we have briefly glanced at, had not been able 
to advance beyond the sacred circle, which the priesthood had 
drawn around it: the Brahminical and Egyptian priests, wer 
alike the sole depositaries of all knowledge, sacred and profane. 
This circle being now broken through, the human mind, released 
from its trammels, soon entered upon the philosophical period of 
the early stages of society, as contra-distinguished from the sacer- 
dotal period which had preceded it. 
(To be continued). 


TOUR TO THE CAVES IN VIRGINIA. 
In a letter from Dr. Richard Harlan to the Editor. 


Washington, May 28, 1831. 

My pear Sim,—In answer to your request, to have some de- 
tails of our tour through part of the state of Virginia, I think I 
can do no better than send you a copy of my Journal; assured 
that you will make full allowance for the inadvertencies oc- 
casioned by the rapidity of our progress, and the very limited 
time at our disposal. 

I left this city, with a friend, on the 17th inst.; the bridge 
across the Potomac having been destroyed by ice during the 
winter, we were obliged to cross at Georgetown in a flat boat, 
and arrived at Fairfax court-house at 9 P. M. on a dark night, 
and over a very bad road. The principal hotel here, had re- 
cently been destroyed by fire ; we succeeded, however, in getting 
tolerable lodgings. I was awoke during the night by the Capri- 
mulgus Vociferus, (Whip-poor-will,) which perched for some 
time in the vicinity of my window. Thus far, this bird has ap- 
peared to us, more common in Virginia and Maryland, than in 
Pennsylvania : but the notes of the partridge we have not once 
heard ; they appear all to have perished during the severe snow 
storm of last winter.* NA 
* We are afraid this will be found to have been very generally the case. if 


wore retreat, Brandywine springs, in Delaware, was last year the paradise of 


partridges ; they were abundant, and having been but little disturbed, were very 
confiding. But we have received sad accounts, this season, from the farmers, of 
their skeletons being found under the fences.—[ Editor. 


Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 69 


Wednesday 18th. Started early, and arrived at Warrington, 
Fauquier County, to dinner. Dr. W. of this village, presented us 
with several interesting specimens of minerals and rocks, also a 
fossil molar tooth of an elephant, found in this vicinity. Warrington 
is situated on an elevated plain, from whence the views are very 


GPeouiitu. Nothing could be more kind than our reception here. 


a 


. 


Thursday 19th. Left Warrington at day-break,—roads moun- 
tainous, and in Pennsylvania would be considered very bad. It 
gave us pain to see so many listless, idle persons, passing their 
days about the taverns. Men playing at marbles like boys, and 
exceedingly prone to cursing and swearing. In Pennsylvania, 
we are not happy without some useful occupation, and our peo- 
ple know how to he!p themselves. Here the climate, and the sad 
burden of negro slavery, which oppresses the white man still 
more, have made him dependant upon others; and if a gate is to 
be opened, or the slightest thing to be raised from the ground, 
Sambo, or Governor, or Major, or Colonel, or some pseudo digni- 
tary of the African stock, is called from his work to do it. 

In approaching the Blue mountains, the hills appear to be 
composed of the following strata; at least we crossed them in the 
Colvin cession, our route lying in a direction south of west: 
2. A red sandstone: our course lay for many miles parallel to 
this stratum ; in these parts of Virginia, it constitutes the surface 
rock, the disintegration of which generally forms the common 
soil of the country, and gives the red appearance to the newly 
ploughed lands. The soil bears good grain and clover. 2. Tale- 
ose rock. 3. Greenstone. 4. Slate. 5. Decomposed greenstone, or 
red earth, as it is called. It is of a brick-dust colour, covered 
with loose fragments of quartz, and is apparently the same 

rthin which the gold is found in Carolina and Georgia. This 


extreme point of the gold region displays itself here on the main 


road, in the vicinity of a blacksmith’s shop, ten miles north of Cul- 
pepper court house, about twenty miles in a parallel line from 
the gold region of Spotsylvania. It rained during the short time 
we could dedicate to this locality, in which some slight traces of 
the metal were observed. We dug through several feet of this hill, 
and beneath the loose quartz, we observed several veins of decom- 
d micacious rock, alternating with veins of quartz, both dip- 

g at an angle of about 65°. The mica, in these glittering sands, 

is thought to be gold dust, by a great many of the country people. 


60 Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 


The specimens we obtained in our researches, demonstrate 
that the gold region here resembles in every important particular, 
equivalent formations, both in S. America, and in Russia, on the 
east side of the Ural mountains. The true mineral structure of 
our gold formations, I first learned at the geological] lectures you 
delivered in Philadelphia, this last spring. e 

Much rain fell, and we were exposed to a hurricane, accom- 
panied with thunder, lightning, hail, and rain. The mountain 
torrents on these occasions, swell the streams, and soon render 
the fords impracticable. ‘The country people not being accus- 
tomed to rely upon bridges, are careless in the directions they 
give to travellers, and fatal accidents frequently happen. We 
were upon one occasion of this kind benighted, and compelled to 
take refuge in the house of a respectable widow, but she receiv- 
ed us cheerfully, and entertained us after the best manner she 
was able. Most of the slaves were poorly clad, whom we noticed 
in the fields; some females were ploughing and harrowing ; they 
looked squalid, and unhappy. 

Friday 20. Arrived early in the morning at Orange court- 
house, where we breakfasted. We deviated a little from our 
route, in order to pay a visit to Mr. Madison, at nis Mont- 
pelier. On presenting a letter of introduction from General Py 
we were received with true Virginian hospitality, and with a 
cordiality that charmed us. The farm of Montpelier is under 
excellent cultivation, and repair. The clover and maize crops 
are thriving, but the wheat fields, like most of those we have 
seen, have suffered from the fly. The mansion-house is in a fine 
position, on an extensive and elevated plain, almost mountain- 
locked. The distant views are very grand. The venerable 
patriot, dressed in the garb of by-gone days, was an object ofp. 
great interest to us; his conversation was that of a very high ‘ 
bred man, dignified and easy, and appearing to seek information, 
rather than to convey it. The slaves here wore a very different 
aspect, from those we had before seen. Pursuing our journey, 
we arrived at Charlottesville, at 74 P. M., after a fatiguing day’s 
journey of forty-five miles, over bad roads. After tea, we walked 
about a mile to the university, to pay our respects to some friends; 
here we met with a very pleasant society, consisting nam ~ 
the families of the professors. 

- Saturday, 21. Charlottesville is rather a superior place. It 


"Se 


Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 61 


contains good buildings, and its society is refined. Every where 
we found hospitality. Desiring to make a short excursion on horse- 
back, we discovered that all the Rosinantes were engaged by 
the students. Our wants, however, were no sooner known than 
supplied, by the polite and voluntary offers of private gentlemen. 
mmediately after breakfast we set out on a visit to Monticello, 
the seat of the late Mr. Jefferson, which is built on the summit 
of a high mountain, distant from Charlottesville about one mile; 
but in following the directions of the various windings, to gradu- 
ate the ascent, it is about three miles; two mountains nearly 
join each other, the right hand one is called Carter’s moun- 
tain, that on the left is MonriceLLto; when about two thirds 
up the mountain, we dismounted in the woods, at the family 
grave yard, enclosed by an ill-built stone wall, where lies, in 
obscure repose, the neglected remains of the patriot and philoso- 
pher; there are also the graves of several of the family. The 
whole scenery around this lonely spot, presents a gloomy and a 
melancholy aspect. We were informed that Mr. Jefferson re- 
quested on his death bed, (or left a note to that effect,) that all 
appearance of pageantry, and useless ceremony and display, 
: should be scrupulously dispensed with, on the occasion of his fu- 
, »neral. He further requested, that no other memorial should be 
F erected to his memory, than a plain, granite column, with a 
simple inscription, signifying his having been the author of the 
declaration of independence—founder of the Virginia University, 
we Se It appears to most strangers who visit this spot, the most 
unpardonable neglect, that this last request should not have been 
immediately attended to. We were informed at Charlottesville, 
that the mechanics in the vicinity, had offered to complete the 
ies gratuitously, but. as yet nothing has been effected, not- 
ithstanding five years have elapsed since the death of Mr. J. 
The whole establishment of Monticello is rapidly verging toward 
ruin, and this splendid building, which originally cost, as ‘we 
were informed, upwards of 50,000 dollars, has actually been of- 
fered for sale, together with 1,100 acres of land, for the trifling sum 
of $11,000. In the hall there still stands a column of verdantique, 
surmounted by a marble bust of Mr. Jefferson by Ceracchi. 
ay ke hen the summit of this isolated eminence, the views are in- 
itably grand and imposing ; the village to the north-west ap- 
peas at the very foot of the mountain, and the university, which 


P 


62 Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 


lies about one mile further west, is also plainly distinguishable ; 
the views in these directions are then closed by the Blue moun- 
tains, forming a pleasing back ground to the picture: towards 
the east and south, the horizon is extended to an immense distance, 
and the eye is at length tired with tracing the faint outlines of 
the tops of receding hills and mountains. ‘Towards the south, ing 
Bedford county, Va., are observable two pyramids, at least 
eighty miles distant ; they are known as “ Otter’s Peaks.” 

On our return to Charlottesville, we again visited the univer- 
sity. The numerous buildings attached to it, are constructed of 
different orders of architecture, which, whilst they serve as 
useful specimens of the arts, give variety and interest to the 
scene. The library, situated in the Rotunda, is constructed on 
a large scale, and already contains many very rare and valuable 
works, in the various departments of literature and science, prin- 
cipally selected by Mr. Jefferson. The cabinet contains but few 
objects in Natural History of much interest, with the exception 
of a finely preserved head of the Argali, or “ Bic-norn,” from 
the Rocky mountains, brought by Lewis and Clark; also some 
bones of the Mastodon. The lower jaws of two of these have 
the remains of the inferior tusks, which characterize several 
species of this genus; they are precisely similar to those describ- 
ed from an individual skull in possession of Mr. Peale of N. York, 
and which has been erroneously supposed to have belonged to a 
distinct genus of extinct fossil quadrupeds. 

At 4 P. M. we took leave of“our kind friends, and pursued 
our way to Wyer’s Cave, by the road to Port Republic, and slept 
the same night at Coxe’s, a good tavern sixteen miles from Char- 
lottesville, close to the Blue mountain. | 

Sunday, 22. Recommenced our journey,at 7 A.M. and soo 
reached the base of the Blue mountains, at Rock-fish Gap, an 
gained the summit on foot, hammer in hand.” The eastern slope 
of this mountain at the above named Gap, developes the follow- 
ing rocks. Red sandstone ; green-stone; old red sandstone ; slate 
rock; and granite ; some of these rocks run into each other, and 
occasion many peculiar varieties. 

A fine clear view of the Alleghany mountains, is presented 
from the summit of this ridge. We arrived at Wanesborough ~ 
at 10 A.M. ‘This place is situated on the south branch of ae 
Shenandoah, at the head of navigation, three miles dite from 


. 


Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 63 


the Caves—it was settled by soldiers of the revolution, who re- 
ceived the farms as bounty lands. 

Monday, 23. After an early repast, we proceeded to Wyer’s 
Cave, situate on the south branch of the Shenandoah, approach- 
ed by a road of difficult access; there is an iron forge a little 

Preow, and a tavern within eight hundred yards of the spot, kept 
by Mr. Bryant, who rents the farm on which the caves are 
found. The three slaves whom we had hired at Port Deposit, 
had preceded us, and awaited us at the entrance of the caves, 
furnished with tools for digging; the principal object of our visit 
being to ascertain if the caves contained fossil bones. The fre- 
quent descriptions I had read of this cave, had prepared me on 
the present occasion, to experience disappointment. The en- 
trance is difficult of access, and dirty—the floors are constantly 
interrupted by precipitous risings and depressions, and by large 
broken masses of the limestone in which the caves occur. In 
some of the chambers, the floors are loaded with wet tenacious 
clay, and the stalactites are for the most part discoloured by the 
water which percolates the rock from the red sandstone above. 
We made the slaves dig in two places in the lowest part of 
two chambers the most likely to contain fossils. The floor is for 
the most part destitute of stalagmite, but abounds in many places 
with loose fragments; occasionally, indeed, with large rocks fall- 
en from above. In the first chamber, which is sunk considerably 
beneath the adjacent rooms, the labourers dug five feet deep, at 
first through a clay soil, which became moister below, intermix- 
ed with numerous fragments of stalactite; they did not reach 
the bottom rock here. The next digging occurred at the extreme 
end of the first left branch of the cave, and after excavating 

’ ee feet deep, they came to solid rock. We now ascended lad- 

ers, and crawled and scrambled through several chambers, most 
of which presented such a monotonous aspect, that we grew fa- 
tigued, and proposed to our guide to return. The original or 
natural entrance, consists of a mere fissure in the rock, of a size 
only sufficient for the passage of a fox; a circumstance which 
diminishes the chance of finding fossil bones. If was to Mr. 
Wyers following a ground-hog (Arctomys Monax) to.a hole in this 

* that the discovery of the cave was owing, in February 1806. 

he disturbed and confused appearance of the interior of the 
cave, as well as of the huge masses of mountain rock which are 


a 


a 


° 


64 Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 


found on the surface, can only be accounted for, by supposing 
powerful subterranean disturbances. On our return we visited 
Mapison’s cave, about two hundred yards nearer the hotel. Un- 
like the other, this cave has no artificial door at its entrance, to 
prevent the ingress of strangers; the “old cave” as it is now 
called, being considered as beneath notice, since the discovery of 
the new one. The entrance of both is more than one hundred 
feet above the level of the river; the ascent to either is very 
precipitous. The entrance to Madison’s cave is capacious, the 
surface of the floor is less rugged, and is also, for the most part, 
destitute of stalagmite ; salt petre has been obtained from the 
earth taken from the floor of this cave. IT'rom the appearance 
of things we thought that the occurrence of fossil bones in this 
locality not improbable, and we set our labourers to digging in 
two of the lowest positions of the two first chambers. In the 
deepest room, the floor consists of clay—then at three feet depth, 
of red earth, or decomposed red sandstone, one foot in thickness, 
which lies on the original floor of the cave, resembling a com- 
pact red sandstone. Whilst the digging was going on, we follow- 
ed our guide along a narrow high gallery, by a continuous descent 
of some hundred feet, until further progress was interrupted by 
a body of crystal water, which is said to be of immeasurable 
depth, and beyond which no one has yet explored; some terri- 
ble tale of silent suction existing in this water, has become preva- 
lent in this neighbourhood, and effectually paralizes the efforts 
of the exploring Homo troglodytes. 

Our researches continued actively for five hours, when we re 
turned to the hotel, fatigued, covered with mud, and disappoint- 
ed in our expectations of obtaining fossil relics. We dined at 2 


P. M. and immediately continued our journey, and after a ride | 
of fourteen miles arrived at Harrisonburg, via Port Republic, — 


over a road indescribably bad. The weather has been so cool 
since our arrival in these mountainous regions, especially subse- 
quent to the thunder storm, which we encountered north of 
Charlottesville, that fires are kindled at all the hotels at which we 
halt, and cloaks are an agreeable appendage during the day. 
Contrary to theory, the season is less advanced on the south-west 
limestone region of these mountains, or what is known as the 
great valley of Virginia, than it is on the more northern exposure ; 
the leaves on many of the trees have been destroyed by the frost 


. 


Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 65 


of the 12th inst. At Harrisonburg, formerly called Rocktown, 
there resides a French family, emigrants from Strasburg, on the 
Rhine, who settled here three years ago, with the intention of 
cultivating the grape-vine. Their vineyard has been totally 
destroyed the present season, by the recent severe frost, just at 

» the moment they expected to reap the fruits of their labours. 
The sudden vicissitudes of temperature to which this elevated 
situation, as we are informed, is constantly liable, will at all 
times render it unfriendly to the cultivation of the vine. 

We left this village at half past 7 A. M., and after a ride of 
ten miles, arrived at the “ Big spring,” which should rather be 
called a river, so large is the body of water which rises suddenly 
from the foot of a limestone hill, and continues in a stream of - 
some yards in breadth, and half a foot deep, with force sufficient 
to turn two large mills immediately below: this stream of water 
is exceeamgly cool, and does not contain any fish; it is artesian, 
or ever flowing, and is always very pure, excepting, as a Dutch 
girl informed me, “ just before it was going to rain,” when, she 
said, it became turbid. It has only ceased to flow once, in the 
memory of the oldest settlers, when it remained dry three days, 
to the great terror of the farmers who hold mill seats immediate- 
lyonit. 

_ This stream is situate on the main valley route, Rockingham 
county, about five miles west of the Massonetto mountain, which 
ridge is parallel to the Blue mountains, and nearly fifty miles 
long. Continuing our route, three miles from the “ Big spring,” 
on a line with the mountain, we halted to dine at an inn, kept 
by Mr. T. K. Fuller, an emigrant from the State of New York, 
who says he has resided in Virginia nine years, and detests the sla- 

P ar system, seeing that the Dunkards who reside in this vicinity, 
and who abjure slavery, possess farms in every respect superior 
to those of their neighbours. Mr. F. possesses a taste for natural 
curiosities, and: has his bar room filled with what, in your geo- 


logical lectures, you styled “ y..x’s.”: Mr. Fuller appeared con- >: 


cerned, to think that people will have it that he knows something 
of the science of mineralogy, of chemistry, &c. &c. but he fre- 
quently repeated, “it is all a mistake ; it is all natural.” 
e left this station, after having made an arrangement with 
) F. for exchange of N. K’s, on our return to Philadelphia— 
' he possessed some fine specimens of Ammonites, and a Trilobite, 
"Vor. L—9 


’ 


¢ 


66 Tour to the Caves in Virginia. 


from the Massonetto ridge, in the vicinity, which, under the 
names of “ fossil toad, and fossil snake,” he hugged to his bosom 
with parental fondness ; no reasonable sum would induce him to 
part with them; he at length consented to exchange them 
for “ sea-shells, corals, &c. or any queer thing that comes from 
_ the great ocean.” Having passed through New-Market, and 
crossed the north branch of the Shenandoah, at 7 P. M. halted 
for the night at Pitman’s. We have travelled the whole day 
over roads cut or worn through limestone, uncovered by soil, and 
in the worst condition; the limestone is quite black, of the varie- 
ty called Hydraulic, from the water cement which is made of it. 
This formation continues nearly the whole length of the Masso- 
netto ridge, and has evidently been subjected to violent disturbing 
powers from below, and subsequently, water worn on its surface: 
the strata are occasionally a foot or two thick, and dip towards 
the mountain, SE. to the NE., at an angle of 45°; at other times 
the strata emerge vertically—again they appear in large irregular 
masses, sometimes almost comminuted, and frequently resem- 
bling slate so strikingly, as to be mistaken for it until more close- 
ly inspected, hammer in hand. In one place they forma narrow 
pass, over which the public road lies, and which is known here 
by the name of “the narrows:” it is about twenty feet wide, 
and displays a perpendicular precipice on each side;nearly eighty 
feet high, with a small river on either side, unconnected at this 
place. This “ narrow passage” is four miles south of Woodstock, 
ten miles north of Mount Jackson. On the great valley road, 
there is another remarkable display of this curious hydraulic 
limestone rock ; this is a denuded hill, through part of which the 
public road passes ; on the very summit of which there is yet a 
small sprinkle of red diluvium—but all the slope is naked, and the 
faces of the projecting strata are water-worn and smooth. The 
roots of pine trees, which once occupied this slope, are still seen 
wedged in the crevices of the rock; this denudation was oc- 
casioned, as the neighbours assured us, “ by the bursting of a 
cloud,” whose awful consequences they witnessed, to their great 
Joss and terror. 

I could refer their account to no natural phenomenon, unless 
it be to the bursting of a water spout. The disturbed strata of 
this limestone, are here well contrasted with it in its natural 
state. Arrived at Winchester, at 7 P. M. ti 


« 


New Metal, provisionally called Vanadium. 67 


Thursday 26. After breakfast set out for Harper’s Ferry, dis- 
tant thirty miles; passed through, and dined at Charleston; 
much rain had lately fallen in this vicinity, and the roads, bad at 
best, are almost impassable ; two miles per hour we found to be 
rapid travelling, in their present state. The black lime rock con- 
tinued almost to Harper’s Ferry. ‘The view at this gap sudden- 
ly burst open before us in all its glory, as we gained the summit 
of a hill about a mile distant, and richly repaid us for all our fa- 
tigue and toil. The rocks which overhang the river, are com- 
posed of green slate, somewhat talcose, which disintegrates rather 
fast in exposed situations, and masses are continually falling. 
This slate rests on a fine-grained, solid granite, very appropriate 
for the great rail road, which is to pass here. 

Friday 27. We left this enchanting scenery about 10 A. M. 
lodged the same evening at Leesburg, and arrived at Washing- 
ton at 1 P. M. on Saturday 28th, one of the hottest days expe- 
rienced the present season. The last four miles previous to 
entering Georgetown, the road leads along the Potomac canal, 
through gneiss and granite rocks: higher up the river, it is said 
that anthracite has been discovered. 


NEW METAL, PROVISIONALLY CALLED VANADIUM. 


Extract of a Letter from M. Berzelius to M. Dulong, read before the Academy 
of Natural Sciences at Paris, Feb. 7, 1831. 


_ “M. Sefstrém, director of the school of mines at Fahlun, whilst 
engaged in examining a variety of iron remarkable for its ex- 
treme softness, observed the presence of a substance, the proper- 
ties of which differed from those of all other known bodies; but 
its quantity was so small as would have rendered it tedious and 
expensive, to collect sufficient for an examination of its properties. 
This iron was from the mine of Taberg in Smoland; the ore 
merely contained traces of the substance. Finding that the pig 
iron contained far more of this principle than the wrought iron, 
M. Sefstrim thought that the scoria formed during the conversion 
of the pig iron into wrought metal, might be a more abundant 
source—a conjecture confirmed by experience; so that sufficient 
having been procured, he went to Mr. Berzelius during the Christ- 
mas holidays, to complete its examination. For the present the 
substance is called Vanadium, after a Scandinavian divinity. 


68 New Metal, provisionally called Vanadium. 


“ Vanadium combines with oxygen to form an oxide and an 
acid. The acid is red, pulverulent, fusible, and on solidifying, 
becomes crystalline. It is slightly soluble in water, reddens lit- 
mus, and forms yellow neutral salts, and orange bisalts. Its com- 
binations with acids or bases, have the peculiar property of sud- 
denly losing their colour—they resume it only on becoming solid 


again, and being then re-dissolved, preserve their colour. This. 


phenomenon appears to have some analogy with the two states 
of phosphoric acid and of phosphates. 

“ Hydrogen at a white heat, reduces vanadic acid, leaving a 
coherent mass, having a feeble metallic lustre, and being a good 
conductor of electricity, but it is not certain that the reduction is 
complete. Vanadium, thus obtained, does not combine with sul- 
phur when heated to redness, in its vapour. The oxide of Vana- 
dium is brown, or nearly black, and dissolves readily in acids. 
The salts are of a deep brown colour; but, by the addition of a 
little nitric acid, effervesce, and become of a fine blue colour. 

“ Vanadic acid, combined with another acid, is reduced by 
sulphuretted hydrogen, and even by nitrous acid, to that blue 
matter which appears to be a compound of Vanadic acid with 
the oxide of Vanadium, analogous to those compounds formed by 
Tungsten, Molybdenum, Iridium, and Osmium. 'The oxide and 
acid of this metal together produce other combinations, green, 
yellow, and red, all soluble in water. Sout 

“When the oxide of Vanadium is produced in the humid way, 
it is soluble both in water and alkalies. The presence of a salt 
renders it insoluble, and upon this effect may be founded a pro- 
cess for its preparation. 

“The Vanadates, when dissolved in water, are decomposed by 
sulphuretted hydrogen, and converted into sulfa salts, of a fire 
red colour. ‘ 

“The chloride of Vanadium is a very volatile, colourless liquid, 
producing thick red fumes in the air. The fluoride is sometimes 
colourless, sometimes red, but always fixed. Before the blow- 
pipe Vanadium colours fluxes of a fine green colour, in that re- 
spect resembling chrome.’’* 


_* On the 28th of February, M. Humboldt stated that the same metal had been 
discovered in Mexico, by M. Del Rio, in a brown lead ore from Zimapan ; who 
had named it Erythronium, but was induced to suppose it not a simple substance, 
but an impure chrome: upon a re-analysis of the ore of Zimapan, it is found the 
metals are identical. , 


Se Pee eee ee eee 


New Metal, provisionally called Vanadium. 69 


Our attention having been attracted to the preceding letter, 
we naturally sought to be informed from our venerable and es- 
teemed friend, Professor del Rio, why the merit of a discovery 
made by him, and announced in 1804, in his translation of Karsten, 
should be transferred to another chemist, for detecting the same 
metal in iron, in 1830. We subjoin his answer, not less remark- 
able for his analytical skill in chemistry, than for his good sense 
and modesty. 

We should under any circumstances expect objections to be 
made to the term Vanadium, derived from an ancient Scandina- 
vian Deity. We dislike the introduction of such puerilities into 
science. Far better would be the term Zimapanium, since it 
was first found in the brown lead ore of Zimapan. But upon this 
occasion, that the complete measure of justice may be done to an 
eminent and deserving philosopher, we venture to express a hope 
that in place of the provisional name Vanadium, the more com- 
pendious one of Riom or Rionium, may be substituted. 

It is very clear that Del Rio was first.induced by Humboldt, to 
doubt of his own discovery, and, subsequently, when M. Desco- 
tils—who was familiar with Vauquelin’s discovery of the metallic 
nature of chrome, and whose pupil indeed we believe he was,— 
threw his weight into the scale of Humboldt, M. Del Rio 
diffidently forbore to press his own better opinions, against those 
of the Europeans, whom he supposed* possessed of superior op- 
portunities of judging than himself, and likely to unite against 
him. Eprror. 

api? 

TRANSLATION OF A LETTER FROM PROFESSOR DEL RIO. 

wed Philadelphia, July 13, 1831. 

Sir,—I have always been of opinion that it is of greater im- 
portance to science, that the world should concern itself more 
with the discoveries that are made, than with those who make 
them ; and I experienced a lively satisfaction in learning through 
Professor Jameson’s Journal, that Mr. Wohler had found Vana- 
dium in the brown lead ore of Zimapan. J entertained the opinion, 
twenty-nine years ago, that it contained a new metal, which, at 
the time, I called Pancrome, on account of its producing the three 
fundamental colours, blue, yellow, and red. Subsequently I 
named it, Erithrome, having observed a very curious phenomenon 
connected with it. The colourless salts, e. g. the Vanadiate of 


70 New Metal, provisionally called Vanadium. 


ammonia in slender acicular crystals, takes the finest crimson 
red, as soon as a small drop of concentrated nitric acid is placed 
on it. The same thing takes place with those of potash, soda 
and lime. Those of barytes, as far as I remember, not having 
with me my notes, became by the same method, at first, yellow, 
and afterwards red. I found also, as may be seen in my trans- 
lation of the mineralogical tables of Karsten, published at Mex- 
ico in 1804, that the acid was fusible into an opaque and brown . 
mass, with very fine stars on the surface, which had a semi-metallic 
lustre. I perceived that the acid was not red itself, except when 
distilled to dryness, with nitric acid, or when the acicular crystals 
of Vanadiate of ammonia, were put under the muffle. I found 
also, that the acid did not precipitate the nitric solutions of silver, 
of mercury and of lead, of a red, but of a yellow colour. 

I communicated my experiments to Baron Humboldt, when he 
arrived in Mexico, and he stated to me, that my metal had the 
strongest resemblance to chrome, especially on account of the fine 
emerald green it takes when under the blow-pipe: which occa- 
sioned me to observe both in my translation of Karsten, in the 
year 1804, and in the nineteenth number of the Annals of Natu- 
ral Sciences, which were then published at Madrid, under the 
direction of the celebrated Cavanilles, that I supposed it to be a 
sub-chromate of lead. M. Descotils, a vear afterwards, ex- 
pressed the same opinion.* I confess, however, I could not sup- 
press my astonishment, that no one took any notice of what I 
believed to be a blue oxide, nor of the beautiful phenomenon of 
the colouring of the salts red, by nitric acid, or by heat. Iam 
content, however, with having always sustained that the brown 
ore of lead was not a phosphate, believing it identical with the 
brown lead of Schemnitz in Hungary, and of Huelgoet in Brit- 
tany. , 

You will please, Sir, to give these observations a place in your 
Journal, if you deem them worthy of insertion there. Its estab- 
lishment is a source of great satisfaction to all those who know 
how well you deserve the reputation you have acquired. 

I remain, Sir, 
Your affectionate Friend. 
A. DEL RIO, 


TO MR, FEATHERSTONHAUGH. * 


Experiment with Flowers. 71 


EXPERIMENT WITH FLOWERS. 


Ir the lobelia fulgens, which is of a pure blood-red, is viewed 
by the light of an alcohol lamp, with a little salt added to the 
wick, it becomes absolute black, which is not the case when ob- 
served by solar, or chemical light. The scarlet geranium too, 
naturally reflects a compound of red and yellow, but when seen 
by the spirit lamp, with salt, appears yellow. Purple colours 
under like circumstances appear blue. If a candle is put on one 
side of the lobelia, and a spirit lamp on the other, one half ap- 
pears black, and the other, red. The explanation of this beautiful 
experiment is suggested by the study of the nature ,of reflecting 
bodies, and of light. Coloured bodies are so formed, as to reflect 
rays and combinations of rays, peculiar to them in their natural 
state. Hence, red flowers reflect the red ray which they obtain 
from light. But the light of a spirit lamp gives out—as may be 
proved by a prism—no red ray, and hence the lobelia, when ob- 
served by this light, has no red ray to reflect, and appears black. 
The geranium receives no red ray, and appears yellow. The 
purple receives no red ray, and appears blue. Those unac- 
quainted with the properties of bodies and of light, are generally 
contented to believe that the natural colour of an object belongs 
to it inherently, as much as its form does. But this is not so. 
Whatever the reflecting structure of bodies may ultimately de- 
pend upon, they must be in connection with light before they 
can reflect ; and as it is remarked, in a work that will perhaps 
bear reading oftener than any other that modern times have pro- 
duced, “Preliminary Discourse on the study of Natural Philoso- 
phy, by. John Frederick William Herschell,” &c. &c. “ when the 
differently coloured prismatic rays are thrown, in a dark room, 
in succession, upon any object, whatever be the colour we are in 
the habit of calling its own, it will appear of the particular hue 
of the light which falls upon it. A yellow paper, for instance, 
will appear scarlet when illuminated by red rays, yellow when 
by yellow, green by green, and biue by blue rays; its own (so 
called) proper colour not in the least degree mixing with that it so 
exhibits.” 

Perhaps at some future day, light may be so managed, as to 
admit of bodies reflecting particular colours, without adding the 
expense of dying or painting to them. Epiror. 


72 Anthracite Coal Applied to Generate Steam Power. 


ANTHRACITE COAL APPLIED TO GENERATE STEAM POWER. 


Tue Editor had the satisfaction, a short time ago, to direct the 
public attention, to the simple means adopted by Mr. John Price 
Wetherill, of this city, to remedy the defect inherent in this Coal, 
viz: the want of hydrogen. The Editor is informed by that 
gentleman, that a great many persons were induced, in conse- 
quence, to visit his White Lead Works, and to adopt his improve- 
ment. ‘The non-bituminous coals of this state, which are now 
universally called anthracite, vary somewhat in their qualities. 
Some are more easily ignited than others, have a portion of sul- 
phur in them, and leave a greater residuum; but they may be 
generally designated as hydrates of carbon, the purest containing 
upwards of ninety parts of carbon, water, and a siliceous earthy 
residuum, which we understand from some of the master masons 
here, sets mortar better than any siliceous matter they have hith- 
erto used. The small quantity of hydrogen given out by this 
coal, is insufficient, or has been hitherto thought so, to produce 
the proper degree of flame wanted to generate steam. Hence, 
its application to generate steam power, has been almost despaired 
of, and hence, also, the insignificance of its value for this purpose, 
when compared ,with bituminous coal. There have been at- 
tempts in many quarters to remedy this great defect, and which 
have been attended with more or less success. We have ma- 
terials on hand for showing with how much energy, persons at a 
great distance from each other, have been exerting their inge- 
nuity in this direction. The details of a conflict of this kind, 
between art and nature, would not be uninteresting ; indeed, what 
concerns us more nearly than the history of the gradual ascendency 
of mind over matter, and the:steady progress of man’s dominion 
over nature. Upon the present occasion, we shall confine our- 
selves, with one exception, to a brief relation of the manner in 
which, from the simplest beginnings, Mr. Wetherill’s discovery 
. grew into importance. 

In January, 1825, Messrs. Jonah and George Thompson, of 
this city, completed, for their Phoenix Nail Works, on French 
Creek, a steam engine for anthracite coal. We understand this 
was the first successful application of this fuel to the generation 
of steam. This was accomplished by a sub-division of the fur- 


Anthracite Coal Applied to General Steam Power. 73 


naces, and other mechanical arrangements. The necessity of 
increasing the flame, induced them to try many experiments. 
The introduction of steam was resorted to, and succeeded toa 
great extent. These experiments were made in July, 1829. 
The history of Mr. Wetherill’s improvement is remarkable for 
its simplicity. In the early part of 1829, to obviate the incon- 
venience arising from the dust when the cinders were riddled, 
water was thrown on them, and the cinders being very hot, the 
water was decomposed, and the effete residuum of the coal gave 
out more flame than the anthracite when first ignited. Mr. 
Wetherill, who is a good practical Chemist, and who, like every 
body else, had often witnessed the effect resulting from water 
thrown upon fire, without attending much to it, saw now what 
a useful application could be made of it. Accordingly, when the 
flame is low in his bed of coal, he, by means of a small pipe 
connected with his boiler, which is led under the grate of his 
furnace, passes a stream of steam into the hot coals, which is 


decomposed, and the hydrogen, when it reaches the top, be- 


comes a powerful flame, that can be regulated by the quantity 
of steam admitted. When the cock of the pipe is stopped, the 
flame dies away, when it is turned, it revives. 

Considering it probable, that this method of producing the in- 
flammable principle, will effectually cure the inherent deficiency 
of non-bituminous coals for the generation of steam power, we 
regard it as leading to ulterior consequences of primary import- 
ance to the coal interest, and the useful arts. We especially 
look to steam navigation, as likely to derive immediate profit from 
it. There is no known fuel of which vessels can carry so great 
a burden, as of anthracite coal. One of the great objections to 
marine steam navigation will be thus overcome. We encourage 
the hope, therefore, that marine steam navigation, which, from 
various causes is slow in establishing itself, will, ere long, be uni- 
versally successful, and that the steady velocities of rail-road 
communication, may be transferred, in a great extent, to navi- 
gation. Ere this takes place, we think it probable, a revolution 
will be effected in the forms of vessels, and that the perpendicular 
sides of ships, necessary to give room to the machinery of masts 
and sails, will be abandoned for improved constructions, consistent 
with perfect safety, and peculiarly fitted for steam navigation. 
iim as they are now constructed, present perpendicular sides 

ot. .—10. 


74 Megalonyx Laqueatus. 


to the assaults of the waves, or a definite resistance, to an in- 
definite power of attack. We had an opportunity three years 
ago, of inspecting the break-water, at Plymouth, in England. 
Its massive perpendicular walls, promised to defy the violence of 
storms, but they soon gave way: nor was it until outward slopes, 
or inclined planes were constructed, that the power of the waves 
was defied. We can conceive of vessels of vast burden, fitted 
for oceanic navigation, with abundance of room for freight and 
fuel, where the decks shall be covered in with a perfect water- 
shed, like the roof of a house, and the machinery be placed be- 
low. Such vessels might be made perfectly tight against stormy 
weather, and admit of every comfort in fine weather. 

We have ventured upon these reflections, merely to draw the 
public attention still more to the great value of the non-bituminous 
coals of the State of Pennsylvania. Eprror. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE JAWS, TEETH, AND CLAVICLE OF 
THE MEGALONYX LAQUEATUS. 


By Richard Harlan, M. D. 


WE are indebted to our friend Dr. Harlan, for the following 
valuable paper. Knowing the deep interest which is taken in 
the fossil osteological remains of this continent, and especially 
by the naturalists of Europe, we have deferred other matters for 
the present, and have caused drawings and engravings to be 
made of the bones described in this paper. They are entirely 
new, these being the first jaws, and teeth, and clavicle of this 
extinct animal, hitherto found. In order to give our readers, at 
home and abroad, the most perfect satisfaction in our power, 
respecting these interesting remains, we have, with the permis- 
sion of our valuable correspondent, Dr. Harlan, added to our 
plate, the isolated tooth of the M. Laqueatus, first described by 
him in his paper, read March 8th, 1831, before the Academy of 
Natural Science of Philadelphia. Eprror. 


“Desirous of examining the fossil bones, now in New York, in 
the possession of Mr. Graves, I proceeded there with my friend, 
Mr. Norris. Amongst others, I found a bone, which I had not 
seen before, and which is the first that has been described of this 
animal. JI presume it to have been the clavicle of a Megalonyx 


Megalonyx Laqueatus. — 75 


laqueatus, lately described by me, as portions of this part of the 
skeleton of this species, were found at the same time and place. 
The individual, of which the remains now described, were a part, 
was older and larger than the one discovered at White Cave, Ken. 

“ This clavicle* belonged to the left side, is long, flattened, and 
slender, curved somewhat like the human clavicle. The sternal 
extremity is thickened and hemispherical, where it forms the ar- 
ticulating surface: the scapular extremity is compressed, and fur- 
nished on the inner, or inferior surface, with strong tubercles for 
the attachment of ligaments. The anterior, or superior aspect 
of the sternal extremity, is marked by an arterial groove. ‘The 
length of the clavicle is seventeen inches, the greatest circum- 
ference, four inches; the breadth one inch and eight-tenths ; the 
greatest thickness, one inch. 

“The fragment} I am now about to describe, is a portion of 
the dexter lower jaw of the Megalonyx, containing four molar 
teeth; three of the crowns of these teeth are perfect, that of the 
anterior one is imperfect. These teeth differ considerably from 
each other in shape, and increase in size from the front, the 
fourth and posterior tooth being double the size of the first, and 
more compressed laterally : it is also vertically concave on its 
external aspect, and vertically convex on its internal aspect ; 
the interior, or mesial surface is strongly fluted, and it has a 
deep longitudinal furrow on the dermal aspect, in which respect 
it differs from the tooth of the M. Laqueatus, previously described 
by me,{ of which the dermal aspect is uniform, but to which, in 
all other respects, it has a close resemblance. I suppose it there- 
fore, probable, that this last may haye belonged to the upper 
jaw. The three anterior molars, differ in shape, and markings: 
they are vertically grooved, or fluted, on their interior and pos- 
terior aspects, a transverse section presenting an irregular cube. 
The length of the crown of the posterior molar is two inches; 
the breadth about five-tenths of an inch: the length of the tooth 
is three inches andsix-tenths. The diameter of the penultimate 
molar is eight-tenths by seven-tenths of an inch. The length of 
this fragment of the jaw bone is eight inches and four-tenths ; the 
height three inches and six-tenths: the length of the space oc- 

* Figure 7, plate 3. + Plate 3, fig. 1, is a flat view of the Jaw, looking 
down. Fig. 2, the interior aspect. Fig. 3, the exterior aspect. 


t No. 4, ia the fluted surface; No. 6, the external, or dermal surface; and Nv. 
6, the crown of that tooth. ‘ 


76 Absence of Deserts in the United States. 


cupied by the alveolar sockets, five inches and eight-tenths. The 
crown of the tooth presents no protuberances, but resembles that 
of the sloth; the roots are hollow. 

“There is also in Mr. Graves’ collection, a tibia, nearly perfect, 
from the right leg: the segment of a flattened sphere, on which 
the external condyle of the femur moves, is rather more de- 
pressed, than in the specimen from White Cave. Other marks 
and peculiarities are observable on this bone, not found on that 
of the Megalonyx of White Cave, but they are probably due to 
a difference in the age of the individuals.* 

“Of the remains of Mastodons in this collection, I shall only 
notice the recomposed cranium of an animal, not yet adult, but 
which appears nearly perfect. The tusks are of an enormous size, 
and there exists a very deep cavity immediately anterior and below 
the aperture for the anterior nares, for the lodgment or origin of 
the large muscles which moved the trunk. This cranium does not 
appear to differ specifically from that of a specimen in Peale’s 
museum, New York, and which gave occasion to the too hasty 
proposal of a new genus, under the designation ‘ 'Tetracaulodon,’ 
or ‘four tusked;’ a name which would be more appropriately 
applied to the wild boar, the Hippopotamus, and many other 
quadrupeds which are furnished with four tusks. ' 

R. HARLAN.” 


THE UNITED STATES ARE EXEMPT FROM DESERTS, AND 
ALL THE EVILS CONSEQUENT THEREON. 


Tue physical conformation of North America, precludes all 
possibility of deserts, or extended wastes. Those arid regions re- 
sult from a want of moisture, and attach to those extended 
plains in the neighbourhood of the tropics, too vast and dispro- 
portioned for the quantity of rain that nature has assigned to 
them. They drink, and are still dry. The clouds of heaven 
float over them in vain. Like Pharaoh’s kine, they devour all, 
but change not their miserable condition. 

* From these very lucid details, it is evident that if persons in possession of iso. 
lated osteological remains of this character, would submit them to the inspection 
of an experienced comparative anatomist, we should soon be in a situation to re- 
construct this, and many other extinct animals of this continent. We invite gen- 
tlemen to correspond with us on this interesting subject; a rude drawing will be 


sufficient to enable us, if required, to apprise them of the intrinsic value of the 
objects represented.—{ Editor.] 


Absence of Deserts in the United States. 77° 


What are those physical phenomena that have insured us 
against all the ills of deserts? Geography tells us, that when- 
ever a continent or country is expanded, more than a few 
hundred miles, in the equatorial regions, with a surface compara- 
tively low and flat, it will become a desert. ‘This is the result 
of the natural inability to be supplied with moisture. Most of 
Africa ; the middle and southern regions of Asia; and even Hin- 
dostan, where mountains do not prevail, have become sterile and 
desert. 'The face of nature in those countries, is deformed; and 
vast chasms are created in those regions, where the vegetable 
and animal kingdoms are unable to flourish. 

New Holland owes its moisture to its insular situation: the 
peninsular form preserves fertility in Spain, Italy, Greece, and 
Asia-minor: back-bone mountains save Hindostan from entire 
barrenness ; and the vicinage of some sea, or mountain elevation 
renders those parts of Africa,.Asia, and Europe, which the great 
deserts do not reach, the fit abodes of man. In Central Africa, 
and Asia, and the coasts of the Red sea and Indian ocean, no 
mountains exist, to collect from the atmosphere stores of moisture, 
and spread them over those thirsty plains, to fertilize and clothe 
them with verdure. No commanding Cordilleras overlooking 
their plains, catch upon their long slopes the vapours of heaven, 
and preserve, upon their cloud-capped summits, reservoirs of 
eternal snow, with which to irrigate the plains that meet their 
base. It requires, then, a mountain range ; the vicinage of some 
sea, or ocean, or a high, temperate latitude, to insure freshness 
to extended plains, and impart to them a fertility, proper for the 
comforts and wants of man. 

Let us examine our own continent, and learn the causes that 
have guaranteed to us, this exemption from deserts. Within the 
tropics and their neighbourhood, N. America is narrowed into 2 
strip: it has all the advantages of an insular position, and drinks 
the moisture of two oceans. This is not all: the Cordilleras tra- 
verse the whole space, rising upon the Mexican table, to an ele- 
vation of 11,000 feet, and commanding the neighbouring seas. 
All winds, but more especially the heavily laden trades, pour 
forth their vapours upon this happy region, and clothe its long 
slopes and rich plains, with all the luxuriance of vegetation. 
These friendly mountains, after upheaving the tropical parts of 
our continent to the regions of eternal verdure, bear aloft their 


78 Absence of Deserts in the United States. 


wide spread arms, (the Chippewayan and Alleghany ranges) as 
far as it is necessary to counteract the heats of a southern sun, 
and impart fertility to the great valley of the Mississippi, which 
seems especially consigned to their fostering care. But when 
elevations become no longer essential to the certainty of moisture 
and vegetation, they sink into the great plains of Canada, and 
disappear. How wise is this arrangement! For if these moun- 
tains had carried their characteristic elevation far north, they 
would have chilled with their eternal snows, all the northern por- 
tion of our country, and rendered it barren, not from drought and 
deserts, but what is equally to be deprecated, the blights of in- 
tolerable cold. These friendly ranges of mountains, are thus the 
everlasting guarantees of our country’s fertility. The Alleghany 
range derives its moisture from the Atlantic, and waters not only 
all the States that intervene between it and that ocean, but the 
States and districts that rest upon its western base, and con- 
tributes its full part to the great plains of Mississippi and Missouri. 
The Rocky, or Chippewayan range, draws heavily from the Pa- 
cific ocean, and abundantly waters not only that slope, but the 
extended plains which meet its eastern base. The narrow slopes 
of the two ranges of mountains which border the two oceans, are 
easily and very naturally irrigated from those oceans ; and their 
slopes pointing inwards from the oceans, and the plains imme- 
diately in contact with them, draw moisture from the numerous 
founts and reservoirs of the mountains themselves. The great 
valley of the Mississippi, however, is too extensive, and too im- 
portant to the rising population of this country, to be left to any 
uncertain supply of moisture. The sources of the mountains 
with which it is enfiladed, might prove to be inadequate, and 
certainly would, if all depended on them. Other guarantees are 
found ; and powerful aids provided in the case. That great val- 
ley opens itself without barrier, on the southern end, to the trade 
winds, which become deflected by the Mexican coast, enter it, 
fraught with all the moisture of the gulf, and deposit on this re- 
gion, a supply, literally inexhaustible, because those winds them- 
selves are perpetual. Lest the mountain supply and trades both, 
might not reach the northern end of this great plain, nature has 
thrown there the largest reservoirs, or accumulations of fresh 
water in the world. The great and numerous lakes of Canada, 
over which the winds pass, and from which clouds charge them- 


Absence of Deserts in the United States 79 


selves with vapour, insure a never failing supply of water to all 
that portion of the plain which lies contiguous. Thus every 
thing is provided, and nothing left to chance. Elevation, moun- 
tains, contiguous oceans, and internal reservoirs, all co-operate to 
insure to the territory of the United States a constant supply of 
moisture. The native fertility of the soil is therefore great, and 
yields to the wants of man with certainty and abundance. This 
supply of moisture is well tempered, and rarely pours forth in 
excess. In some countries, particularly in the north of Europe, 
in England and Ireland, the crops oftener fail from excess of 
moisture, than a deficiency. The grain blights in the field, or 
moulds and rots in the granary, and acquires a musty smell and 
flavour, which takes away its merchantable character, and dis- 
qualifies it for the fine breads. Our seasons, fortunately, are just 
moist enough to give perfection to vegetable growth, without in- 
juring it by excess: just regular enough to exempt us from all 
the labour of artificial irrigation, and leave the air dry and elas- 
tic enough to enable us to preserve all our vegetable productions. 
Happy country! where the elements hold so steady a balance ; 
where rains prevail to mature, not to injure vegetation ; where 
the sun shines to ripen, and not to parch up verdure ; and where 
a clear, elastic air gives spring to the animal frame, and vigour 
to all nature. 

Where deserts exist, they not only preclude vegetation, and 
consequently population in the districts where they prevail, but 
exert a baneful influence upon all the neighbouring regions that 
are inhabitable. They absorb the moisture from them, and ren- 
der vegetation very uncertain. The heats that steam from the 
deserts, enfeeble and stint all that has life and growth in the 
adjoining districts. Siroc winds prevail, collect the deleterious 
matter, heated and active, from their parched surface, sweep the 
neighbouring countries, carry languor, disease and blight in their 
train, and convert all that is green into a brown desert. Hordes 
of locusts seem by nature, associated with the deserts; rise in 
clouds, warp upon their winds, and like a deadly blast, couch 
upon the adjacent countries, and destroy all that is verdant. It 
results, therefore, that deserts not only mar the habitable globe 
to the extent that they prevail, but inflict upon the adjoining 
countries, all the evils of famine, uncertainty, and disease; thus 
limiting the numbers, the comforts, and the power of man. 


80 Absence of Deserts in the United States. 


We will now briefly note the effect of deserts upon the human 
figure, upon population, industry, the arts, morals, and liberty. 
The human form in connection with deserts, is without its wonted 
symmetry—thin, dry, and emaciated; and the complexion dark 
swarthy. Man seems formed there to drift with the sands, to 
move his light and elastic frame with all the quickness that un- 
certainty might require, but possesses not the muscular power ° 
necessary to effective labour. The Africans, Arabians, Tartars, 
Bedouins, and others, are swarthy, dark, and devoid of all the 
symmetry of which the race is susceptible, and strikingly illus- 


trate our position. 
In such countries population is sparse, and the few who draw 


a scanty support from the stinted and uncertain vegetation, are 
unfixed in their habits, and wanderers. They realize nothing, 
improve not their condition, are actuated by the sudden impulses 
of want, or the emergency occasioned by the irregularities of the 
elements around them. 

When the seasons and climate of the country in which man 
lives are uncertain; when no human effort can control them, and 
no art or foresight render labour available, he partakes of all the 
irregularity of the seasons; becomes as wild as nature herself; 
puts himself afloat with the elements, and is in his turn a devas- 
tator. 

If industry exists not, and human labour be unavailable, none 
of those.improvements which change the condition of our race, 
and give to us character and comfort, have any existence. 
Without surplus production, there can be no commercial ex- 
changes; a limit is thus placed to social improvement, and 
a barrier erected against civilization. Man, under such a 
state of things, cannot multiply his race, because his supply of 
food is limited; nor create wealth, because his labour is unpro- 
ductive and without stimulus; nor make valuable improvements 
in the arts, comforts, and intercourse of society, because he has 
neither the means nor the necessary numbers; nor can he polish 
and refine himself, because his state of society is essentially wild 
and violent. 

Morality, is there, nothing beyond those simple virtues which 
are connected with self-preservation; that rude hospitality, the 
necessity of which, dire suffering has felt ; and that reckless bra- 
very which has been prompted by despair. High and honourable 


Absence of Deserts in the United States. 81 


feelings, sterling integrity, truth, and that habitual propriety that 
discharges all the duties of man to his fellows; are unpractised, 
and comport not with such an uncertain state. The religion of 
the inhabitants of the desert, is wild and superstitious, because it 
has no moral guarantee. The imagination creates the punitive 
power that makes brown the desert, that waves with the sands, 
and spreads around famine and devastation. It is invoked to de- 
stroy, and worshipped from fear. ‘The ways of God to man are 
not justified, as in that fabric of good order, intelligence, and vir- 
tue, which is reared under more favourable circumstances. 

Liberty, in such countries, is the freedom of the desert, as 
unfixed as its votaries, and as wild as nature herself. Man’s 
safety there, is not the guarantee of the laws, but the strength 
of his own arm, or the ease with which he can escape. He 
governs himself by circumstances, not by any principles of justice, 
or legislative enactments. Government has reared no permanent 
altar in such countries; it moves in wild democracy with the 
wanderings of man; and accommodates itself to all his irregu- 
larities. We see, therefore, that our race, in such countries as 
are connected with the deserts, is scant and of uncouth form; 
their virtues wild and rudely primitive, their labour unavailable, 
wealth and improvements have no place, the arts and elegances 
of life have no existence, commerce no basis, liberty and religion 
no temples but the desert, and no guarantees but a wild and 
irregular nature. 

In the United States it is widely different. Weare exempted 
from deserts and all their concomitant evils. An almost uninter- 
rupted fertility spreads through our extensive land, with scarcely a 
mountain crag to break its continuity. Equally secure from an 
injurious excess of moisture, we lean with confidence upon our 
seasons; we understand our climate, we appreciate the produc- 
tiveness of our soil, and feel that we have all the guarantees 
which nature can give against want and famine; all the certainty 
of property in the avails of our labour, every stimulus to exer- 
tion and industry, and the most perfect assurance to us and our 
posterity, of moral and physical enjoyment. Where nature her- 
self is regular, the population full of intelligence, the arts well 
established, and plenty throughout the land, good order and good 
taste will prevail. Liberty, with just government, is the natural 


_ consequence of such a condition of things. Already has it taken 


Vor, L—11 


82 Eaton’s Geology. 


deep root. Every right is regarded, and every interest protected. 
The broad shield of the law coversall. Famine, and unavoidable 
disasters, drive man to despair; he looks to the present moment 
only, because the future is wrapped in doubt; he runsall chances, 
and neglects all system, and the providence necessary for accu- 
mulation and comfort. Under the mighty guarantees that we 
have named, we may expect great perfection in our race, a maxi- 
mum population, a productive industry, a moral condition, a 
high degree of intellectual developement, the greatest advance- 
ment in the arts, commercial prosperity, all the refinements of 
society, and a government of laws which will reach and guard 
all. 

All these blessings are in store for this nation, if the people are 
true to themselves. Nothing can impede the happiness and glory 
of this people, if they can only be led by a wise and general 
system of education, to reject the insidious pretensions of artful 
and selfish men, and to lean voluntarily upon the wise and just 
for the administration of their affairs, and the preservation of 
their institutions. W. 


EATON’S GEOLOGY. 


Communication from the writer of the article “ Geology,” in the North American 
Review, for April, 1831. 


Tne writer of the article “Geology,” in the number of the 
North American Review, is not surprised to learn that Professor 
Amos Eaton, and his friends, have winced under the merited cas- 
tigation he received. That they should have put his defence 
upon his “ having contributed to awaken the spirit of inquiry on 
geological subjects in this country,” was to be expected, and is 
admitted to be true to a certain extent. Mr. Eaton has done for 
geology, pretty much what the bellman does for a lost child; he 
has set people looking for it. In a passage in the preface to his 
geological text-book,—the work reviewed in the article above 
alluded to—he gives us at once a clue to his own capacity in 
this line, and for the moving causes which have brought one of 
his defenders forward, in a somewhat unexpected manner. This 
is the passage : “Geology is a progressive science ; and he, who 
has any respect for his future reputation, should be exceedingly 

’ 


Eaton’s Geology. 83 


cautious about committing himself on matters of fact or specula- 
tion. I confess, that I have, most egregiously, violated this rule ; 
but there are peculiar circumstances in my case, arising from 
my being ‘a hireling drudge’ to the most munificent patron of this 
science, which will palliate, at least, if not justify.” This pas- 
sage in the original is italicised, and pointed, exactly as it is here 
printed. It would be a difficult matter to produce from the an- 
nals of literature, a more extravagant instance of self degrada 
tion, than this passage unblushingly exhibits. 

Mr. Eaton has discreetly remained silent under this infliction, 
which, as it is stated in the article, fell upon him from a reluc- 
tant hand, “ actuated solely by regard for the interests of science, 
and not taking pleasure in wantonly exposing Mr. Eaton, or any 
other individual.” But Mr. Eaton’s friends have not been equally 
discreet: his “ munificent patron”*—who is only once referred 
to in the article, and then under the designation of “a generous 
individual”—is brought forward in an offensive attitude; and in 
a note referred to by a postscript of the Editor, appended to the 
July number of “The American Journal of Science and Arts,” is 
made to take up a position which neither covers his allies, nor 
protects himself. General Van Renselaer’s note, to be sure, is 
flanked, right and left, by the postscriptum of Professor Silliman ; 
but the Professor’s demonstrations, although flattering to an in- 
experienced eye, seldom in the field, look plaguily like going over 
tothe enemy. The Professor is an amiable and a peaceful man, 
one who has a proper horror of the “charge”—a movement so 
pregnant with excitement to men with a belligerent turn—and 
who knows that a scientific bayonet would not come doubly 
blest, the pleasure, in such cases, being altogether monopolized by 
the giver. When the Professor, however, says, that the appear- 
ance of General Van Renselaer’s note, is “less an act of courtesy 
than of justice,” he means, no doubt, to inspire General Van R. 
with the belief, that he entirely concurs with that gentleman 
in his opinions, as they are found in the following passage of his 
note. 

“Tt is to be regretted that the author of the review, whose 
professed object was to advance the science, did not examine 
professor Katon’s views with a little better spirit, and point out 


* General Van Renselaer. 


84 Eaton’s Geology. 


and correct the supposed errors. Let any serious mistakes be 
pointed out, and fairly proved,” &c. &c. 

As the critic in the N. A. R. finds himself thus publicly re- 
proved and challenged, before the bar of the public, by indi- 
viduals who, in the language of legal practice, have chosen to 
change the venue, from the North American Review of Boston, 
to the American Journal of New Haven: he, to secure to his 
cause, the utmost attainable fair dealing in the case, chooses the 
Monthly Journal of Geology, of Philadelphia, as quite appropriate 
to the conduct of a controversy originating in geological matters. 

Before the writer shows how completely he stands justified 
with the public, in relation to the manner in which he reviewed 
Mr. Eaton’s geological text-book, he desires first to show what 
sort of provocation General Van Renselaer and professor Silliman 
have received from him; that the nature of their motives may 
be surmised, if possible, for the attack to which this communica- 
tion is an answer. The only allusion in the article to the former 
of these two gentlemen, is contained in the following passage, at 
page 482, of the N. A. Review. 

“ We have read his [Eaton’s} works, and continue to witness, 
with surprise, his pertinacious adherence to an arrangement of 
rocks, and a nomenclature, entirely at variance with nature and 
perspicuity. If Mr. Eaton had, in a modest, unpretending man- 
ner, brought the geological facts he had from time to time col- 
lected in the State of New York, into the general stock of prac- 
tical information, he would have deserved and received unquali- 
fied praise. But presuming upon the supposed ignorance of his 
readers, he has preferred to set himself up for a genius. In this 
he has most lamentably failed; has greatly injured a cause he 
seems to be zealous in, and has abused the rare opportunities he 
has had of doing good, through the favour of the generous in- 
dividual who has been his patron.”* 

In relation to the second of these gentlemen, the only passage 
where his name is mentioned, or where he is alluded to in any 
part of the article, is the following : 

“ We notice, however, with pleasure, an increasing attention 
to the study of natural history, in our principal colleges ; and we 
are particularly happy in rendering justice to the persevering 


* General Van Renselaer. 


Katon’s Geology. 85 


zeal and talents of Professor Silliman. Considering the many 
difficulties he has had to contend with, and the vigour with which 
he has kept the flag of science flying for so many years, we can 
say, with all our hearts, that we believe he will be as gratefully 
remembered hereafter for his public zeal, as he is now cherished 
for his private worth.” If the writer has made palpable mis- 
takes in any of the passages of that article, he knows where to 
lay his finger upon them. 

The manner of General Van Renselaer’s attack, is, as has 
been stated, unexpected. Either that gentleman has become an 
admirer of the casuistical tricks of hacknied disputants, or, what 
is more probable, he has never read Mr. Eaton’s geological text- 
book, nor the review of it. Had he done so, he could not have 
descended to an affected candour, and have seriously proposed, 
that the writer should have examined “ professor Eaton’s views 
with a little better spirit, and point owt and correct the supposed 
errors.” Had he read those pages, he would have seen that this 
had been most justly and rigorously done, and that in no instance 
had the writer given into the base practice of attempting to in- 
jure Mr. Eaton’s reputation by inuendo; but that in almost every 
instance, the reprehended passages were quoted at full length, 
or referred to. It would be as well for that gentleman too, to 
know that Mr. Eaton in his preface to this very work, says, “ I 
beg the favour of the most rigorous criticism on this book, small as it 
is.” Severe as the article may appear, the terms “most rigorous” 
by no means belong to it, as could be most easily shown, if it 
should become indispensably necessary to recast it. 

Under all the circumstances of the case, it cannot but be felt as 
a very difficult task, to satisfy General Van Renselaer, that he 
has taken a wrong view of this matter. In his note, he candidly 
says, “1 am not a geologist myself.” Now none but a geologist 
can be made to comprehend how futile Mr. Eaton’s labours have 
been. What is to be done? Why do men complain of refuta- 
tions not satisfying them, when they won’t read them? Mr. Ea- 
ton seems to be satisfied; like good old Dogberry, finding there is 
no remedy, he is willing to be written down without making any 
fuss about it. Notwithstanding what General Van R. says of “ the 
assurances of many of our distinguished scientific men,” it may be 
asserted without fear of contradiction, that there is not an unbias- 
sed geologist in this country,—and it is a matter of considerable 


86 Eaton’s Geology. 


importance in the question—who does not know that Mr. Eaton’s 
efforts have been a failure ; and that it is so considered, both at 
home and abroad. That Mr. Eaton may have shown zeal in the 
service of his employer, has not been denied; and that he has 
made us acquainted with the localities of many rocks, is true: 
but this, as a branch of geology, is a merit of the lowest order, 
and more than counterbalanced by the gross errors of his ar- 
rangements, and the nonsensical rhapsodies of his nomenclature. 
These have been repeatedly exposed in Europe, and the proofs 
of this were given, in the article complained of. Let any one 
compare his “ Synopsis of North American Rocks and Detritus,” 
in Silliman’s Journal, Vol. XIV. page 145, with the tabular view 
of De la Beche, the approved result of the labours of the first 
geologists of the age—let them see the confusion he has introduced 
into the order of rocks, and the effrontery with which he has 
placed rocks in his American Synopsis, which neither he, nor any 
other individual ever saw on this continent, as in the case of his 
“lias:” the creation of three graywackes—his making basalt 
superincumbent to his third graywacke, when he does not even 
pretend he ever saw it there ; and that silly division of the su- 
perficial soil, into six formations, with Greek terminations; let 
all this nonsense be seen and understood, and not one word more 
will ever be said about Mr. Eaton’s geology. 

But leaving this scientific method of treating the subject, the 
attention of General Van Renselaer is asked to the following il- 
lustration. Geology, as far as the order of succession of rocks is 
concerned, resembles our alphabet, the letters of which follow 
each other in a definite order. A—taking the column in the de- 
scending order,—being always at the top, where the superficial 
diluvium is usually found, and Z being always at the bottom, 
where granite and the primitive rocks are always found. The 
intermediate letters are also immovable as to the order of suc- 
cession, M always preceding N, and S never preceding R: so it 
is with the intermediate rocks. Now the order and forms of our 
letters, are derived from those of the Roman alphabet—those 
from the Greek, and these last from the Phoenician and Hebrew ; 
so that every letter in our alphabet is a simple or compound copy 
of a Hebrew letter, as every rock on this continent has its equiva- 
lent in Europe, both as to mineral structure, and place in the 
series. An individual is now to be supposed, who has heard of 


Eaton’s Geology. 87 


this aflinity of languages, but who is ignorant of the Hebrew. 
He must be endowed with impudence, to pretend to teach it, 
and credulous people must be found to employ him. Let him 
possess a Hebrew bible, without an arranged alphabet. In. his 
attempt to make out the order of the alphabet, such an indi- 
vidual, relying upon approximating resemblances, and ignorant 
of the elementary principles of graphic language, will proceed 
altogether by guess, and where the resemblances are doubtful, 
will make frequent mistakes—placing n, before m, S, before R, 
&c. &ec., and knowing there are twenty-four letters in the Eng- 
lish tongue, and ignorant that there are not so many by one-third, 
in the older languages, he will think the varying forms of the 
same letter, are different letters, and will swell the number of 
the letters of the oriental alphabet, to that of his vernacular 
tongue. This Mr. Eaton has done for geology. Unacquainted 
with the European types, except through the most deceptive of 
all things, hand specimens; and thinking all the rocks in Europe 
were probably to be found in the State of New York, he has not 
only put rocks out of their place in the series, but has swelled 
his imaginary column by introducing the lias, in a country where 
the whole oolitic system is wanting; and this, where there was 
not the least approximation, either in mineral structure, or or- 
ganic remains. It is greatly to be regretted it is so, but this is 
the truth. When it is considered that Mr. Eaton boasts of having 
taught such a defective system—to say nothing of his universally 
rejected nomenclature—to seven thousand pupils, it is by no 
means a harsh thing to say of him, that “he has injured a cause 
he seems to be zealous in, and has abused the rare opportunities 
he has had of doing good.” But these glaring demerits, though 
often the subject of conversation among scientific men, were 
indulgently overlooked ; it was hoped experience would have 
its usual effect. This was a vain hope; the appearance of 
“the geological text-book,” made further forbearance almost 
criminal. 

As this answer to the attack upon Mr. Katon’s reviewer, will 
probably be looked into, by those who would seem not to have 
read the article in the N. A. Review, or to have seen its refer- 
ences in vain, the writer of the article “ Geology” reluctantly, 
and in his own defence, once more cites a few passages, from the 
Review, and the “ Geological Text-book.” 


88 Eaion’s Geology. 


“TI beg the favour of the most rigorous criticism upon this book, 
small as it is.”—Preface. 

“Should these observations ever fall under his notice, it may be 
well that he should remember this invitation.”— Review. 

“If the earth was washed and the rocks left clean, they (ge- 
ologists) would not disagree in regard to rocks.”-—Preface. 

“For ourselves, we can only say, that were the earth washed 
as clean as a penny, we should be very much tempted to take 
up our hammer and chisel, and try what we could find within its 
rocks: for, although Mr. Eaton may not know it, it is a funda- 
mental principle of the science, to identify rocks by their organic 
remains, rather than by their mineral characters, which are very 
fallible guides.” — Review. 

“To stimulate men of science to the work of examination, and 
of criticism, I will state, that I intend to publish considerable in 
scientific journals ; also, a full system upon this plan.”—Preface. 

“We love variety, and a full system, after the empty one be- 
fore us, will be an agreeable change.”— Review. 

“Mr. Eaton has a habit of making confessions, which are not 
to his credit, and of which we do not see the motive. He says, 
“TJ may be accused of fickleness on account of the changes which 
appear in eyery successive book I publish; I confess, this is the 
ninth time I have published a geological nomenclature, and that 
I made changes in each, of more or less importance.” Again, 
“the various deposits of detritus had not been thoroughly studied 
by any American, when I published my last nomenclature. I 
believe I have made a few changes in that department, which 
will finally obtain.” “On this head, we must venture to differ 
from him in opinion. We greatly doubt whether any of his 
opinions will obtain.” —Review. . 

“ The following passage is remarkable for its novel orthography, 
and also for its tone in regard to one of the most learned and 
philosophic men of the age, to whose labours Geology has been 
indebted in the highest degree.” We allude to Henry de la 
Beche. 

“With all defference to the high character of La Bache, as an 
experienced teacher, I may say, that his numerous sub- divisions, 
if adopted, will ruin the science.” 

“ We would suggest to Mr. Eaton, that Mr. de la Beche’s sub- 
divisions, are the result of a careful examination of all the geo- 


Eaton’s Geology- 89 


logical beds, effected by the joint labours of the most enlightened 
geologists of Europe. The establishment of the series in this de- 
tailed manner, is the perfection of human industry and science, 
and is the true philosophical key to the mineral and organic 
structure of the earth. And here we have an experienced teacher, 
who does not know how to spell his native tongue, and whose 
geological information is limited to a few rocks in the State of 
New-York, stating, that Mr. de la Beche will ruin the science, for 
no other reason, that we can imagine, but to exclude from public 
notice, every work upon the subject, except his own.” —Reviewer. 

“The only geological fact in this work, which is absolutely new 
to us, is contained in the following passage. 

«“ He, (Werner,) closed his long life in the full splendour of his 
scientific glory, in the same year (1817) in which we begun to 
make our humble efforts in the alia of his views to Ameri- 
can earth.” 

« Werner was singularly happy in ‘ty things; one, that he did 
not outlive his reputation; the other, that he died before Mr. 
Eaton applied his views to American earth.” A few lines after- 
wards, he says, “ Scarcely had that earth received his (Werner’s) 
manes, &c.” ‘We would suggest to Mr. Eaton, that manes and 
remains, however similar in sound, do not mean the same thing.” — 
Review. 

The writer in the North American Review, does not wish fur- 


ther to encumber the pages of the Monthly Journal of Geology 


and Natural Science, by quotations from the article in question. 
There are certain passages alluded to, which bring Mr. Eaton’s 
want of fair dealing into a conspicuous point of view; and others, 
as at page 488, which are ridiculously amusing. Nothing can be 
more gross than his blunders, when he ventures to talk about 
organic remains, a branch of Geology he is entirely ignorant of. 
Thus, at page 51, he says, “ But immediately over the carboni- 
ferous slate (coal measures) we find oviparous vertebral animals. 
I have before me the relics of a crotalus (rattle snake,) found by 
Dr. Rose, of Montrose, Pennsylvania. Hence, we infer, that 
oviparous vertebral animals were created soon after the bitumi- 
nous coal deposites were made.” The palpable absurdity of this 
assertion was exposed by the Reviewer. Every geologist knows 
that all the reptiles belonging to the ophidia, are exclusively of 
the present order of nature, and that a man might as well say 
Vor. L—12 


90 Eaton’s Geology. 


he had found a petrified roll of butter with the maker’s name upon 
it, in a formation of that period, as a snake of any kind. Not 
convinced, he ventured, in a subsequent number of Silliman’s 
Journal, to publish a lithographic plate of it, when it turned out 
to be one of the commonest fossil coal plants. 

Gen. Van Renselaer having supposed Dr. Buckland to speak in 
an approving manner of Mr. Eaton’s labours, it may not be amiss, 
by way of answer, to quote the following bombastic passage from 
page 14 of the “ Geological Text Book.” 

“Since that time, Buckland, aided by the veteran Cuvier, has 
commanded the whole geological phalanx to leave, fora while, 
the deep abode of rocks, and to examine ‘ the open caverns and 
the furrowed earth.’ He has led out before us, from the cave of 
Kirkdale, the antediluvial mastodon, chased and gnawed by hun- 
dreds of hyenas. He has shown us the torrid abodes of the river 
horse and the elephant, to have been in the latitudes of Caledo- 
nia and Scythia, &c. &c.” 

The opening of the cave of Kirkdale, when discovered, was 
about two feet wide in a solid rock. The adult mastodons were 
from ten to twelve feet high, so that it was impossible for any 
animal of that genus, young or old, ever to get in, or get out of 
such a cave, which was a mere den where hyenas brought the 
bones of dead animals. But Dr. Buckland never found even any 
fragment of a bone of the mastodon in that cave. It is evident, Mr. 
Eaton never read Dr. Buckland’s book, or he would not have 
made an assertion so easily exposed. Are we to suppose that Dr. 
Buckland, one of the first minds in Europe, has lost his judgment, 
and can approve of such stuff? 

But Gen. Van Renselaer says, “I am perfectly satisfied with 
Professor Eaton’s labours.” 

And Mr. Silliman coming forward in his editorial capacity, to 
the defence of Mr. Eaton, says, “ it is less an act of courtesy than 
of justice” on his part. If these gentlemen are satisfied to take 
such trash for Geology, it is very certain that the world at large 
will not be so. This is an intelligent age, and will stand by any 
writer who fearlessly speaks the truth, and diligently labours to 
prevent quackery and pretension from degrading the minds of 
the rising generation.” 


Eaton’s Geology. 91 


REMARKS. 
The Editor of the American Journal of Science and Arts, 


: “having thought proper to throw his weight into the scale against 


the critic in the North American Review, whose answer now ap- 
pears, we shall also enter the arena, and declare that our opinion 
differs from that expressed by him, toto celo. We do not see 
why it was necessary to designate the courtesy due to a distin- 
guished gentleman, “less an act of courtesy than of justice” to 
Mr. Eaton. Finding him thus self-constituted a party to the dis- 
pute, we were not surprised at the eulogium he subsequently 
passes upon Mr. Eaton. The defence set up for him, when it is 
asserted, “that with respect to theory and nomenclature, there 
is room both for fancy and error,” is no small encouragement to 
the Eaton school, which is thus assured of a comfortable corner, 
to take a nap in, after their labours. When anew nomenclature 
for chemistry, shall be proposed by some future inspired village 
pedagogue, that will be done for chemical dynamics, which Mr. 
Eaton has attempted to do for geology. The minds of ingenuous 
young men, will be enfeebled and obscured, in the vain attempt 
to draw from a mass of trashy ignorance, some particle of useful 
knowledge, some beam of pleasant philosophy. We will not 
enter into this criminal conspiracy against the powers of the hu- 
man mind. When our columns shall cease to exhibit science as 
it results from facts, learning without pedantry, and the divine 
feelings of religion, without the cant of the old Pharisees, our un- 
dertaking will be at an end. Sir James Mackintosh, in his able 
account of the rise and progress of the reformation, has said of 
“all those who oppose hinderances to free, fearless, calm, un- 
prejudiced and dispassionate inquiry,” that “they lessen the 
stores of knowledge, they relax the vigour of every intellectual 
effort, they abate the chances of future discovery.” We lay our 
account in meeting with much opposition, from men of this class. 
But our object is not to win opinions from a limited number of 
selfish individuals, more interested in humbugging the public, than 
in enlightening it. Westand up for truth and justice; our aim 
is to instruct and amuse the millions—these are the “ munificent 
patrons” we look to for approbation. 

We have been unwillingly forced into these remarks; if it 
should be necessary to recur to the subject, we inform those con- 
cerned, that we mean to do it, con amore. Eprror. 


92 Anecdotes of Natural History. 


ANECDOTES OF NATURAL HISTORY. 


“NK” System of Arrangement.—A naturalist, traveiling in the , 
interior of Pennsylvania, stopped at a very neat, clean tavern, and 
was agreeably surprised to find the chimney-pieces, cupboards, 
&c., crowded with specimens of minerals and fossils, each of them 
having a label with N.K. onit. Puzzled by these letters, he sought 
for information of a smart-looking woman, who was the landlady. 
She informed him that her nephew, who was gone to Kentucky, 
was the owner of these specimens, and that he had pasted some 
long names upon them, he had learnt from the doctors in Phila- 
delphia ; but ‘they were so hard to pronounce when her neigh- 
bours asked her questions about them, that she had taken them 
off, and had put N. K. upon every one of them. The naturalist as- 
senting to all this, asked her the meaning of N. K. ** So, you don’t 
know what the meaning of N. K. is?” saidshe. “ Upon my word, 
I have not the least idea,” he replied. “Well,” said she, “I 
thought the Philadelphians knowed every thing; however, if 
you don’t know, I’ll tell you: N. K. means ‘ Nayterul Kurossitys.’ ” 


A Case where the Specimens required no Labels of Locality.—It is 
stated in the memoirs of Sir Stamford Raffles, that Dr. Hors- 
field, during a tour in Sumatra, having given the geological 
specimens he had collected to his coolies to carry, wished to ex- 
amine them after the day’s journey. The Doctor seeing their 
baskets full of other stones than those he had given to them, ex- 
pressed himself angrily; when they very simply stated, that 
seeing he was anxious to collect stones, they, preferring to travel 
with empty baskets, had thrown those he gave them away, and 
had filled their baskets again at the end of their day’s journey. © 


Preparations to receive a Royal Naturalist, by the Lord of the 
Castle of Rabenstein, in Franconia.—Dr. Buckland has fully de- 
scribed the cave of Kiihloch, in Franconia, in his Reliquie Di- 
luviane, page 137, et seq. In 1829, two English geologists, Mr. 
Egerton and Lord Cole, being on a scientific tour in Germany, 
paid a visit to that ancient deposit of the remains of extinct ani- 
mals. The following extract of a letter from Mr. Egerton to Dr. 
Buckland, will tell the melancholy story of this second punitive 
visitation upon the mammifera within the dominions of the Lord 
of the castle of Rabenstein. 


Anecdotes of Natural History. 93 


Schaffhausen June 26, 1829. © 
) My dear Sir,—Lord Cole and myself are just returned to 
Schaffhausen, from a three weeks’ visit to the caverns of Fran- 
conia ; and knowing the great interest you feel in their welfare, 
I write to inform you of the melancholy fact of the total destruc- 
tion of the deposit of bones in the cayes of Kihloch and Raben- 
stein. His Majesty, the king of Bavaria, having announced his 
intention to visit Rabenstein, the owner of that castle has thought 
fit to prepare these two caves for his reception; in order to do 
which, he has broken up the whole of the floors, pounding the larger 
stones and bones to the bottom, for a foundation, and spreading the 
earth, and finer particles, to form a smooth surface over them.’ 
Conceive our horror on arriving at Kihloch, at finding thirty men 
at work, wheeling out the animal* earth, to level the inclination 
of the entrance, by which you have so satisfactorily explained 
the phenomenon of the absence of pebbles and diluvial loam, in 
this remarkable cavern. There was not a bone to be found there 
when we arrived; however, with a little management, we con- 
trived to obtain two beautiful fragments of lower jaws of hyena, 
besides some very good bears’ bones, and one ulna that had been 
broken during the animal’s life, and the sharp edges of the frac- 
ture rounded off by the absorbents into a smooth stump. We 
likewise procured from one of the workmen, teeth of a fox, of a 
tiger, and a molar tooth of the right lower jaw of Rhinoceros— 
all of which he said he picked up in Kihlock.”—Philosophical 
Magazine and Annals of Philosophy. 


Tue following anecdote has been communicated to the editor 
by a gentleman of distinguished standing at Washington, who is 
avery curious observer. ‘This defensive faculty of a well known 
insect, is a new discovery, and the attention of some naturalists 
will probably be drawn to it. 

“Walking on the back piazza, I noticed that one of the light- 
ning bugs, had become entangled in a spider’s web. The spider 
instantly attacked him, and endeavoured to secure his wings. The 
bug emitted his light very rapidly, the spider alternately attack- 
ing and retreating, until at length it appeared distressed, and 
sustained itself upon the web with difficulty, staggering and tum- 


_*The presence of such quantities of this animal earth, made this cave par- 
ticularly interesting to naturalists, as it consisted of broken down animal matter. 


™ 


94 Anecdotes of Natural History. 


bling in its last retreat from the contest, until it gained the wall, 
against which it rubbed itself, as if to remove some offensive mat- 
ter from its body. It appeared to experience great difficulty in 
retaining its hold on the wall, from which it frequently fell, sus- 
pended by one limb. At length it appeared to recover, and re- 
mained quiet. In the mean time, the bug ceased struggling, and 
merely emitted its light; the web soon gave way, and it escaped. 
These facts were observed by me with great interest, and occur- 
red as I have represented them.” 

we 


_ Case of a Bee, Self-decapitated—We paid a very interesting 
visit a short time ago, to a gentleman, who is a keen observer of 
nature, and whose great experience in apiaries has not only been 
productive of much curious information, relating to the economy 
of bees, but which has been directly useful to numerous persons, 
who maintain apiaries, in order to supply our markets with honey. 
This anecdote was related to us, whilst examining his well con- 
structed hives. Epiror. 


“A large humble-bee, strayed near to one of his hives, and 
alighted near the entrance. Instantly he was attacked by great 
numbers of bees. One of them, seeking a favourable oppor- 
tunity of lodging his sting under one of the rings of the hum- 
ble-bee, made a fierce blow: but the sting striking upon the hard 
and bright corslet, glanced off; and as it is the habit of the bee 
in the act of striking, to bend the head towards the tail, the 
sting, upon this occasion, entered deeply into its ownhead. After 
many powerful exertions to extricate it, at length the entire head 
came off, and remained attached to the tail. The insect now 
gravely with its feelers, began to paw about his neck, as if to 
examine the nature of the accident which had occurred to it, 
spinning round, and feeling, and then stopping for awhile. In 
about twenty minutes the insect was exhausted and died. 


The Rattle-snake-—Dr. Harlan exhibited the following experi- 
ment to Capt. Basil Hall, and some gentlemen. He severed the 
head from a rattle-snake, and afterwards grasping the part of the 
neck adhering to the head, with his thumb and finger, the head 
twisted itself by violent movements, and endeavoured to strike 
him with its fangs. Afterwards, a live rabbit was presented to 
the head, which immediately plunged its fangs into the rabbit 
very deep. Dr. H. then asked Capt. Hall to take hold of the 


Esthael hoes the Diary y of a Naturalist. Oe 


tail, which he had no sooner done, than the headless neck be 


itself quickly round as if to strike him. This. last movement may 


b attributed ah ae aime: 
py Use en pias io 


ge ae oe of ee ill f ‘be touched with the aque ‘of | 


he Eiri, passage fr e journal. of, a Naturalis 
Bg “<The little exeursions ‘ee the naturalist) from habit and. from 
| | mn become ea scene of constant observation andremark. 


uM . green leaf that peeps out, engages his attention, 
i recngnized s san intimate, ¢ or noted from some novelty that it 
Spr ts in sound or aspect. Every, season has its peculiar pro- 
‘oe is ‘pleasing or admirable, from causes that variously af- 
t our different temperaments or dispositions ; but there are 
accompaniments in an autumnal morning’s walk, that call for all 
our notice and admiration: the peculiar feeling of the air, and 
_ the solemn grandeur of the scene around us, dispose the mind to 
contemplation and remark ; there is a silence in which we hear 
every thing, a beauty that will be observed. The stump of an 
old oak is a very landscape, with rugged alpine ,steeps bursting 
through forests of verdant mosses, with some pale, denuded, 
branchless. lichen, like a scathed oak, creeping up the sides, or 
crowning the summit. Rambling with unfettered grace, the ten- 
drils of the briony (tamis communis) festoon with their brilliant 
. berries, green, yellow, red, the slender sprigs of the hazel, or the 
thorn; it ornaments their plainness, and receives a support its 
own feebleness denies. The agaric, with all its hues, its shades, 
its elegant variety of forms, expands its cone, sprinkled with the 
freshness of the morning ; a transient fair, a child of decay, that 
“sprang up in a night, and will perish in a night.” The squirrel, 
agile with life and timidity, gamboling round the root of an an- 
cient beech, its base overgrown with the dew-berry, (rubus 
ceesius,) blue with unsullied fruit; impeded in its frolic sports, 
half angry, darts up the silvery bole again, to peep and wonder 
at the strange intruder on his haunts. The jay springs up, and 
screaming, tells of danger to her brood; the noisy tribe repeat 
the call, are hushed, and leave us; the loud laugh of the wood- 
pecker, joyous and vacant, the hammering of the nuthatch, (sitta 
europea) cleaving its prize in the chink of some dry bough,” &c. 


at Bol the note of the bird, the plant that flow: 


96 To Readers and Correspondents. 


TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 


We are indebted to a friend for pointing out to a almost at the moment of closing ouz 
number, an exparte statement, which the committee on publications of the Franklin Insti- 
tute have inserted at page 7 of their Journal for July, 1831. This statement, made by one 
of their members, and on a subject very foreign to the useful arts, is directed against an 
individual who is not a member of their society, and who, never doubting of such an attack, 
was‘precluded from the refutation of it, either by himself or his frien That Journal 
having thus, by the act of the committee, become the vehicle of defamation in its most 
insidious form, it has become necessary to notice so unexpected a departure from propriety 
on the part of the committee. That the members of the Franklin Institute may under- 
stand how little we have deserved such unjust treatment from their society—for it is the 
editor of this journal who is falsely accused of having attacked the reputation of their de- 
ceased rielliber Dr. Godman,—we proceed to state: that it was our good fortune to make. 

ublicly known for the first time, a beautiful and useful invention of Mr. John Price 
etherill, to create flame in the combustion of anthracite coal. As the publie caught 
rapidly at this valuable improvement, we agreed with Mr. W. to make it more exten- 
sively known, and to insert a paper with appropriate’ plans concerning it, in the first num- » 
ber of this Journal. When the preparations were about completed, Dr. Isaac Heys took 
an opportunity of requesting the editor not to insert the plans, &c. of Mr. W’s ‘umace, 
stating, that it might seriously injure the circulation of the Journal of the Franklin Insti- 
tute, if the Monthly American Journal, were also to draw upon that branch of natural 
science for support. We told him without hesitation, that our respect for the founders 
and supporters of the Franklin Institute was unfeigned, that we should upon all occasions 
give it our entire and unequivocal support; and that, if it was the wish of the society to 
avail itself of Mr. W’s invention, we would cheerfully withdraw our paper, and release 
Mr. W. from his agreement with us. We accordingly called upon Mr. Wetherill the 
same day, explained to him what had passed, and requested him to transfer his drawings 
to the use of the Franklin Institute. We regret having done so—we have, from generous 
motives, been the cause of their being withheld from the public, and have received but a 
sorry return for our kindness. Our good wishes, however, for the success of the Franklin 
Institute are not abated ; and whilst we are surprised at the authorized publication of what 
was intended to injure us, we would by no means revenge upon the interests of a valuable 
society, the act of one of the most insignificant of their members. We know how difficult 
it is fora numerous society to prevent an intriguing, pharisaical individual from committing 
them occasionally. 

As to Dr. Isaac Hays’ statement, as found at page 7, we have only room to say, we shall 
hereafter show it is a deliberate falsehood from the beginning to the end. We have been 
strongly solicited to expose the previous moral obliquities of that mendacious little indivi- 
dual, and we have hitherto withheld our hand. But all consideration for him is now at 
anend. We cannot be silent when low contrivances, aiming] to bring us into discredit, 
and to impair our usefulness, are resorted to, for no purpose but to bring into notice a 
parasite who lives by dishonouring the labours of others. 


The promised paper on Big bone lick, has, for reasons beyond our controul, been delayed 
until the next number. 
_ Itis tag 4 true, as our correspondent G. observes, that we were in possession of his paper 
in season for our first number. Our answer is, that when papers equally meritorious come 
into our possession at the same time, the editor must claim the oe of selection, and 
that his preference may be governed by considerations, it would be quite inexpedient to 
enter into with every correspondent. It is of importance that the contents of the Journal 
should be various. 

The three interesting papers on the origin of the Indian languages of this continent are 
under consideration. 

We hope soon to have an interview with the distinguished naturalist, who has favoured 
us with a paper on “the domestic animals of the Indians of this continent.” 

The editor;will transmit a note to Rusticus, if he will leave his address at the Literary 

ms. 

The plate of this number, representing fragments of the jaw and teeth of the Mega- 

lonyx laqueatus, should have been stroked 111 : 


ix In a few copies of this number, the asterisk on page 55 is misplaced. It refers to the 
period of Herodotus, in the line below where it stands. 


- Department of State, 


Col. Kearney, 


Capt. Thomas J. Hunt, 


Gen. D. Parker, 
_ Navy Department, | 


ey - Charles Bankhead, Esq. 
~ Wm, Pitt Adams, Esq. British Legation, 


~The Navy Canmaiestncies 

_ Capt. James D. Graham, 

-Lievt William Turnbull, 

- Baron Stackleberg, Charge d’ Affaires from Sweden 


ae @ Ota 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES. 


oe 


~ Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, (2 copies, ) 
General Gratiot, for the Engineer Department, 
Dr. Randolph, for the War Department, 


Asbury Dickens, for the Treasury Department, 
Col. R. Jones, for the Adjutant General’s Office, 
Col. Abert, for the Topographical Bureau, 

Maj. Gen. Macomb, Commander-in-Chief, 
Major Hook, of the Subsistence Department, 
Col. Bomford, of the Ordnance Department, 


_ Major J. Cross, Quarter Master’s Office, 
ee i Lt. W.B. Davidson, Adjutant General’s Office, 


_ Lt. W. G. Williams, of the Popper rca Office; 
_ Jos. Lovell, Surgeon General, 
 W.B. Lewis, Treasury Department, 

__ Rt. Hon. Charles R. Vaughan, H. B. M. Minister Plenipotentiary, do. 
H. B. M. Charge @’ BPS 


Nathaniel Tyre, Paymaster Generals Office, 


General Bernard, 
“Robert Fulton, Esq. 


=r 
' Dr. Francis Condie, 


Wm. Hembel, Esq. © 
Professor Green, 


North & Allen, 
5 _ Dr. Richard Harlan, 
James Kay, Jr. 

Dr. John Bell, - 
Wn. Meredith, Esq. . 
Miss A. Cooper, — 
Dr. La Roche, 

A. Bolmar, E 


Geo, Harrison, 
William Short,. Esq. 
Dr. Robert Hare, © 


} “ Edward Burd, Esq. 


Hf ere Hopkinson, ; 
Lt. Col. Long, - 


Baie (Wm, Morrison, 


Dr, Bed L. Elwyn 


J. J. Vanderkemp, Esq. 


Geo. M. Hickling, Bia ps 


Oo, 


“Joseph, Comte de Survilliers, Point Breeze, 
“Wm. Norris, Jr. Esq. Philadelphia. 


P, A. Browne, Esq. 


Geo. C. Read, Esq. U. S. N. ne 


Major Ware, 


Washington. 


New Jersey. 


Philadelphia. 


Clement C. Biddle, Esq. do. 


Dr. J. K. Mitchell, 
Thomas Biddle, Esq. 
D. Paul Brown, Esq. 


N. Biddle, Esq. P. U.S. Bk. do. 


'* jJesse Torrey, Jr. Esq. 
' jJas. €, Biddle, Esq. 


Reuben Haines, 
S. Potter, Esq. 
Miss L. Burton, 
Prof. Rafinesque, — 
W.N.. Steel, 

Dr. J. Pancoast, 
FSi Tanner, 
J.M. Hirst, — 
Wm. Davis’ 

W..H. G. Wilson, 
Edwin Carpenter, 
John Vaug' 


» Philosopls Hall 


William Morrison, 
Henry Inman, 

J. N. Barker, 

J. Ashmead, 

John P. Wetherill, 
Chauncey Holcomb, 
L. Johnson, 
William Levan, 

D. W. Coxe, 

Jos. Few Smith, 

R. Dietz, 

J. Francis Fisher, 
Prof. Del Rio, 
Hilbern Walton, 
William L. Booth, 
Job S. Gaskill, 
James Brown, Esq. 
John Large, 


Dr. William Blanding, 


Bartholemew Wistar, 
Samuel Harvey, 
C. S. Langstroth, 
Saml. Hepburn, Esq. 
Dr. Michenor, 
Gen. S. Cameron,,. 
J. V. Rensaeller, M. D. 


nalduies: sg 
do. ath 


Philadelphia.| Thomas Edmonson, 
do. Professor J. T. Ducatel, 


do Dr. Thomas Sim, Woodshoro, Md. ete 
ue Joseph White, Pottsville, Pa. 

0 George Fleming, aaa 
do A. Corey o ¢ Carlisle, do. hae 
do W. Staunton, Pittsburg, do. 
do Chester Butler, Wilkesbarre, do. 
do William Dick, Columbia, do. 
do. Samuel W. Mifflin, do. 2 %dosFex¢ 
do. Sam’l Eschenback, MountPocono, do. 
do Bucks County Academy of Natural — 
do. Science, Doylestown, do, 

_ do James H. Page, Brandywine, Del. 
do E. S.'Chesborough, Hoboken, N. J. ~ 
do Samuel Bullock, Mount Holly, do. — 
do Anthony Sharpe, do Os. 

’ do George Camblos, New Port, do. a 
do Capt: McNeill, United States ae 
do. Army, New York, N.Y. ~ 
do, Benjamin Wright, do- do. ~ 
do. Dr. Alvin Foord, Checnbeiss do. 

Milton, Pa. |P. O. Beebee, Utica, do: 


New Garden, Pa.| Thos. H. Perkins, Esq. Boston, Mass. — 
Harrisburg, Pa.|Dr. Robert W. Gibbs, Columbia, S.C, 


New York.!Jos. Gibbons, Esq. Mount Pleasant, 


George Kidd, Port Deposite, Md. Ohio. rs 
Dr. ge C. Cohen, Baltimore, Md. ' a 


John Mardon, 


SOS" 
LIST OF AGENTS. 


No. 30 Jewin Crescent, Jewin street, London. 


E. Wilmer, ah Spee Nee Liverpool. 

Arthur Bertrand, : No. S ue hauutefeuille, Paris. 

Perthes & Besser, - - . lamburg.- Si 

G. & C. & H. Carvill, - - - - - New York. ; * 
P. Potter, ~ : a “ - - Poughkeepsie; NM Fe 
Benjamin M. Norman, - - - - - ludson, > 

Little & Cummings, _- - - - - - Albany, ~ + 

Wm. Williams, z Rm | im ie Utica, ais 

Carter, Hendee, & Babcock, = eon - - Boston, Mass: 


Dorr & Howland, - 


Samuel Coleman, <5 


Cory & Brown, - 
Eli French, 
Samuel C. Stevens, 
Russel Hubbard, —- 
H. & F. J. Huntington, 
Hezekiah Howe, - 
B. Burt, 2nd, ag oF 
W. & J. Neale,  -- 
Thompson & eel 
J.H. Nash, - 
J.C. Bwan, - 5 - 
Carrol, - 0+ 
Hugh Alexander, - 
C. D. Bradford & Co. 
John Wheeler, - —- 
E. Thayer, 
O. A. Roorbach, é 
Richards & Ganahl, 
J. 1, Kay & Co. . 
Francis Wyeth, - 
C.M. Reed, - - 


John Marshall, - - 


. 


_ Worcester, 5, ~ 
Portland, Maine. 
Providence, R. I: 


Dover, NV. Hampshire. 
Norwich, Conn. 


- Castleton, Vermont. 
Baltimore, Manne 
Washington, DECK 
Richmond, Va 
Petersburg, Pays 28 
New Orleans, Lotions 

- Baton Rouge, * 4, Nis 
~. Cincinnati, Ohio. -» me 4 
Murfreesboro. NoC; 
Charleston, S. C. * 
Savannah, Georgia. 

- Pittsburg, Past 
Harrisburg, > 


” Washington, ;, 
, West C ter, ” . ; 


THE 


, OF 
GEOLOGY 


NATURAL SCIENCE; 


ExMIBITING THE ERESENT STATE AND PROGRESS oF KNOWLEDGE Is 


ios - aes 


BTEOROLOGY, PHYSICAL NATURAL. AGENTS, AND THE 
sf ANTIQUITIES AND LANGUAGES OF THE . 
_ INDIANS OF 78 CONTINENT. . ; merit ey 


con DUCTED BE 


Ge w. FEATHERS TONHAUGH, Esq. 


birt een Society of ‘London; Member of the American Philosophical Society 
a) 
8 0! 


hia; of the New York Lyceum of Natural sare ; of the Recavecd of dibeety 
- Beiences 


Samgeneare ‘&e,.&o, 


Fitba 2 Nee Ge E Gr 


oe Giese 1831. 


"FO BE CONTINUED MONTHLY. 


eapete oh ci 121 Chesnut Street. 


EZ OFFICE ‘an rH JOURNAL. oF ania FAMILY LIBEARY oF REALTS, Seer 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science, PS = es aie iS | 6 
Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians, ele Recs 104 
On the Acclimating Principle of Plants, - - -  - - 108 
Fossil Remains found in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, - - 114 
On the Silver, Gold, and Platina of Russia, - - wee - 118 
On the Effects of various Poisons on living Vegetables, Sher 124 
On the value of Geological Information to Engineers, &c. - - 128 
Ornithological Biography of Audubon, 2S a eR ene eels 136 
To Readers and Correspondents, - - = : - = 140 
Mlinois Magazine, - - - See te - - - - 144 
Wood’s Mosaic History, American edition, “ = = - 4 144 


Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-one, by Henry H. Porter, in the Clerk’s Office of the 
District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Penn- 
sylyania. 


“SUT '% oy ey rapes “AQwye ‘oo I) VUN AY “ee DUO puny [BpuOXLMLOTT e'e 


Rae Petey. MEY 5 oi ma vs « to Mid ee See z 


THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 


GEOLOGY 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. I. PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER 1831. No. 3. 


AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
(Continued from page 58.) 


Tue philosophical period, when human opinions were first re- 
leased from the bondage of theocratical power, began among the 
Greeks; a curious and active race, whose geographical situation 
had contributed much to form their character, and deriving their 
origin, in a great measure, from the nations connected with the 
Euxine, or Black sea. The Pelasgi are supposed to have pene- 
trated into Greece from India, at the earliest periods: the archi- 
tectural remains, called Cyclopean walls, were of their day. 
In the time of Pausanias,* it was known that those walls were 
anterior to the arrival of the Egyptian colonies. The situation, 
however, and maritime habits of the Greeks, had enabled them 
to hold communication with the Phcenicians, Babylonians, and 
other nations, long before the arrival of Cecrops.t The chiefs 
who led these first colonies from Egypt, were not priests, but 
rather bold adventurers, like the Normans; and although they 
brought over the external form of their religion, yet it appears 
the meaning concealed under their emblems, was not spread 
amongst the people where they colonized. 

Now the mythological forms in Egypt, and those generally ob- 
taining in the east, were only the emblematic expression of a sys- 
tem of general philosophy, confined to the priesthood: hence 
science necessarily became stationary, since no one, without in- 
curring the charge of irreligion, would venture to entertain any 
opinions, which did not emanate from sources that were admitted 


*A,D.1%. +B, C, 1550. 
Vou. I.—138 ; 97 


98 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


to be divine. But the Egyptians having exported, as it were, 
the clerk without the parson, religion and. science happily be- 
came separated, and the Greeks were left free, at the planting 
of knowledge in their country, to adopt their own philosophical 
opinions. The benign influence of that freedom was soon felt ; 
it led to the establishment of a school of philosophy, and of the 
arts, that will be honoured and admired to the latest generations. 

Of the influence of this philosophy, we are living monuments ; 
for the revival of letters in Europe, was nothing but the revival 
of that philosophy ; and but for this fortunate disenthralment of 
the human mind, from the tyranny of the sacerdotal caste, in- 
stead of the inimitable manly beauty of the Apollo, and the grace- 
ful proportions of the Venus, together with the countless treasures 
of sculptured excellence, that received all but life from the hands 
of Phidias and Praxiteles, we should probably have received no- 
thing from Greece, but metaphysical monsters—gods with quad- 
ruple heads, and a hundred hands—goddesses with the heads of 
the inferior animals. Of all the nations of Greece, the Hellenes 
were the earliest civilized; and although the religion of the 
country partook strongly of the Indian and Egyptian origin—un- 
der the influence of Orpheus, at once a priest and a poet—yet 
the Hellenes at length introduced the worship of Apollo, the cul- 
tivation of the arts, and gave their name to the whole country. 
We shall pass by the period of the Trojan war, and the evidences 
contained in the writings of Hesiod and Homer,* of the great 
progress the Greeks had made in the arts, in order to come at 
once to the brilliant period of the schools of philosophy. 

The family of the Asclepiade had begun to cultivate science 
with practical views, as far back as the thirteenth century be- 
fore Christ. This was properly the ancient medical school of 
Greece, and the temples of Aisculapius—a name bearing a strong 
affinity to that of the family—were served with priests out of this 
family. The Ionian schools, founded by Thales of Miletus, about 
600 B. C.,were spread chiefly amongst the continental Greeks of 
Asia Minor, and partook of an Egyptian érigin ; for when Psam- 
meticus called in the Greeks to his aid,} Thales, Pythagoras, and 
other philosophers, passed over to receive instruction from the 
priests of Egypt. 

Pythagoras flourished about 550 years B. C.: after finishing 


* B. C. 900, +B. C. 600. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 99 


many arduous journeys in the east, undertaken through the pure 
love of philosophy, he retired to Crotona, in Italy. As Thales, the 
chief of the Ionian school, devoted all his attention to the discov- 
ery of a first principle, independently of experiments by way of 
induction, so Pythagoras endeavoured to discover the same prin- 
ciple in the power of numbers. Pythagoras is deemed to have 
preceded, to a certain extent, Copernicus, in the received opinions 
respecting planetary motions. 

Herodotus, Xenophon, Hippocrates, Ctesias, and other philoso- 
phers who flourished about these times, were contributors to 
natural science. Herodotus, the earliest prose writer among the 
Greeks, had travelled extensively in the east, and in Egypt. He 
described the crocodile, and other animals of that country, with 
much accuracy. Xenophon was born thirty-nine years later than 
Socrates, and was one of his pupils. He was at once a soldier, a 
statesman, and a naturalist; was the declared enemy of the my- 
thology of the Greeks, and taught a system of pure idealism, in- 
cluding all things in the divinity. In the Cynegetics, which is a 
treatise on hunting, he treats ofthe different races of dogs, and 
of the various kinds of game pursued by hunters: the retreats 
of wild beasts, their stratagems to elude pursuit, and their means 
of defence, are there described. It is in this work we learn that 
lions, panthers, jackals, and other species of wild beasts now 
found in hot climates only, were the inhabitants of Macedonia ; 
an interesting zoological fact, bearing upon the speculations of 
some modern naturalists. Hippocrates and Ctesias belonged to 
the caste of the Asclepiades. In the pathological knowledge of 
diseases, in diagnostics, and in medical treatment, the first has 
acquired a great reputation, to which his fanciful and very de- 
ficient mode of considering anatomy and physiology, have not 
contributed. Ctesias was made a prisoner on the memorable ex- 
pedition of the ten thousand, and resided, in the quality of 
physician, seventeen years at the Persian court. In an account 
of India, which he borrows from the Persian writers, he mentions 
the elephant, an animal at that time unknown to the Greeks. 
His work, however, is full of absurd stories; he describes em- 
blematic animals as real ones, and the fabulous stories of the 
flying griffin, the unicorn, &c. &c., are probably due to him. 

Leucippus, the founder of the atomistic school, taught that 
every thing was matter and motion: he was a pure materialist, 


100 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


and acknowledged nothing but atoms, and a vacuum to move in. 
Figure and motion, and the arrangement of his atoms, produced, 
according to this philosopher, all the properties of bodies, colour, 
consistence, heat, cold, &c. 

Democritus of Abdera,* a disciple of Leucippus, was a com- 
parative anatomist, for he endeavoured to deduce the habits of 
animals from the differences he had observed in their organiza- 
tion. On the conquest of Asia-Minor by Xerxes,t the principal 
philosophers of these various sects, who had brought forward, in 
turns, all the metaphysical views known to ourselves, established 
themselves at Athens, in central Greece; when Anaxagoras, the 
father of the Socratic school, finally taught the reasonable doc- 
trine, that mind and matter were separate principles, and cul- 
tivated more extensively the deduction of the rationale of things 
from practical observation. 

Socrates was the true reformer of Grecian philosophy: he 
sought to reduce physics to common sense and observation, and 
metaphysics to logical reasoning. He endeavoured to overthrow 
the miserable sophistry that had sprung out of the Eleatic school, 
and it is to him we owe the elaboration of the thought of Anax- 
agoras, that an intelligent principle has arranged the world. If 
the universe, he reasoned, be the work of an intelligent mind, it 
must be so disposed as to concur to an intelligent end. From this 
great thought results the important natural truth which geology 
establishes, that organized beings are connected by necessary re- 
lations, and that a perfect organized body must contain in itself, all 
the conditions proper to the performance of the part assigned to it. 
Socrates declared his regret, at not being sufficiently conversant 
with natural history, to demonstrate this truth as extensively as 
it might be done. This great and virtuous man was a cotempo- 
rary of Pericles, Alcibiades, Xenophon, and Hippocrates, and died 


a victim to the intolerance of his enemies, and the splendour of 
his character, B. C. 399. 


Plato, the youngest of the disciples of Socrates, after the death 
of his master, went to Egypt, and studied under the priests. He 
afterwards received instruction in the Pythagorean schools, es- 
tablished in Lower Italy : having before his travels in Egypt, ex- 
ercised himself in dialectics, with Euclid—who had been himself 
a pupil of Socrates—he now, fraught with knowledge, returned 


*Flourished B. C. 400. +B. C. 480. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 101 


to Athens, and opened the celebrated academic school, the influ 
ence of which has been so powerful. We pass over his meta- 
physical speculations, to his opinions which are more particular- 
ly connected with natural history. Many of these are based 
upon the traditions of geological revolutions, similar to those re- 
flected to us from every people. In one of his dialogues, he sup- 
poses Solon to have been told by a priest of Sais, in lower Egypt, 
that Sais had been founded 10,000 years before; that subse- 
quently, all the monuments of men, save those in Egypt, had been 
destroyed by numerous deluges. That these inundations were 
historically true, may be admitted, but it is a glaring inconsisten- 
cy to except from their influence, a low, alluvial territory, that 
would have been one of the first countries submerged. The dis- 
appearance of the island of Atalantis, is another story, founded 
in like manner, perhaps, upon an ancient geological convulsion, 
but the details of which are due to the exuberant fancy of this 
philosopher. In the same dialogue, is a curious approximation 
to the modern science of chrystallography, derived by him from 
the Pythagorean school, which, as we before adverted to, sought 
the remote principle of all things in the power of numbers: for 
it is stated that the four elements, air, earth, fire, and water, owe 
their separate properties to their primitive form; the primitive 
chrystal being pyramidal in fire, cubical in earth, octohedral in 
water, and icosihedral in air: lending himself to a fanciful cos- 
mogonico-generalization, he asserts that each of these solid primi- 
tive forms resolves itself into tetrahedrons, so that the universe is 
ultimately composed of triangular pyramids. His physiological | 
system, which evinces some acquaintance with anatomy, does 
not merit much attention, and his zoology is altogether fanciful. 

Adopting the metempsychosis of Pythagoras, he asserts that tri- 
fling and unjust men, at their first transformation, are changed 
into women; the most depraved men are transformed into fishes. 
According to this system, the affinity which exists between ani- 
mals of different classes, is attributable to each retaining some- 
thing of its former state. However fancifully physiological and 
zoological subjects were treated by Plato—sometimes perhaps to 
veil doctrines it was not safe to divulge openly—there may never- 
theless be discerned in his writings, the outlines of those three 
principles of motion, which in our own times have been called 
organic life, animal life, and intellectual life. 


102 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


Such schools, and such men, which entered upon the discus- 
sion of every branch of knowledge, could not fail to plant its 
seeds deep in some powerful mind, and to the great benefit of 
mankind, if such a mind was free to exert itself, untrammelled 
by the superstition and jealousy which had cramped the intellec- 
tual labours of Socrates and Plato. 

Accordingly, after the death of this last philosopher, in the 
348th year B. C., in the eighty-first year of his age, Aristotle the 
Stagyrite, his disciple and successor, appeared upon the scene— 
an individual, if we are to value men for the variety of their 
attainments, and their disinterested devotion to the improvement 
of their fellow creatures, who may claim to receive the highest 
meed of praise so great a benefactor can receive at our hands. 
He was fortunate in the period in which he lived, having been 
brought up at the Macedonian court, a cotemporary with Philip, 
who subsequently appointed him tutor to his son, Alexander the 
Great. It was his good fortune to inspire his royal pupil with a 
love for natural science. It appears that he caused to be trans- 
mitted to Aristotle the most remarkable productions of the coun- 
tries he subdued ; so that although the conquests of Alexander 
were not, in their effects, permanent victories for his family, yet 
each of them was a real enlargement of the empire of know- 
ledge. Pliny states that more than a thousand persons were placed 
at the disposition of the philosopher, to assist him in collecting 
the materials of his history of animals, beside an almost unlimit- 
ed command of money. At his school, the lyceum, he attended 
in the mornings with his disciples, to examine his specimens, and 
in the afternoon he expounded the higher branches of his philo- 
sophy. Diogenes Laertius has preserved the title of two hundred 
and sixty works of this extraordinary man, most of which are 
lost. ‘They appear to have embraced almost the whole range 
of human knowledge. Logic, rhetoric, poetry, morals, politics, 
metaphysics, general physics, meteorology, mineralogy, and the 
history of animals. On all these subjects, he lays down no rules, 
but those deduced from observed facts. It may be truly said of 
him, that he gave to all the sciences the right method of ad- 
vancement; and that in the natural sciences especially, he col- 
lected more facts, and deduced more general laws, than all his 
successors have done, up to the period of that great naturalist of 
our own times, Cuvier. Many of his principles in general physics, 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 103 


as well as in some other branches, have indeed been found false 
and imperfect, but they were the general expression of the facts 
he had observed, his intelligence being only limited by his oppor- 
tunities. His history of animals is a surprising work ; it is impos- 
sible to think of this monument of his industry and genius, without 
offering the greatest tribute of admiration to his memory, by 
admitting, that whether in his classification of animals, or in his 
immense number of facts and general propositions, he has almost 
anticipated all that we owe to modern investigation. We re- 
luctantly forbear to enter upon the tempting details within our 
reach; but to show that his aphorisms are not founded upon 
& priori assumptions, and that they are the bold results of 
practical observation, we shall lay a few of them before our 
readers. 

He observes, that all animals, without exception, are furnished 
with a mouth,.and that they possess the sense of touch: these 
two characters, he considers the only ones that are indispensable: 
but all animals, he states, of whatever species, differ from another 
species, in the presence or absence of some other character, com- 
mon to animals. 

All land animals, he observes, have locomotion, but many 
water animals have not. 

Winged insects which have stings in the head, never have 
more than two wings; but those which have stings in the pos- 
terior part, have four wings. He divides animals into those which 
have red blood, and those which have not, and forms his groupes 
in a very natural manner. His class of insects is divided into 
those having wings, and those without wings. This is the dis- 
tinction adopted by Linnzeus, and prevails at this day. He gives 
the definition of a genus, by adducing solipeda, or simple hoofed 
animals. This genus is distinct from all others, and includes 
those animals only which have a simple hoof, such as the horse, 
ass, &c. &c. Although the Greeks had only become acquainted 
with the elephant in his own time, he had studied it with his 
usual accuracy. Experience has shown, that even Buffon has 
always erred, when he has ventured to contradict this great 
naturalist, although he lived at a distance of more than two 
thousand years from the period of Aristotle. His knowledge of 
fishes appears to have been greater than we possess at the pre- 
sent day. Of their habits, their mode of generation, their food, 


104 Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians. 


their emigration, their diseases, he speaks with the greatest de- 
tail and accuracy. 

After the death of this great naturalist, 322 years B. C., Theo- 
phrastus was the most celebrated of the philosophers of the Ly- 
ceum. He was in botany, what Aristotle had been in zoology : 
but Greece being now subdued by the Macedonians, and the Ro- 
man power having gradually interfered with the independence 
of all free states, science began to decline: nor can the efforts of 
Pliny the naturalist, be considered a revival of natural science; 
feeble as those efforts were, they were soon lost in the prostration of 
all independent action, under the despotism of the Roman emperors. 
After the death of Augustus, flatterers and panders of the basest 
kind alone flourished, with few exceptions. The Roman people, at 
length, unaccustomed to great examples of virtue and knowledge, 
lost all reverence for them; and before the final overthrow of 
the empire, by the descendants of those pastoral tribes who had so 
frequently interrupted the first dawnings of science, the Romans 
did not know where the dependencies were situated, of which they 
were the nominal masters. So surely does it happen, that when 
men, from whatever causes, are permitted to administer the gov- 
ernment of a people, with reference solely to their own gratifi- 
cations, that the public mind, having no bright examples to 
impel it forward, ebbs, and exposes a vast and unproductive 
barren. Such was the result long before the fall of the Roman 
empire. 

( To be continued.) 


ANTIQUITIES AND LANGUAGES OF THE MEXICAN INDIANS. 


Tue writer of the following communication, a distinguished 
Mexican gentleman, is entitled to the cordial acknowledgements 
of the Editor, for this interesting paper, and flatters himself it is 
only the first of a series, that will reflect great light upon both 
the antiquities and languages of the aboriginal nations of this 
continent. 

There are strong reasons for supposing that the ancient Indian 
monuments which are found so widely diffused over the territory 
of the U. States, derived their origin from a people, skilled in 
arts to which the natives here, who have been known to our 
race, have always been strangers. We have no evidence, that 


Antiquities and Languages of the Mewican Indians. 105 


the modern races of red men, have ever, with slight exceptions, 
passed beyond the hunter state. There are instances of stone 
hatchets being found in tumuli, in the State of New York, made 
after the Mexican manner, and of a material peculiar to Mexico. 
This points to a connexion between the ancient nations of Mexico, 
and the people who constructed the monuments that are found, 
even in the northern parts of the territory of the U. States. We 
now want architectural comparisons, between the monuments in 
the U. States, and those found in the southern parts of America. 
In this point of view, the present communication of our intelli- 


gent correspondent, may prove extremely valuable. 
Eprror. 


No. 1. Paracr or Micrta. 


Sir,—We cannot but regret that the conquerors of Mexico 
have destroyed, with a barbarism ignominious even for the fif- 
teenth century, the most remarkable edifices and monuments 
of the various nations which inhabited that extensive portion of 
the American continent. The Bishop Zumarraga caused the 
precious annals of the Mexican Indians to be burnt, and destroy- 
ed what had escaped the fury of the conquerors. The conduct 
of these last, formed a contrast with that pursued by their coun- 
trymen in the Peninsula, in relation to the celebrated palace of 
Alhambra, and other monuments of the Arabians. Zumarréga 
and the first monks who arrived at Mexico, preferred the exam- 
ple set by the inquisitor Tormequada, to that of the monks of 
the congregation of St. Mauro, in whose convents the sciences 
found a refuge, and where the treasures of Grecian literature 
were preserved. 

Thus, few monuments of Mexican antiquities have remained, 
except those capable of resisting the ravages of time; those im- 
mense masses, which the nations, as if by instinct, have construct- 
ed, as memorials of their existence to future ages. 

The writings and paintings which were saved from the confla- 
grations of Zumarraga, were but few, and consequently, the 
notices we possess, respecting nations so far advanced in civiliza- 
tion, are scarce, and deserve to be cherished. 

The investigations which you propose to insert in your Journal, 
touching the antiquities and languages of the aboriginal Indians, 
deserve much attention, and I have thought myself bound to 
communicate to you some information which I possess, respecting 

Vor. L—14 


106 Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians. 


the Indians of my own country: happy to assist in forwarding 
your laudable intentions. 

One of the few monuments of the first people, which are still 
preserved in Mexico, is the palace of Mictla, distant twenty 
miles from the city of Oaxaca, in 17° 20’ N. lat. Mictla, in the 
Mexican tongue, signifies hell ; and the Zapotecas who inhabited 
that country, called it Liobia, which means, a place “ devoted 
to repose.” The monarchs of Zapoteca, dwelt at Mictla. They 
were feudatories of the emperors of Mexico, and paid tribute to 
them in those coloured feathers, of which great use was made 
for their standards, as well as by the dignitaries of the empire, 
and their priests.) The High Priest of the Zapotecas inhabited 
the palace of Mictla. Mictla, according to the relation of the 
few persons who have visited that great catacomb, was an im- 
mense cave, which the industry of the Zapotecans converted into 
a subterranean palace. It consists of four compartments, above 
and below, with an extensive square in the centre. The edifice 
is supported by means of columns of porphyry of one entire piece, 
eight feet in diameter, and five Spanish varas (about fifteen feet) 
in height. They are after the Grecian taste, without pedestals, 
and perfectly smooth. ‘They support the roof, which consists of 
slabs, two varas in length, one in breadth, and one-half in thick- 
ness. The slabs, which are about equal in dimensions, are not 
united by any kind of cement. 

The form of the edifice is that of a ducal crown, the superior 
part having a greater circumference than the inferior. It must 
be confessed, that in this respect the civil architecture of the 
Zapotecans is entirely original. In the walls, the cement is as 
hard as stone. The surface of the walls is covered with mosaics 
of white stone, derived perhaps from the fine quarries of white 
marble which are found in the territory of Oaxaca. The pieces 
of mosaic, are not united by any cement; they are admirably 
executed, and form branches. It is remarkable that without the 
use or knowledge of iron,* the Mexican Indians could quarry, 
form, and polish marble, flint, and the hardest stones. 

The entrances—very spacious—were made of three stones of 
equal size, of an entire piece, and of the same thickness as, the 
wall. Each of the compartments or saloons, served as a temple 
and sepulchre, to the kings and nobility. 


* Mexican tools of copper have been found. 


Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians. 107 


‘The chief priest performed the functions belonging to the wor- 
ship of the idols, upon a large slab, raised in-the hall, appropriat- 
ed to these deities. He was clothed in a white garment of cotton, 
resembling the surplices used by Catholic priests, with another 
above it, adorned with figures of birds and other animals: he 
bore-a sort of mitre on his head, and a buskin on his legs, studded 
with pieces of gold. The worship in that temple, or royal chapel, 
consisted of profound genuflexions, and offerings of incense, fur- 
nished by the odoriferous. gums, which.abound in the woods of 
Oaxaca. This was the place destined to the sacrifice of human 
victims, whose hearts were offered to the idols, whilst the bodies 
were cast into the cave, through a door, closed by a slab, which 
is yet preserved. Prayers, penitence, and fasting, were also per- 
formed in the same place, when any favour was sought, or’ any 
evil deprecated from their deities. The chief priests enjoyed 
the privilege of a sepulchre in one of the compartments. 

The kings of Teozapotlan were carried to the sepulchre, in 
their richest garments, feathers, and jewels, and with exquisite 
collars of gold; a shield was placed in the left hand, and the 
spear which they used in war, in the right. At the funeral, dis- 
cordant and lugubrious instruments were played upon, and amidst 
lamentations, the life and achievements of the deceased were 
sung. 

Their kings, their great chiefs, in the same manner as the vic- 
tims sacrificed at the temple, were thrown into the cave, and 
even some, whilst living, voluntarily threw themselves there, be- 
lieving it led to the mansions of eternal felicity. "The Zapotecas 
also had their elysian fields: hope and fear have given birth to 
the same dogma in America and in Egypt. 

The Zapotecans believed that the cave was ee hundred 
leagues deep; and in fact there does exist a very great cavity, 
which has been formed by some cause. I am disposed to believe 
that riches are buried there, whose resurrection would console 
the arts. It is to be hoped that the enlightened government of 
Mexico will cause it to be ascertained whether in Mictla we 
do not possess a new Pompeii or Herculaneum. 

One of the superior compartments was the palace of the Za- 
potecan pontiff’ In it was his throne, covered with the skins of 
tigers, and rich carpets of the coloured feathers of birds. The 
other halls, even that of the King, were lower than that of the 


108 On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 


high priest. It was, no doubt, a theocratical government: the 
sacerdotal order was as much respected as the divinity ; it was 
hereditary; and although the priests were not married, yet at 
certain solemnities they had intercourse with the other sex, and 
the fruits of this commerce were destined to the service of their 
religion. 

There was a distinct compartment for the priests of an inferior 
order, one to receive the king in, and another for the nobility. 
When they were assembled at the palace, all, of whatever rank 
and dignity, were under the authority of the pontiff All the 
floors were covered with mats, upon which they slept; no bed 
being raised higher for any person whatever. 

The Zapotecans were warlike, and had made great progress 
in the art of fortification. Their last king, Cosijopii was as pru- 
dent in his rule, as his father Cosifoeza had been valiant. The 
Mexicans endeavoured more than once to subdue the Zapote- 
cans, but were always repulsed. Even at this day, the war-like 
spirit of their ancestors is yet preserved, in the miserable remains 
of this nation. ‘The Indians of the whole State of Oaxaca are 
industrious, well mannered and patient. 

It is to be regretted that Mictla has not been visited by some 
one competent to appreciate and describe those rare objects 
which vulgar eyes assign no value to. I remain, sir, your most 
obedient servant, . A Mexican. 


ON THE ACCLIMATING PRINCIPLE OF PLANTS. 


Ir is nature’s plan, that nothing should remain fixed and sta- 
tionary. She exists by motion, and manifests herself through 
endless changes: even death and decomposition are her pioneers, 
to prepare the way for life and existence. The very rocks and 
minerals, (unorganised matter,) are changed by the action of the 
elements, form new affinities, and yield to the circumstances of 
moisture and heat, with which they may be surrounded. Ani- 
mals exhibit still more changes; they possess powers of develope- 
ment, and the means of continuation of kind. Endowed with lo- 
comotion, they can change their climate and habitation: with a 
natural pliancy of constitution, they can accommodate themselves 
to the quality of their food, and character of the country upon 
which they may be thrown, and appear beautiful or deformed 


On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 109 


accordingly as they may be acted on by circumstances. Many 
of them can bear the most violent contrasts of heat and cold, and 
adapt themselves to many climates. 

Vegetables too, are organized, have their growth and decay, 

and the powers of reproduction. Beyond this we allow them but 
few capacities; no locomotive powers, none of the sensibilities 
common to animals, nor that pliancy which can accommodate 
itself to circumstances. They are the fixtures of nature, with 
but little latitude in which to flourish, and but little diversity of 
soil from which to derive nutriment. The object of this paper 
is to enlarge their sphere, and to show that they possess more 
power to change their climates, and capacity to bear the con- 
trasts of heat and cold, than we have generally ascribed to them; 
to illustrate it with many instances where they have actually 
adapted their growth and habits to a great extent of country, 
and diversity of latitude, and to urge agriculturists to make 
more efforts to vary their culture. 
_ Plants have direcily no locomotive powers, but indirectly they 
have in a great degree the faculty of changing their places, and, 
consequently, their climate. The embryo germ wrapped in a 
kernel, or seed, is virtually a plant, ready to germinate when 
thrown upon its parent earth, and affected with heat and mois- 
ture. It isin a most portable shape, and can be transported 
with ease to an unlimited distance. Nature in many instances 
superadds to seeds, wings, down, feathers, and chaff, by which 
they become buoyant, and are carried by the winds of heaven, 
by the storms that sweep the forest, and by the streams, and cur- 
rents of rivers, and the ocean, to an immense distance, and 
through many degrees of latitude! They become finally deposit- 
ed in some genial soil, and at one remove, or through a succes- 
sion, they occupy extensive regions. Nature manifests her great 
care of the embryo, by coating some of her seeds with shells, 
which protect them from the attacks of insects, and the action 
of the elements ; others have bitter, narcotic, or poisonous quali- 
ties, which forbid animals eating them; and many are filled with 
oily, or resinous matter, which resists for ages, and even centu- 
ries, the action of the elements, unless acted upon by the proper 
degree of heat and moisture. By such qualities they endure, and 
await a suitable time and conveyance to their destined place, in 
order to extend and vary their families. 


110 On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 


Birds also convey the seeds of plants in their crops over a wide 
extent, before they become triturated and digested; and when 
these winged carriers die, or decay, from accident or age, the 
seeds are deposited, and take root in some distant land. Animals 
also convey them in their stomachs to a considerable distance, 
and pass them uninjured by the powers of digestion. 

Man, more provident than all, to whom plants are necessary, 
whose support, whose comforts, and whose pleasures connect him 
with them, carries their choice seeds, slips, and scions, far and 
wide. His interests foster their growth, his attentions enrich 
their products, and his skill and science preserve their existence, 
and adapt them to their new condition. In an improved com- 
munity, man’s wants multiply: he has occasion for the more varied 
and rich fruits; more abundant and luxurious clothing, and fur- 
niture of vegetable growth; odours to regale his senses, vegeta- 
ble flavours to pamper his appetites, and all the medicinal plants 
to heal his various diseases, and invigorate his shattered constitu- 
tion. He attaches himself to agriculture and horticulture: plants 
become his companions ; he carries a creative resource into those 
departments, and by his attentions, forms new varieties and ex- 
cellences, unknown to the wild state of vegetable existence. 
Such are the means nature has provided for the propagation and 
extension of plants ; such are the indirect locomotive powers they 
possess. We must no longer, therefore, consider vegetables such 
inert and sluggish beings. | 

We will now treat plants as having a kind of locomotive exist- 
ence. We know that they are very perfectly organized, have sen- 
sibility, and sexual] intercourse. We know that they have lungs, 
by which they breathe, and are connected with the air. We 
know by abundant experience, how easily they are affected 
by the elements, by heat and cold, moisture and drought. We 
know how radically soil affects their productiveness, how imme- 
diately they, are stinted or stimulated by the nature of the ex- 
traneous circumstances with which they are surrounded. Beings 
therefore, that have such perfect organization, that although 
they are fixed in their places, are deeply changed by every 
shower, and every breeze, and every stroke of the cultivator— 
beings, so necessary to the wants, and very existence of animat- 
ed nature—should possess, in a high degree, the faculty of chang- 
ing their climate, and of accommodating themselves to circum- 


Cd 


On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 111 


stances, and the strong contrasts of seasons. Nature else would 
be wanting in her usual foresight, and in her adaptation of one 
thing to another. 

If an animal is carried by accident, or its own wanderings, to 
a country or climate that is not congenial to its nature, it can 
and does make use of its locomotive powers, to regain one that 
is more suitable to it. This happens every day. ‘Thousands of 
birds and fish, and other animals, migrate regularly, to avoid 
even the different seasons of the same year, and could not, with 
all their versatility of constitution, exist without it. We may 
infer, then, that plants, which, after having rooted themselves, 
cannot migrate at all, should be endowed with faculties to bear 
all the changes of the seasons, and even of climate, in the same 
dull place of their existence. They are so endowed, and can often 
bear more changes, and support more disasters of storms and 
ravages of insects, than animals; and often continue to flourish 
under violent and sudden changes. 

Human care, and the providences of nature, have given to 
many plants a great extent of climate and latitude, an enlarged 
growth, and an increased and improved product. Let us bring 
together such instances as are within the knowledge of all, and 
which ought to stimulate our cultivators to greater efforts. 

The valley of the Euphrates was doubtless the native region 
of all those fine and delicious fruits which enrich our orchards, 
and enter so largely into the luxury of living. We thence de- 
rived all the succulent and nutritious vegetables that go so far to 
support life; and even the farinaceous grains appertain to the 
same region. The cereal productions began in that same valley 
to be the staff of life. 

Our corn, our fruit, our vegetables, our roots, and oil, have all 
travelled with man from Mesopotamia up to latitude 60°, and 
even farther, in favourable situations. The cares of man have 
made up for the want of climate, and his cultivation atoned for 
this alienation from their native spot. The Scandinavians of 
Europe, the Canadians of North America, and the Samoides of 
Asia, are now enjoying plants which care and cultivation have, 
naturalized in their bleak climes. Melons and peaches, with 
many of the more tender plants and fruits, once almost tropical, 
have reached the 45th degree of latitude in perfection, and are 
found even in 50°. Rice has travelled from the tropics to 36°, 


112 On the Acclimating Principle of Plants. 


and that of N. Carolina now promises to be better than that of 
more southern countries. ‘The grape has reached 50°, and pro- 
duces good wine and fruit in Hungary and Germany. The 
orange, lemon, and sugar-cane, strictly tropical, grow well in 
Florida, and up to 314°, in Louisiana, and the fruit of the former 
much larger and better than under the equator. 

Annual plants grown for roots, and vegetables, and grain, go 
still farther north in proportion, than the trees and shrubs, be- 
cause their whole growth is matured in one summer; and we 
know that the developement of vegetation is much quicker when 
spring does open in countries far to the north, than in the tropics. 
In Lapland and on Hudson’s Bay, the full leaf is unfolded in one 
or two weeks, when spring begins, although it requires six or 
eight weeks in the south. Nature makes up in despatch for the 
want of length in her seasons, and this enables us to cultivate 
the annual plants very far to the north, in full perfection. The 
beans, pumpkins, potatoes, peas, cabbages, lettuce, celery, beets, 
turnips, and thousands of others, seem to disregard climate, and 
grow in any region or latitude where man plants and cherishes 
them. The fig is becoming common in France ; the banana, pine- 
apple, and many other plants, have crossed the line of the tro- 
pics, and thousands of the plants valuable for food, clothing, and 
medicine, and such as are cultivated for their beauty, fragrance, 
or timber, are extending their climates, and promise much com- 
fort and resource to man. Plants lately introduced, whose cul- 
tivation has not run through many ages or years, have acquired 
but little latitude in their growth, and show but little capacity 
to bear various climates, because time has not yet habituated 
them to such changes, and human cares have not imparted to 
them new habits and new powers. 

Nothing can be effected by suddenness in acclimating plants ; 
too quick a transition would shock them ; it must be a very gra- 
dual process, embracing many years, and many removals. The 
complete success that has attended the plants first named, the 
earliest companions of man, proves this. Inthe more recent 
plants success is exactly in proportion to the length of time that 
a plant has been in a train of experimental culture. 

The most striking method of testing the effect of climate on 
plants, is to carry suddenly back to the south, such as have been 
extended far, and become habituated to a northern climate. 


On the Acclimating Principle of Piants. 113 


Such plants have so much vigour, and the habit of a quick 
and rapid growth so firmly fixed on them, by a long residence in 
the north, that when suddenly taken tu the south, although the 
season be long and ample, they continue, from habit, to grow and 
mature quick, and obtain the name of rare-ripe ; because they 
do not take half of the time to mature, that those of the same 
family require, which have never been so changed. Gardeners 
give us early corn, peas, fruit, and turnips, by getting seed from 
places far to the north ; and cotton growers renew the vigour of 
the plant by getting the most northern seed. This practice is 
common in the case of most plants, and is founded on the suppo- 
sition that plants,do, and can acquire habits. 

The fact supported in the first number of the American Jour- 
nal of Geology and Natural Science, “ that plants are most pro- 
ductive near the northern limit in which they will grow,” that 
they bear more seed or fruit, and have more vigour of constitu- 
tion, offers much encouragement to agriculturists. This proves 
that it is not a meagre, stinted existence, devoid of profit or pro- 
ductiveness, that we give to plants, by pushing their culture far 
north, but a strong and healthful growth, one that repays the la- 
bour and attention, by a greater product than belongs to more 
southern situations. 

Every view that we can take of this interesting subject, every 
fact within our knowledge, whether drawn from the actual state 
of cultivation, or from physiological investigations into the habits, 
nature, and construction of plants, goes to show that plants do be- 
come acclimated, both in the natural and artificial way, toa great 
extent. Enough has been witnessed to prove that plants have a 
physical conformation, that does accommodate itself to circum- 
stances, and have capacities more extensive than are generally 
ascribed to them: enough has been realized to encourage far- 
ther efforts, and to give us hopes of much future benefit. 

In this enlightened age, where invention in the arts and me- 
chanical philosophy, is changing the whole order of our social 
economy, where new comforts and resources, unknown to our 
fathers, are daily developed, and, asit were, created ; in this age, 
where labour-saving machinery is redoubling the productions of 
the arts, almost exempting man from in-door exertion, and cheap- 
ening all the elegancies of clothing, furniture, buildings, and 
books, until luxuries are common to rich and poor, and educa- 

Vou. I.—15. 


& * 

114 Fossil Remains in Maryland. 

tion within the reach of all, why should not agriculture awaken, 
put forth its energies, and partake of that spirit of improve- 
ment that is working its magic in all other departments? Why 
does it not avail itself of that knowledge of the nature of the soil, 
which chemistry gives? those tabular statements of the wea- 
ther and climates, which naturalists furnish ? those philosophical 
investigations into the nature and habits of plants, which have 
been presented? and that labour-saving spirit that seems to know 
no limits in other branches of business? Why should all our 
capital improvements fly the open fields, where culture exists, 
and be realized only in cabinets and manufactories !—Agricul- 
ture follows the old dull routine, and its produets lumber on to 
market in heavy carts, whilst all other branches move on, aided 
by a thousand inventions, with ease and despatch. That field, 
whence our food is derived, and on which our very existence de- 
pends, lies neglected, whilst we cultivate luxuries to a morbid 
excess. Every thing is cheapened but human food; every thing 
becomes annually more attainable, but the necessaries of the 
table. If this disproportion between the arts and agriculture con- 
tinues to advance, we are destined to live in a sort of splendid 
pauperism: enjoying the luxuries of fine houses and furniture, we 
shall enjoy every thing to satiety but bread. W. 


FOSSIL REMAINS, FOUND IN ANNE ARUNDLE COUNTY, 
MARYLAND. 


A paracrapu having appeared in the public papers, stating 
that some very curious fossil remains had been found in the State 
of Maryland, by Dr. J. S. Owen, the Editor addressed a letter 
to that gentleman, containing a set of queries. Dr. Owen, with 
great promptitude, has answered them in a most intelligent man- 
ner, and has added to the value of his communication, by enabling 
the Editor to examine the fossi] remains themselves. 

They prove to be the dorsai vertebra of a small whale, and 
the caudal vertebra of a larger one, together with the fragments 
of some of the ribs. The shells, which have reached us in a very 
mutilated state, are the Pecten Jeffersonius, Turritella Plebeia, 
of Say, and Venerecardia Blandingi of 'T. A. Conrad,* to- 
gether with other well known tertiary shells. The deposit in 

* Journal Acad. of Nat. Science, Vol. VI. part 2, p. 229. 


* oc . 

Fossil Remains in Maryland. 115 
which these remains were found, is a very extensive.one. Mr. 
M’Clure, in his sketch of the geology of the U. States, designated 
the low part of the Atlantic coast, as alluvial. This was in the 
infancy of the science, before the line was well drawn here be- 
tween marine and fresh water fossils, and before it was known 
that this deposit exclusively contained marine remains. Dr. Van 
Renselaer, we believe, was the first to give it its true place in 
the tertiary. Subsequently, the zealous labours of Dr. 8. G. Mor- 
ton, and Professor Vanuxem have not only made known to us 
many of the fossils of the Atlantic coast, but have made a per- 
manent distinction between the tertiary beds in Maryland, and 
those much lower in the series, of New Jersey. Mr. 'T. A. Con- 
rad has a very satisfactory and intelligent paper on this subject 
- in the journal of the Academy of Natural Science, Vol. vi. part 
2. The valuable papers of Dr. 8. G. Morton, are in parts first 
and second, of the same volume, to which we with pleasure refer 
our readers. Mr. Say’s able “account of some of the fossil shells 
of Maryland,” is found at page 124, of Vol. iv. of the Journal of 
the Academy of Natural Science. 

Had there been any thing new in the fossils Dr. Owen has so 
obligingly forwarded to us, we should have devoted a plate to it. 
Dr. Owen’s section is valuable, and we publish it, together with 
his letter, not only because he deserves every attention at our 
hands, but because we think it a model for all future communi- 
cations of this kind, made under similar circumstances. It is only 
by noting every thing, and preserving every thing, that we 
can hope to become thoroughly acquainted with the geology of 
this flat part of the coast, especially. Epiror. 


Lerrer rrom Dr. J. S. Owen, to THE Eprror. 


Anne Arundle, Md. July, 1831. 

Sir,—Tue statement which appeared some time past in the 
papers, respecting some fossil remains, said to have been discov- 
ered by me, was not altogether correct, only a few bones having 
been found, and those not such as to enable me to say to what 
class of animals they belong. This statement was made without 
my knowledge, and contrary to my wish ; and it was not until af- 
ter the lapse of some weeks, that I was informed any publication 
on the subject had taken place. 

Yet as the bones found are of a large size, and as I have no 


‘@ 
116 Fossil Remains in Maryland. 


doubt many more could have been obtained, had not unavoida- 
ble circumstances prevented, I will endeavour to answer the 
queries y™1 have so politely favoured me with. But from my 
ignorance of geology, I am fearful that I shall not be able to give 
you as explicit information on the subject, as I could wish. 

Query 1. At what depth from the surface were the bones 
found ? 

Ans. At the depth of thirty-two feet. 

2. Were they found separated from each other, or lying 
together ? 

Ans. "Phey were found lying together. 

3.. Were they found in a situation to induce a belief, that the 
animal died on the spot, or that the bones were accidentally 
transported there by water, or otherwise ? 

Ans. From the bones found being so few in number, I am un- 
able to form any opinion, as regards the probability of the animal 
having died on the spot, or of their being brought thither “ by 
water or otherwise.” ‘They were found lying horizontally, the 
vertebre a few inches within, and the ribs part within and part 
without the well, during the excavation of which, they were j 
discovered. 

4. Are the bones rolled or water-worn ? 

Ans. Not rolled, but water-worn. 

5. What is the nature of the soil through which the digging 
was effected? was it composed of loose unindurated earth, with 
mud, pebbles, or gravel? or not ? 

Ans. The entire depth of the well is seventy-two feet, eight 
inches. I have drawn up, according to your directions, the fol- 
lowing table of the beds. 

Feet. 


| 1 | Rich black vegetable mould. 
12 | Hard and firm clay. 


| 3 Sandy, a little gravel, no pebbles. 


10 | Potter’s clay, in numerous layers. 


: 


* 


Fossil Remains in Maryland. 117 


A dark ash-grey bed, very compact and firm, requiring 
the pick-axe for some few feet, and fracturing into large 
flakes. Then sandy, somewhat firm, the colour a shade 
darker, and so continued without any marked difference 
to the bottom of the well. No pebbles or gravel were 
46 | found below fifteen feet. ‘The bones were found six feet 
within this dark ash-grey bed, at thirty-two feet from the 
surface. 


*sauo i 


6. Was any vegetable matter or shells found near the bones, 
and of what kind ? 

Ans. Vegetable matter was found a few feet below the bones 
in considerable quantities, but exceedingly decayed, rendering it 
impossible to say of what kind. From the size of the pieces re- 
moved, I at the time judged them to have belonged to some tree.* 
These vegetable remains were intimately blended with a fine 
compact earth, which, when separated, had a knotty, snake-like 
appearance. No shells were found remaining near the bones, 
but their impressions were found in great abundance, a few above, 
but vast quantities below. ‘There are both univalves and bi- 
valves. About twenty-eight feet below the bones, a bed of oyster 
shells, one foot thick, was found; and a few feet below them, a 
number of shells, and some few teeth of f sh, all in a perfect 
state of preservation. 

7. What bones have you found? Do you think they are the 
bones of one animal, or of more than one? Give a rough sketch 
of the grinding surface of the largest tooth. 

Ans. There were only found two vertebre, and parts of several 
ribs. The length of the largest vertebra is four inches and five- 
eighths. The distance from the extreme end of one transverse 
process, to the extreme end of the other, six inches and a half-+ 

The spinous process, as well as the spinal arch, is wanting, 
having been knocked off: The diameter of this vertebra, at its 
largest end, is three inches and five-eighths ; its shortest two inches 
and a half. The spinal arch is entire; its greatest diameter one 
inch and three-fourths; its shortest, one inch and a fourth. The 

* Lignite Ep. 


+ In this measurement, I have allowed for that part of each transverse process, 
which is wanting. 


’ 
a 


118 On the Silver, Gold, and Platina, of Russia. 


ribs are unfortunately much broken, and not being able, from 
their situation, to attain but some portions of them, I am unable 
to state accurately their length; but from a careful examination 
made by myself, on the spot, 1 am disposed to think they were 
from four and a half to five feet in length. The smaller vertebra - 
is convex before, concave behind, has a bold strong spinal arch, 
and no processes on the fore part. The bones are petrified, but 
in the smaller vertebra and ribs, the petrification is more com- 
plete. No teeth or jaws of this animal were found. 

I have no doubt that many more bones might have been found; 
several feet below the spot whence the described bones were 
taken, many ribs were found jutting into the well. I only de- 
sisted from continuing my search after more bones, on account of 
the apprehensions of the workmen that the sides of the well would 
fall in, and because a supply of water was particularly import- 
ant to me at the time. 

It will give me great pleasure to forward these fossil remains 
to you, in any manner you may point out, being very respectfully 
your obedient servant, 


J. S. Owrn. 


To Mr. FraTHEerRsTonHAUGH. 


ON THE SILVER, GOLD, AND PLATINA, OF RUSSIA. 
By James Dickson, Ese. F.G.S. M. B.S. &e. 


New Brunswick, N. J., August 17, 1831. 
My dear Sir,—I do myself the honour of forwarding to you for 
insertion, if you please, in your Journal, the following communi- 
cation, which has been extracted principally from the journal I 
kept, when recently in Russia. My long residence in the mining 
districts of South America, has made me familiar with the sub- 
ject of the precious metals.* I anticipate great ‘pleasure in a 
visit I propose making in a short time to the “ gold region” of the 
United States, when I shall pay particular attention to the 
* The writer of this paper is the Mr. Dickson whose desperate resistance to, and 
extraordinary escape from the Mexican banditti, near Puebla de los Angelos, in 1829, 
is narrated in the New Monthly Magazine, 1830, re edited by Mr. Campbell. 
It requires to know Mr. Dickson, and to have seen the frightful scars he bears upon 
his person, as we have done, to give full faith to that most romantic narrative. 
Mr. Dickson is a very experienced metallurgist, and his proposed visit to the south, 


will be highly favourable to our knowledge of its metallic and mineral a. 
DITOR, 


On the Silver, Gold, and Platina, of Russia. 119 


analogies you suppose to exist between -it, and the gold district 
in Mexico. I remain, my dear sir, very assuredly yours, 


James Dickson. 
To G. W. Frearumrstonnaven, Esa. 


St. Petersburg, 1831. 
“‘ GoBOLEFSKY accompanied me next morning, and introduced 
- me to General Karnieff, director of the imperial mint, and of the 
mines in general of all the Russias. A little, good-looking old 
man stood at one of the windows of the saloon as we entered, 
and on my name being announced, he came forward and welcom- 
edme. Our conversation turned upon the mineral resources of 
the distant regions of Irkoutsk, on the Chinese frontiers, where 
of late, much silver ore had been obtained. The mines of 
Ekatherineburg had long been an object of interest to the Rus- 
sian government, and the science of mining had been particu- 
larly patronized by the emperor Nicholas. Notwithstanding the 
minute and scientific research which had been devoted to the 
improvement of their mines and mining operations, their eager 
spirit of discovery, and their almost ridiculous—from the extreme 
to which it was carried—ideas of economy, had rendered them 
ever restless, and eternally on the qui vive for every new invention. 

“ The mines of Irkoutsk, many thousand versts from the scene 
of their other operations, had been worked to a considerable ex- 
tent within late years, yielding, according to the Russian ideas 
of silver mines, a large and increasing revenue. In the silver 
ore of these mines some gold had been met with, which, with the 
increasing produce of those of Ekatherineburg, had rendered the 
establishment of the French process of refining with vessels of 
platina, necessary. Their principal source of gold, was, how- 
ever, in the gold washings of the Ural mountains, which bade fair 
to rival, in extent and value, the more celebrated gold alluviums 
of the Brazils. 

“ The silver ores of Ekatherineburg were considered to be of 
greater value than those of Irkoutsk, or the other districts which 
had lately shown themselves productive ;. although high expec- 
tations were entertained as to the result of the exploring commis- 
sion which had been sent northward the preceding year, since 
reports of vast riches, embosomed in their most northern snows, 
had been the favourite theme of discussion among the scientific 
men of St. Petersburg. 


120 On the Silver, Gold, and Platina, of Russia. 


“ Little as I had been struck previously with the produce of 
* the Russian silver mines, I was fain to confess, then, that another 
Potosi or Valenciana might arise in their distant Siberia ; and it 
was with awakened interest that I availed myself of the request 
of the mining corps to investigate and analyze the gold and sil- 
ver ores of Siberia. 

“The mining corps establishment at St. Petersburg, is an inter- ' 
esting exhibition. It is there that young men of genius and talent 
are patronized, educated, and provided for by the emperor; it 
is from thence that individuals are sent abroad into the various 
countries of Europe, to visit all that is magnificent, and all that 
is famed, in the annals of mining. England, Germany, and Swe- 
den, have been again and again explored, and the gradual im- 
provements and interesting discoveries of each mining district, 
presented in detail before the committee of this mining corps. 
Joined to a large and magnificent collection of minerals, amongst 
which may be seen the rare and massive specimens of platina 
and gold, and those large beautiful beryls, all products of Siberia. 
Extensive models of the working of mines are constructed for 
many versts under ground, extending to a considerable distance 
along the banks of the Neva; while one large saloon is entirely 
occupied with the models of every machine used in mining opera- 
tions throughout the world. 

« The silver ores of the Russian mining districts, are principally 
found with a matrix of quartz; the green and blue carbonates 
of copper form a prominent feature in the character of these ores, 
and although they consist of native, and oxides of, silver, they 
deserve rather the name of copper, than that of silver ores. Of 
sixty samples, all of them from the mines of the interior, upwards 
of forty-four were carbonates of copper; the others resembled 
more than any thing else, the ‘ jabones’ of the Mexican veins. 

“Those who have witnessed the immense produce of one sin- 
gle silver mine in Mexico, and the quality and richness of the 
ore, would doubtless have participated in the surprise which I 
felt during the progress of my investigation. 'To find that those 
ores which had been held up as of great value, were scarcely 
equal to the lowest quality of Mexican ore, was indeed a disap- 
pointment. Most of the samples returned the ore at the rate of 
sixteen ounces of silver to the ton weight; there were here and 
there, it is true, one which might be calculated at twenty times 


On the Silver, Gold, and Platina, of Russia. 121 


that amount; but the great mass was of that quality from which 
a Mexican miner would have turned away, without bestowing on 
it another thought. 

“JT have said before, that some of the silver ores contained 
gold. I had the satisfaction of informing the mining corps of a 
discovery of gold, and one which held forth promise of great re- 
sults, in one of the carbonates of copper from Ekatherineburg. 

“The Mexican silver ores are seldom worked, so as to leave any 
profit, if they contain less than six or seven marcs of silver in the 
monton of thirty-two cwt. The Russian mining corps complain- 
ed bitterly that they were unable to obtain more than twelve 
ounces out of the sixteen ounces contained in the ton weight ; an 
ore so poor, that no Mexican would ever dream of working it; 
and yet these men not only procure a considerable quantity of 
silver, but obtain it at but little cost; to be sure, their cheap 
slave labour, and their immense forests of fuel, are advantages 
with which no other country can pretend to compete. 

“The annual produce of silver in the Russias, is estimated at 
about 1000 pouds of forty pounds each; but what, after all, is 
this 1000 pouds or 40,000 pounds, to the produce of the Valenciana 
mine in Mexico, which for many long years produced its millions 
of dollars annually. 

* Young Demidoff had not yet returned from Italy; from his 
relation and agent Daniloff, I met with every attention. His 
cabinet contained many beautiful specimens of platina, most of 
which were designed as presents to the crowned heads of Europe. 
Although some single masses of platina weighed seven or eight 
pounds, none could be compared to those in the cabinet of the 
mining corps, one of which weighed about twenty-seven pounds. 
My own specimens, which were presented to me by Zobolefsky, 
although weighing 800 grains each, and of which I had been not 
a little proud, dwindled away in the view of the great rarities 
lying in profusion in Demidoff’s cabinet. Owner of the most 
celebrated platina deposits, and gold washings, he had had many 
opportunities, in the course of a few years, of selecting and put- 
ting aside, not only large massive lumps of gold and platina, but 
what was yet more interesting ; a great variety of most beauti- 
ful and perfect crystals of gold. 

“The mass of platina before alluded to, as weighing twenty- 
seven pounds, was found completely isolated, and at nearly sixty 

Vor. L—16 


122 On the Silver, Gold, and Platina, of Russia. 


versts from the usual deposits of platina, in a bed of red clay, 
where some slaves were employed in making bricks. Those 
streams, in the beds and on the banks of which, the gold deposits 
are met with, contain more gold, and less platina on the Euro- 
pean, than those on the Asiatic side of the Ural mountains. The 
amount of gold obtained from these washings, had amounted for 
the year 1830, to nearly half a million sterling. 

“Tt may be well imagined to what an extent their operations 
must be extended, when the hundred pouds or four thousand 
pounds weight of soil, seldom yields above sixty-five grains of gold, 
and varies from sixty-five to one hundred and twenty grains,— 
which is there considered rich,—to the hundred pouds. Nevyer- 
theless, their mining operations are conducted with such skill 
and success, as even to obtain of this limited quantity nearly 
the whole amount; and that too, with such little cost, as to have 
been indeed far beneath my expectation. 

“Of the simple, and yet beautiful processes made use of in the 
gold washings of the Ural mountains, I shall hereafter speak, well 
convinced of the great utility and service which they would be 
of, if made known to the mining regions of other countries. 

“The Demidoffs, Davidoffs, and many other Russian families, 
are acquiring princely revenues from the employment of their 
slaves in these gold washings; but it is not alone the gold, the 
platina itself is another great source of their prosperity ; more 
especially since all the platina is now coined at the imperial 
mint, and established as part of the current coin of the realm. 

“The coins made of platina are beautiful; those large pieces 
with the head of the emperor are the best, and show better the 
effect and polish which coins of this metal can take. Though 
many hundred pounds weight of platina are coined monthly, into 
pieces of eleven and twenty-two rubles, they disappear rapidly 
from the circulation. They may be met with occasionally, and a 
few at a time, in the hands of the brokers. I consider their price 
much above the London price of malleable platina, which is at 
present about twenty-five shillings English per ounce : consider- 
ing that the crude platina is the produce of the country, the Rus- 
sian price for malleable platina, which is about twenty-eight 
shillings, is too extravagant ; and yet this does not arise from the 
expense of manufacturing, but from the cost of the material itself, 
which is far higher than the platina of South America. The 


On the Silver, Gold, and Platina, of Russia. 128 


cause of this, is the monopoly and sh disposal of it at a high 
price through the coinage. 

_ “The price in St. Petersburg for crude platina, is fixed at 
three rubles, paper, per zolotnicht, or about twenty shillings Eng- 
lish per ounce. 

“Humboldt has already pointed out the resemblance which 
exists between the gold formations of Russia, and those of the 
Brazils. From the extensive and minute researches which he 
made while exploring these districts, much information has been 
given to the scientific world. 

“They had not as yet met with any veins containing gold, al- 
though they were ever on the alert. There is on the property of 
Demidoff, a position in which a river empties itself into a morass, 
bounded on one side by a hill of quartz, and then issues again. - 
No gold is found in the bed of that river previous to its entering 
the morass, but when it flows from out of it, its sands are rich in 
metal. Some pieces of quartz, containing gold, had been met 
with, to all appearance the debris of the outcropping of some 
vein. 

“ Difficult would it be to form a true theory of the manner in 
which gold deposits have been effected ; and many, indeed, have 
been suggested which have looked well at first, and then vanish- 
ed into nothing before the stubborn facets which reveal them- 
selves in a Jong-continued and minute research into the origin of 
the gold alluviums of many countries. 

“The gold washings of Tippeanni in La Paz, belonging to the 
Indian chief Pazas Kank; now attaché of the Buenos yeti le- 
gation i in London, are of the most singular and interesting that 
have met my notice. There are facts in the history of these 

gold deposits, which differ from all others with which I am ac- 
quainted. 

“Ona subject such as the origin of gold or platina deposits, it 
is indeed difficult to generalize ; and though a theory reconciling 
the various incongruities, and striking facts of each gold district, 
has been with me a subject of no slight consideration, yet I must 
confess, many as have been’my opportunities of ascertaining their 
exact nature and position, I must leave it to be determined by 
abler men. 

“Tt might be imagined, that the circumstance of finding gold. 
‘in the beds of rivers, would naturally suggest the exploring of | 


324 Effects of Poisons on Living Vegetables: 


the river to its source, in quest, among the distant mountains of. 
the place, from whence it came. Though the explorer might be 
gratified in finding his search successful, and meet in some rent 
and broken ravine through which the waters are now rushing, 
with the veins of quartz, displaying to broad view their metallic 
riches ; yet let him seek to effect his object, under similar cir- 
cumstances, in another, and perhaps adjacent district, he will lose 
himself in an investigation of a formation which never yet, or 
ever will be found to contain gold. He will meet with the de- 
bris of rocks long ago passed away in the conflicts of the elements; 
he will meet with evidences of a state of things which now no 
longer exists on the surface of these wild and singular regions. 
In some tracts of land the gold will be found disseminated poorly 
yet regularly in layers; in others it will be disclosed in some pe- 
culiar position, en masse—in one solid lump—in little circles of 
a few feet, as if deposited by the vortex of some minor whirlpool ; 
and in fine, in such occasional directions as to set all attempts at 
theory at defiance. 

“Data, nevertheless, hive sncaapida themselves dur the 
progress of gold mining in various countries, which have proved 
highly interesting, and of the greatest service in assisting the 
investigation of the position, nature, and quality of gold de- 
posits.” 


ON THE EFFECTS OF VARIOUS POISONS ON LIVING 
VEGETABLES. 
By Ricaarp Harvan, M.D. Surgeon to’ the Philadelphia Alms-house Infirmary, 
Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Sweden, &c. &c. ea 
I completed last year the following series of experiments, in’ 
order to test the powers of vegetable life in resisting the effects 
of vegetable and mineral poisons. ‘The positive nature of the re- 
sults which were obtained, is calculated, in my opinion, to throw 
considerable light on the physiology of plants; a department of © 
science, at the present time, too much neglected, even by the 
members of the medical profession, and by the practical agricul- 
turists, for the most part, entirely overlooked. [maT 
The application of certain poisons to plants and flowers, in or- 
der to destroy noxious insects, is not unfrequently recommended ; 
and doubts have been expressed as to the injury that might occur 


Effects of Poisons on Living Vegetables. 125 


to the plants themselves by such treatment: it has even been 
positively asserted that the destruction of the plant is the neces- 
sary consequence of the application of certain vegetable poisons 
in some instances. 

In the progress of science, next in importance to the accumu- 
lation of true knowledge, is the necessity to disencumber our- 
selves of error. If the results of the present experiments possess 
no other merit, they will be esteemed interesting on this account 
alone. I have been led to the present investigation by perusing 
a notice of experiments of a similar nature, by M. Marcaire 
Princep, a professor of botany in Geneva, in the “ Bulletin des 
Sciences Naturelles,” for March, 1830, of which the following is 
an extract: 

“The experiments detailed in this memoir, have for their ob- 
ject td prove that the juices or extracts of plants, poisonous to 
animals, are equally so to the vegetables from which they are 
obtained. Thus M. Marcaire has succeeded in killing branches, 
and even entire individual plants, of the datura stramonium, 
hyosciamus niger, and mornordica elaterium, by plunging them into 
distilled water, charged with the juices and extracts of these 
plants, or even by watering them with this narcotic water.” 

“M. Goeppert, of Bheskaut has published in the annals of Pog- 
gendorff, an account of experiments from which he derived very 
different results.” But neither of these authors extended their 
experiments to the introduction of poisons into the substance of 
the plants. 

I first confined myself to a repetition of the experiments of M. 
_ Marcaire, but obtained results entirely at variance with his. I 
now determined to pursue the subject on a more extensive scale. 
In the garden of the Philadelphia Alms-house Infirmary, I select- 
eda number of young and thriving plants, and assisted by the 
gardener, and several of the resident physicians, I applied the 
following named poisons, as hereafter specified, taking care to 
wound the bark of the perennial, and the interior parts of the an- 
nual plants, so that the poison should be directly applied to the 
wounded sap-vessels. The poisons used, were, the extracts of 
stramonium, belladonna, and cicuta; the essential oil of nicoti- 
ana tobacum, diluted hydrocyanic acid, and — papain 
arsenici, 

‘Experiment 1. September 18th, 18380. “A sais thick siti 


y* 


126 Effects of Poisons on Living Vegetables. 


of the extract of belladonna and cicuta, (German manufactory,) 
was introduced into the bark and pith of different stems of the 
stramonium, at 12, meridian. 

2. Extract of belladonna introduced into the stem of the palma 
christi. 

3. Powdered white oxyd of arsenic was freely spread about 
the root of a young palma christi, and the plant watered. 

4, Arsenic introduced into the stalks of two young tobacco 
plants, near the roots. 

5. Two young stramonium plants were selected: arsenic was 
introduced into the stalks and stems of one, and spread about the 
root of the other, and the plant watered. 

6. Dilute hydrocyanic acid introduced into an incision made 
into the stalk of a stramonium. 

7. Dilute hydrocyanic acid poured on the root of impatiens 
balsamina. (Lady-slipper.) 

8. Strong oilof tobacco introduced into the stalk of palma christi. 

9. Idem into the stalk of stramonium. 

10. Idem into the stalk of a young tobacco plant. 

11. Idem into a branch of ficus carica. (Fig tree.) 

12. Idem placed freely round the root of a young pyrus, (pear 
tree,) the earth being loosened and watered. 

13. Idem placed round the root of palma christi. 

14. Idem introduced into the stalk of euphorbia sericea. 

15. Arsenic freely spread round the root of the mimosa sen- 
sitiva—exposed to the rain and dews. 

It is not necessary to enter more minutely into details of these 
experiments, some of which were frequently repeated, with great 
care. The same result universally followed in every instance. 
Not one plant, shrub, or flower, displayed signs of the least in- 
jury from the varied applications of the different poisons ; some, 
indeed, appeared to thrive better, for the attentions whielt were 
rendered them. 

I shall only add a list of plants, on which some of the experi- 
ments were subsequently repeated at my request, by Mr. John 
Carr, at Bartram’s botanic garden. 

1. With extract of belladonna.—Zinea elegans, impatiens balsamni- 
na, vinea rosea, and kelruteria paniculata. ; 

2. With extract of cicuta.—Zinea elegans, tagites, vinea hha ion 
and salvia splendens. P 


Effects of Poisons on Living Vegetables. 127 


3. With oil of tobacco.—Amaranthus and Zinea. 

These additional experiments, performed by a skillful practical 
botanist, confirm the observations previously made: hence, we 
are permitted to conclude, first, That the experiments detailed 
by professor Marcaire, are erroneous. Second, That substances 
which act as lethel poisons to animal life, are not so to vegetables. 

We cannot but admire the wisdom, order, and harmony of 
creation! fixed to the earth by immutable laws, plants and 
flowers would have soon ceased to exist, had their susceptibilities, 
like those of animals, rendered them liable to the agency of poi- 
sons, to contact with which they are so much exposed. 

R. Harzan, M. D. 

We had the satisfaction of assisting, during the present month, 
together with professor Del Rio, at a repetition of those curious 
experiments on vegetable substances, with vegetable and mineral 
poisons. They were conducted by Dr. Harlan, assisted by Dr. 
Moore, in the garden of the Philadelphia Alms-house Infirmary, 
and the results corresponded precisely with those obtained in 
September, 1830. 

The plants to which the poisons were applied, were palma 
christi, stramonium, nicotiana tobacum, balsamina impatiens, 
brassica, geranium, and carduum benedict. | 

The poisons used in the experiments, were ol. tabaci, oxyd. 
arsenic, extr. stramonium, extr. cicuta, corros. sub. in sol., ol. 
terebinthi, and a strong solution of opium. 

Each of these poisons was separately introduced into the cir- 
culation of individual plants, by incisions made in the stems, un- 
der the leaves, and by similar, separate applications of them to 
their roots; by infusions, and by powder also, in the case of ar- 
senic. In some instances the poisons were placed around the 
roots only, viz. corros. sublimate, arsenic, sp. turpentine, and oil 
of tobacco. ‘ 

In none of these instances was any of the plants poisoned. One of 
the young geraniums faded, after constant impregnation, for three 
days, of the earth about its roots, but this is evidently attributable 
to its soil being rendered unfit for the support of vegetable life. 

We must therefore adhere to the reasonable opinion, that 
plants have the property of segregating from the soil or atmo- 
sphere, those principles which are proper for their healthy state, 
and of rejecting those which are injurious to their organization. 


128 On the Importance of Geological Information, &c. 


If plants yield to the deleterious influence of those principles 
which are injurious to other organized bodies, it is because—as 
in the case of the young geranium—they cannot appropriate 
those’salutary principles, upon which their existence depends, 
and which enables them to exercise their natural functions, one 
of which is, to reject that which is injurious to them. We speak 
now of the circulation of plants, and not of mechanical applica- 
tion of poison to their parts. Oil of turpentine applied: several 
days to the bark of many trees, and especially the linden tree, 
will soften, and eventually destroy the part ; but the experiments 
tried with the balsamina, or lady-slipper, the palma christi, the 
cabbage, and tobacco plant, whose roots were liberally supplied 
with spirits of turpentine, prove that it did not affect them 
through their circulation. Dr. Harlan’s attention to this subject, 
will be properly appreciated by those engaged in the study of 
the physiology of plants. Eprtor. 


ON THE VALUE OF GEOLOGICAL INFORMATION TO ENGINEERS, AND 
_ ON THE INEQUALITIES OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE, AND THEIR TRUE 
LEVELS ABOVE TIDE WATER. 


Tue very gratifying encouragement which this work has receiv- 
ed from so many distinguished officers of the government, resident 
at Washington, has induced the Editor to suggest through these 
pages, that this unexpected patronage, which, on account of the 
advancement of science, is so honourable to all the parties con- 
cerned, may receive the most beneficial direction, and our know- 
ledge of the geology of this continent, and of physical geography, 
be greatly increased, if the gentlemen connected with the mili- 
tary branch of the U. 8. government, would direct some physical 
reconnoisances to be accurately made ; in our present ignorance 
of which, we are not able to describe faithfully, the degree of 
inequality of the surface of this continent, nor ascertain the 
natural connexion between mountain ranges, and table lands, 
that are locally distinct from each other. The trigonometrical 
surveys that have been performed in Great Britain, and the 
maps which have been executed by order of the board of ord- 
hance, upon a scale of an inch toa mile, are valuable monuments, 
as well of the intelligence of that government, as of the cultiva- 


: 
On the Importance of Geological Information, &c. 129 


tion which natural science has received in that country. They 
give all the information which military engineering requires, and 
in practical geology, they point out the probable existence of all 
the useful metals and minerals, and the extent of the formations 
in which they arecontained. No blame, it is true, can attach 
to the government here, for having hitherto omitted to follow 
that example. The field of investigation is too extensive, and 
the probable expense too great, to be undertaken without the 
authority of congress. Nevertheless, opportunities appear to 
have been neglected, of adding to our stock of knowledge, in this 
branch of natural science, without the necessity of going into ad- 
ditional expenditures; at least, any that would be regarded as 
objectionable, when compared with the importance of the object 
to be obtained. ‘The very extensive surveys and reconnoisances 
which have of late years been made by order of government, in 
relation to internal communications for military and civil pur- 
poses, are here alluded to. Admirably as they have been exe- 
cuted, it is nevertheless true, that they have been performed 
without reference, in most cases, to the value of those mineral 
and metallic substances, which are contained in the geological for- 
mations, the engineers were obliged to travel over, and the pro- 
duction of which would go far to justify the execution of those 
contemplated internal improvements. There is no evidence that 
geological or mineralogical information, have been held of any 
account, in those expensive surveys, whilst it is true, that any 
person competent to the examination of those branches, might in 
all cases have conferred an intrinsic value upon those surveys 
and reconnoisances, even if none of thern were executed. When 
the value of geological information shall become more extensive- 
ly known, territorial maps will probably have geological charac- 
ters given to them, which can be done for almost the’ same 
expense, in every case of original survey. Where important in- 
formation of this character, is omitted to be acquired, it is a loss 
to the nation, and an omission which ought to be brought, both 
before the consideration of the government, and the public. 
There is no mathematical truth more firmly settled, than that 
the mineral formations, of which the crust of the earth is formed, 
succeed each other in an invariable order. That the most im- 
portant deposits of metals are found low down in the series, as 
well as the marbles most used in the arts. Coal, that invaluable 
Vou. I.—17 


7 


e y 
130 On the Importance of Geological Information, &c. 
combustible, upon which the wealth of Great Britain has been 
mainly raised, lies always beneath certain rocks, and never above 
them.* We see, then, how important it is, for the practical en- 
gineer to possess geological information, as a part of his profession ; 
or, where this combined information does not @xist to the desired 
extent, that a practical geologist should at least be associated 
with the engineer. In either of these cases, the engineer in run- 
ning his lines, would be able to report to his employers, the true 
mineral character of that part of the geological series he is treading 
upon; and as we now know that all the formations are invariable 
in their order of succession to each other, so from knowing 
what the superficial formation is, we infer with certainty, the pro- 
bability of our finding the most valuable deposits of metals, min- 
erals, or coals. Maps, with these geological characters, have a 
great intrinsic value. It cannot be denied that individual pro- 
prietors are interested in ascertaining the vertical, as well as 
superficial value of their possessions; and the day will arrive, 
when geological surveys, will become quite as important as super- 
ficial ones. It is easy, then, for government to confer, in this man- 
ner, an intrinsic value upon all their surveys and reconnoisances; 
and the writer of this paper will be happy, if these suggestions 
should attract the attention of some of those distinguished gentle- 
men, connected with the government, whose names are included 
in the list of his subscribers. It is the want of accurate know- 
ledge in the structure of rocks, and the order of their succession 
to each other, that detracts so much from the value of the pub- 
lished account of those various expeditions to the north-western 
parts of this continent, undertaken by order of government; it is 
due, however, to the distinguished travellers, to whose direction 
these expeditions were confided, to say, that they could not be 
supposed to possess that intimate knowledge of geology, which 
distinguishes the present times, and which is the fruit of a very 
rapid advance in the science. 

Hoping that the next expedition ordered by government, may 
be free of those defects inherent in those, which, in all other re- 
spects, have been so admirably accomplished, it is now respect- 
fully suggested for the consideration of Maj. Gen. M’Comb, and 
the other officers in the military branch of the government, that 


* This applies to the productive beds; as varieties of vegeto-carbonaceous matter 
are found higher up in the series than the great deposits. 


On the Importance of Geological Information, &e. 181 


a great deal of valuable information, connected with the scientific 
knowledge of the surface of country, might be collected from 
officers on service, without exposing the government to any ma- 
terial expense. 

The study of chains and ranges of mountains, forms at this time 
a most interesting branch of geology. It would seem that all 
the great inequalities of the earth’s surface, which have not been 
formed by the action of excavating waters, owe their origin to 
an expansive subterranean power, which has thrust them up 
through ancient surfaces. During the present era, mountains 
have been formed in this manner, both from the sea and land. 
In the year 1588, Monte Nuovo, in the bay of Naples, was thus 
thrown up through the water, in one night, to the height of 
four hundred and fifty feet; and in Mexico, in 1759, a tract of 
land, from three to four square miles in extent, was upraised, to- 
gether with the.cone or peak of Jurullo. ‘The mass in its most 
convex part is five hundred and twenty-four feet above the old 
level, and its celebrated peak Jorullo, is 1695 feet high. The rock, 
constituting the old level, was a base of green-stone, with porphy- 
ry, basalt, &c. It is evident from a very careful consideration of 
geological phenomena, that all the mountain ranges, with the ex- 
ceptions before made, have been formed by that sort of subter- 
ranean action, which has produced Monte Nuovo and Jorullo. 
All mountains, then, have come up through other beds, and have 
necessarily dislocated them, and laid them upon their flanks at 
high angles. In various parts of the world, we find mountains 
thus situated, and without any horizontal deposits lying upon the 
edges of the ancient disturbed beds ; whence, we are authorised 
to infer, that the epoch of their upraising is comparatively recent, 
and posterior to the last deposits.* In Leicestershire, England, 
the granite, b, b, and slate, c, c, of Charwood forest,t exist in 
beds highly inclined; but on the edges of those beds, new red sand- 
stone, a, a, and lias, e, are found in a horizontal position ; proving 
that these last have been deposited subsequent to the upraising 
of the first. We thus infer, that those primitive beds, were par- 
tially raised in the ocean; and that at a subsequent period, the 
secondary rocks were deposited upon them, marking two distinct 
geological epochs. On the other hand, the system of mountains, 


* This is a safe conclusion in cases where no presumption exists of beds, superin- 
cumbent upon them in the series, being absent from particular causes, 
t Plate 4, fig. 2. 


’ 
132 On the Importance of Geological Information, &c. 


to which Mont Blanc, and the western Alps belong, have the 
oolites, the green sand, and the tertiaries ; or the upper secondary 
rocks, and the very last deposits, previous to the diluvium or su- 
perficial soil, lying in a disturbed manner upon their flanks ; 
showing that the mountains, having moved all the other beds, 
were upraised since the tertiaries were deposited. Hence, we 
come, by a fair induction, to the conclusion, that the western 
Alps of Europe, were upraised at a different period from the 
granite hills in Leicestershire, and at a geological period, much 
nearer our own times. ‘To illustrate this principle, we have bor- 
rowed from Bakewell, pl. 4, fig. 1, a section of Alpine beds, near 
the Col de Balme, and Mont Blanc; a,a, are alternate beds of 
oolite, sand stone, and lias, equivalents of those horizontal beds 
e, in pl. 4, fig. 2.; b, b, are disturbed beds of pudding-stone, with 
the pebbles not lying on their longest axes, but vertical; c, c,a 
col, or passage excavated in the soft slate of the mountains; d, d, 
vertical plates of granite beds, with pyramidal caps, called 
aiguilles, or needles. The dotted lines mark the supposed original 
prolongation of the beds, before the granite came up, bearing 
them like drapery on its flanks, where they lie at an inclination, 
varying from 65° to 80°. Mont Blanc is 15,534 feet high, and 
these pyramidal peaks, which time, and the deluges consequent 
upon their upraising, have worn into their present forms, were 
once 10,000 feet beneath the surface. Thus we have the proofs, 
that the lias formation in England, was deposited subsequent to 
the upraising of the granite at Charrwood forest; and that the 
Pennine Alps were raised subsequent to the deposition of the 
lias. 

Since the crust of the earth, with the exception of the igneous 
rocks, is composed of a series of beds, that have been deposited 
in succession to each other, it results, that chains of mountains, 
and table lands, may have been upraised at any of the periods 
belonging to this succession, and that each period may have its 
peculiar system of mountains. This, to a great extent, has been 
found to be the case, and we can thus distinguish their geologi- 
cal periods, not in the chronologies affecting the present order of 
nature, but in the great history of subterranean dynamics, to 
which the surface of the earth owes its present form, modified, 
as it no doubt has often been, by the action of the waters, which 
have been displaced by these elevations. ‘The practical uses, 


On the Importance of Geological Information, &c. 133 


then, to be derived from the detailed geological examination of 
mountains, are numerous. 

If any chain should be productive of useful metals, or minerals, 
we may investigate all the branches of the system it belongs to, 
with a view to trace its continuities. 

In the establishment of boundaries, indestructible and unvary- 
ing monuments present themselves to the geologist, which escape 
the attention of the engineer, if he does not know how to avail 
himself of them. It cannot be denied, that the expense and incon- 
venience, consequent upon the light manner in which the north- 
ern boundary was settled, in the treaty of peace in 1783, would 
have been greatly avoided, had the disputed territory received a 
rigorous geological examination. From the documents which 
have hitherto been published, it does not appear that geological 
data have been much relied on, for the adjustment of this impor- 
tant question, which is not yet settled. It is greatly to be desired, 
that in the re-surveys which are yet to be effected, before the 
delivery of the respective territories is definitely made, that these 
considerations be not overlooked. 

There are other branches of: this subject which deserve the 
attention of that estimable officer, Col. Abert, of the topogra- 
phical bureau, to whose department information of this kind 
properly belongs. The details of our physical geography are in- 
complete : many inaccuracies have crept into the only accounts 
we have of the mountains, table lands, and lakes, in the interior 
of the United States. Their respective levels above tide water, 
have, in most instances, been the result of estimates, rather than 
of admeasurements. 

As it may be supposed, that there is not a cantonment under 
the U. S., which does not possess one or more officers, regularly 
trained as military engineers, all these errors might be gradual- 
ly corrected, if those officers were to avail themselves of the rare 
opportunities which many of them possess, being quartered in 
situations almost inaccessible to others. The contributions which 
they could make to physical geography, would form an important 
addition to our knowledge of the earth’s surface, independently 
of their great practical uses. The general elevation of table 
lands, the true height of mountains and hills, the exact level at 
which the great western lakes are found above tide water, are 
important branches of the geology of the U. States. In the 


134 On the Importance of Geological Information, &e. 


valuable labours of Lt. Col. Long, much has already been done ; 
but the time has arrived, when this science demands accuracy, 
and this can be given to us only by actual admeasurements. 
Perhaps at some future day, Congress may authorise a general 
trigonometrical survey, which will include all these objects ; in 
the mean time, much may be effected through the influence of 
the commander in chief.* 

Of some parts of this continent we are almost without details: 
of California, we know little or nothing, and of that extensive 
territory north of 50° N. latitude, we have scarce any geological 
information. The chain of high lands, which branches from the 
Chippewayan mountains there, and which runs N. E., between 
lake Winnepec, and the great Slave lake, appears to be the 
water shed of that region. It is said to connect itself with the 
highlands, running north of lakes Superior and Huron. It would 
be a great service rendered to science, if some of the British 
gentlemen, familiar with that part of the physical geography 
of the British dominions, would give us some accurate informa- 
tion of the country. In giving an account of the elevation of 
countries, it is best to state the general height of the table lands, 
distinct from that of the mountains which are based upon them: 
in the following table, the elevations of the table lands, above 
the level of the sea, are alone expressed. 

Toises. Feet. 

Table land of Irun, in Persia, ‘ 650, or 3900. 

Moscow, in Russia, . : 67, 402. 
Swabia, in Germany, ‘ 150, 900. 
Lombardy, in Italy, . ; 80, 480. 
Auvergne, in France, " 174, 1044, 


Schweitz, - . . 220, 1320. 
Bavaria, . : 3 , 260, 1560. 
Spain, ; m : , 850, 2100. 
Plains of the Rocky mountains, 3000. 


The following table expresses the most authentic elevations 
above the level of the sea, which we possess. Many of them have 
been admeasured: others, no doubt, are mere approximations. 


* It would be an act of injustice to Peter A. Browne, Esq., of this city, not to notice 
his indefatigable endeavours to interest the government of this State, in the geology 
of Pennsylvania, with a view to the construction of an accurate geological map. T! e 
disinterested and useful labours of that gentleman in the cause of geology, do him 
great honour. 


On the Importance of Geological Information, &c. 


Long’s Peak, Chippewayan, or Rocky mountains, 15, 


Mount Washington, N. Hampshire,* 
Mansfield mountain, N. Peak, Vermont, 


Catskill mountains, Round Top, N. York, 


Black Hills, lat. 40° N. W. of Missouri, 
Alleghany mountains, in Virginia, 
Ozark mountains, west of Mississippi, . 
Wisconsan Hills, S. of lake Superior, . 
Catskill mountain-house, N. York, 


Sources of streams tributary to lakes Winnepec ) 


and Superior, . 
Head waters of the Mississippi, 
Break Neck, near West Point finite 
Rainy lake, S. E. of lake of the Woods, 
Tourn mountain, Rammapoo, N. Jersey, 
Lake of the Woods, . J " ‘ 


2s Le a a od 
Source of Miami, ‘ 4 : 
Source of Sciota, é 


Sources of the St. Peter and Red Rivers, 
Mouth of the Platte, Missouri, . ki 
Mouth of the St. Peter, eeer : 
Lake Winnepec, : Soh me 
Lake Superior, . 4 k 
Lakes Huron and Mictesani’ ‘ : 
Ohio, near Wheeling, Pigs? 3 . 


Lake Erie, . : é - 
Ohio, at Cincinnati, . é - . 
Point Levi, opposite Quebec, ei bud 
Mouth of the Olio, y : F 


Lake Ontario ; : 3 : 


* This is the loftiest of the White mountains. 


Eprror. 


630. 
595. 
571. 
565. 
565. 
414. 
310. 
300. 
231. 


136 Ornithological Biography. 


ORNITHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY. 


By Joun James Aupunon, F. R. 8. &c. &e.—Published by Judah Dobson, 
and H. H. Porter, Literary Rooms, Philadelphia. 


To say that this is one of the handsomest books ever reprinted 
in America, is to assert one of its slightest merits. The great 
reputation which Mr. Audubon had acquired as an artist, by the 
publication of that most magnificent of all works, “ The Birds of 
America,” has been very much increased, by the work we are 
now about to notice, which, whilst it is a companion and key to 
the first, is, itself, an acquisition to any library. The “Intro- 
ductory Address” at once reveals the history and character of the 
author. 


“In Pennsylvania, a beautiful State, almost central on the line of 
our Atlantic shores, my father, in his desire of proving my friend 
through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful ‘ plantation,’ 
refreshed during the summer heats by the waters of the Schuylkill 
river, and traversed by a creek named Perkioming. Its fine wood- 
lands, its extensive fields, its hills crowned with evergreens, offered 
many subjects to my pencil. It was there that I commenced my simple. 
and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the future as if the 
world had been made for me. My rambles invariably commenced 
at break of day, and to return wet with dew, and bearing a feathered 
prize, was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I have 
been fitted. 

** Yet think not, reader, that the enthusiasm which I felt for my 
favourite pursuits, was a barrier opposed to the admission of gentler 
sentiments. Nature, which had turned my young mind towards the 
bird and flower, soon proved her influence upon my heart.”’ 

He married, passed twenty years in varied and in infructuous 
attempts to acquire riches, “after the ways of men;” and at 
length, worn out and irritated by ill fortune, and the remarks of 
his friends, he broke “ through all bonds,” and abandoned him- 
self to nature, in “the woods, the lakes, the prairies, and the 
shores of the Atlantic”—thus cutting himself off, for ever, from the 
hope of rising to the dignity of justice of the peace in his own 
county, or from the advantages of keeping “the best liquors of 
any store-keeper of the village.” ‘These, in the face of the re- 
monstrances of his friends, were abandoned for nature, cultiva- 
tion of heart and mind, and that approbation of the wise and 
good, which no adverse circumstances can now deprive him of. 

In the report made to the Royal Academy of Sciences, by 


Baron Cuvier, is the following passage : 


Ornithological Biography. 137 


«The Academy has commissioned me with rendering to it a verbal 
account of the work, which, in one of its preceding sessions, has 
been communicated to it by Mr. Audubon, and which has for its ob- 
ject, the birds of North America. Its character can be given in a 
very few words, by saying that it is the most magnificent monument 
which has hitherto been raised to ornithology.” 

Mr. Swainson, one of the most distinguished naturalists of the 
age, has said of this work, 


“It exhibits a perfection in the higher attributes of zoological 
painting, never before attempted. ‘To represent the passions and the 
feelings of birds, might, until now, have been well deemed chimeri- 
eal. Rarely, indeed, do we see their outward forms represented 
with any thing like nature. In my estimation, not more than three 
painters ever lived, who could draw a bird. Of these, the lamented 
Barrabaud, of whom France may be justly proud, was the chief. 
He has long passed away ; but his mantle has, at length, been re- 
covered in the forests of America.” 


The “Ornithological Biography” contains a description of one 
hundred birds. natives of America, all of which are delineated of 
full size, and coloured after nature, in the great work which Cu- 
vier and Swainson have so justly praised. ‘To these descriptions 
are attached others of the trees, shrubs, herbs, and flowers, where 
the birds build and disport, in their native woods. The botanical 
characters of these plants are annexed. The ornithologist and 
the less learned lover of nature, will find a rare treat in these 
vivid descriptions, comprehending the most delightful details of 
the manners and customs of the feathered tribes. But-what, 
perhaps, will be deemed by general readers, to enrich especially 
this attractive work, are the rare, and most interesting narratives 
and local descriptions, interspersed, very judiciously, to the num- 
ber of twenty, through the work. They are as follow: the Ohio, 
the Great Pine Swamp, the Prairie, the Regulators, Improve- 
ments in the Navigation of the Mississippi, a Flood, Meadville, the 
Cougar, the Earthquake, the Hurricane, Kentucky Sports, the 
Trayeller and the Pole-cat, Deer Hunting, Niagara, Hospitality in 
the woods, the Original Painter, Louisville in Kentucky, the Ec- 
centric Naturalist, Scipio and the Bear, and Colonel Boon. All 
these passages arrest the attention very forcibly, and some of 
them are written with great eloquence. So powerful are the 
impressions made by those graphic narratives, that we rise from 
the repeated reading of them, almost as familiar with the sub- 
ject, as if we had been the companions of Mr. Audubon in his 

Vor. L—18 


138 Ornithological Biography. 


many romantic adventures.—Upon a future occasion we propose 
giving our readers some extracts, for which we have not room 
at present. 

In awarding to him these just praises, we seek to vindicate his 
claims to the confidence and admiration of his countrymen. 

We believe it is Madame de Stael, who, when speaking of ne- 
glected merit, observes, that time pays both principal and interest. 
So it will be with Audubon: ere long, the intrinsic vdlue of his 
labours to natural history, will be universally recognized. We 
shall hear of no more unfriendly remarks upon the great “ Wood- 
man” of America, as he has been called in Europe, from city 
ornithologists, who, like Cowslip in the Agreeable Surprise, are 
most of all pleased with the sight of a “roast duck.” We 
know that some of Mr. Audubon’s “ strange stories” have alarm- 
ed some tender consciences, that annually 


“ Perform their scientific rounds, 
As far as Bow bells fling their sounds.” 


In his great work, Mr. Audubon gives, in plate 21, a representa- 
tion of “ Mocking birds defending their nest from a rattlesnake.” 
The serpent has got up the bush, and has reached the nest to 
suck the eggs, when the birds attack him. It is one of the most 
masterly drawings we ever saw. Swainson says of it, “every 
part of the story is told with exquisite feeling.” Whether any 
one besides Mr. Audubon, has ever seen the crotalus in,that situ- 
ation, we do not know. Mr. Audubon declares he has; and we 
have no idea of disputing his word, because we have not seen, 
perhaps solely from want of opportunity, what he knows he has 
witnessed. So rapid is the progress of natural science, that what 
may be called romance to-day, becomes history to-morrow. We 
certainly did not know it was the habit of the rattlesnake to 
climb plants; Cuvier says they do not. But the mocassin snake 
is well known to climb plants after his prey ; and both this snake 
and the rattlesnake live upon birds and squirrels. Now the mocas- 
sin, which is the Coluber tisiphone of Shaw, Trigonocephalus of 
Oppel, is approximated to the rattlesnakes by Cuvier, who says 
it is “ distinguished from them by the want of a rattle, but hay- 
ing the same pits behind the nostri!s, and being equally venomous.” 
The truth is, they are so much alike, that it must be a very dif- 
ficult matter to distinguish between living specimens at liberty, 
where the rattles of the one are mute, and not apparent : and such 


Ornithological Biography. 139 


situations may well occur. We saw, only a few days ago, in the 
possession of Dr. Blanding, of this city, a preserved specimen of 
the mocassin, so precisely like the rattlesnake, that there was no 
sapparent difference, except that it wanted the rattles: this ren- 
ders it possible that Mr. Audubon may have mistaken one ser- 
pent for another, and altogether improbable that his statement is 
a fiction. Yet this has been ill-naturedly attributed to this great 
naturalist, who may really have found the rattlesnake itself in 
this position, for aught we know to the contrary. 

Mr. Audubon has in these works shown the world, that nature 
has not spoken to him in vain, and that he can express the feel- 
ings she has inspired him with, with great force. As an author 
and a naturalist, he has raised himself beyond the reach of that 
enyy and neglect, which are too often successfully directed 
against genius, ere its plant has grown into strength, and has put 
forth the blossomed honours, which impose silence even upon 
detraction. We gathered from his introductory address, that 
those social honours which have been lavished upon him in Eu- 

, rope, have been denied him, in this, his native country. We 
imagine it is because he has been comparatively unknown here. 
Where there are 


To censure, many, 
And but few to praise,” 


a man wages fearful odds against his adversaries, such as none 
but the most unequivocal merit can prevail against. That of 
Audubon has prevailed, and his native country is, as she well 
may be, proud of her son. He will hereafter find himself more 
justly appreciated. It will give him pleasure to learn, that since 
the recent publication of his “ Ornithological Biography,” the 
American Philosophical Society has enrolled his name amongst 
those of its members. We understand Mr. Audubon is soon ex- 
pected from Europe, to pursue his investigations, and to complete 
certain departments of his works. We hope on his arrival in his 
native land, it will somewhat contribute to cheer his heart, to 
know how much we admire and value his works, and how ready 
we are to do justice to them. 


140 To Readers and Correspondents. 


TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 


We pledged ourselves in our lastnumber to show, thata statement in the Journal of the 
Franklin Institute for July, 1831, attributing very unworthy conduct tothe individual who 
is now editor of this Journal, was, on the part of Dr. Isaac Hays, from whom it proceeded, 
a deliberate falsehood. 

Before we make that pledge good, we beg to offer a few remarks to our subscribers 
for the following reasons. First, because we are desirous, at once, to apologize to them 
for having, ina moment of irritation, been provoked to the use of epithets which could 
not possibly either amuse or instruct them. We regret having done so. We wish that 
time and room—neither of which were then at our disposal—had permitted us, instead 
of angry words, to have laid a temperate statement before them, of the causes that requir- 
ed our entering upon a defence against the statement which offended us, and which, as 
we shall show, was only one part ofa systematic attempt to injure, through the editor, the 
circulation of this Journal. 

Second. We wish to show, that this, far from being a private dispute of the editor, is 
a question of a much graver nature, involving the freedom of opinion in matters of science, 
and the right of an individual to expose a malignant attempt, to which more than one in- 
dividual is a party, to make him odious in the eyes of the friends of a deceased naturalist, 
and so affix upon him with the public, the character of an unfeeling and heartless disturb- 
er of the ashes of departed worth. It has been imputed to us in the columns of one of the 
best journals of this country,* that this bears no evidence of being any thing but a private 
dispute. In the narrative we are about to draw up, we cannot but indulge the belief, 
that our readers will agree with us, that had the editor remained silent under continued 
attempts to misrepresent his conduct and opinions, the result would have been injurious 
to the cause of science, to himself in the social circles of the city he dwells in, and fatal 
to the circulation of the journal he conducts. With such motives before him, he feels 
himself justified in entering upon that defence in the pages of his own journal, which will 
be pe upon this, as upon all other occasions, devoted to good sense, fair dealing, and 
truth. 

In the early part of 1831, the editor of this journal was induced to deliver a public course 
of lectures on geology, in the city of Philadelphla, as he had previously done in the city 
of New York, for the sole purpose of advancing the cause of natural science in this coun- 
try. The unexpected popularity of these lectures, was the leading cause of the existence 
of this journal. Whilst his residence in this city was considered only a temporary one, 
every thing, as far as it affected himself, reflected couleur de rose; but as soon as he be- 
came a permanent resident, and a candidate for public confidence in the walks of 
science and literature, he discovered that Philadelphia was the seat of a self-constituted 
authority over literature and opinions; and that any one who ventured to doubt the va- 
lidity of the appointment, was sure to come in fora full share of anathema. This authority, 
too, was well acquainted with the use of that efficacious weapon, ‘ spargere voces ambi- 
guas.’ There were feuds also in the domains of science, and not to be a declared friend, 
was, in the estimation of some, to be an enemy. For a while the editor went on, unscathed 
amidst the absolutists of literature and science, without selecting particular advisers and 
assistants for the arduous course he was about to pursue ; but as soon as he made known 
his determination to choose where he was sure of finding honesty and intelligence, and to 
discountenance all empirics and pretenders, he was made sensibly to feel that he was 
monsieur de trop, and that it was not intended he should sit upon a bed of roses. Anony- 
mous letters, scurrilous attacks from country papers, which had been refused by the press 
in town—private misrepresentations of the editor's conduct and opinions—all these were 
resorted to. In one newspaper it was asserted “ Mr. Featherstonhaugh is a foreigner, and 
did not only bring with him, but now fosters in his bosom, a contemptible opinion of Ame- 
rican literature and talents.” This, directed against one who has resided twenty-five years 
in the United States, and who has devoted his youth and his fortune to the advancement 
of its interests, was not thought too gross for the columns of an American newspaper. 
The calumny closed by stating, that the establishment of this journal would “absolutely 
retard the advancement of science in America; and then concluded, “I have heard a 
number of scientific gentlemen express themselves much in the same manner that I have 
done ; and it is to be hoped they will act as they have talked, and will influence others to 
do so when Mr. F’s prospectus comes out.” Meaning, to dissuade others from subscribing 
lo it. 

Certainly no one can suppose that the editor could be insensible to such proceedings : 
it is in vain to say, that malignancy of so low and scurrilous a character ought to be dis- 
regarded. If this were true, as it affected himself, the editor was bound to feel for the 
interests of his publisher, and to protect this work for that sole reason. ‘To have remained 
silent, would have been to abandon, not to protect the interests of his friend. ‘Those who 
have censured him for the epithets he has used, did not know the private annoyances he 


* The Chronicle of the Times. 


To Readers and Correspondents. 141 


was subject to, and how much restraint he had put himself under, by not noticing them 
before. 

How he could be so much provoked, as to indulge in those epithets, we now come to 
relate. 

In the twelfth of those geological lectures before alluded to, when on the subject of 
comparative anatomy, the lecturer, having his table crowded with fossils, had to explain 
each of them, in a rapid manner, in turns. "There were two mutilated jaw bones of the 
Mastodon, which he had drawn from the collection of the American Philosophical Society, 
where they had been hitherto unnoticed. These, as they differed from any other jaw 
bones of the mastodon, having an alveolar process, or socket, towards the end of each, he 

“thought it proper to make a few slight remarks upon; inasmuch as the description of a 
young scull of the genus mastodon, under similar circumstances, had been published in 
the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, and had been, by a deceased 
naturalist, raised to the rank of a new genus, under the following title: “ Description of a 
New Genus and New Species of Extinct Mammiferous Quadruped. By John D. Godman, 
M. D.” Itis due to truth to say, that when this conformation was proposed, as anew spe- 
cies of a new genus, it was rejected by every naturalist of the city of New-York; and long 
before the lecturer had declared his opinion on the subject in public, Dr. Harlan of the 
city of Philadelphia, who is without a rival there in the knowledge of comparative anato- , 
my and zoology, had publicly declared, that the characters relied on for raising the animal 
to a new genus were altogether insufficient; the reasons for which were subsequently 
published in F ‘errusac’s Bulletin des Sciences Uniterselles, for 1830. These opinions, with- 
out mentioning any names, the lecturer stated he concurred in, and believed the genus 
would have to be abandoned. Having those jaw bones before him, he could not, without 
doing injustice to his class, and to the cause of natural science, pass over one of those erro- 
neous conclusions, to which all naturalists are subject, and for the treatment of which as 

- erroneous, he had such able support. But he did it with the consideration due to the me- 
mory of a meritorious naturalist, whose name never escaped him upon the occasion. He 

had no motive for throwing a shade over his memory, for he never had had any intercourse 
with the late Dr.Godman, never came into any sort of collision with him, and believes 
he was equally unknown to that gentleman. 

This, the lecturer pledges himself was his conduct upon that occasion, and without ap- 
pealing to, perhaps, the uncertain recollections of his class, he esteems himself fortunate 
in being able to show, from the best proof the nature of the case will admit, that it was so. 
Two or three days after the delivery of that lecture, Mr. Chandler, the intelligent editor 
of the United States Gazette, published, as it had been his custom to do during the course, 
afull reportofit. It cannot be imputed to that gentleman, that he had any motive to misre- 
present what fell from the lecturer upon that occasion ; his talent and accuracy are un- 
doubted. On turning, then, to the report of Mr. Chandler, in the files of the United States 
Gazette, we find the following passage, which comprehends all that was said on the sub- 
jyect:— 

«“ He took occasion here to state his opinion, and adduced facts to prove its validity, 
that the new genus Tetracaulodon Mastodontoides, must be abandoned ; as the only dis- 
tinctive character upon which it rested, was the presence of milk tusks in the lower jaw, 
which were common to various species of the Mastodon, before the individuals had 
reached their full growth.” 'This account, which substantially agrees with the private 
notes of the Lecturer, has been placed beyond all doubt, by an admission made in an 
anonymous communication which appearéd in the National Gazette on the 24th May, 
1831, a week after the publication of the Report of the Lecture in the United States 
Gazette. And as this anonymous communication has a great deal to do with this con- 
troversy, we shall insert it. 

‘A few days after the delivery of this lecture on the 13th May, Dr. Isaac Hays, at one 
of the stated meetings of the American Philosophical Society, addressed the meeting on 
the structure of the jaws, and dentition of the mastodon, using upon this occasion, the 
two jaws which the lecturer on geology had previously exhibited. After various rea- 
sonings, he made the following declaration: “ That perhaps if that were the occasion 
for him to express his opinion, he would say that this character (the teeth in the rostrated 
extremity of the lower jaws) was insufficient to raise the animal to the head of a new 
Genus.” Now Dr. Isaac Hays came to this conclusion,—which was the identical one ex- 

pressed by the lecturer—afier inspecting the jaws which the lecturer had previously pre- 
sented to his class. tis true, Dr. Isaac Hays, added, that notwithstanding this, he was 
disposed to believe it was an animal distinct from any species of mastodon previously de- 
scribed, and was entitled to be considered a new species. At this meeting the lecturer 
on geology was present, and was silent: he perceived that Dr. Isaac Hays had embraced 
his opinion, as far as he had expressed it concerning the genus, and as to the supposition 
that it might be a new species, that was a totally different question, which could be here- 
after decided only by the examination of many similar osteological remains, if fortunately 
‘they should ever be discovered. In philosophical zoology, the creation of a new genus 
is a matter of some moment. The surface of the earth is variously constituted, as to * 
climate, inequalities, and productions: but nature animates every part of it, and gives 


142 To Readers and Correspondents. 


to every animal functions appropriate to the condition of its existence. The ox has 
eloven icet, which spread, and give him a better support when he treads, and thus ena- 
bles him to seek his food in the marshy lands, which the small and solid footed horse does 
not venture upon. The voluminous tusks of the elephant and mastodon, are given to 
them in like manner, for conservative purposes. So are our own teeth to ourselves: but 
if every unconformable case of dentition, every instance of teeth protruding in the wrong 
places, or running obliquely to the direction of the jaws; or, if every particular contraction 
or expansion of the jaws themselves, and every varying external appearance, shall be 
deemed of’ sufficient importance to constitute a new genus or a new species, every in- 
dividual wili be a distinct genus, and classification will eventually become a branch of 
mathematics. If we are bound to treat this occasional deviation in the dentition of the 
mastodon in this manner, what will be made of our own race, when the present surface 
of the earth shall be added to the number of the ancient geological formations, and our 
bones be disinterred by some future race of intellectual beings? 

At the conclusion of Dr. Hays’ address, he handed in to the president a paper contain- 
ing, as he expressed, the substance of the remarks: a committee was formed to examine 
it, and report upon it for publication. At the head of this committee was placed his par- 
ticular friend ; a preconcerted arrangement often very convenient, both for good and for 
evil, and therefore acquiesced in sometimes. As this address was a somewhat unusual 
procedure before the American Philosophical Society, and as it involved a matter of some 
interest in fossil zoology, the few naturalists who were present looked with some atten- 
tion to the future proceedings of that committee. If there had existed any real difference 
of opinion between the lecturer on geology, and Dr. Isaac Hays, the subject was now in 
the hands of a committee of the American Philosophical Society, and the parties for the 
present, were certainly bound to leave it there. We shall see how far this decorum was 
observed by one of the parties. Dr. Hays’s address was delivered on Friday, the 20th 
May: on the 24th, the following anonymous article signed X, appeared in the National 
Gazette :-— 


“Tt is with great pleasure we learn, that some of the scientific investigations of our 
lamented Godman, which had been incidentally alluded to in a recent popular lecture 
on geolozy in this city, have been triumphantly sustained and vindicated in a lecture 
delivered before the American Philosophical Society, a few evenings since, by his friend 
Dr. Hays. It was asserted in the geological lecture, that ‘the new genus Tetracaulodon 
Mastodontoides (of Godman) must be abandoned, as the only distinctive character on 
which it rested, was the presence of milk tusks in the lower jaw, which was common to 
various species of mastodon, before the individuals had reached their full growth. It is 
believed that Dr. Hays satisfied every member present, that Dr. Godman’s animal was 
different from any other heretofore described; in corroboration of which he produced 
from the splendid collection of the society, two of the largest jaws, both of which were 
possessed of the socket supposed to exist only in the young. The good feeling which 
prompted the defence of the scientific character of a departed friend, has been amply 
rewarded in the investigation of the subject by the brilliant discovery of four new spe- 
cies of this extraordinary family, among the fossil bones of the rich collection of the so- 
ciety, and that of Mr. Wetherill. A description of these was presented the same eve- 
ning to the society, intended for publication in their transactions, and it is believed that 
the public will be very shortly favoured with it, illustrated by engravings of the we ai 
species. ee. GH 


The paipable misstatements contained in this article, could not escape any one in- 
terested in the subject. Instead of Dr. Isaac Hays’s address being a“ triumphant vindica- 
tion,” it was an unequivocal abandonment of the new genus: it was disingenuously 
concealed, that the two largest jaws were the identical jaws presented by the geological 
Jecturer to his class; and as to the brilliant discovery of four new species, it had no ex- 
istence out of romance. It was not worthy of being distinguished from amidst the mass 
of disgusting puffs which force their way into the public papers, but for one circumstance, 
which disclosed to the lecturer on geology, that it was also intended to wound him. He 
soon after its publication, got the complete proof, that this anonymous publication, origi- 
nally contained very hostile allusions to him, which had been subsequently expunged ; 
that the composition had received some assistance from, and had been given to the press, 
- the very individual, bound in honour and duty, to discountenance its production, viz. 

"he chairman of the committee of the American Philosophical Society, charged with the 
consideration of the subject. ; 

That Dr. Isaac Hays was the author of that disingenuous puff, the writer of this narra- 
tive does not assert, not having the proof of it; that is a secret between his friend and 
himself. It is hardly to be supposed, that any one would take the trouble to draw up 
such a paper, without a prospect of deriving some supposed advantage from it. The un- 
expected discovery of the conduct of the chairman of the committee having opened the 
eyes of the lecturer, to the combination forming against him, he sent the fillowing an- 
swer to X., which was published in the National Gazette of May 26, 1831. 


To Readers and Correspondents. 143 


‘ “ To the Editor of the National Gazette. 


*Sin—When a matter has been referred for adjustment to impartial arbitrators, the ap 
pearance of exparte anonymous statements is evidence at Once of weakness and unfair 
ness. 

“Such is the charavter of the communication signed X., in your paper of Tuesday, the 
24th. Neither was your Gazette deemed of sufficient importance to attain the secret ob- 
ject of the writer; a literal copy of it having been lodged at the same time with a re- 
spectable morning paper, into whose columns it thus surreptitiously got the next day. 

“Jt is not the intention of the writer of this note to repeat at this time the particular his- 
tory of the transaction which has produced this anonymous attack, the nature of which 
is perfectly understood by those whom it concerns. ‘That history is to be found in the 
United States Gazette of this morning. The writer will content himself with stating, that 
the matter upon which the difference of opinion has arisen was referred on Friday, the 
20th, to a committee of three members of the American Philosophical Society, supposed 
to be entirely unprejudiced, by a majority of the members present. If any cne of them 
was not so, he will not be able to conceal the fact that he was covertly placed on that 
committee for the purpose of perpetuating error. Unimportant as the matter may appear, 
the interests of natural science and of truth are involved in it; and individuals who 
clearly show they are not friends to impartial investigation, must suppose their conduct 
will be vigilantly attended to. 

“Tt has been usually attributed to those who cherish the love of natural history, that. 
their truest reward is that certain elevation of mind they receive in the cultivation of 
their pursuit. A true naturalist loves only to be taught by nature, and disdains to teach 
by other means. It is the empirical pretender alone who is your anonymous oracle. 

« As to the statements of X., they are all wide from the truth. He is afraid of the de« 
cision of the committee, and, therefore, ‘ with trumpets and with shawms,’ he is ‘trium- 
phantly sustaining and vindicating drilliant discoveries,’ the fame of which, it is predicted, 
will never extend beyond the columns of a newspaper.” aR? 


- Dr. Hays, however, it appears, was determined to force himself into notice, and to re- 
move all doubts as to who wrote the article signed X., he procured the following state- 
ment to be published in the July number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. 


“Dr. Hays rose, and after some prefatory remarks, stated in substance as follows. 
That an attack upon the scientific reputation of Dr. Godman, late Professor of Natural 
Tiistory in the Institute, having been made very recently by a lecturer on’ geology, in a 
public lecture delivered in the hall of the Institute, at which many members of the so- 
ciety were present; and that a thorough investigation of the subject having resulted in 
a complete refutation of the attack, he thought it would be interesting to the members 
of the Institute to be put in possession of the facts upon which the vindication of their 
late Professor rested. 

“The lecturer before alluded to, had stated to his class, that the animal described by 
Dr. Godman as new, under the name of T'etracaulodon Mastodontoideum, was nothing 
more than the young of the common masfodon. In support of this, the lecturer had ex- 
hibited two lower jaw bones from the collection of the American Philosophical Society, 
one of which he stated to be that of a young animal, and showed the socket which had 
once contained the tooth characteristic of the animal described by Dr. Godman, while 
the other, which he said was that of an adult, was asserted by him to have contained no 
such socket. The lecturer had also exhibited a tusk which he said was the milk tusk of 
the young of the gigantic mastodon. 

“Doctor Hays proceeded to say, that the jaw exhibited by the lecturer as that of a 
young animal, had proved, on examination, to be that of an adult, as the dentition clearly 
showed; while in that admitted by the lecturer to be the jaw of an old animal, the re- 
mains of the socket which had once contained a tusk, was clearly to be seen. And fur- 
ther, that the tusk exhibited by the lecturer as a milk tusk, was evidently that of an old 


“Dr. H. stated that he had communicated to the American Philosophical Society, the 
proofs of the accuracy of the preceding statement. 
“A. D. Bacue, Chairman. 
“J. Henry Buixury, Rec. Sec.” 


This statement, which is malignantly intended to injure the editor with the friends of 
Dr. Godman, and with the public, is a mass of inconsistency and falsehood. 
pk dy It has been shown that the scientific reputation of Dr. Godman never was at- 
Second. That there had been no refutation of an attack, but that an unequivocal assent 
ce em extorted from Dr. Hays, by the specimens which the lecturer in geology had 


Third. ‘That the lecturer never had asserted one of the jaws to have been that of a 
young animal with a socket, and the other, that of an old animal without a socket; but 


144 To Readers and Correspondents. 


had produced them before his class, for the sole reason that they each had a socket. 
Of this the note below is a convincing proot.* 

The number of the Franklin Institute, was put into the Editor’s hands, when the last 
page of his Journal was printing. Irritated at so open and undeserved an attack from 
the pages of a Journal, to which he had, as he has shown in a_ note of his last number, 
endeavoured to be useful, he spoke of this Dr. Isaac Hays, as he thought he deseryed to 
be spoken of; but if time for reflection had been given to him, he should have preferred 
to have suppressed some epithets he indulged in, in his anger, and have patiently waited 
for a more favourable opportunity, of narrating the true history of this unpleasant contro- 
versy, into which he has been compelled to enter. He wishes he had done so, and in 
that wish he expresses an earnest hope, that he will be excused by his subscribers, if any 
of them thinks he has passed the bounds of decorum. They will perceive in this narra- 
tive, that he has no slight grounds for believing there is a malignant conspiracy on the 
part of a few active individuals, to hinder the circulation of this Journal. 'Thishas beew 
attempted both in public and in private, without success ; the only instance where'a sub- 
scription to it has been discontinned, is that of the chairman before alluded to. There 
have been a few instances of vindictive and scurrilous attacks in some of the newspapers : 
these have been disregarded, because, considering the public preas as an engine, hav- 
ing a great influence upon writers, and the success they many endeavour to attain, the 
Editor feels under a deep sense of gratitude to it, for the most unexpected, flattering, and 
encouraging approbation he has received, from almost every distinguished paper in the 
clty and union.t It is his sincere desire to avoid all controversies; he regrets havin 
een forced into this. Whilst it isa part of his duty to expose sciolism, pretension, an 
évery movement calculated to retard the progress of natural science, he admits that the 
chief object he has proposed to himself in the establishment of this Journal, is the de- 
velopement of American natural history and geology, and the doing justice to the talent 
and learning of American writers on these interesting branches. He appeals to all that 
he has hitherto published, for the sincerity of his professions. He repeats the pledge con- 
tained in his prospectus, that all “approved original papers from correspondents, bearing 
the stamp of good sense, will be published upon convenient occasions.” 

He has the satisfaction of informing his readers, that the subscriptions to this work, are 
now become too numerous, to admit of the names being published, after this number, 
without inconvenience. Epiror. 


* Taccompanied Mr. Featherstonhaugh when he selected two jaw bones of the mastodon 
from the collection of the American Philosophical Society: they were selected, because each of 
them, having an alveolar process or socket, Mr. F. intended by them, to illustrate the structure 
of jaws of that class, and which, in conformity to his intentions, he did, during his lecture. 

RICHARD HARLAN, M. D. 

} The National Gazette is an exception amongst the city papers. In its columns the Monthly 
American Journal, devoted to American natural history, has never been alluded to, although it 
was, according to custom, presented to the Editor. 


We take very great pleasure in commending to the notice of the public, the Illinois 
Monthly Magazine, published at Vandalia, in that State, and conducted by Mr. James Hall. 
We frequently, after hurrying over the multifarious periodical literature of the day, turn to 
its refreshing pages, vita come upon our fatigued spirit, as its kindred breezes do, in 
these canicular times, upon the face of nature, drooping under excess of heat. The con- 
tents of the last number we have received, for July, are very attractive, especially the 
“Notes on Illinois,” which we shall take an early opportunity of republishing. The 
Gopher there mentioned as a non-descript, is the Geomys bursarius, or earth-rat, with 
pouches, of Rafinesque. 


We have been favoured, by “ A Subscriber,” with a copy of Wood’s Mosaic History, 
revised and improved by the Rev. J. P. Durbin, A. M., of Augusta College, Kentucky. 
We shall hereafter notice this interesting work, and rejoice that geology possesses, in the 
western States, so valuable and intelligent a friend as Mr. Durbin. ; 


(> The period of the delivery of this number, has been retarded by an 
unexpected disappointment, which obliged the Editor to substitute one arti- 


cle for another, and consequently to cause a different plate to be Pena 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES. 
= Oe @ Otirn— ‘ 


“Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, (2 copies,) Washington. 
General Gratiot, for the Engineer Department, Ri OAs 


‘Dr. Randolph, for the War Department, do. 
Department of State, do. 

‘ Asbury Dickens, for the Treasury Department, do. 
Col. R. Jones, for the Adjutant General’s Office, do. 

Col. Abert, for the Topographical Bureau, do. 

Maj. Gen. Macomb, Commander-in-Chief, do. 
_ Major Hook, of the Subsistence Department, do. « 

Col; Bomford, of the Ordnance Department, - do. 

Col. Kearney, do. 
Major J. Cross, Quarter Master’s Office, do. 

_ Lt. W.B. Dayidson, Adjutant General’s Office, : do. 

_ Capt. Thomas J. Hunt, mh do. 

Lt. W. G. Williams, of the Topographical Office, do. 

Jos. Lovell, Surgeon General, do. 

W. B. Lewis, Treasury Department, do: 

Rt. Hon. CharlefR. Vaughan, H. B. M. Minister Plenipotentiary, do. 

_ Charles Bankhead, Esq. H. B. M. Charge d’ Affaires, do., 

i Wm, Pitt Adams, Esq. British Legation, do. 
“ Gen.-D. Parker, - = do. 
% Navy Department, do. 
The Navy Commissioners, do. 
Capt. James D. Graham, do. 
_ ©. Lievt William Turnbull, do. 
+ Baron Stackleberg, Charge d’ Affaires from Sweden do. 
Nathaniel Tyre, Paymaster General’s Office, do. 
__ -4@eneral- Bernard, “ ; rua : do, 
Robert Fulton, Esq. : do. 

- Joseph, Comte de Sur'villiers, Point Breeze, New Jersey. 


Wm. Norris, Jr. Esq. Philadelphia. |P. A. Browne, Esq. _ Philadelphia. 
- Dr. Francis Condie, - do. Geo. C. Read, Esq. U. S. N. do. 


Wm. Hembel, Esq. do. Major Ware, do. 
Professor Green, do. Clement C. Biddle, Esq. do. 
J. J. Vanderkemp, Esq. do. Dr. J. K. Mitchell, do. 
North & Allen, do. |Thomas Biddle, Esq. do. 
_ Dr. Richard Harlan, do. D. Paul Brown, Esq. do. 
_ James Kay, Jr. do. N. Biddle, Esq. P. U.S. Bk. do. 

_ . Dr. John Bell, do. Jesse Torrey, Jr. Esq. do. 
‘Win. Meredith, Esq. do... |Jas. C, Biddle, Esq. do. 
_. | Miss A. Cooper, i do. Reuben Haines, > | do. 

Dr. La Roche, do. S. Potter, Esq. do. 
A. Bolmar, Esq. do. Miss L. Burton, do. 
Geo. M. Hickling, Esq. do. Prof. Rafinesque, do. 
_ Geo. Harrison, Esq. do. W.N. Steel, do. 
'__-‘William Short, Esq. do. Dr. J. Pancoast, do. 
’ Dr. Robert Hare, ‘do. H. S. Tanner, do: 
Edward Burd, Esq. do. —- |J.™M. Hirst, do. 
- Judge Hopkinson, do. Wm. Davis (so rates 
‘Lt. Col. Long, do. W.H. G. Wilson, do. 
Wm. Morrison, ; do. Edwin Carpenter, _ do. ° 
Dr. Alfred L. Elwyn do. John Vaughan, Philosoph, Hall. 


William Morrison, 
Henry Inman, 

J. N. Barker, 

J. Ashmead, 

‘John P. Wetherill, 
Chauncey Holcomb, 
L. Johnson, 

William Levan, 

D. W. Coxe, 

Jos. Few Smith, 

R. Dietz, 

J. Francis Fisher, 
Prof. Del Rio, 
Hilbern Walton, 
William L. Booth, 
Job S. Gaskill, 

James Brown, Esq. 
John Large, 

Dr. William Blanding, 
Bartholemew Wistar, 
Samuel Harvey, 

Cc. S, Langstroth, 
George Nugent, Esq. 
Thomas Booth, 
Quintin Campbell, Esq- 
William Young, 

Mrs. William Spohn, 
Pennsylvania Hospital, 
John O. Taylor, 
Jacob Janssen, 

Dr, G. Emerson, 
Nathan R. Potts, Esq. 
George Bender, Fash 
Dr. William Shaw, 


Wm. Coxe Ellis, oh 
Gilbert Robertson, Esq:~ 


R. W. Rose, 

J. P. Durbin, 
George Slothuer,° 
Wright and Brother, 
Thomas Robins, 

J. W. Kelly, 
Edward Townsend, 
John White, 

* Samuel Townsend, 
Tobias Wagner, 
William E. Rogers, 
Benjamin. Taylor, 


_ Robert Pierpont, 


John H. Willits, 


Northern Liberty Library 


and Reading Room, 
Benjamin Evans, 
Wiliam Chaloner, 
William G. Deays, 
A. & S. Morris, 
Le Chevalier de Tacon, 
Rev. M. M. Carll, 
Charles Bird, 
Samuel S. Penrose, 
Thomas Betton, 
Charles A. Morris, 
W. Staunton, 
Henry H. Bollman, 


Dr. Abraham Stout, 
Dr. J. B. Wallaner, 


sy 


Philadlp his C. Taylor, Esq. Philipsbargh, eo 


Germantown, Pa. 

York, do. aS David Pickering, do. 

Pittsburg, 0. | \Moses A. Cartland, do: 

do.'Dr. John Eberle, 

Dr, George Smith, Upper Darby, do./Dr. Robert W. Gibbs, Columbia, S. Cc, 
Bethlehem, do.\Jos. Gibbons, Esq. Mount Pleasant, 

Pottstown, do. Ohio. ‘d 


Owen Stover, West Chester, do. — 
|John T. Denny, dos Oy a 
Nimrod Strickland, = do. do. 
Academy Natural Science, do, do. © 
|Washington Lee, 
\Saml. Hepburn, Esq. Milton, do. — 
Drv Michenor, New Garden, do. | 
Gen. S. Cameron, © Harrisburg, do. 
Joseph White, Pottsville, do. 
\George Fleming, 
\A. er Ramen ¢ Carlisle, do. 
\Chester Butler, 
|William Dick, - Columbia, do. | 
\Samuel W. Mifflin, do. do. | 
'Sam’l Eschenback, Mount Pocono, do, ~ 
Bucks County Academy of Natural 


Science, Doylestown, do. | 
H. Gibbons, M. D. Wilmington, ne ¢ 
Edward Bringhurst, do. do. } 
Daniel. Byrnes, do. 

Jeremiah W. Duncan, — * do. do. | 
Joseph Bringhurst, do.) 2. Sdor, 


James H. Page, 


ndywine, do, 
IE. 8. Chesborough, 


oboken, N. J. 


‘Samuel Bullock, Mount Holly, do. 
|Anthony Sharpe, do do. 
\George Camblos, New Port, do. 

J. G. Mason & L. P. Smith, ‘Salem, do. 
\Dr. B. Archer, do. do. 
James Dickson, New Brunswick, do. | 
Thomas Edmonson, Baliimore. | i 
|\Dr. Joshua C. Cohen, do. . 
\Professor J. T. Ducatel,  . do. 
Thomas Meredith, Esq. do. 

\John Hoffman, Esq. do. 

Col. Tornel, do. 


Dr. J. S Owens, Pig Point, Ann 
Arundel county, Md, 
Dr. Thomas Sim, Woodsboro, Md. 
George Kidd, Port Deposite, do. | 
Capt. McNeill, United States ; 


Army, New York, N. Y. 
| William Cooper, Esq. do. do. | 
iJ. V. Rensaeller, M. Ds do: .. do.» 
Dr. Boyd, Cato, 4 Corners, 

Cayuga county, A) ee 
Benjamin Wright, do. do. 
Dr. Alvin Foord, Cazenovia, do, 
P. O. Beebee, Utica, do. 


J. Webster, Esq. West Thornton, N.H. 
Wilder S. Thurston, | Boston, Layer 
Thos. H. Perkins, Esq. do. 

George N. Palmer, Palmer, St ‘cla 

county, Michigan Territory, , 

H. S. Noble, Charlotte C. H. N.C. 
S. K. Fuller, New Market, Virginia. 
-\Dr. J. C. Johnson, Louisville, es 
‘Dr. A. G. Smith, do. do. 
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THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 


GEOLOGY 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vo. I. Paiwapetruia, Ocroser, 1831. No. 4. 


AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
(Continued from page 104.) 


We have seen how truly science and arts may be said to have 
been cradled in ancient Greece. The Romans received them 
Jate; they were amongst the other fruits of their conquests, and 
they retained them but a short time; two centuries of intellec- 
tual splendour being all they can boast of. Victory, and its at- 
tendants, riches and luxury, corrupted the Roman people; the 
ancient simple national spirit fled, barbarians filled the ranks of 
their armies, and thus the glory of their name, and the integrity 
of their wide possessions, were left to the protection of strangers. 
Then came the contests for supreme power, amongst the Roman 
leaders, and the successful ambition of Caesar, who ceased to be 
a Roman when he triumphed over the liberties of his country. 
Fatigued with civil dissentions, and the bloody proscriptions that 
had almost extinguished the class of pre-eminent citizens, those 
who remained, were glad to take shelter under the protection of 
one, who had once been their companion and equal, and who, to 
the military renown he had acquired, united the greater security 
of a highly cultivated mind. That vigilance for the public wel- 
fare, which had been the common duty of all, had now devolved 
upon one, and to him, the source of honour and power, all con- 
secrated those energies, which belonged to their country. Adu- 
lation took the place of patriotism. This base spirit arose to a 
fearful height, under his successors, Augustus and Tiberius. 
Panegyric alone was permitted in Rome: the eloquence which 
has truth for its object, was unknown, both to the forum and the 

Vor. I—19 145 


146 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


senate. ‘The want of great Jiving examples of excellence, finally 
degraded the public mind. We have the complete proof in the 
Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius,* of the decline of Roman letters. 
Sulpicius Apollinarius, whom he extols, boasted of being the only 
one who could comprehend the history of Sallust, who died not 
quite one hundred and seventy years before. So insensible had 
the Romans become to the beauty and force of their ancient 
language. The other individuals, of whom Gellius speaks, are 
obscure orators and grammarians, and the work itself has nothing 
in common with the sublime spirit of thought, which distinguishes 
most of the writings of the older Romans: indeed, the men of 
this day, appear to have almost lost sight of the pre-eminent 
citizens who had preceded them. It is true, there were still 
regular schools of philosophy in Rome, which had their disciples 
and their disputations. Plutarch} was of this period, and was 
much honoured of the emperor Trajan, who appointed him gover- 
nor of Ilyricum; but Plutarch was a Greek, and his protector 
was one of the superior men of his time. ‘The only school which 
enjoyed much reputation at this period, was the Eclectic school. 
Plotinus{ and Porphyry, who flourished somewhat later, were of 
this school. 

Whilst Roman literature was thus passing away, the multi- 
plicity of laws, inseparable from the constant changes of their 
masters, were favourable to Roman jurisprudence, which con- 
tinued to flourish. Nevertheless, those distinguished jurists, Pa- 
pinian and Ulpian, became victims to the irreverent violence of 
the times. The first was assassinated by order of Caracalla,§ 
the second was murdered by the Praetorian guards,|| whilst under 
the immediate protection of the emperor Alexander Severus. 
The confusion attendant upon these anarchical times, was great- 
ly increased by the bloody persecutions the Christians underwent, 
which only terminatéd by the accession of Constantine to the 
throne, who, having embraced the Christian religion, took them 
publicly under his protection.4[ Low as the state of Roman in- 
tellect was at this time, by his removal of the seat of empire to 
Byzantium, the ancient capital of Thrace,** he accelerated its 
total ruin, as well as that of the empire. The removal of the 
whole machine of government, drew along with it nearly all the 


* A. D. 130, t Died A. D. 140. t Died A. D, 270. § A. D. 212. 
WA. D: 226. TA. D, 319. +* A.D, 328. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 147 


rank and wealth of Rome. Courtiers, generals, magistrates, 
counsellors, ministers, all these, with their households, their slaves, 
their wealth; the artists, manufacturers, and merchants, who 
depended upon them, all abandoned Italy. The public revenue, 
too, being no longer collected and expended in Rome, a void was 
left there which was deeply felt for five centuries. 

Whilst by this great movement, the total ruin of Roman let- 
ters was perpetrated, a new literature, which had been growing 
into importance, during the controversies of two centuries, at- 
tained its height under this emperor. This literature arose in 
the conflict which the first Christian writers had to maintain 
with the champions of the dominant religions; but it reached its 
meridian at a later period, when the field of controversy was in 
the very bosom of Christianity. It was in the schools and libra- 
ries of Egypt, Persia, Palestine, and Africa, those great polemics 
were nursed, who were the glory of the fourth century. Ar- 
nobius, Lactantius, Eusebius, Athanasius, Hilary, Basil, the Gre- 
gory’s, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustin, and Chrysostom.* Unlike 
the miserable sophists from amongst their countrymen, who had 
assisted to produce the general debasement, these illustrious men, 
known as the Fathers of the Christian church, were distinguish- 
ed as much for their profound views of moral conduct, as for 
their Christian zeal, and unrivalled. erudition. St. Augustine, 
whose writings are dear to every true scholar, has not disdained, 
in his great work “ De Civitate Dei,” to hold up the: writings of 
Cicero as models of human wisdom, although Cicero lived before 
Christianity was taught. Cicero’s celebrated work, “ De Repub- 
lica,” was principally known to us by the writings of Augustine, 
before the recent fortunate discovery of the mutilated original, 
by professor Mai, in the library of the Vatican. The voluminous 
and eloquent works of these fathers, have had the greatest influ- 
ence upon succeeding times. It was unfortunate, however, for 
letters, that they became entirely obscured by theology. ‘The 
numerous councils which were held, composed of the most emi- 
nent men from all civilized countries, extended the field of argu- 
mentation to the most distant points. Their decisions, which 
tended often to put doctrinal opinions into a still greater state of 
complication, and which constantly gave birth to new disputes, 


* Died A. D. 407. 


148 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


formed at length the all-absorbing subject of cultivated minds. 
Science was no more thought of; even jurisprudence but existed 
in the shade of the ecclesiastical code, and of canon law. Warmed 
and hurried on by contention, and the pride of opinion, they 
overlooked the divine character of the precepts of their faith, 
and too often preferred to look for God in obscure dogmas, and 
speculative reasonings. In his works they found him not; stran- 
gers to natural theology, nature appears to have existed in vain 
for them. In their search after truth, they went from the un- 
known to the known, the reverse of that true method, which 
experience at length has brought us to: for if the past fourteen 
centuries have disclosed any great truth to man, it is, that God is 
to be seen in his works, and that the human mind must seek for 
truth itself, by proceeding from the known to the unknown. To 
the extinction of all taste for ancient literature, followed the de- 
struction of the superb pagan temples, and their libraries. Fana- 
ticism completed what controversy had begun, and the physical 
power of the successful faith, was destructively directed against 
the magnificent monuments of the fallen pagan mythology, and 
against the ancient classical literature ; as was repeated at a later 
day by Knox, and other ferocious reformers, when they prevail- 
ed against the hierarchy of the venerable catholic church. The 
destruction by fire, of the works of the ancient Greek and Latin 
writers, was not enough. At a later day, a more curious method 
was resorted to by the priests, of asserting their power over the 
fallen literature. | Notwithstanding the general proscription of 
the pagan writers, and which had been carried so far as to in- 
duce the council of Carthage to forbid all bishops to read pagan 
authors, some copies of the most esteemed writers had been pre- 
served: but as the religious poems of St. Gregory, the canticles 
of St. Augustine, and the effusions of other holy men, were now 
substituted,—as the habitual poetry of the day,—for the verses 
of Virgil, Anacreon, Bion, &c., and as the old material, papyrus, 
became scarce, and parchment was too expensive for many in- 
dividuals, the contents of the ancient rolls were obliterated, and 
religious compositions substituted in their place. This practice 
became still more general in the seventh century, and subse- 
quently to it, when papyrus ceased to be made, in consequence 
of the destruction of every thing connected with literature, by 
the Saracens. It was thus that professor Mai discovered the lost 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 149 


republic of Cicero, written over one of the palimpsests in the 
Vatican. 

The fatal consequences of the overthrow of the ancient litera- 
ture, were soon obvious. The powerful minds of St. Augustine 
and his compeers, had been alimented, and had grown to matu- 
rity, by the writings of Plato, Homer, Sophocles, Cicero, Virgil. 
The springs being now dried up, the streams ceased to run, and 
the ancient barrenness prevailed. The periods of Constantine* 
and Theodosius} were never replaced ; and the fifth century is as 
conspicuous for its imbecility, as the preceding one had been for 
its intelligence. Eumenius, an orator of the fourth century, said 
of Cornelius Fronton, the chief of a school of his day, and one of 
the panegyrists of Antoninus, ‘Romane eloquentiz, non secundum, 
sed alterum, decus;’ that he was not the second, but the other 
ornament of Roman eloquence: meaning that he was equal to 
Cicero; a fatal proof of his own and of the general ignorance. At 
this time, the schools were filled with Greek sophists of the worst 
kind, and the Latin tongue was undergoing a corruption, by the 
general abasement of mind, and the influx of strangers from dis- 
tant and barbarous regions, who were gradually becoming mas- 
ters of the Empire. 

Every thing seemed now preparing for the long night which 
was to fall upon the human mind. The oratorical art consisted 
in fulsome panegyrics, pronounced before the unblushing pre- 
sence of the individual to be eulogized. The want of great ac- 
tions, was supplied by extravagant adulation; the love of flat- 
tery was substituted for the love of glory, and of honest commen- 
dation. Statues were raised both at Rome and Athens, to a 
Greek sophist named Proérésius, the one at Rome bearing the 
inscription, ‘ 

“Regina Rerum, Roma, Regi eloquentiz,” 
where the only merit belonging either to the man or to the verse, 
consists in the miserable attempt to substitute for the ancient 
Roman verse, four capital alliterations. Amongst the gramma- 
rians of this dull period, Macrobius deserves to be spoken of with 
some respect, having in his Saturnalium Conviyiorum, left us 
some agreeable dialogues, containing curious details concerning 
the mythology, poetry, and history of the ancients. It is Macro- 
bius who has preserved to us that most eloquent passage from 


+ Died, A. D. 336. t Died, A. D. 394. t Died, A. D. 415. 


150 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


Cicero’s Republic, Somnium Scipionis, perhaps the most splendid 
thing bequeathed to us by antiquity ; where we see how elevated 
his ideas were, and at the same time how imperfect was his 
knowledge of astronomical philosophy; a branch of learning 
Cicero had derived from the Greeks, and which he has here 
treated of with a splendour of diction, that is inimitable. 'To- 
wards the close of the fifth century, Marcianus Capella wrote a 
work of nine books, in a very degraded Latin, entitled the Nup- 
tials of Philosophy and Mercury ; in the which,—incidental to a 
supposed conversation of learned men on the celebration of the 
Saturnalia,—he treats of the seven sciences, as they were then 
called, Grammar, Dialectics, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, 
Astronomy, and Music. ‘The poetry of Italy, at this time, does 
not bear evidence of that extreme inattention to which Latin 
prose was rapidly falling a victim. ‘The effort which composi- 
tion requires, and the restraining of expressions within the law 
of quantity, kept Latin poetry, for a long time, free from the 
corruptions which had already entered into the prose. The Ro- 
man armies were filled with strangers and barbarians, who 
sought to make themselves understood, by affixing Latin termi- 
nations to the words of their rude languages; and the natives, 
anxious to conciliate the ferocious soldiery, at whose mercy they 
lay, gradually adopted the jargon, which thus became conyven- 
tional. Under such circumstances, it requires very few genera- 
tions, first to disfigure, and then to change a language. ‘The 
grotesque departure of the corrupt Latin of the dark ages, from 
that of the Augustan age, and which preceded the modern Ita- 
lian, is not more remarkable than the transition observable in 
the dialectical passage from the ancient Anglo-Saxon, to the 
modern English. ; 
Amongst the poets of this day, the works of Claudian are still 
held in estimation: had he lived when men were familiar with 
great actions, he might have been a great poet; but the want 
of dignity in the subjects he has treated of, has been a great dis- 
advantage to the purity of his language, and the melody of his 
verse, which are worthy of more refined times. Stilicho,—a suc- 
cessful general of the Emperor Theodosius* the Great, and of his 
son Honorius,—was the Mecznas of Claudian, who himself was 
a true friend to his patron; for he celebrated his exploits, wrote 


* Died, A, D. 395. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 151 


against his enemies, and when he was disgraced by Honorius, he 
voluntarily retired from the world. Certainly, if great events 
alone are wanting to inspire writers, these were not wanting, 
but they were events rarely illustrated by examples of virtue: 
they arose out of the ruin of a corrupted empire; and nobleness 
of conduct, as well as the sympathy due to true dignity were 
wanting to them. The Roman Republic, a prey to the head- 
strong passions and misrule of a few sanguinary chieftians, (these 
rapidly and tragically removed by their own turbulent soldiery,) 
foreign and civil wars, the repeated invasions of the barbarians, 
the frightful desolations consequent upon them,* and the absence 
of the pristine Roman virtue and courage, these were the un- 
happy events presenting themselves to the Roman poets and his- 
torians; events least of all calculated to incite generous minds to 
perpetuate the remembrance, of what every Roman breast could 
not but revolt at. The Goth Odoacer, having dethroned the last 
of the western Emperors in the person of Augustulus in 475, 
was himself driven from the throne in 493 by the Ostrogoth The- 
odoric. ‘This prince, who had been educated at Constantinople, 
was, to a certain extent, the protector of letters, although he had 
never been taught to sign his own name. The manner in which 
he signed his edicts, is characteristic of himself, and of the age in 
which he lived. The five first letters of his name were cut 
through a golden blade, and by drawing his pen through the 
openings, he produced the letters T, H, E,O, D. ‘The venerable 
Cassiodorus, who obtained and never abused his confidence, was 
one of the wisest and best men of his time. Arts and letters 
were eminently favoured by him, himself, being a writer only 
second to Boethius, the accomplished author of a work, entitled, 
“De Consolatione Philosophie,” written during his imprisonment. 
Boethius is the last of the Roman writers, now held in any esti- 
mation, and was barbarously and unjustly put to death, under 
the cruelest tortures, by Theodoric: in despite of the high repu- 
tation he had acquired, in a glorious reign of thirty years, by this 
act he has shown that he was intrinsically a barbarian. 
Justinian, Emperor of the East, to deliver Italy from the power 
‘of the Ostrogoths, sent his general Belisarius there, who achieved 
* Alaric and the Goths sacked Rome three days in 409. Pope Leo ransomed it 
from Attila and the Huns in 452. Six years afterwards Genseric and the Vandals 


sacked it during fourteen days; and in 475 Odoacerat the head of the Heruli, caused 
himself to be crowned king of Italy, in the city of Rome. 


152 ‘Ipitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


victories worthy of the ancient Roman renown. Muratori, in his 
annals of Italy, has shown, that although he had been treated with 
signal ingratitude by the Emperor, yet that he died honoured, 
and in possession of great wealth, in 566. The story of ‘Date 
Obolum Belisario,’ was an invention of a Greek writer of the 
twelfth century, named Tzetzes. Narses, the eunuch, finally 
wrested Italy from the Goths, who had ruled there sixty-four 
years; and after contending with the Germans and the Franks, 
whom the hope of booty had drawn into Italy, he died at the age 
of ninety-five years. The Longobards, another race of barba- 
rians, had now descended into the north of Italy, not with a ma- 
rauding force, but with their entire nation, aged and young. 
They established themselves from the Alps to Rome, and in 
their bloody contests with the Greeks and Franks, they reduced 
Italy to ruin, and deluged it with blood. Their iron reign lasted 
from the end of the sixth century, through the seventh, and the 
greater part of the eighth. During this period, individual safety 
was the only consideration with men; and whatever of human 
letters survived this storm, found shelter in the monasteries. | 

In these consecrated retreats, hallowed even in the eyes. of 
barbarians,—with whom superstition asserts its influence most 
powerfully,—the wreck of civilization found a refuge. Here 
contemplative and pious minds, turning with horror from the uni- 
versal desolation, sought an asylum. It is a remarkable circum- 
stance in human history, that these monastic institutions, which 
had been so instrumental in the encouragement of that blind 
fanaticism to which the literature of antiquity had been deliver- 
ed, should be the direct means of preserving it from total ruin. 
Every monastery had its library, consisting principally of the 
works of the fathers, and of the polemic writings which had 
abounded in the preceding times. ‘To these, in many instances, 
were added the most celebrated works of the ancients, of which 
copies had been preserved from the general proscription. Be- 
fore the art of printing was introduced, it was part of the daily 
duty of the noviciates, and of the monks, whose time was not de- 
voted to other pursuits, to copy those held in the highest estima- 
tion. These copies were of great value, and the abbots were 
not indifferent to the pecuniary advantages they derived from 
this.source. In the history of the monasteries of the middle ages, 
those who followed this eccupation, were styled antiquaries, or 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 153 


copyists. Cassiodorus, of whom we have before spoken, in his 
work “De Institut. Divin. Litter.” expatiates upon the pleasure 
he found in this occupation. He enters into a great many curi- 
ous details, by way of instruction to the monks in his favourite 
art. He himself furnished drawings for the embellishment of the 
manuscripts, which he caused to be carefully bound by able 
workmen. When more than ninety years old, he drew up a 
treatise on orthography for the use of the monks. Amidst the 
inestimable benefits which Christianity has conferred upon man- 
kind, this atonement, which the monasteries made to letters for 
the destruction they formerly had brought upon them, is one, to 
the value of which, we cannot be insensible. 

At Constantinople, the seat of government of the Eastern Em- 
pire, letters continued rapidly to decline. Under Justinian,* 
whose code is well known, Theology became the reigning pas- 
sion; ecclesiastical literature absorbed the public attention, and 
words stood in the place of things. His ambition was to lead in 
theology as in legislation, and ‘he was not scrupulous in substitut- 
ing physical for moral arguments. At the expence of the lives 
of a hundred thousand of his subjects, he made war upon the 
Samaritans of Palestine, a sect so unsettled in their doctrines, 
that the Pagans considered them to be Jews, the Jews to be schis- 
matics, and the Christians to be idolaters. The theological zeal 
of this emperor, carried him at length to such refinements in his 
speculations, that, like the pendulum, which when arrived at one 
extreme point, is only preparing to return to the other, his 
opinions oscillated over into heresy ; but happily, whilst he was 
perparing to sustain his errors, by the same means he had used 
to propagate his orthodoxy, he died. 

Pope Gregory the First,} one of the most learned men of his 
day, but charged with carrying his zeal against Paganism to 
lengths injurious to ancient literature, observes in one of his 
letters, (Book 7th, let. 30,) “That there was not in Constanti- 
nople, an individual capable of translating accurately from Greek 
to Latin, or from Latin to Greek.” 

Nothing could exceed the intellectual darkness that reigned 
over the greatest part of Europe, when Charlemagne, in 774, 
passed the Alps, and delivered Italy from the Lombards. At 
Pavia, he found Peter of Pisa, from whom he received his first 

* Flourished, A. D, 540, 7 A, D, 590, 

Vou. L—20. 


154 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


elementary instruction in grammar ; by this means he was prepar- 
ed for the study of the prevailing learning of the day, under the 
celebrated Englishman, Alcuin. When it has been stated of this 
emperor, that he knew not how to write, this is to be understood 
of his ignorance of the large Roman character. His native 
tongue, the Tudesque, or German, he was much attached to, 
and wrote it with ease; but when the large Roman character 
came again into use, he experienced a difficulty in acquiring it : 
he caused his signature, therefore, to be engraved upon the pom- 
mel of the hilt of his sword. With this he affixed his manual; 
and on signing, he was wont to say, “I have signed it with the 
hilt, I will maintain it with the point.” Although this illustrious 
monarch sought, by his example, to render learning popular, yet, 
surrounded as he was by ecclesiastics, the prejudices against an- 
cient literature still prevailed, and the encouragement which the 
emperor intended for general learning, was too much diverted to 
theology. The effort, therefore, to revive human learning, being 
ill-directed, became abortive, and before the end of the ninth 
century, Italy and France, torn to pieces by civil wars, were 
again plunged into anarchy and darkness. It was thus the bril- 
liant period of Charlemagne passed over, without producing 
any real benefit to science; resembling the aurora borealis, 
which is not like the aurora of the east, the harbinger of im- 
mediate day. 

Of the encouragement which learning received about these 
times from the Saracens, it is not important we should now speak. 
The caliph Almamon cultivated astronomy, and many other 
branches of science received a rapid developement from them. 
Their empire, however, fell to pieces in a comparatively short 
period. Learning, with them, had been, as with the ancient 
Romans, a fruit of their conquests. Plants which are raised 
from the seed, are surer to take root, and to resist the vio- 
lence of storms, than those which are transplanted in full blossom. 
Europe, however, is indebted to the Saracens, for the arithmeti- 
cal characters, and which it is probable, were derived by them 
from the Greeks. 

The tenth century witnessed the continued successive and 
bloody struggles, for the ruins of the Carlovingian monarchy. 
The situation of the popes of Rome, who had to contend in turns 
with the Saracens from Sicily, the Germans, and their own sub- 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 155 


jects, did not admit of their making any efforts towards enlight- 
ening mankind. It was in this last century, that Italy was 
annexed to the German empire by Otho, a connexion which, un- 
fortunately, she has not yet been able to shake off. 

The eleventh century opened upon Europe, at a period when 
rapine, anarchy, and ignorance, had scarce a lower degree to 
descend to. The extreme of desolation had overtaken civilized 
society, and no other movement was left to it, but a re-construc- 
tion of its elements. It is accordingly this century which is sig- 
nalized by the Italians, as the commencement of a general 
renovation ; a period, when, from the chaos which succeeded to 
the ruins of human intelligence, new combinations began to be 
formed. Amongst the causes which operated powerfully upon 
the human mind, at this period of general instability of things, 
and which was well fitted to influence the universal debility of 
intellect, was the belief,—which had been inculcated through 
the interested fanaticism of the monks,—that the world was draw- 
ing to its end. The period fixed for this astounding event, and 
which was well calculated for an age abandoned by philosophy, 
and delivered up to the influence of credulity, was the termina- 
tion of the tenth century. Men looked forward to the evening 
of the day, on which they believed the sun was to rise for the 
last time, either with a stupid indifference, or a sullen despair. 
Many had endowed the convents largely with their wealth, for 
masses for their own souls, and for those of their living descend- 
ants: the desolation which was to fall upon the whole of man- 
kind at once, took away all the cormmon motives which attach 
men to property. The most illustrious names, the most magnifi- 
cent establishments, could no longer be valuable legacies to future 
generations; for at the conclusion of the thousandth year of the 
Christian era, all generations were to be destroyed. But when 
the awful moment, which had been awaited with such inexpres- 
sible agitation, had passed away amidst the accustomed benevo- 
lences of nature, when the glorious sun rose once more, and 
ushered in the first day of the eleventh century, men abandoned 
themselves to a grateful confidence in the permanence of nature, 
and returned to the gentler influences of hope, both for present 
and future happiness. The human mind, thus unexpectedly re- 
lieved from so deadly a weight, was in the right situation to fol- 
low those generous impulses which influence it, when untram- 


_ 156 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


melled by the chains of superstition, and thus became prepared, 
not only to receive the seeds of useful knowledge, but to cherish 
and exercise those Christian virtues, which are the true end of 
all knowledge. Another important occurrence also took place 
at this period. The house of Saxony became extinct in 1002, at 
the death of Otho the third, who died in Italy. From this mo- 
ment the Italians began their struggle for freedom. When the 
general effort is to emancipate, and not to enslave mankind; 
when our success is only crowned by being shared with others, 
when the selfish principle is subdued as far as human weakness 
permits, then the conflicts with tyranny are truly ennobled, and 
the most generous sentiments give birth to the most heroic ac- 
tions. This great moment, then, when the Italians began their 
contest for freedom, was that also of the beginning of the eman- 
cipation of the human mind in the western empire. 

Before this era, letters had begun somewhat to revive in the 
east. During the eighth century, the sanguinary religious quar- 
rels, between the image-worshippers and the Iconoclasts, had led 
to the destruction of many monuments, both of art and science; 
but in the ninth, Leo the Sixth, called the philosopher, somewhat 
revived the love of knowledge, by his example. He was suc- 
ceeded in the tenth by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, a prince of 
singular attainments. The revolution. so favourable to letters, 
which had taken place amongst the Arabians, had in a great 
measure contributed to the revival of letters in Constantinople. 
These wild conquerors, fatigued with their own desolations, 
which had laid waste the schools of Alexandria and others, now 
entered, with the same zeal, upon the cultivation of the learning 
of antiquity. The ardour with which they sought to acquire it, 
taught the Greeks the value of their books, and from copying 
them for the use of their new customers, they learnt at length 
to admire them: schools were re-established, and letters and phi- 
losophy, were again encouraged. This state of things was fur- 
ther favoured by the schism of the Greek church, which brought 
the Latins into a constant controversy with that acute nation of 
sophists. The general tendency to an emancipation of opinions, was 
also augmented, towards the end of the eleventh century, by 
the first crusade, which led so many prominent men of the times 
far from their homes, and by bringing them into contact with 
such various nations and individuals, could not fail to rouse their 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 157 


attention, to whatever bore upon the institutions or manners of 
their own country. 

It was in the twelfth century, that a state of things arose in 
Italy which secured to the northern Italians that greatest of all 
blessings, self-government, and its concomitant advantages.— 
Grown wise by experience, the inhabitants of the cities of north- 
ern Italy, renounced their ferocious antipathies, and formed 
the celebrated league of Lombardy, against which that active 
monarch the emperor Frederic Barbarossa, could not prevail. 
After losing several formidable German armies, which he con- 
ducted into Italy, he was finally discomfited in the most signal 
manner, and was compelled to acknowledge their independence 
at the peace of Constance, in 1183. The new republics which 
had thus won their freedom, became distinct schools, where the 
ancient examples of Roman virtue and patriotism were taught. 
The science of government was studied, and every branch of 
knowledge cultivated. Universities were founded, public teach- 
ers were honoured, and thus learning, which at the separation 
of letters from religion, flourished, because it found a liberal home 
in free Greece; now, when twenty-five hundred years had elap- 
sed, began to grow up in security, under the shade of the Tree 
of Italian Liberty. 

In looking back upon the period thus hastily reviewed, of 
about one thousand years; we perceive, that natural science, 
with the exception of the indefatigable labours of Pliny the elder— 
labours more curious than learned—had been entirely lost sight 
of. His death was appropriate enough for a naturalist, being suf- 
focated, A. D.'79, whilst observing an eruption at Mount Vesuvius. 

However slight this sketch of so important a portion of his- 
tory is, yet it did not appear proper to the writer of this 
epitome, to pass over so many ages without observation; ages 
too, not the less interesting, because their details are less famili- 
arly known, by reason of their being less accessible. The writer 
will have utterly failed in his intention, if he shall not have in- 
terested some of his readers, and if he shall not have convinced 
all, that solid advances in natural science, cannot be effected, 
unless we proceed experimentally from the known to the un- 
known. If in this long period, no progress was made in natural 
science, it was because there were no experimentalists, and be-- 
cause the studies of men, for the causes assigned, were based 


158 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


upon their own speculative imaginations; whilst nature, with 
her inexhaustible pages, remained a sealed book to them. We 
shall see, by and by, what bounds the human mind took, when 
the characters of that book began to be understood. 

(To be continued.) 


NOTICES OF BIG-BONE LICK, 


Including the various explorations that have been made there, the animals to which 
the remains belong, and the quantity that has been found of each ; with a particular 
account of the great collection of bones discovered in September, 1830. By 
Witutam Cooper, member of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Zoological Society of 
London, &e. 


Bic-zone Lick, so celebrated for the remains of unknown ani- 
mals that have been found buried there, is situated in a small 
valley in Boone county, in the northern part of Kentucky, with- 
in two miles of the left bank of the Ohio, about half way down; 
eighty miles distant, northerly, from Lexington, and twenty 
south-westerly from Cincinnatti, in Ohio. 

By licks are meant, in the western country, springy places, 
naturally affording salt, in search of which, the various species 
of herbivorous animals, both wild and domestic, resort to them in 
great numbers. At Big-bone Lick, the salt is deposited from nu- 
merous springs, rising through the soil over a surface of several 
acres. ‘There are likewise several streams of fresh water, that 
enter the valley from different sides; and these uniting, form a 
small river, which, taking a southerly course, discharges itself at 
the distance of twelve miles, into the Ohio. 

The quantity of fossil bones which appear to have been 
brought together at this place, and deposited within a very small 
area, is truly wonderful. An authentic account of all that have 
been found during the last ninety years, such as might enable us 
to make some estimate of the number of individuals, at least of 
the larger animals, whose remains were here intermingled, as well 
as to form some probable conjecture respecting the circumstances 
under which they perished, and to which they owe their assem- 
blage in this spot, would be at this day most desirable to possess. 
But it is too late to hope for this. Quantities almost exceeding 
belief, and of which no record has been kept, have within that 
period been carried off, and dispersed, no one can now tell 
whither. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 159 


The present communication comprises such information as the 
writer has been able to glean, of the various explorers of this 
celebrated place ; a notice of the animals which have been found 
here, and the quantity of remains of each; with a description of 
the ground and other attendant circumstances that can throw 
any light upon its theory. This must be, in several particulars, 
imperfect: and any person who may be in possession of authentic 
materials relative to this subject, is hereby invited to make them 
known, or to communicate them to some competent person for 
that purpose. It is only in this manner that we can expect to 
supply any of the numerous desiderata in the history of Big-bone 
Lick. 


Chronological Notice of the Explorers of Big-bone Lick. 


Longueil, a French officer, seems to have been the first who 
procured fossil bones at this place. They were brought to him 
from a morass near the Ohio, by some Indians who belonged to 
his party. This was in 1739. 

Colonel George Croghan, on his passage down the Ohio, in 
1765, stopped at Big-bone Lick, and is the first white man who is 
known to have visited it. His description of the place as it ap- 
peared at that time, will be found in another part of this memoir. 

General William H. Harrison of Ohio, was there, and obtained 
many bones in 1795 ; and the French general Collaud, as nearly 
as I can ascertain, about the same period. 

Dr. Goforth of Cincinnati, was the next. He made large ex- 
cavations, and found a great quantity of bones, which was about 
the year 1804; the precise date I have not been able to learn. 

He was succeeded by General Clark, the distinguished travel- 
ler, who was there in 1806. . 

The Western Museum Society of Cincinnati, have caused 
various examinations to be made for bones, and many more have 
been carried away by travellers and others, within the last twen- 
ty-five years. 

The author, in company with Mr. I. Cozzens, made a journey 
to Big-bone Lick in the summer of 1828. We caused several ex- 
cavations to be made, and collected every thing that seemed 
likely to add to our stock of information concerning the place. 

After all these various explorations, Mr. Benjamin Finnell, 
who resides here, and had previously made considerable discove- 


160 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


ries of bones, undertook another, so recently as the month of Sep- 
tember, 1830. It proved one of the most successful that has ever 
been made. 

His example encouraged Mr. William Bullock, now also of 
Kentucky, to undertake another search immediately after. Mr. 
Bullock likewise obtained a rich and valuable collection; since 
which all further operations have been forbidden by the present 
proprietors of the land. 

These various collections will be more particularly noticed, as 
well as the materials now existing will enable me, when treating 
of the animals to which the bones respectively belong. But it is 
much to be regretted, that the intelligent men who have enjoyed 
the opportunities, have generally omitted to furnish such descrip- 
‘tions as would now be useful for our purpose. We possess no satis- 
factory account of what was discovered previous to the visit of 
General Clark; and of those, even, which he obtained, no suffi- 
cient description has yet been published. A small part is describ- 
ed by Cuvier in his great work ; and a few have also been made 
known by Dr. Wistar. The remainder is still preserved in this 
country, and it is to be hoped we shall not be allowed to remain 
long ignorant of what it consists. 


Extinct animals found here, and quantity of remains of each 
- species. 

The remains found at Big-bone Lick, belong partly to animals 
whose species is now extinct, and partly to others, still numerous 
within the United States territory. Our present inquiries relating 
principally to the former, the other will not be especially men- 
tioned, except in the case of some which have been included 
among the cotemporaries of those more ancient quadrupeds. Of 
these the mastodon being the most extraordinary, and that which 
furnishes the greater portion, by far, of these remains, first de- 
serves our attention. 


1. Great Mastopon. (Mastodon maximus,* Cuvier.) 
Such is the quantity of bones and teeth of this species of mas- 
todon, that has been disinterred at Big-bone Lick, that although 
it is the most common of American fossil quadrupeds, and has 
been found in almost every part of the United States, yet all 


* M. Cuvier having finally adopted this name, we shall make use of it, instead of 
that formerly given, M. giganteum. Vide Oss. F'oss, ed. 3. ch. v. p. 527. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 161 


that have been discovered elsewhere, would not, united, equal 
the number obtained at this single locality. 

Longueil and Croghan each took but five or six teeth and 
bones, being as much as their means of transportation at that 
time permitted. 

General Harrison, as he informed several members of the Ly- 
ceum of Natural History, when in New York, about three years 
ago, procured as many as filled thirteen hogsheads, which were 
sent up the Ohio to Pittsburg; after which he never heard what 
became of them. General Collard, about the same time, obtain- 
ed twenty-four pieces. 

It is not to be presumed that these bones all belonged to the 
great mastodon ; but f am induced to mention them here, on ac- 
count of the probability that a majority of them did. In all the 
collections of bones made here, of which any precise account has 
been given, these always constitute the great mass. And this, 
unfortunately, is as much as is now known of all that was re- 
moved previous to the exploration made by Dr. Goforth. 

Concerning this, our information is likewise very scanty. He 
states that he got of mastodons’ teeth alone,* weighing from 
twelve to twenty pounds, “ as many as a wagon and four horses 
could draw,” besides which were many large tusks and bones, no 
doubt principally belonging to the same animal. A large part 
of this collection passed into the hands of Mr. William Bullock, 
so well known for the services he has rendered to natural history. 
Mr. Bullock, now residing in this country, I applied to him for 
information concerning them, when he favoured me with the 
following reply, dated Nov. 24, 1828. 

“Tn regard to the fossil bones of which you request informa- 
tion, it is about twenty years since I purchased of Thomas Ashe, 
twelve cases of bones, which I afterwards discovered were col- 
lected by Dr. Goforth, a few years previous to the time I bought 
them. According to Ashe’s account, who was present when many 
_ of them were collected, they were found several feet below the 
surface, and under the stratum of graminivorous bones, which 
you must have observed on the bank of the small river that 
passes near the spring: 

“TI had about twenty back teeth, exclusive of perhaps eight 
* en letter to Mr, Jefferson, published in Cramer’s Ohio Navigator, 8th ed. pp. 


Vou. L—21 


162 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

or ten in different jaws, and about ten tusks, among which were 
those of three different animals. The greatest part of these 
bones is now in the museum of the college of surgeons in London. 
A beautiful specimen of the fore part of the head, with all the 
delicate nasal bones entire, is in the possession of professor Mon- 
roe, of Edinburgh; and the late Dr. Blake, an eminent dentist of 
Dublin, had from me a very interesting collection of teeth in 
various stages of growth and decomposition.” 

It will be perceived that the quantity here mentioned by Mr. 
Bullock is small, in comparison with that which Goforth,-—of whose 
correctness there is no reason to doubt,—states to have been ob- 
tained by him. A great part of his collection, therefore, still re- 
mains to be accounted for. 

The next considerable collection known to have been made 
here, was by General Clarke, at the instance of Mr. Jefferson. 
The bones were brought to Washington in 1807, where they were 
seen by Dr.S. L. Mitchill,* who published a brief notice of them 
in the eleventh volume of the Medical Repository. ‘They were 
divided by Mr. Jefferson, according to Dr. Wistar, who selected 
them, between the American Philosophical Society, and the’ 
_ French Institute. Dr. Mitchill says, there were three parcels 
made, of which Mr. Jefferson reserved one for himself. However 
this may be, there are now very few fossil bones preserved at 
Charlottesville, and it is doubtful whether these are from Big- 
bone Lick. ‘ 

Those sent to France are described by Cuvier. They consist 
of an upper and two under jaws with teeth, five detached teeth, 
a radius, tibia, and several bones of the feet. 

The cabinet of the American Philosophical Society, contains 
of the mastodon, two or three portions of the cranium, one of 
them comprising a large part of the alveolar process of a tusk, 
fourteen or fifteen mutilated jaw bones, upper and under, con- 
taining teeth, and from animals of various ages, besides large 
tusks, and pieces of fossil ivory, in considerable quantity, several 
vertebra, and a few bones of the feet. The origin of all these 
is not certainly known at present; but, though some may have 
been derived from other localities, it is most probable that the 


* Whilst sending this sheet to the press, the Editor has received information of the 
death of this amiable and most eccentric individual. or forty years he has been a 
conspicuous friend to natural science, and for a great. portion of that time he kept the 
flag of science waving in this country, when he almost stood alone. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 163 


majority consist of those discovered at Big-bone Lick, by General 
Clarke. 
The western museum of Cincinnati, and Letton’s museum in 
the same city, contain many relics of the mastodon, nearly all 
” from Big-bone lick. ‘Together there are not less than one hun- 
dred pieces, more than half being grinders, of three and more 
pairs of points. There is, however, in the latter museum, a lower 
jaw, which is remarkable for having both branches tolerably 
complete, though the teeth are wanting. 

My researches at Big-bone Lick, procured me about seventy 

pieces, of which the most considerable were as follows : 

Two large, and numerous small fragments of tusks, presumed 
of mastodon. 

A small left lower jaw, with one molar tooth, of four points ; 
being the anterior milk molar. ‘This is from a very young 
individual, probably the youngest yet discovered, the first 
milk molar being scarcely at all worn.* 1 obtained likewise 
several other interesting portions, including teeth and bones, 
apparently all belonging to this small head. 

Four other large portions of lower jaws, all different, but with- 
out teeth. 

Thirty tolerably perfect separate molar teeth, besides large 
fragments of others.t 

Seven vertebrx, mutilated, and several portions of ribs. 

‘Two portions of scapulze. 


*'The Tetracaulodon of the late justly lamented Dr. Godman, appears to me, after 
acareful examination of his specimen, to be another young individual, also of the com- 
mon mastodon, but older than mine, the anterior milk molars having begun to fall, 
after having been used until they were worn down. I have stated my reasons for this 
epinion, ina paper on the dentary system of the mastodon, which I read to the Lyceum 
of Natural History, in April, 1830. It appears, however, from recent observations, 
that the lower tusks, which I suppose all of the species to have possessed in their 
youth, were in some instances permanent during the advanced age of the animal. But 
whether this was a sexual characteristic, or merely an individual case of anomaly, of 
which I have seen other curious examples, I cannot recognize more than one species 
of mastodon, among the great quantity of their remains | found in the United States, 
which have come under my observation, those just alluded to, included, 


Weare happy to find that Mr. Cooper, who has given this subject so careful an ex- 
amination, and who has had such rare opportunities of studying the dentition of these © 
animals, agrees with us so thoroughly in the opinion we have always expressed on 


this subject. Vide Monthly American Journal of Geology, &c. Vol. I. “: 3, p. 141. 
DITOR. 


+ Among these I include one similar to the tooth, also from Big-bone Lick, described 
by Dr, Harlan, as having belonged to an extinct s cies of tapir. That it is a young 
mastodon’s tooth, is evident, I think, from the milk teeth still remaining in the head on 
which the cid pe genus tetracaulodon is founded, as well as from the small jaw 
above described. 


164 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


Four humeri, much mutilated, three of them from the left 

side. 

Upper extremity of ulna. 

Five carpal, two metacarpal, and one phalangial bone of fore 

foot. 

Large fragment of os innominatum. 

Another, comprising the acetabulum. 

Lower extremity of left femur. 

Patella, tibia, epiphyses, gone. 

Calcaneum. 

Besides numerous fragments, not requiring especial notice, 
but like the rest, indicating, by their shattered condition, the 
violence they were exposed to, before their final deposition 
at this spot. Some appear to have been a little rubbed, but 
the broken edges are generally sharp, and the surfaces un- 
scratched. 

The bones discovered by Mr. Finnell, in September, 1830, 
form one of the most interesting series belonging to the mastodon, 
that has probably ever been assembled. Having taken notes of 
these, while exhibited in New York this summer, I am enabled’ 
to give the following descriptive catalogue, in which I have in- 
cluded such anatomical, and other observations, as appeared to 
be new or interesting. The first will naturally be 

A head, more entire than any previously discovered here or 

eisewhere. It is still, however, too imperfect to enable me 
to complete the description of this important part, and it is 
especially to be regretted, that so much is wanting around 
the exterior opening of the nostrils, that we can derive no 
aid from it, in endeavouring to determine with certainty, 
from the structure of this part, whether or not the mastodon 
was furnished with a trunk. But enough remains to show, 
that it differed materially from the elephant’s in form. It 
in fact bears more resemblance, in some respects, though to- 
tally different in others, to that of the rhinoceros, particu- 
larly in the nearly vertical elevation of the occiput, giving 
the skull the general form of a pyramid, of which the oc- 
ciput is the base, and the alveolar processes the summit, 
there being a gradual and pretty regular slope from be- 
tween these, nearly to the edge of the occiput. It is, 
however, much broader and flatter on the top, than in 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 165 


either of these animals.* The following are the principal 
dimensions. 


From the occiput to the end of the alveolar, 
from which a part is broken off, . 


a ts 

Breadth over the orbits, . . ; x ; Rip Shy € 
Girth lengthwise, : P R r soi joces Maina 
Girth at the occiput, . a E ‘ wise Do seek 
Girth of the two alveoles of tusks at their deste 3, 8. 
From the outside of the right anterior molar, to 

the outside of the left, . : 1,, 22. 
From the outside of the right satan to the left, 93. 


One tusk was found fixed in the socket, and the fellow bine 
near it. They are quite round, slender, and very uniform 
in diameter throughout, as far as they remain, the ends of 
both being broken off: The anterior molars being gone, 
and the posterior, which have four pairs of points, being 
worn by use, show that the animal was quite adult; though 
from its small size, and the slenderness of the tusks, it was 
probably a female. The curve of the tusks forms nearly a 
semicircle. The longer one measures six feet six inches, 
with a diameter of five inches. 

A large single tusk, which, when first found, was quite entire, 
though brittle from decay. It is very round, tapers gradu- 
ally to the point, measures in length nine feet two inches, 
and in circumference at the root, twenty-three and a half 
inches. It is remarkable for its slightly sigmoid curve. 

Eighteen pieces of tusks, from one and a half, to five feet long. 
These furnish some curious examples of dentition, from va- 
rious causes. Some appear to have been worn at the point by 
use, during the life time of the animal, and still retain a high 
polish. One or two are laterally abraded, in such a manner 
as to present a perfect section. 

A left upper jaw, with part of the socket of a tusk and one 
grinder. 

* This “ flatness of the cranium” was first observed by Messrs. Mitchill and 'Town- 


send. See their account of the mastodon found at Chester, May 1817, in Mitchill’s 
Cuvier, App. p. 379. 


+ Owing to the artificial state in which this head is at present exhibited, it is no 
longer possible to trace the sutures, or describe the separate bones. The general 
form is nearly all that can be safely described. For the same reason, no figure is now 
' given. 


166 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


Left upper jaw, with part of socket of tusk, and two molars. 
Right upper jaw, with one molar, and an empty socket. 
Right upper jaw, with one molar, from a young individual. 
Left upper jaw, with one molar, still younger. 

Right upper jaw, with one molar, no empty socket, the enamel 
whitish. ‘ 

Right and left lower maxillary bones, each with the posterior 
molar, which is a little worn, perhaps belonging to one jaw. 

Chin of a young individual, with a short truncated beak, in 
which are the vestiges of sockets of caducous incisors, 
(similar to the tetracaulodon of Godman.) Part of the right 
branch remains, with a portion of the root of the anterior 
right molar. 

Two other chins with remains of sockets of anterior molars. 

Left lower maxillary, with the posterior molar, and an empty 
socket, and part of the chin. 

Right and left lower maxillary bones, forming part of the same 
jaw. The right is tolerably perfect, and contains the pe- 
nultimate and posterior molars, with the sockets of one or 
two others. The left consists only of the posterior half of 
the jaw, with the posterior molar, which in both is still 
partly buried in the ascending branch, showing that the in- 
dividual was not perfectly adult. 

Left lower maxillary bone of large size, with one molar, and 
an empty socket. 

Left lower maxillary of a young individual, with two molars 
of six points, and a germ, also of six points, but entirely 
buried in the bone, which is fractured in such a manner, 
as to expose the germ. From this piece we learn how 
many molars with six points, the mastodon possessed. From 
young jaws formerly discovered, it was already known that 
there were two of four points; and the adult and aged spe- 
cimens make it evident that there was but one of eight or 
ten points, on each side, above and below. ‘This gives six on 
each side, or twenty-four in all, as the total number of mo- 
lars. They were not, however, all in action at the same 
time. Probably not more than two at once, were in use at 
any one period of the animal’s life, and finally, none but the 
posterior molar, with four or five pairs of points, and an ir- 
regular heel remained in the jaw. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 167 


Left lower maxillary, with one molar of six points, and an 
empty socket before and behind it. 

Right lower maxillary, also with one molar, and two empty 
sockets. 

Right lower maxillary, with only the large posterior molar re- 
maining, and much worn, the sockets of the others obli- 
terated: evidently an aged individual. 

Right lower maxillary, with the posterior molar, enamel 
whitish. The enamel is generally, it must be observed, very 
dark coloured, and sometimes black. 

Left lower maxillary, with two molars of six points, posterior 
half of the jaw wanting. A young individual.* 

Seventy-two molar teeth, presenting examples of nearly all the 
changes they undergo, from the state of a mere germ, of 
which the mastoid points alone remain, to that of an old 
and worn out tooth, in which the roots are completely os- 
sified, and remain uninjured; while the crowns are worn 
down in such a manner, as to leave the bony substance of 
the tooth bare of enamel, which merely forms a border 
round the crown. 

Of these molar teeth there are of the various kinds, 

One with two pairs of points, and an odd shoulder, representing 
a fifth point, or possibly an indistinct pair. 

Thirty-nine, with three pairs of points. 

Fourteen, with four pairs of points, and an odd one. Of 
these ten belong to the upper jaw, and four, I think, to the 
lower. 

Fifteen with five pairs of points, and an odd one, or heel— 
These are all lower jaw teeth, the posterior molar. 

Two with four pairs, and three small knobs in a row, besides 
a heel, and lateral tubercular knobs, and 

One with five pairs of points, and two knobs, too irregularly 
placed to form a pair. These three last are also lower pos- 
terior molars. 

Five atlas bones, with thirty-one other vertebra, cervical, dor- 
sal and lumbar. A separate spinal process, though. incom- 
plete, is twenty inches long; most of them are very much 

* Of the fifteen portions of lower jaws here enumerated, the posterior molar remain- 

ed in eight. In two of these this tooth had four pairs of points, and an odd point or 


heel, besides ; in the six others, there were five pairs of points, with from one to three 
irregular knobs, 


168 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


mutilated, and a part may not improbably belong to the 
elephant. 

Fifteen ribs, more or less broken. 

Large sacrum, with portions of ossa iInnominata attached. 

Two portions of other sacra. 

Five scapul, mutilated. Four retain the condyle. 

Seven humeri, all mutilated, and very imperfect. One wants 
the epiphyses, being from a young and small animal. Ano- 
ther consists merely of the condyles, others are no more than 
the shaft of the bone, with both ends broken off. 

Three ulne, of various sizes. 

A radius, lower end broken off: 

Fourteen or fifteen small bones of the fore feet, among which 
two cuneiform, and other carpal, and several metacarpal. 

A very large and nearly entire os innominatum. 

Two others, less entire, and appearing to belong together. 

Three others, consisting of little more than the acetabulum, 
with the thyroid foramen. 

A femur, nearly entire, thirty-eight inches long. 

Four others, more mutilated, some of larger size than the pre- 
ceding. 

Five other considerable portions of the same bone. 

A patella. 

Very large tibia, twenty-nine inches long. 

Three others, smaller. 

Another, of a young individual, the epiphyses wanting - 

Two astragali. 

Four calcanea. 

Immediately after Mr. Finnell discontinued, on procuring 
the bones just described, Mr. Bullock commenced digging near 
the same spot. He obtained many mastodon bones, as well as 
others; but as his collection has never been examined by any 
anatomist, I have not the means of ascertaining which, or how 
many there were, belonging to this animal. His letters to Mr. 
Featherstonhaugh mention, among others, “ the ruins of a very 
large head, showing the interior structure in a very beautiful 
manner, with a large portion of the top of the skull.” 


IL. Fossin Exernant. (Elephas primigenius. Blumenbach.) 


Grinders belonging to a species of elephant, which, in the 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 169 


opinion of M. Cuvier, do not differ essentially from those of the 
fossil Siberian, have always formed part of the collections made 
at Big-bone Lick. Until recently, they had always been found 
detached, and in small numbers. 

It has been also stated that the elephant’s teeth found here, 
were in a great state of decomposition; from which circumstance, 
and the absence of bones, it has been argued that they were of 
greater antiquity than the mastodon. But the facts are quite 
otherwise, as will presently appear. 

Remains of elephants, there can be no doubt, formed part of 
those carried away from this place by General Harrison, and 
those who preceded him. But what portions, and how many, 
whether teeth or bones, or both, cannot now be determined. 
Turner, in 1797, indicated the teeth as different from those of 
the mastodon, though he did not know what animal they were 
from. 

Goforth states, that he got many teeth of elephants, “some 
weighing 12lbs.” besides tusks, that he supposed were elephants’ 
which is very probable. 

Governor Clark brought away several elephants’ teeth. Three 
were sent to France, and most of the remainder are preserved in 
the cabinet of the American Philosophical Society. But they 
were all detached molars without any bone, except the lower 
jaw bones of a young individual mentioned by Wistar, which 
miscarried on their way from Washington to Philadelphia, and 
do not appear to have been ever recovered. 

Many elephants’ teeth, from Big-bone Lick, are shown in the 
public museum at Cincinnati. They are likewise separate teeth. 

Among the teeth that I procured there in the year 1828, were 
four of elephant, all remarkably sound, and as free from decay 
as any teeth of mastodon I have ever seen, from Big-bone Lick 
or elsewhere. Indeed one of them, which was accidentally broke 
in getting, appears so fresh and sound within, that if I had not 
seen it taken out of the muddy stream myself, I might have been 
tempted to suspect some deception, like that mentioned by Cu- 
vier, when a dealer tried to impose upon him by incrusting an 
African elephants’ tooth with marl. Another is an anterior milk 
molar, like that seen in the head of the Asiatic elephant, figured 
by Cuvier, pl. IV. £. 5 h. 

Among the remains disinterred in 1830, was an unusually 

Vox. 1L—22 


170 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


large proportion belonging to the fossil elephant. In the Finnell 
collection, I observed the following. 

Two very large tusks, forming a pair. The longer, though 
part of the large end is broken off, still measures 11 feet 104 
inches in length, and 22 inches in circumference. What 
remains of the other, measures 8 feet 10 inches, the small 
end being wanting. Both these are very much curved up- 
ward, and a little outward, so as almost to form a complete 
circle. It is chiefly this peculiar curve, which is so com- 
monly observed in the fossil elephant’s tusks found in Eu- 
rope and Siberia, that induces me to refer this pair to the 
elephant, of which several large heads, as will presently be 
seen, were found near where they lay. 

Right upper maxillary bone of a large individual, with a large 
and perfect molar, and part of one side of the great socket 
of a tusk. The tusks just described may not improbably 
have belonged to this head; as well as the two next men- 
tioned pieces. 

Left upper maxillary, with a large molar tooth. 

Large molar, with portions of left lower maxillary. 

The greater part of the head of a young individual, comprising 
the jaws, both upper and under, with parts of the skull. 
The ascending branch is wanting from the left lower jaw, 
and is broken off in the right, but is preserved. In the upper 
jaws are two small molars which had been in use, and the 
same number below, besides a large germ buried in the right 
branch, which must have been concealed by the gum. 

Twenty separate molar teeth, nearly all entire and undecayed. 

An atlas, somewhat mutilated and rubbed, as if by rolling. 

This is the only bone in the collection that I could determine 
to my satisfaction to belong to the Elephant. ‘The more perfect 
large bones of the extremities appeared to be all mastodon’s. 
The shafts of bones, without articulating surfaces, as well as the 
vertebre, which are much broken, may have been in part ele- 
phant. My opportunities for comparison were not sufficient to 
enable me to determine this. 

The collection formed at the same time, and in the same spot 
almost, by Mr. Bullock, is likewise very rich in remains of the 
elephant. In a letter to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, he states, that 
he commenced digging immediately after Mr. Finnell discon- 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 171 


tinued, “and on the third day came to a very fine entire (or 
nearly so,) head of what I suppose to be the Siberian elephant, 
four feet long, having all the teeth and one tusk in it. It is the 
finest fossil I have ever seen, and the only one known except that 
at St. Petersburgh. 


Mrcatonyx. Jefferson. Cuvier. 


It was not until recently that any discovery of remains of this 
animal was known to have been made, besides those dug out of 
a cave in Virginia, about thirty-five years ago, and described by 
Mr. Jefferson, in the American Philosophical Transactions.* From 
the description given by Goforth, of the bones he found at Big- 
hone Lick, afterwards carried to England, there was reason to 
suspect, that among them there was some belonging to the 
megalonyx. But Mr. Bullock states, that there were none among 
those which came into his possession. The great claw mention- 
ed in Ashe’s account, he says, in a letter to Mr. Featherston- 
haugh, was no more than a scapula of some animal, filed down 
to this shape. Until my journey to Ohio, in 1828, I had no posi- 
tive information of the megalonyx having been found, except in 
the one instance, above referred to. 

Messrs. Drake and Mansfield, in their “ Description of Cincin- 
nati, in 1826,” mention “ bones of the megalonyx,” preserved in 
the Western museum, in that city. Some of these I saw there, 
and was informed that they had been obtained by Mr. J. D. Clif- 
ford, from the White cave, in Kentucky. Besides these, I found in 
the same museum, a large humerus of megalonyx, discovered at 
Big-bone Lick, during one of the searches made there, by order 
of the proprietors. 

Mr. Cozzens and myself found also a metacarpal bone at the 
same place, no doubt belonging to the megalonyx. This bone, 
with all those in the Cincinnati collection, have been described 

* Although caverns are extremely numerous in the limestone region of the United 
States, and have been often explored in search of nitrous earth, well authenticated in- 
stances of fossil bones found in them, are very rare. The following paragraph is ex- 
tracted from “A description of Big-bone Cave, in White county, Tennessee, by D 


T. Maddox, Esq. Aug. 17, 1813,” contained in an almanac published in the western 
country. , 


“ My guide now informed me, that in this apartment had been found bones of a re- 
markable size and figure. He said, they had dug up the talon of a lion, thirteen 
inches long, the hoof of an elephant, the ribs of the mammoth, and the skull of a giant ; 
but that they were all destroyed.” 

The “ talon of a lion,” here mentioned,’may have been an ungueal phalanx, or even 
a claw, of a megalonyx. f 


172 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


and figured by Dr. Harlan, in the Journal of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 

‘Two additional instances of the occurrence of these remains 
were thus determined. 

Among those found by Mr. Finnell in 1830, are the following 
portions of the skeleton of a megalonyx. 

A right lower maxillary bone, with four molar teeth.* One of 
these, the anterior molar, is broken in the middle, and the 
upper half lost. The bone itself is so much mutilated, that 
barely enough remains to retain the teeth together, show- 
ing the violent action it was exposed to, before being 
buried. 

A detached molar tooth in very good preservation. It differs 
from all the four in the above described jaw, but not so 
much but that we may easily believe it to be from the up- 
per jaw of the same animal. 

A clavicle, probably of the same. 

A tibia, of the right side. 

In Mr. Bullock’s letter to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, already 
quoted, he gives a sketch of a bone, of which he obtained four 
similar, during his late search. ‘They are evidently the ungueal 
phalanges of a megalonyx. _ 

In the description of the megalonyx by Dr. Harlan, above re- 
ferred to, he has pointed out some differences in the teeth and 
bones discovered in the United States, which he considers as in- 
dicating two species of this genus. But the scanty materials we 
up to this time possess, do not, in my opinion, authorise us to de- 
cide upon specific characters. With respect to the teeth in 
particular, it is evidently fallacious to rely too much upon slight 
differences in them, inasmuch as we now see in the jaw lately 
discovered, that no two of the four are precisely alike, and the 
first and fourth, are, in fact, as dissimilar in the outline of their 
crowns, as possible. 

Remains of the megalonyx have also been found in South 
America. They were brought from Brazil, and placed in the 
collection of Munich, by the travellers, Martins and Spix. A 
late writer, in the Annals of Philosophy, is therefore incorrect, 
in saying that they have occurred only between the parallels of 


* Vide Pl. 3, Vol. 1. No. 2, Monthly American Journal of Geology, &c, 
t Vid. Ferussac Bull. May 1829, p. 275. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 173 


30° and 40° N. lat.* From an account recently published by 
Dr. Wagner, it appears that the Brazilian megalonyx was like 
many of the remains hitherto discovered in North America, also 
found in a cave. 


Bos Bowpirrons. Harlan. 

This extinct species, peculiar, so far as is yet known, to this 
country, was first distinguished, and its characters pointed out, by 
the late Dr. Wistar of Philadelphia,t in a paper read to the 
American Philosophical Society, accompanied with a good 
figure, in 1817 or 1818. 

Cuvier, as late as the third edition of his great work, makes no 
mention of it, although, unlike the three fossil species enumerated 
by him, it has the advantage of being so well distinguished from 
all the living species as to be in no danger of being confounded 
with any of them. Dr. Harlan first assigned it a place in the 
system under the expressive name of Bos bombifrons.} 

The head described by Wistar was obtained at Big-bone Lick 
by governor Clark, and is preserved in the Philosophical Society’s 
Cabinet. 

In the Finnell collection, I found a second head of this species, 
much in the same state as that figured by Dr. Wistar, or if any 
thing, rather less complete. Placed by the side of an analogous 
specimen of the buffalo, in the same collection, the differences 
were strikingly obvious. 

These two heads are the only remains that have been iden- 
tified as belonging to this species. Dr. Harlan, however, men- 
tions fossil teeth from Big-bone Lick that he thinks most pro- 
bably belonged to the same. 


Bos Patras. Dekay. 


This species is now first introduced among those whose remains 
oecur at Big-bone Lick. During my stay there in 1828, a mu- 
tilated skull, with part of the core of one horn attached, was - 
found in one of the streams near the great spring, where it had 
been used as a stepping stone, and brought to me. It is now de- 
posited in the Lyceum of Natural History. 

A skull similar to this, which was thrown up by an earthquake 
near New Madrid on the Mississippi, in the year 1812, forms the 

* Vid. Ann. Phil. for June 1831, p. 418. 


+ Vid. Amer. Phil. Trans. vol. 1, new series, p. 375. 
t Fauna Amer. p. 271. 


174 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


subject of a paper in the annals of the Lyceum, by my friend Dr. 
Dekay. On the supposition that it belonged to the same species 
with some Siberian heads described by Pallas and Ozcrets- 
koosky, he proposes to call it Bos Pallasii. Their strong resem- 
blance to the musk ox is admitted by Cuvier and Pallas, and it 
is equally apparent in the American specimens, of which I have 
seen a third, from Ohio, besides the two above mentioned. If 
they should finally prove to be identical with the Bos moschatus 
it would be rendered doubtful, whether they ought properly to 
be enumerated among the companions of the extinct races, 
whose remains are deposited at Big-bone Lick. 

- Kentucky appears to have been for ages the chosen habitation 
of many species of the bovine family. Besides the buffaloes, that 
within half a century abounded in that fertile country, we find 
at Big-bone the remains of two other species, while a fourth is 
proved to have formerly inhabited the same neighbourhood: the 
remarkable skull, a portion of which is preserved by the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, was found within ten miles. It is the 
Bos latifrons of Dr. Harlan, which Cuvier compares with the 
aurochs, Bos urus, of the old continent. 


Cervus Americanus. Harlan. 


In the paper which we have several times had occasion to 
refer to, Dr. Wistar describes an imperfect skull of’ a species of 
Cervus, which he found among those brought from Big-bone Lick 
by general Clarke. A careful comparison of it with the two 
great species of this genus that now inhabit the United States, 
led him to conclude that it came from an animal different from 
both these, and larger than either. Dr. Harlan has also describ- 
ed it in his Fauna, with the name of Cervus americanus. 

Among the smaller bones discovered in 1830 at Big-bone Lick, 
and since exhibited in this city, are several belonging to one or 
more species of deer. The greater part, I have no doubt, are 
recent bones, but among them isa skull so similar to that figured 
by Dr. Wistar, and, though very large, so different from that of 
either the moose or elk, that I did not hesitate to refer it to the 
extinct species. It is not more complete than Dr. Wistar’s spe- 
cimen, and bears the appearance of haying been rolled. ‘These 
are the only instances of the occurrence of this fossil with which 
I am acquainted. 

| To be Continued. ] 


Communication, &§c. 175 


COMMUNICATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE GEOLOGI- 
CAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AND OTHER NATURALISTS. 


Tue editor lays before his readers, with a just pride and entire 
satisfaction, the following communication, from the President of 
the Geological Society of London, and other distinguished Natu- 
ralists. 

London, June 18, 1831. 

My Dear Sirn,—We, your undersigned friends in England, are 
happy to learn that you propose to establish a new periodical 
work in the United States, which, in embracing all subjects con- 
nected with the natural history of America, is to be specially de- 
voted to the accumulation of geological facts and phenomena. 

Knowing your zeal and ability, we have great hopes that a 
work so directed, will meet with every encouragement in your 
country, and we are certain that it cannot but be of service to 
the cause of science in general. 

We shall at all times be desirous of aiding you with any com- 
munications in our power, and we subscribe ourselves, 

Yours very faithfully, 

Roperick Impry Murcuison, President of the Geologi- 
cal Society of London. 

Davies Gitpert, Vice President Royal Society. 

W. D. Converarg, F.R.S. F. G. S. &c. 

A. Seperewicx, F. R. 8. F. G. 8. &c. Fellow of Trin- 
ity College, Cambridge. 

Wm. Bucxtanp, D. D. F.R.S. &c. &e. Christ Church 
College, Oxford. 

Grorce Betuas Greenoven, F.R.S. &c. &e. 

Cuar.es Stoxss, F. R. S. &c. &c. 


P. S—lI cannot refrain in particular on my own part, from 
expressing the desire which I feel for the appearance of the pro- 
posed publication, as likely to conduce, in the most important 
points, to the effective progress of geology ; to ascertain in detail 
the suite of formations, and the series of organic remains distin- 
guishing them in a new continent, so widely separated from the 
old, and embracing such a range of various climate: so to com- 
pare the phenomena with those of Europe, has ever appeared to 
me the most material desideratum in geology; for we may be 
sure that any analogies which are common to localities geogra- 


176 = Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians. 


phically so distant, and placed under physical conditions so dis- 
tinct, are, in truth, analogies belonging generally to the whole 
globe; and thus we shall obtain data adequate for the founda- 
tion of a general geological theory. 

Well acquainted with the attention you have paid to the for- 
mations on this side the Atlantic, 1 am convinced that the execu- 
tion of this task, cannot fall into more competent hands. 

W. D. Conyprare. 


To G. W. Fratuerstonnavesn, Esq. 
Philadelphia. 


ANTIQUITIES AND LANGUAGES OF THE MEXICAN INDIANS. 
No. 2.—Mythology of the Mexicans. 


Ir appears to be beyond controversy, that the gods of the Pa- 
gan mythology were cradled in Egypt. Inachus and Cecrops 
introduced the Egyptian divinities into Greece, and from Greece 
they passed to Rome, the mistress of the universe, and the slave 
of the deities worshipped by the people they had subdued. It is 
worthy of notice, that Moses, the legislator of the Jewish people, 
emigrated from Egypt to Palestine, where temples and cere- 
monies were established, to which some have altogether attri- 
buted an Egyptian origin. 

Of all the opinions which hitherto have been declared on the 
subject of the first peopling of our American continent, one which 
appears the most reasonable, and which is contained within the 
limits of probability, is that which supposes the Asiatics to have 
been the first inhabitants of the new world. As it is not my in- 
tention to enter upon a question of this nature at present, I shall 
not allude to the reasons which have induced me to consider this 
as a well founded opinion, and shall confine myself to treating of 
the similarity which exists between the Egyptian and Mexican 
divinities. 

If Dupuy and Volney had been acquainted with the mythology 
of the ancient Mexicans, their investigations respecting Egyptian 
physiognomy, would have received some aid from that of the 
Mexican deities. Fortunately, we have reached the age of ana- 
lysis and comparison, when truth is divested of its shackles, and 
when conclusions established by the eyes of reason, are most ac- 
credited. 


i i i 


Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians. i bred 


The aborigines of Mexico, believed in a supreme being, to 
whom they gave the name of Teoil; a term not far removed 
from the Greek word Theos, the name in that tongue for God. | 

To express the essence of the divinity, the Mexicans used the 
term Jpalnemoani, “he who exists through himself ;” and also, 
Tloquenahuaque, “he who possesses every thing in himself.” 
What difference is there between these ideas, and those which 
the Hebrews expressed by the word Jehovah? None! Let it be 
remembered that the cradle of Moses floated upon the waters 
of the Nile. 

The Mexicans gave to the god of water, the name of Tlaloc, 
and the domain of the Mexican Neptune, they called Tlalocan. 
In Mictla, of which I treated in my former letter, the god Mict- 
lanteuctli was adored, and the goddess Mictlancihualt. Mictla, 
signifies hell. These were the Pluto and Proserpine of the Za- 
potecan Indians. 

The tradition of a deluge, in which perished a great portion 
of the human race, is familiar to the Mexicans, who gave to the 
man who saved himself and his family in a canoe, the name of 
Teocipactli, and to his wife that of Tochiquetzal. ‘The mountain 
upon which they landed was called Colhuacan: the name of this 
Mexican Ararat, is yet preserved in a village not far from Mex- 
ico. They had a tradition, that the language which had been 
lost in the deluge, had been taught to the survivors by a dove. 

Ometeuctliis the Jupiter Stator of the Mexicans; and Omecthuatl, 
stands in the place of the Venus, of the Pagan mythology. 

The sun was adored under the name ‘of Tonativh, and the 
moon, by that of Meztl. These were the appellations of the 
pyramids, dedicated to them in the.neighbourhood of Teotihwacan. 
The pyramids and the town still exist, and were visited by Hum- 
boldt: they were the sepulchres of the Aztecan monarchs! Tt 
is impossible to think of the worship to which they were devoted, — 
the uses to which they were put, and especially to their archi- 
tecture, without recalling to mind the pyramids of Egypt. Be- 
sides the pyramids, there were many other sepulchres in Teofi- 
huacan. The dead were deposited there, seated with the symbols 
of their office, and with the emblems of their dignity. The con- 
querors found many riches in those cemetries. Cortez, in one of 
his letters, says, that his soldiers found in one of these sepulchres 
two hundred and forty ounces of gold. The Mexicans were not 

Vor. 1—23 


178 Antiquities and Languages of the Mexican Indians. 


acquainted with the art of preparing mummies: those of the Pe- 
ruvians are well known in the United States. 

The god Quetzalcoatl, was worshipped as the god of the air, 
throughout the Mexican empire, and his laws declared on the 
mountain 'Tzatzipec, the mountain of clamours; the voice of his 
high priest was supposed to be heard at a distance of three hun- 
dred miles. The Mexican Atolus was likewise their Saturn. They 
had their golden age, which they called Teojihuitl, or & the 
divine year.” The same Quetzatcoatl was the vulcan of the 
Indians of Cholula, to whom he taught the art of smelting. 

Centeotl, the goddess of maiz, whom the Mexicans also called 
Tonacayohua, “she who feeds us,” and protects the fields like 
Ceres. To her they consecrated the first fruits. 

Huitzilopochtli, or Mejitli, [the j pronounced as. k,] from 
whence Mexico took its name, was the god of war, the Mars of 
the Mexicans. 

Tacaieuctli, the god who conducts, was the tutelary deity 
of commerce, the Aztecan Mercury. 

Tezcatzoncatl, the god of wine, was not less a favourite with the 
Mexicans, than Bacchus was with the Egyptians. Inthe city of 
Mexico alone, were four hundred priests dedicated to his service. 

Mijcoatl, the goddess of the chase, had, like Diana, her tem- 
ples, as well as her Endymion, named Amimitl. 

Coailicué, or Coatlanlona, protected the gardens; the dealers 
in flowers celebrated the feast of this Flora of the Aztecans, in 
the spring of the year, in a temple called Topico. 

Tzapotlatenan, the goddess of medicine, was the Mexican Apollo, 
though of a different sex. Besides their Venus the mother of the 
gods, they had their Venus impudica, and their Venus pronuba ; 
the name of the first was Macuiljochiquetzalli. Teopitoton, smaller 
gods, were the penates, of which they had both noble and ple- 
bian. The Mexicans acknowledged as deities, the inventors of 
all the arts, and of useful acquirements. Polytheism was so fer- 
tile amongst the Mexicans, that it produced a goddess for the 
protection of ancient females, named Slamateuchtli. Not the 
deities alone, but the temples, the feasts, the priesthood, and 
every thing connected with the worship, has a remarkable 
affinity with Egypt. 

The history of the aborigines of America, is yet involved in 
obscurity; perhaps this may be pierced in an age, when histori- 


Metamorphosis of Crabs. 179 


eal facts are sought by many, with as much avidity as gold was 
looked for in the fifteenth century. 

I offer these notices and reflections for the consideration of 
those who are occupied in the important investigation of the 
origin and progress of the civilization of mankind. In‘ another 
letter, I propose to speak of the extraordinary remains of Pa- 
lenque, the Palmira of Mexico. I have the honour to remain, 
sir, with the most unfeigned respect, A Mexican. 


ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE YOUNG OF THE 
COMMON CRAB, 


Extract from the Letter of a correspondent, dated London, June 18th, 1831. 


“Tue prodigious accession of new objects in natural history, 
especially from the animal kingdom, has placed great tempta- 
tions in the way, both of young and old naturalists. Like those 
orators who contend for victory, and not for truth, there are too 
many individuals who are indifferent to the means by which they 
acquire their trophies. 'To have brought forward a new genus 
or a new species, and then cry, ‘exegi monumentum,’ if even 
the immortality does not promise a longer life than ‘ green peas,’ 
has not been beneath the ambition of some minds, who can see in 
classification and nomenclature, the great end of all knowledge. 
Science, which has been somewhat fatigued by naturalists of 
this class, is now recovering from the dead weight they had be- 
come to it; but, like the tail of the tadpole, in its progress to 
maturity, they are becoming gradually absorbed. The voice of 
experience is at length listened to; we are already indifferent 
to conclusions, come they from what quarter they may, which 
are not obviously deduced from facts; and any man who pre- 
tends to belong to the multitudinous host of naturalists, which has 
sprung up in Europe,—as under the protection of Minerva, men 
were formerly produced from teeth, sown by Cadmus, in Beeotia,— 
must be very cautious—if he means to survive—how he skirmishes 
on his ownaccount. These reflections, which grow out of the past 
and passing conduct of natural history with us here, may not be 
inapplicable to the United States, where a great deal of good sense, 
has to contend with inexperience, and no doubt with sciolism. 

That natural history should flourish with you, in the United 
States, is sincerely to be desired; an additional bond will thus 


180 Metamorphosis of Crabs. 


unite two countries, where a common language can best express 
the progress of the general mind. There is much solicitude here, 
on the subject of the geology of your country ; and you must per- 
ceive by the increase of natural history literature, how welcome 
every new fact will be to us, in any of its branches, from your 
side of the water. The appearance of your Journal, will, of course, 
be hailed here by all, and will be indulgently judged by your 
numerous friends. We are aware how arduous a task you have 
undertaken, and that but few, at present, will find leisure to as- 
sist you. But if you adopt a popular course, you will acquire 
the confidence of those able te strengthen you, and after a few 
months there will be no lack of useful correspondents and friends 
to your undertaking. This has been the career of all the pe- 
riodicals of this country, which are distinguished for intelligence. 

{In a country like America, abounding with objects of natural 
history, the opportunities for indulging in neology, are very great : 
it is the vice of science. Your conchologists will tire of it, by and 
by, as others have done, and molluscous architecture,—a _ subor- 
dinate branch,—will become simplified and intelligible. They 
will be glad, as others have been, to condense their tedious lists, 
and shut them up into some prominent point, like those nice lit- 
tle nests of boxes we see sometimes. ‘This is already going on 
in more important branches, and will be extensively done, ere 
long, in others. Mr. Thompson, author of the ‘Zoological Re- 
searches and Illustrations in Natural History,’ is carrying reform 
into the crustacex, and is showing that many of this class under- 
go changes, as they advance to maturity, quite as curious as those 
of insects. He has succeeded in hatching the eggs of the com- 
mon crab, and the young, instead of being like their papa and 
mamma, turn out to be the zoéa, which had been raised to the 
rank of a genus of the modern systems by Bosc, who discovered 
it in the ocean. When we shall be able to extend this tadpoli- 
zation to the rest of the decapodous crustacea, a great reforma- 
tion will be effected in the rotten boroughs of natural history. 
Mr. Thompson remarks of the metamorphosis of the young crabs, 
that at the tender period, before any change, they are ‘ essen- 
tially and purely natatory animals, and, no doubt, possessed of 
corresponding habits, swimming about freely, and without inter- 
mission, in search of appropriate food. In their perfect state, 
the greater number can no longer avail themselves of the power 


Force of Vapour. 181 


of swimming, but are furnished with pincers and feet, almost 
solely adapted to crawling, so that they are now under the ne- 
cessity of confining their excursions in pursuit of prey, within 
more narrow limits. This curious piece of economy, explains 
what has ever appeared paradoxical to naturalists, viz. the an- 
nual peregrinations of the land crabs to the sea side; which, 
although acknowledged to be true, by several competent ob- 
servers, could never before be satisfactorily accounted for.” 


FORCE OF VAPOUR. 


Sir,—By publishing the following extract from Professor Silli- 
man’s Elements of Chemistry, and the subjoined notes, you will 
oblige , A Supscriger. 


Ir is stated in Professor Sillman’s Elements of Chemistry, pp. 
87, 88, and 105, Vol. I. that “ The force of vapour formed at the 
boiling point, is the same in all fluids, and just equals the pres- 
sure of the atmosphere, that is, thirty inches of mercury : this 
law appears to be fully ‘established. 

“It was also stated, in the same connexion, that the force of 
vapour is the same for every fluid, at an equal number of degrees 
above and below its boiling point. Both these laws were origin- 
ally given on the authority of Mr. Dalton, which was sustained 
by that of other eminent philosophers. Dr. Turner, in the second 
edition of his chemistry, (third Amer. p. 61,) says, ‘The force of 
vapour from all liquids is the same, at equal distances above or 
below the several temperatures at which they boil in the open 
air. Thus, steam at 200° F., has the same elasticity as the va- 
pour of ether at 85°; the boiling point of the former being 212°, 
and of the latter, 97°: Biot and Amédé Berthollet (Biot Traité de 
Ph. [. 282) have found that this law applies exactly to many 
other liquids; but some experiments on the oil of turpentine and 
petroleum, would lead to the conclusion that it was not universal.’ 
Dr. Thompson (on heat and electricity, p. 222,) states, that by 
subsequent experiments, the second law of Mr. Dalton has not 
been found to hold good, and that it has been relinquished by its 
author. At the time when my statement of those laws was writ- 
ten and printed, neither the second English edition of Dr. Turner 
had appeared, nor the work of Dr. Thompson, nor the eleventh 


182 Walsh’s Notices of Brazil. 


edition of Henry,* in which the correction of the law is thus 
stated : 

“¢ The force of vapour from different liquids, varies at the same 
temperature,’t and ‘ the variation of the force of vapour, from all li- 
quids, is the same, for the same variation of temperature, reckoning 
from vapour of any given force ;’ thus, measuring the force of all 
liquids at the boiling point, by thirty inches of mercury, it is 
found, that by losing 30° of heat from 212°, the vapour of water 
loses half its force, and so the vapour of any other liquid, loses 
half its force, by losing 30° of heat below its boiling point; and 
so on for any other increment or decrement of heat ;{ this has 
been experimentally established by Mr. Dalton.”—([II. Vol. Ad- 
denda, p. 42.] 


* Biot, in his Précis Elémentaire de Physique [. 265, a work published about six 
years before “the second English edition of Dr. Turner had appeared, or the work 
of Dr. Thompson, or the eleventh edition of Henry,” has the following paragraph 
relative to this supposed law of Dalton: 

“ Les expériences que fit M. Dalton sur l’aleool, ’ammoniac, et la dissolution de 
muriate de ch aux, lui parurent confirmer également la loi précédente. ‘Toutefois, je 
dois prevenir que des observations postérieures, faites par divers physiciens, ont dé- 
truit l’idée de géméraltié, et de rigueur qu’il lui avait attribuée. Le docteur Ure, de 
Glascow, a publié 4 ce sujet des recherches dont la précision parait ne guére laisser 
de doute, et un jeune et habile chimiste francais, M. Despretz, a été conduit par un 
autre vole aux memes consequences.” | 
' + Thus, if water, alcohol, and ether, be exposed to the temperature of 220°, the 
elasticities will be respectively 34.2, 80.2, 240, in inches of mercury.—True, but why 
does Mr. Silliman associate this fact with the law in question, as if it formed a part 
-of the latter, and thus make Dr. Henry appear to confound things so essentially dis- 
tinct Because the doctor happened to place them on the same page ? 

+ Will Mr. Silliman inform us, in what respect the law thus corrected differs from 
that originally announced by Dalton? and if he admits, as we presume he will, that 
it differs in no respect, will he also inform us, whether he is speaking seriously or 
jocosely, when he first lamely apologizes for admitting into his first volume, an wn- 
correct law, and the next moment repeats identically the same law, with the assur- 
ance that it is a modification of the former? If Mr. Silliman should be disposed 
to treat the matter seriously, we advise him to examine again the eleventh edition 
of his Henry ; he will find that far from admitting the inaccuracy of the original law 
of Dalton, Henry does not even notice the fact of its truth having been disputed, 


WALSH’S NOTICES OF BRAZIL. 


We have selected the following extracts from that very 
amusing — instructive work, “ Notices of Brazil, by the Rev. 


R. Watsn.’ 


“In Brazil, all journcys are suspended at the Ave Maria, that is, the ves- 
pers to the Virgin, that commence after sunset. Instead of a curfew, this 


Walsh’s Notices of Brazil. 183 


period is announced in the country by a very simple and beautiful circum- 
stance. A large beetle (Pelidnota testacea) with silver wings, then issues 
forth, and announces the hour of vespers, by winding his solemn and sono- 
rous horn. The Brazilians consider that there is something sacred in this 
coincidence; that the insect is the herald of the Virgin, sent to announce 
the time of her prayer; and it is for that reason constantly called Escara- 
velho d’Ave Maria, or the Ave Maria beetle. On the hill of Santa Theresa, 
I havé heard it of an evening, humming round the convent, and joining its 
harmonious bass to the sweet chant of the nuns within, at their evening ser- 
vice.” —Vol. ii. ch. 2. 


“The first place where gold was found, was at Riberdo, a small stream 
which falls into the Rio das Mortes, and here they built an Arayal, or vil- 
lage, called Antonio, near the spot where S. José was afterwards erected. 

“The vicinity of this river every where attests the extensive search for 
gold formerly pursued here, as it was for a length of time considered one of 
the richest parts of Brazil, from the profusion of precious metal found on its 
surface. All the banks of the stream are furrowed out in the most extraordi- 
nary manner, so as to be altogether unaccountable to one unacquainted with 
the cause. The whole of the vegetable mould was washed away, and 
nothing remained but a red earth, cut into square channels, like troughs, 
with a narrow ridge interposed between them. Above was conducted a head 
stream of water, let down through these troughs, which were all on an incli- 
ned plane. The lighter parts of the clay were washed away, and the gold 
remained behind. When this has been collected by a process I will here- 
after describe, that which remains behind is called pizaraéo. It is an inert 
caput mortuum of stubborn sterility, which no process can afterwards endow 
with the principles of fertility; so that, in washing out the gold, all the 
riches of the soil were literally exhausted, and nothing left but a barren 
and utterly useless surface. ' 

“The whole of the soil with which the soil is impregnated, is supposed to 
originate in the metalliferous ridges of rock which intersect the country. 
Here, in its matrix, the metal reposes; but the rains falling in impetuous 
torrents on their summits, and penetrating through their interior recesses, 
again ooze from their sides, carrying with them all the lighter parts of the 
precious metal, as they pass through the veins, and finally deposit them in the 
soil below, through which they percolate. 

“As the great auriferous repertory of the country now stood before me, J 
was curious to explore it ; so we prepared to ascend the ridge. The gene- 
ral face of it was quite perpendicular, and we could no more attempt to 
climb the part opposite to us, than Dover Cliff; but about three miles to the 
N. E. of the town, the ridge dips, and leaves a depression considerably lower 
than the rest, which is accessible. After winding in a zig zag direction up 

the rocky face, we at length emerged on the summit, and here we saw in 
perfection the totally new feature of the Brazilian landscape, which we 
before had contemplated at a distance. In all our journeys from Rio, for 
more than two hundred miles, we had scarcely seen a stone peeping through 
the soil. Here we stood upon an immense ridge of rocks, utterly denuded 
both of wood and grass, stretching their bare and rugged arms in all direc- 
tions over the country, and forming a prospect strongly contrasted with any 
we had yet contemplated. This ridgy region, I was told, ramified through 
the country to an immense extent in a westerly direction, till it was lost in 
the mato grosso, or vast forests, which extend nearly to the Andes; and these 
are the great metallic repositories, from whence the whole subjacent soil 
of the Minas Gerdes is impregnated with gold. 

“The summit of the ridge was by far the most wild and solitary we had 
seen in Brazil. It was generally composed of white sand, strewed with no- 
dules of very bright and almost transparent quartz, from the decomposition 


184 Walsh’s Notices of Brazit. 


of which the sand seemed to be formed. Piled up in great disorder were 
mounds of mica, slate, and large masses of different strata were lying over 
each other, in an angle considerably inclined, as if they had slipped down 
in succession from some niore elevated place. Towards S. José, the face 
of the ridge was a perpendicular precipice, five or six hundred feet high, for 
twelve or fourteen miles; on the other side it descended in a more gradual 
slope, like a shed from a wall. 

“The formation of this serra is generally of mica slate, and a modification 
of clay, talc, and chlorite slate. There is no granite yet discovered here; but 
a league and a half on the western side are extensive tracts of it. The 
beta, or vein, is generally quartz, in which is found gold variously mixed with 
iron stone, magnetic and titaneous iron, ochre, tellurium, and pyrites, con- 
taining gold and silver. The serra extends about twelve miles from east 
to west.” ' 


“We had every day, almost, a thunder storm, and the repercussion from 
the face of the ridge was so loud, sharp, and distinct, that it seemed as if the 
hard stone was hit and broken by a number of sledges striking upon it; and 
certainly if this symptom be any indication of metallic veins, 1t no where 
exists so strong as in the serra of S. José.” 


“For a long time, the only gold in the country was extracted from the 
clay, through which the rains from this ridge had filtered, leaving behind all 
the particles of the metal which they carried down. The first mines in 
the province were pits, called cata, opened by the workmen till they 
came to the cascalho, or gravel, below. This was broken up with pick-axes, 
and the contents brought to the river and washed. ‘They were therefore 
opened as near the banks as possible, and were generally called taboleiros, 
from the flat tabular surface over them. These primitive workings are 
every where to be seen, and have given names to places, as Catas Altas. 

“The next improvement was to conduct a stream of water to ground 
known to be impregnated with the metal, and so wash it out on the spot, and 
these were called lavras; they are seen in abundance on the banks of the 
Rio das Mortes. 

“The third and last was pursuing the metal into the rock itself, and this 
they attempted by opening superficial trenchments, on the most horizontal 
surfaces, and pushing them on where they found'any indication of gold. 
This they call talho alberto, or the open cut; and several of these remain 
in the serra towards S. Joao del Rey, about ten or twelve feet deep, ramify- 
ing in different directions, like the ravines of mountain torrents, which they 
resemble at first sight; but this, however, also failed, as the Brazilians had 
neither skill nor capital to proceed deeper, from the clumsiness and deficiency 
of their operations.” 


“The mines of Potosi were discovered by a Spaniard, who, in ascending 
the mountain, seized a bush to assist him; and this giving way, he found the 
root embossed with particles of silver. A similar cireumstance is told of 
gold in this province. The first Paulistas pulled up tufts of grass in the 
same manner, and found numerous particles of gold entangled in the roots; 
and the first washings in search of the metal were from the roots of the herb- 
age at the base of the hills. 

“ When a quantity of this impure mixture (grains of gold and esmeril) 
was thus collected, it was laid in the batea, (a bowl,) and here it was dexter- 
ously moved from side to side, ina constant ablution of fresh water, till the 
esmeril (oxide of iron) also passed off, and the heavier gold dust remained 
alone in the point of the cone. The whole of this was finally deposited in 
a large copper skillet, plaged over a fire on the spot, and stirred till the water 
evaporated, and nothing remained but dry gold dust, in general of exceed- 
ingly minute particles, but frequently appearing in small globules, some as 


Walsh’s Notices of Brazil. 185 


large as a grain of small shot. In this state a magnet was passed through 
it, to which the particles of iron still mixed with the gold, adhered; and 
this was continued till the whole was abstracted. 

“ Sometimes a more scientific process is resorted to. The mixture of dust 
is put into a bowl, and two ounces of mercury added to two pounds of gold 
and oxyde. ‘This mass is worked by the hands, into a dough, when the 
mercury takes up the gold only, which is merely entangled, but not amalga- 
mated, with it. It is then put into a cloth, and a portion of the mercury 
squeezed out; the remainder is set in a brass vessel, over a fire, and covered 
with green leaves, which are removed as they become parched. They ex- 
hibit small globules of the sublimed mercury on-the surface. What remains 
in the vessel is pure gold, changed in colour to a dull white.” 


“ Our way next morning lay along the edge of one of the most extensive 
and richest lavras in the country, and from which the place derived its name 
of dourado or golden. Immediately outside the village is a very large and 
deep ravine, extending to a considerable distance, and exposing its bowels 
stained with bright red ochre. This is excavated in soft sand stone, of the 
consistence of hard clay, and is strongly impregnated with gold, which 
accumulates in caldeiros, or pits like caldrons. Large masses of gold are 
sometimes found in these caldeiros. They are indicated by fibres ramifying 
through the matrix in which they lie; and when pursued from different direc- 
tions, they terminate ina common nucleus. A lump was found about thirty 
years ago in this place, which weighed forty pounds.” —Vol. 2. ch. 5. 


“ A large topaz mine, of which our host was the proprietor, lay about a 
mile from the zancho, and the next morning we visited it. The regions through 
which we had passed, were generally clay mountains, or granite ridges; we 
had now entered a new formation, a soft schist of talk, clay, or mica slate, 
which every where presented its lamellated edges in the ridges, just above 
the soil. In some places it was hard and solid, as building slate; in others, 
it was soft and friable, and in various states of decomposition. About fifty 
years ago, in pushing a road through one of these soft schistic knolls, which 
stood in their way, they were astonished to see several crystals of topaz 
tumble out of the soft mass. On this discovery they began to search, and 
they have now found and opened three large mines in the neighbourhood, 
within a circle of ten or twelve miles. The mine of Capo do lana, is an 
immense circular quarry, the shape of a hollow inverted cone, whose upper 
circumference is a mile or more. The sloping sides are composed of talk, 
or mica slate, either green, grey, or blue, and in a state of such decomposi- 
tion, as to be quite soft, hardly retaining any of its lamellated structure. 
This is called the corpo da formacao, or the substance in which the topaz 
veins are formed. These veins are a white medullary mass, called massa | 
branca, resembling soft chalk, though not calcareous, but is supposed to be 
some modification of mica. It forms cords as thick as an arm or leg, running 
for several yards, and ramifying into various smaller branches. This massa 
branea, is the matrix in which the topaz is imbedded, like a nodule of flint in 
a lump of chalk. 

“Here a number of negroes, with rude knives like peices of iron hoop, 
were scarifying the ground. When they cut across a white vein, it imme- 
diately became visible, and they pursued it, dislodging the topazes which were 
bedded inside, and handing them to an overseer with a bag.”—Vol. ii. ch. 7. 


“In the course of my journey I passed over six different surfaces, strikingly 
distinguished from each other in their aspect, formation, and productions. 
The first was the Beiramar, the rich plain which extended from the edge of 
the sea, to the base of the great serra, generally about sixty miles in breadth. 
Te is, a some exceptions, a flat surface, with an alluvial or sandy soil, 

oL. L.—2 


186 Notes on Illinois. 


exceedingly fertile, covered with fazendas, (farms,) and generally well culti- 
vated. 

«The next diversity of country was the Serra Acima, the great ridges of 
clay covered with immense forests of timber. A considerable part of these 
seem to consist of mounds of earth without any admixture of rock. We 
saw, in some places, deep sections of the hills, where either a part had 
fallen away, or it had been cut down. They presented perpendicular faces 
of earth, some of them near a hundred feet deep, into which the roots of lofty 
trees had penetrated to an incredible depth, almost realizing the poet’s descrip- 
tion, that they had extended as far below, as the branches above the surface 
of the soil. In many of these vast heaps of clay, we could not detect a stone 
as large as a boy’s marble. 

“The next variety of surface presented to us was the rocky serras, which 
rose like huge walls from the surface of the plains, bearing in their bosoms 
the metalliferous veins, and impregnating all the soil at their bases with the 
particles of precious ore washed down them. . The features of this region 
were very extraordinary, and had no kind of affinity with the former two. 
The summits of these naked stony ridges were often surmounted by fantas- 
tic protuberances, which the inhabitants imagined had human resemblances. 
One was called Ita Columi, or the child of stone; and another, Serra da Cava, 
from its likeness toan enormous visage. From this stony Arabia, we entered 
into the mato or thicket ; low eminences, covered over with copse and brush- 
wood, frequently interspersed with ferns and brambles, resembling similar 
soil and aspect, in the middle regions of Europe. 

Finally, we passed between bristly pikes, and conical mountains of bare 
granite, ascending to the sky, with well defined forms, and smooth taper 
surfaces, not having the most distant resemblance to any other objects we 
had passed.” —Vol. 2. ch. 12. 


We hope soon to lay a very interesting account before our readers of the 
now celebrated gold region, in the southern parts of the United States. 
With some irrelevant exceptions, the Rev'd. Mr. Walsh’s able account of 
the gold country in Brazil, would be an exact mineralogical description of 
some of the veins in North Carolina. We were exceedingly struck with 
this resemblance.—Epiror. 


NOTES ON ILLINOIS. 

Our readers, we think, cannot but be pleased with the extract 
we are about to present them with, from the Illinois Monthly 
Magazine, for July, 1831. A work so much devoted to the 
natural history, the manners, customs, and literature of ‘ the far 
west,’ carries an intrinsic value with it, that will soon be gene- 
rally appreciated. It speaks volumes for the intelligence of the 
inhabitants of the western states, that a work so truly American, 
and so meritoriously conducted, should have appeared amongst 
them.—Eb. . 


WILD ANIMALS. 

The buffaloe has entirely left us. Before the country was settled, our 
immense prairies afforded pasturage to large herds of this animal, and the 
traces of them are still remaining, in the * buffaloe paths” which are) to be 
seen in several parts of the state. These are well beaten tracks, leading 


Notes on Illinois. 187 


generally from the prairies in the interior of the state, to the margins of the 
Jarge rivers; showing the course of their migrations as they changed their 
pastures periodically, from the low marshy alluvion, to the dry upland plains. 
In the heat of summer they would be driven from the latter by prairie flies, 
in the autumn they would be expelled from the former by the musquitoes ; 
in the spring the grass of the plains would afford abundant pasturage, while 
the herds could enjoy the warmth of the sun, and snuff the breeze that 
sweeps so freely over them; in the winter the rich cane of the river banks, 
. which is an evergreen, would furnish food, while the low grounds, thickly 
covered with brush and forest, would afford protection from the bleak winds. 
I know few subjects more interesting than the migration of wild animals, con- 
necting, as it does, the singular displays of brute instinct, with a wonderful 
exhibition of the various supplies which nature has provided for the support 
of animal life, under an endless variety of circumstances. These paths are 
narrow, and remarkably direct, showing that the animals travelled in single 
file through the woods, and pursued the most direct course to their places of 
destination. 

Deer are more abundant than at the first settlement of the country. They 
increase, to a certain extent, with the population. The reason of this 
appears to be, that they find protection in the neighbourhood of man, from 
the beasts of prey that assail them in the wilderness, and from whose attacks 
their young, particularly, can with difficulty escape. They suffer most from 
the wolves, who hunt in packs like hounds, and who seldom give up the 
chase until a deer is taken. We have often sat, on a moonlight summer 
night, at the door ofa log cabin on one of our prairies, and heard the wolves 
in full chase of a deer, yelling very nearly in the same manner as a pack of 
hounds. Sometimes the cry would be heard at a great distance over the 
plain ; then it would die away, and again be distinguished at a nearer point, 
and in another direction—now the full cry would burst upon us from a 
neighbouring thicket, and we could almost hear the sobs of the exhausted 
deer; and again it would be borne away and lost in distance. We have 
passed nearly whole nights in listening to such sounds ; and once we saw a 
deer dash through the yard, and immediately past the door at which we sate, 
followed by his audacious pursuers, who were but a few yards in his rear. 

Immense numbers of deer are killed every year by our hunters, who take 
them for their hams and skins alone, throwing away the rest of the carcass. 
Venison hams and hides are important articles of export. The former are 
purchased from the hunters at 25 cents a pair, the latter at 20 cents a 
pound. In our villages we purchase, for our tables, the saddle of venison 
with the hams attached, for 37: cents, which would be something like one 
cent a pound, 

There are several ways of hunting deer, all of which are equally simple. 
Most generally the hunter proceeds to the woods on horseback, in the day 
time, selecting particularly certain hours, which are thought to be most 
favourable. It is said that during the seasons when the pastures are green, 
this animal rises from his lair, precisely at the rising of the moon, whether 
in the day or night; and I suppose the fact to be so, because such is the 
testimony of experienced hunters. If it be true, it is certainly a curious 
display of animal instinct. This hour therefore is always kept in view by 
the hunter, as he rides slowly through the forest, with his rifle on his 
shoulder, while his keen eye penetrates the surrounding shades. On 
beholding a deer the hunter slides from his horse, and while the deer is 
observing the latter, creeps upon him, keeping the largest trees between 
himself and the object of pursuit, until he gets near enough to fire. An 
expert woodsman seldom fails to hit his game. It is extremely dangerous 
to approach a wounded deer. Timid and harmless as this animal is at other 
times, he no sooner finds himself deprived of the power of flight than he 


188 Notes on Illinois. 


becomes furious, and rushes upon his enemy, making desperate plunges with 
his sharp horns, and striking and trampling violently with his fore legs, 
which being extremely muscular, and armed with sharp hoofs, are capable of 
inflicting very severe wounds. Aware of this circumstance, the hunter 
approaches him with caution, and either secures his prey by a second shot, 
where the first has been but partially successful, or, as is more frequently 
the case, causes his dog to seize the wounded animal, while he watches 
his own opportunity to stab him with his hunting knife. Sometimes where 
a noble buck is the victim, and the hunter is impatient or inexperienced, 
terrible conflicts ensue on such occasions. 


Another mode, is to watch at night, in the neighbourhood of the salt licks. 
These are spots where the earth is impregnated with saline particles, or 
where the salt water oozes through the soil. Deer and other grazing animals 
frequent such places, and remain for hours, licking the earth. The hunter 
secretes himself here, either in the thick top of a tree, or most generally in 
a screen erected for the purpose, and artfully concealed like a masked 
battery, with logs or green boughs. ‘This practice is pursued only in the 
summer, or early in the autumn, in cloudless nights, when the moon shines 
brilliantly, and objects may be readily discovered. At the rising of the 
moon or shortly after, the deer having risen from their beds, approach the 
lick. Such places are generally denuded of timber, but surrounded by it; 
and as the animal is about to emerge from the shade into the clear moon- 
light, he stops, looks cautiously around, and snuffs the air. Then he advances 
a few steps, and stops again, smells the ground, or raises his expanded 
nostrils, as if he “snuffed the approach of danger in every tainted breeze.” 
The hunter sits motionless, and almost breathless, waiting until the animal 
shall get within rifle shot, and until its position in relation to the hunter, and 
the licht, shall be favourable, when he fires with an unerring aim. °A few 
deer only can be thus taken in one night, and after a few nights these timor- 
ous animals are driven from the haunts which are thus disturbed. 

Another practice is called driving, and is only practised in those parts of 
the country where this kind of game is scarce, and where hunting is pursued 
as an amusement® A large party is made up, and the hunters ride forth with 
their dogs. The hunting ground is selected, and as it is pretty well known 
what tracks are usually taken by the deer when started, an individual is 
placed ‘at each of those passes, to intercept the retreating animal. The 
scene of action being thus, in some measure, surrounded, small parties 
advance with the dogs from different directions, and the startled deer, in flying, 
most generally pass some of the persons who are concealed, and who fire at 
them as they pass. 

The elk, hasdisappeared. A few have been seen in late years, and some taken ; 
butit is not known that any remain at this time, within the limits of the state. 

The bear isseldom seen. This animal inhabits those parts of the country 
that are thickly wooded, and delights particularly in cane brakes, where it 
feeds in the winter on the tender shoots of the young cane. The meat is 
tender and finely flavoured, and is esteemed a great delicacy. 

Wolves are very numerous in every part of the state. There are two 
kinds: the common, or black wolf, and the prairie wolf. The former is a 
large fierce animal, and very destructive to sheep, pigs, calves, poultry, and 
even young colts. They hunt in large packs, and after using every strata~ 
gem to circumvent their prey, attack it with remarkable ferocity. Like the 
Indian, they always endeavour to surprise their victim, and strike the mortal 
blow without exposing themselves to danger. They seldom attack man, 
except when asleep or wounded. The largest animals, when wounded, 
entangled, or otherwise disabled, become their prey, but in general they 
only attack such as are incapable of resistance. They have been known to 
lie in wait upon the bank of a stream which the buffaloes were in the habit 


Notes on Illinois. 189 


of crossing, and when one of those unwieldy animals was so unfortunate as 
to sink in the mire, spring suddenly upon it, and worry it to death, while 
thus disabled from resistance. Their most common prey is the deer, which 
they hunt regularly ; but all defenceless animals are alike acceptable to 
their ravenous appetites. When tempted by hunger they approach the farm 
houses in the night, and snatch their prey from under the very eye of the 
farmer ; and when the latter is absent with his dogs, the wolf is sometimes 
seen by the females lurking about in mid-day, as if aware of the unprotected 
state of the family. Our heroic females have sometimes shot them under 
such circumstances. 

The smell of burning assafwtida has a remarkable effect upon this animal. 
Ifa fire be made in the woods, and a portion of this drug thrown into it, so 
as to saturate the atmosphere with the odour, the wolves, if any are within 
reach of the scent, immediately assemble around, howling im the most 
mournful manner; and such is the remarkable fascination under which they 
seem to labour, that they will often suffer themselves to be shot down rather 
than quit the spot. 

Of the very few instances of their attacking human beings, of which we 
have heard, the following may serve to give some idea of their habits. In 
very early times, a negro man was passing in the night, in the lower part of 
Kentucky, from one settlement to another. The distance was several miles, 
and the country over which he travelled entirely unsettled. In the morning 
his carcass was found entirely stripped of flesh. Near it lay his axe, covered 
with blood, and all around the bushes were beaten down, the ground trodden, 
and the number of foot tracks so great, as to show that the unfortunate victim 
had fought long and manfully. On pursuing his track it appeared that the 
wolves had pursued him for a considerable distance, he had often turned upon 
them and driven them back. Several times they had attacked him, and been 
repelled, as appeared by the blood and tracks. He had killed some of them, 
before the final onset, and in the last conflict had destroyed several. His 
axe was his only weapon. 

On another occasion, many years ago, a negro man, was going through 
the woods, with no companion but his fiddle, when he discovered that a pack 
of wolves were on his track. They pursued very cautiously, but a few of 
them would sometimes dash up, and growl, as if impatient for their prey, 
and then fall back again. As he had several miles to go, he became much 
alarmed. He sometimes stopped, shouted, drove back his pursuers, and then 
proceeded. The animals became more and more audacious, and would 
probably have attacked him, had he not arrived at a deserted cabin, which 
stood by the way side. Into this he rushed for shelter, and without waiting 
to shut the door, climbed up and seated himself on the rafters. The wolves 
dashed in after him, and becoming quite furious, howled, and leaped, and 
endeavoured with every expression of rage to get to him. The moon was 
now shining brightly, and Cuff being able to see his enemies, and satisfied 
of his own safety, began to act on the offensive. Finding the cabin full of 
them, he crawled down to the top of the door, which he shut and fastened. 
Then removing some of the loose boards from the roof, scattered them with 
a tremendous clatter upon such of his foes as remained outside, who soon 
scampered off, while those in the house began to crouch with fear. He had 
now a large number of prisoners to stand guard over, until morning; and 
drawing forth his fiddle, he very good naturedly played for them all night, 
very much, as he supposed, to their edification and amusement, for like all 
genuine lovers of music, he imagined that it had power to soften the heart, 
even of a wolf. On the ensuing day, some of the neighbours assembled and 
destroyed the captives, with great rejoicings. 

The prairie wolf, is a smaller species, which takes its name from its habit 
of residing entirely upon the open plains. Even when hunted with dogs, it 


190 Notes on Mlincis: 


will make circuit after circuit, round the prairie, carefully avoiding the 
forest, or only dashing into it occasionally when hard pressed, and then 
returning to the plain. In size and appearance, this animal is midway 
between the wolf and the fox, and in colour it resembles the latter, being of 
avery light red. It preys upon poultry, rabbits, young pigs, calves, &c. The 
most friendly relations subsist between this animal and the common wolf, and 
they constantly hunt in packs together. Nothing is more common than to 
see a large black wolf, in company with several prairie wolves. Iam well 
satisfied that the latter is the jackal of Asia. 

Several years ago an agricultural society, which was established at the 
seat of government, offered a large premium to the person whoshould kill 
the greatest number of wolves in one year. The legislature at the same 
time offered a bounty for each wolf scalp that should be taken. The conse- 
quence was, that the expenditure for wolf scalps became so great, as to render 
it necessary to repeal the law. These animals, although still numerous, and 
troublesome to the farmer, are greatly decreased in number, and are no longer 
dangerous toman. We know of no instances in late years, of a human being 
having been attacked by them. a 

We have the fox, in some places in great numbers; though generally 
speaking, I think the animal is scarce. It will undoubtedly increase with 
the population. 

The panther and wild-cat are found in our forests. Our open country is 
not, however, well suited to their shy habits, and they are less frequently 
seen than in some of the neighbouring states. 

The beaver and otter, were once numerous, but are now seldom seen 
except on our frontiers. 

The gopher,* is, as we suppose, a non descript. The name does not occur 
im books of natural history, nor do we find any animal of a corresponding 
description. The only account that we have seen of it, is in “ Long’s Second 
Expedition.” Ina residence in this state of eleven years, we have never 
seen one, nor have we ever conversed with a person who has seen one—we 
mean, who has seen one near enough to examine it, and to be certain that it 
was not something else. That such an animal exists is doubtless; but they 
are very shy and their numbers small. They burrow in the earth, and are 
supposed to throw up those hillocks which are seen in such yast abundance 
over our prairies. This is to some extent a mistake, for we know that many 
of these little mounds are thrown up by craw-fish, and by ants. 

The polecat is very destructive to our poultry. 

The raccoon and opossum are very numerous, and extremely trouble- 
some to the farmer, as they not only attack his poultry, but plunder’ his 
cornfields. They are hunted by boys, and large numbers of them destroyed. 
The skins of the raccoons pay well for the trouble of taking them, as the 
fur is in demand. ¥ 

Rabbits are very abundant, and in some places extremely destructive to the 
young orchards, and to garden vegetables. 

We have the large grey squirrel, and the ground squirrel. 

There are no rats, except along the large rivers, where they have landed 
from the boats. 

* The writer of this interesting article, appears not to be aware that the Gopher 
has already been described. It belongs to the class Mammalia, order Rodentia. It 
was formerly included in the genus Mus, of Linneus, but Rafinesque has given it 
the elegant name of ‘Geomys.’ It is the ‘ Pseudostoma’ of Say, arid the Mus Bur- 
sarius of Shaw. There is but one species yet known, the Geomys Bursarius, or Earth 
Rat with Pouches. It is the size of ‘a rat, of a reddish grey colour, has deep cheek 
pouches, which open externally, enlarging the sides of the head and neck, hen it 
was first figured in the Transactions of the Linnwan Society, and in Shaw, vol. 2, 
part 1, these pouches were represented turned inside out, as though it had a bag on 
each side of the head.—Epb. 


Scienti fi emoranda. 191 


SCIENTIFIC MEMORANDA. 


Herds of frozen Elephants, Rhinoceros, §-c. §¢.—In No. VIL. of 

- * Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou,” 
there is a letter from M. Hedenstrom, to whom the Russian 
government had intrusted an expedition for the purpose of trac- 
ing geometrically the coasts of the Icy sea, from Lena to Colyma, 
and of making a description of the isles of the north. He was 
three years in these remarkable countries, and discovered a new 
Island, which he named New Siberia, because its general: appear- 
ance is much more savage than that of the old Siberia. In the 
unchangeable icy crusts of these countries there were found 
buried thousands of the mammout, (commonly called mammoth,) 
rhinoceros, buffaloe, and other antediluvian animals. New Siberia 
is indeed a country full of wonders, but which naturalists can 
only admire, for it is impossible to study nature there. The 
ground, frozen and hard as the rock, cannot be dug into; and 


the summer is too short for the necessary researches. 
Mag. of Nat. His. May, 1831, page 253. 


Voice of Fishes—It appears that fishes, like many diffident 
young persons, “don’t sing, but will try to do their best.” In 
Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, it is stated by a Mr. 
Thompson, that “some tench, which I caught in ponds, made a 
croaking like a frog, for a full half hour, whilst in the basket at 
my shoulder.” Mr. Murray also observes, “ when the herring is 
just caught in the net, and brought into the boat, it utters a shrill 
cry like the mouse; and I have often heard the long continued 
‘grunting’ or croaking, of the gurnard, after being freed from 
the hook.” 


Easy method of destroying Insects, intended for cabinet specitmens.— 
Put a quantity of sal. volatile, or common smelling salts, into 
a wide mouthed bottle; the insects will die soon after being intro- 
duced into it. For the larger moths, it is recommended, first to 
make a solution of crystallized oxalic acid with a little water; 
then holding the moth gently on the under side, between the 
wings, with the finger and thumb of your left hand, dip a sharp 
pointed quill, without a split, in the solution, run it into the in- 
sect between the first pair of legs, and after one or two applica- 
tions, the moth will be dead. 


192 To Readers and. responulents. wg 
- 


Elevation of the Morea.—A paper by M. Boblaye, on the geolo- 
gy of the Morea and Egina, offers proofs of the country having 
been upraised, not by degrees, but. by intervals, so sudden, that 
the land abandoned by the sea, is now in distinct irregular ter- 
races—Acad. des Sciences. 


A new Skeleton of the Megatherium.—A perfect skeleton of this 
rare animal, exceeding in size the splendid specimen preserved 
in the cabinet of Natural History, in Madrid, has been lately 
discovered, one hundred and twenty-six miles south of Buenos 
Ayres. This remarkable specimen of antediluvian* zoology, is 
now in the possession of Woodbine Parish, Esq. Consul General 
at Buenos Ayres, who intends to bring it with him to Europe.— 
Jameson’s Ed. N. P. Journal. 

Geology of India.—Dr. Turnbull Christie, has been appointed 
to examine the geology of the presidency of Madras. He visits 
Egypt and Syria on his way, accompanied by an artist to make 
designs of the various objects in natural history; and carries 
with him the proper instruments to examine meteorological, and 
hydrographical phenomena.—Ibid. 


* We want the evidence of its being antediluvian.—Ep. 


e 


TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 


WE have received the various communications of ‘Crito.’ ‘R.’ ‘A Marylander.” ‘A 
student in Geology.’ There are also some papers lying on our table without any signature 
or reference whatever. Our correspondents would find a convenience in affixing some 
designation to their papers. We wish them to understand, that when it is not expedient 
to publish a paper, we are desirous of transmitting it to the writer without delay —Of 
a paper thus circumstanced, we desire to observe, that we are sensible of the friend] 
intentions of the writer, that it is well and forcibly written, and has amused us aco 
ingly ; but we must decline the publication of it, at any rate at present. Having taken 
our full satisfaction, we have not the least desire of returning to a disagreeable subject. 
We hope henceforward to be permitted to pursue our path in cheerfulness and peace, 
and shall hold the communication of an unknown friend subject to his instructions. 

To ‘a student in geology,’ we desire to say, that we have not forgotten our pledge to 
give ‘in each number a continuous essay on geology, as a science.’ By recurring to page 
4, of our first number, he will perceive what our intentions are ; and that we have been 
constantly engaged in the execution of them. The ‘Epitome of the Progress of Natural 
Science,’ will terminate with the number for November ; the rise of the physical sciences 
and of geology will be then treated of: We shall hereafier come forward, hammer in 
hand, and endeayour to explain in a transparent manner, the true principles of geology 
and the general philosophy of natural science. We hope that the earnest we shall give 
of our sincere desire to advance the knowledge of American geology, will induce many 
to come to our aidy The developement of the geology of this vast continent, can only 
be effected by the labours of concurring observers. Whenever they are submitted to 
us, our correspondents may feel assured, that upon all occasions, they shall not only re- 

_ ceive the most ample credit for their contributions, but the assistance of our deliberate 
judgment. We propose ere long to return to this subject, with a view of pointing out 
the most expedient manner of effecting so desirable an end. 


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MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


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' GEOLOGY 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. L PuaitapEe puis, Novemerr, 1831. No. 5. 


AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 
(Continued from page 158.) 


We have seen how barren history is of ever? thing relating to 
natural science, during the long period under consideration in 
our last number, when the causes were in operation which ne- 
cessarily retarded every branch of physical science. The revival 
of these pursuits, not only required the indispensable guarantees 
of social security, but that they should be preceded by some ad- 
vances in literature. ‘Towards the end of the dark ages, all the 
languages of Europe were in a state of change. Languages may 
be compared to plants, many of which, if not segregated and cul- 
tivated by themselves, will mingle and give birth to varieties; by 
cultivation again, any of those varieties may be made perma- 
nent, and brought, as flowers and fruits frequently are, to a state 
of high perfection. All languages, in the eye of philosophy, are 
generically the same, since the sounds proceeding from the machi- 
nery of the human voice, and all their combinations, are results 
mechanically produced by a common cause; and the differences 
observable in uncultivated languages, spoken by people at great 


_ geographical distances from each other, may, to a great extent, 


be considered as modifications, effected by the difference of cli- 
mate, and often suggested by the uses to which the various ob- 
jects, found in different parts, are put by human beings. Every 
physical act differing from another, will necessarily be expressed 
in a peculiar manner, and it is only under great extensions of 
society, that any one language at length becomes generally intel- 


ligible. Under this view, it cannot be proved that languages are 
Vou. 1.—25 193 


w » 


194 Eypntome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


specifically different, unless it can be shown, in the particular 
case, that the whole machinery of the human voice, is specifically 
and mechanically different from that which distinguishes the 
human race. It is in this sense that all languages have an af- 
finity for each other, whilst that affinity, at the same time, by 
no means either proves or disproves the unity of the human race, 
any further than comparative anatomy is concerned. There, it 
is true, we find proofs of unity of design, with occasional modifi- 
cations of structure. Hence philologists, in examining remote lan- 
guages, have occasionally found affinities in the speech of barba- 
rous people, with those oriental tongues, which are supposed by 
many to be the first languages spoken, even in cases where there 
are no grounds to suppose any ancient connection of the races. 
Thus affinities have been found in the languages of the Red men 
of this continent, with the ancient Hebrew. It is true, however, 
that language materially enables us to trace the connection of 
races: the modern English tongue can be shown both by etymo- 
logy, and by records, to have for its basis the Anglo Saxon tongue; 
this last, the Teutonic, which again may be referred to the Celto- 
Scythian. Without entering at present into the origin of the 
Celts, they may be considered, as far as the languages of Chris- 
tendom are concerned, as a primitive people, who issued upon 
Europe from the western parts of Asia, and pushed on by succes- 
sive colonies, soon spread themselves to the extreme borders of 
the Mediterranean, and northward, to the Baltic ocean, including 
the islands on the coast. At remote periods new adventurers from 
Africa and Greece, mingled themselves with these first people, 
and distinct nations and people grew up amongst them. It was 
probably in this manner the ancient Latin people arose from an 
admixture of the old Celtic stock, with adventurers from Greece 
and Phenicia. When a cultivated race subdues a barbarous one, 
it usually occurs that the language and its forms, of the first, is 
imposed upon the last; whilst a barbarous people, when it pre- 
vails against a civilized nation, cannot substitute its own tongue, 
although by mingling itself with, it can effectually corrupt and 
destroy the other. This took place when the Celts were subse- 
quently subdued in every part of Europe by the Roman arms, 
when the Latin tongue prevailed over the Celtic, in Gaul and 
Spain; whilst, when the Roman empire was finally subdued by 
the Goths, the Roman tongue became subsequently a dead lan 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 195 


guage, and new dialects arose out of the mixture of the barba- 
rous with the civilized. Such was the origin of the Italian, the 
Spanish, and French languages. Muratori, in his antiquities of 
Italy, informs us, that as early as the end of the twelfth century, 
when Godfred, patriarch of Aquileia, pronounced a homily in the 
Latin tongue, the bishop of Padua, explained it to the people in 
the lingua volgare, or dialect spoken by the mass of the people, 
meaning the nascent Italian. This, as Tiraboschi, in his History 
of Italian Literature, observes, probably was spoken long before 
it was written, as the learned would disdain to write in a dialect 
only spoken by the vulgar. 

But the Italian tongue had already been preceded by the Pro- 
vencal, a language in which modern poetry, at the dawning of 
letters in Europe, first appeared. It was then, that poetry pro- 
duced its usual effect: from the moment of its cultivation, the 
darkness of the barbarous ages began to disperse; under its in- 
fluence men began again to draw together, as the beasts are said 
to have assembled, charmed by the lyre of Orpheus. We must 
go back one step in history, to glance at the very interesting cir- 
cumstances under which the Proveng¢al poetry arose, and from a 
source too much overlooked in the history of the revival of 
learning. 

The empire of the Arabs is dated from the Hegira, or flight 
of Mahomet, A. D. 622. An empire of this vast extent, and 
which, within the period of a century from its origin, compre- 
hended Egypt, Persia, Syria, Arabia, Africa, and the greater 
part of Spain, depended for its existence upon the fanaticism 
and military spirit, which had inspired the arms of Caled and 
Amrou. These impulses being wanting, the causes of the dis- 
memberment of this great empire began to operate. Luxury, 
the schism of Ali and Omar, factions, the civil wars between the 
followers of these chiefs, and the excommunications of the caliphs 
of Bagdad, Cairo, and Cordova, fulminated against each other 
like those of the popes and anti-popes of Rome, present another 
historical picture of the instability of empires founded by the sword. 
But in the comparatively short duration of the dominion of the 
caliphs, the zeal which had led this hot-blooded race to conquest, 
had, as has been stated at page 156, been directed to the culti- 
vation of the learning of antiquity; and their extraordinary at- 
tainments were destined to have a powerful and leading influ- 


196 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


ence upon the revival of letters in Christendom. The house of 
Abbas, which reigned at Bagdad in the eighth century, produced 
three illustrious protectors of arts and letters, the caliphs Abou 
Djafar Manzour, more familiarly called Almanzor; Haroun al 
Raschid, celebrated in that attractive work, The Arabian Nights; 
and his son Abdallah Mamoun, or Almamon, conspicuous above 
the rest as a benefactor to science, and whose name deserves to 
be transmitted to the lastest posterity. The favourite pursuit of 
this caliph, who flourished in the early part of the ninth century, 
was astronomy: numerous observatories were constructed during 
his reign, in which the measure of a degree of the meridian was 
taken. Bagdad, the seat of his government, was renowned for 
its cultivation of the sciences; camels entered its gates loaded 
with manuscripts, which the munificence of the caliph had col- 
lected, and all those productions which were calculated to en- 
large the minds of his subjects, were selected and translated into 
Arabian. Their knowledge of the works of Plato and Aristotle, 
had been derived from the Greeks, and one of the conditions of 
the peace, which Almamon imposed upon the Greek emperor 
Michael the IIIL., was a tribute of works in the Greek tongue. 
Every branch of knowledge was protected by this sovereign of 
the Saracens—astronomy, poetry, classics, medicine, and chem- 
istry—he even caused books to be drawn up on the utility of ani- 
mals, and to be illustrated with figures of beasts, birds, and fishes. 

The poetry of the Arabians began at a very early period, 
favoured by the lively minds, and fertile imaginations, of that 
free and roving people. There is a collection extant of their old 
national songs, with remarks upon the manners of the ancient 
Arabs, entitled Aghany; made by Aboul Faradge Ali, a native 
of Ispahan, who died A. D. 966. Such was the estimation in 
which poetry was held, that Mahomet himself was flattered by one 
of the chapters of the Koran, being judged worthy to be suspend- 
ed in the temple of Mecca, with seven celebrated poems, that had 
received that honour. Colleges and schools soon arose in every 
quarter. Under the Fatimite caliphs, Egypt presented a spec- 
tacle it had not known since the days of the Ptolemies ; and Fez 
and Morocco, now plunged in the darkest ignorance, rivalled 
Egypt in the cultivation of letters. But in no part of the world 
do the attainments of the Arabians shine with greater lustre than 
in Spain. Cordova, Grenada, Valencia, Seville, abounded in 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 197 


seminaries of learning. Whilst the rest of Europe was compara- 
tively consigned to the most debasing darkness, the Arabians in 
Spain had thrown open no less than seventy libraries to the pub- 
lic, enriched with all the knowledge they had so successfully cul- 
tivated. This concentration of light beamed in vain for the 
greater part of Christendom, whose slumbering intellect, was 
wrapt up in the contemplation of theological subtleties. Yet did 
the light at length penetrate that dark period; many are the 
useful inventions we owe to the Arabians, such as cotton and 
linen paper, as substitutes for the Egyptian papyrus; arithmeti- 
cal figures, the construction of observatories, of which Europe still 
retains a model in the famous tower of Seville, in Spain. . To 
them we owe also the process of distillation, and of many ana- 
lytical branches of chemistry. The use of gunpowder was known 
to the Moors in the 13th century, masses of stone and iron balls 
being projected with it, in their wars with the Spaniards. It 
was near the middle of the fourteenth century before this inven- 
tion was practised in France. ‘To the Arabians also, have been 
attributed the knowledge of the mariner’s compass, and the pen- 
dulum as a measure of time, before they were used by the Eu- 
ropeans. They were likewise the conservators of the works of 
Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Euclid, Ptolemy, and other luminaries of 
ancient times; to them, revived Europe was first indebted for 
the knowledge of the writings of these eminent men. All these 
writings have truly a constituent place in Arabic literature ; for 
the versions of the Arabians, having been principally made 
through the Syriac, and in a paraphrastic form, were not literal, 
as the Latin translations made from the Greek. 

They were also exceedingly devoted to music, and amatory 
poetry. It was thus the exaggerated metaphor of Arabian poet- 
ry passed into the Spanish, and which long infected the poetry 
of that nation. This style is still observed in the east; and al- 
though the Orientals have no conception of eloquence not based 
upon exaggeration, still they have too much good sense to under- 
stand it otherwise than figuratively. The French physician Ber- 
nier, in his description of the states of the great Mogul, relates 
the following characteristic anecdote. An Indian poet laureat, 
addressing a celebrated prince, used the following inflated lan- 
guage. “No sooner dost thou press the sides of thy rapid cour- 
ser, than the earth trembles; it is agitated, and the eight ele- 


198 Hpitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


phants, those huge pillars of the globe, bend beneath so noble a 
weight.” Bernier, who was present, whispered in the ear of 
the prince, “ Your majesty must generously abstain from riding 
on horseback, or your poor subjects will suffer too much from 
these earthquakes.” “It is on that account,” replied he, enter- 
ing into the joke, “that I usually travel in a palanquin.” 

It was in the year 1085, A. D., that Alfonso, the 4th king of 
Castile, with the aid of many French knights, recovered Toledo 
from the dominion of the Moors. ‘The inhabitants having sub- 
mitted to the Spaniards, their gay manners, their customs, their 
music, their poetry, their colleges, all became familiarly known 
to the conquerors. From this period may be dated the origin of 
Spanish letters, and of the Troubadour poetry, which contains 
no traces of Greek or Latin origin, but in its peculiar style is al- 
together Arabian. The Provencaux, inhabiting a climate that 
favoured these oriental manners, soon gave way to the influence 
of them; to such an extent had they adopted the free manners 
of the Moors, that they almost realized the romantic stories con- 
tained in the Arabian Tales. To do extravagant things in the 
name of the tender passion, was a true passport to fame. The 
Abbé Millot, amongst many other anecdotes, relates the following. 
“ Richard of Barbesieu, guilty of infidelity to his mistress, and un- 
able to obtain pardon, retired to the forests, where he built a hut, 
from which he declared he never would issue, until his mistress 
had received him into favour. At the end of two years, his com- 
panions waited upon the offended lady, when she consented to 
re-instate him in her graces, upon condition that a hundred 
knights with a hundred dames, ‘S’aimant d’amour,’ should pre- 
sent themselves before her, with their hands joined, and on their 
bended knees should entreat her to pardon him. ‘This was lit- 
erally performed at the lady’s castle, and at the conclusion of 
this solemn extravagance, she pronounced the pardon of Barbe- 
sieu. Manners like these, held up, as they then were, to the imi- 
tation of the best classes of society, could never have arisen out 
of the ferocious, anarchical, and polemical spirit, which, in Eu- 
rope, preceded this period; and are entirely to be attributed to 
the mercurial and lively habits of the Saracens, of which the 
Arabian Nights furnish a more extended picture. 

In the early poetry of the 'Troubadours, we perceive strong 
traces of the imitation of Arabian verse, and the model of the 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 199 


original form of many of the branches of modern poetry, espe- 
cially of the amatory verse of Petrarch. At their most brilliant 
period, the Troubadours frequented all the courts of Europe ;,and 
the inhabitants of Italy, whose barbarous language was just pass- 
ing into the vocal flexibility which now distinguishes it, subse- 
quently imitated the poetic art taught them by the ‘Troubadours, 
and afterwards formed the Italian language, principally in their 
poetical exercises, which soon extinguished the language which 
had served them as a model; for as the French, Spanish, and 
Italian tongues, arose nearly. at the same time, as far as concerns 
their poetry, the Provengal tongue became thus neglected, and 
the delirious glory of the Troubadours, which only lasted two 
centuries, passed away. Nothing more effectually contributed 
to this, than the establishment of the inquisition at the beginning’ 
of the 13th century, which covered their country, especially, with 
blood and carnage. 

Italian poetry first arose in Sicily, towards the end of the 12th 
eentury. This island, which had been occupied by the Greeks, 
the Saracens, and the Normans, and to which the Troubadours 
had very much resorted, had, at an early period, produced some 
attempts at poetry, and Frederic the IJ., born A. D. 1202, grand- 
son of Frederic Barbarossa, to whom the sovereignty of Naples 
and Sicily belonged, was one of the first poets who wrote in the 
Sicilian dialect. This monarch, remarkable for his attainments: 
and spirit, which brought him into constant struggles with the 
Papal power, was the protector of all liberal pursuits, and his 
court was much resorted to by men who had distinguished them- 
selves in the arts of peace. Natural history was one of his fa- 
vourite studies. He wrote a treatise on hunting with birds, ‘ De 
arte venandi cum avibus,’ in the which he not only deseribes land 
and water birds, their food and habits, but also their structure,. 
the mechanism of their wings, and their modes of offence and 
defence. There is an amatory ode of his, in which are many 
words in a state of transition from the Latin to the Italian, such 
as, €0, abbreviated from the pronoun ego, and now become io; 
meo, from meus, now become mio. From this and other contem- 
poraneous productions, it is evident the Italian had assumed its 
great outlines, and that it was in general use; for poets, espe- 
cially amatory ones, are not in the habit of expressing their feel- 
ings, in a tongue which is not familiar to their cotemporaries. 


200 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


But it was poetry that first gave life to the vulgar dialect of the 
people, and led to the cultivation of the new Italian tongue, 
which soon left the degenerate Latin to the pedantry of theolo- 
gians and jurists. Nevertheless this poetry, at its origin, was at 
best but a feeble mass of amatory expressions, without natural! 
feeling, and never directed to high achievements, or to the de- 
scription of those interesting objects with which Italian nature 
abounds. The Italians, at the dawning of their written language, 
sang of pains they never felt, and in quaint conceits, which 
sprang from the head and not from the heart, celebrated the 
power of mistresses that never inspired them with real tender- 
ness. This habit of exaggeration seized hold of every thing: 
hyperbolical flattery stood in the place of honest commendation ; 
the motives of human action being travestied, history became 
falsified, and men, instead of reasoning from facts to unerring re- 
sults, still continued the dupes of puerile conceits, and undefined 
words. Still the beauty and softness of their language, compen- 
sated to the Italians for the insubstantiality of their literature, 
by favouring the developement of their musical powers. 

But a poet, who has had no superior, soon arose amongst them, 
and took away this reproach. Although Sicily gave the signal 
for the new literature, the Italian cities, Florence, Bologna, Pa- 
dua, Naples, &c., quickly followed it. Letters and the arts first 
began to revive in Florence towards the end of the 13th century, 
where a republican form of government was established, and 
where judicial astrology was in great credit. 

Dante—a familiar abbreviation of Durante, his baptismal 
name—was born at Florence, A. D. 1265. One of the best edu- 
cated and most distinguished youths of the city, he, at the age of 
twenty-five, lost his mistress Beatrice, whom he had loved from his 
boy-hood. Ina collection of his earliest poetry, made by himself 
soon after her death, in 1290, and which he called Vita Nuova, are 
found all the interesting circumstances of their early loves; but 
towards the end, finding that the effort had fallen short of the ex- 
pression of his deep and wounded feelings, he says, “ If God shall 
continue my days, I hope to say things of her, which have never 
been said of woman before.”* It was to this purpose he conse- 
crated his great poem the Divina Commedia, a production that 
ranks him with the most illustrious poets that have written in 


* Spero di dire di lei, quello che mai non fu detto d’alcund. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 201 


any language. Dante, who had already raised Italian poetry 
from its feebleness, but who, in compositions which have barely 
survived him, had sought reputation through the Latin language; 
now reached the heights of fame, through one of the dialects of 
the vulgar tongue of Italy, whilst it was yet unformed, and with 
which he has invested with so much force, grace, and truth, 
every thing that is horrible and every thing that is beautiful. 
His factious countrymen the Florentines, after razing his house 
to the ground, confiscating his property, and leaving him to 
die, A. D. 1321, under a foreign government, instituted in 1373 
a professorship at the expense of the state, to lecture upon, and 
expound this poem. 

In one particular, the Divina Commedia gives Dante prece- 
dence over all poets, for it is the apotheosis of the woman he so 
deeply loved; every part of it bears testimony that it was she 
who inspired him, and that she was present to his imagination 
from the beginning to the end of his sublime production. It is 
impossible to read all the evidences of his attachment to Beatrice, 
which began at the very early age of nine years, without being 
deeply affected with the tenderness and truth of which so great 
a mind was capable, and which honour human nature so much. 
The ruin which had fallen upon the fortunes of Dante, was a 
consequence of the factions which, at this time, raged in every 
independent state of Italy. The independence of the northern 
cities, was, in many instances, only the prelude to civil wars. 
Their liberties were generally intrusted to some principal citizen, 
and who having tasted the sweets of power, often sought to per- 
petuate the possession of them. Thus every city nourished two 
factions, which, ranging themselves, subsequently, in the interests 
of the German emperors and the popes, took the designations of 
Ghibellines and Guelphs, from two rival German houses, the 
popes being the protectors of these last. 

This rivalry amongst the cities, which was fostered by the un- 
settled limitations of territory, was highly favourable to the useful 
and ornamental arts, through the ostentatious manner in which 
it sought to exhibit itself. Each city strove to outdo the other in 
the extent and magnificence of its public buildings; the citizens, 
too, partook of this spirit of emulation, and vied with each other 
in the grandeur of their palaces. At this moment nothing strikes 
the traveller in Italy more than the unusual number of extensive 

Vor. 1.—26 


202 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


edifices in Florence, Genoa, and other cities, standing in ‘ majes- 
tic amplitude,’ and whose harmony of proportion and ornament, 
as the late lord Byron has most poetically expressed it, “affect 
the mind, as if it were inaudible music.” These palaces were so 
many castles in the midst of a city; for the factions which so 
often divided the cities, raged frequently from the opposite sides 
of the streets; and many of their edifices, as their exterior denotes, 
were constructed for purposes of defence. Nor has the 18th cen- 
tury its architecture alone to boast of, it being still more illus- 
trious for the revival of painting under Giotto and Cimabue, both 
of them celebrated by Dante. These artists have left produc- 
tions, which, notwithstanding the general hardness of outline pe- 
culiar to the art at this period, breathe the genius and grace of 
that great school of painting, of which they,were the founders. 
Although the power of the Italian princes, had been raised at 
the expence of many of the privileges of the people, still their 
authority was beneficently exercised in favour of letters and the 
arts. The Visconti at Milan, the Carrara at Padua, the Gonzaga 
at Mantua, and the family of Este at Ferrara, were all patrons 
of merit. To their courts, eminent men—banished by the turbu- 
lence of the times from their own country, or travelling from vo- 
luntary motives,—resorted; and there they were entertained in 
the most hospitable and munificent manner. Men of letters were 
especially honoured, and the most important embassies frequently 
entrusted to them. Such was the court of Verona, under the 
great Cane della Scala, the patron of Dante, in his exile. Yet 
honoured as he was, there was a bitterness in his dependent state, 
that his lofty mind revolted at. “ You do not know,” he wrote 
to a friend, “how hard it is to eat another man’s bread.” It 
was this invincible feeling, that dissolved the connection between 
him and the princes of the house of Scala. His pride never 
abandoned him, and his growing dissatisfaction ended, perhaps, 
by indisposing them against him. ‘ What is the reason,” said 
one of them, before a number of his courtiers, to him, “ that 
many people prefer the stupidest buffoon about the court, to 
yourself, who have so much genius and wisdom?” Dante proudly 
replied, “ that ought not to surprise you, who know that friend- 
ships are the result of mutual sympathies, and affinities of cha- 
racter.” 

The great poem of Dante, had probably much influence: in 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 203 


reviving the taste for classical literature. In the universities 
and colleges of Padua, Bologna, and other cities, where the seven 
arts, as they are still called, were taught, to the exclusion of 
that literature ; the Greek and Roman writers were compara- 
tively unknown; but the Divina Commedia, of which Virgil, 
the model of Dante, is one of the principal characters, necessarily 
awakened the public attention to the writings of the Roman 
poet; and thus the classics, which had been so long overlooked, 
at the middle of the 14th century, were sought after with the 
greatest avidity, and by no one more than Petrarch, to whom 
Italian literature and learning owe so much. Such was the 
state of ignorance in one of the most celebrated universities, Bo- 
logna, that, as it is related in one of the familiar letters of Pe- 
trarch, one of the professors writing to him on the subject of the 
ancient writers, supposed Plato and Cicero to have been poets; 
had never heard of Nzevius and Plautus, and believed that Ennius 
and Statius, who lived two hundred and sso years apart, 
were cotemporaries. 

Having brought this epitome down to the 14th century, when 
literature was once more cherished, and the seeds of learning 
securely planted in various countries,—until that greatest of all 
discoveries, the art of printing, effected in the next century, had 
placed a barrier against the future obscuration of the general in- 
tellect—we shall, in our next number, take up the History and 
Progress of Geology and Comparative Anatomy. In the mean 
time we conclude this imperfect sketch, with the following sum- 
mary of the leading features of the long period we have been 
reviewing, as far as they concern the progress of human intellect, 
from the first dawnings of civilization. 

1. It has been shown that the only satisfactory channel, whereby 
we can trace the progress of authentic antiquity, is through the 
Greeks, with whom science spr ung up, consequent upon their 
intercourse with Egypt. 

2. That this intercourse was nearly cotemporary with the period 
of Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver, who was brought up from his 
infancy by the Egyptian priests, and instructed by them in 
their knowledge. 

3. That the first philosophical period known to us, arose about 
fifteen centuries before the Christian era, when the Egyptians 

' first carried their letters—the type of our own alphabet—into 


204 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


Greece; and that the leading cause of the cultivation of the 
philosophical arts, was the freedom of opinion, which the 
Greeks—not controlled by the theocracy of Egypt—were able 
to indulge in. 

4. That this freedom of opinion produced an extraordinary ee 
velopement of human powers, seeing that the names of Homer, 
Pythagoras, Aischylus, Pindar, Zeuxis, Sophocles, Plato, Eu- 
ripides, Phidias, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and others, are ac- 
counted the most illustrious of the human family, at this day. 

5. That the military power of the Romans, ended by extinguish- 
ing their freedom, and brought about the ruin of letters and 
the arts; that anarchy, having left to men no motive of action, 
but individual preservation, all love of country became extinct; 
and Rome, once the mistress of the world, fell, without dignity, 
before hordes of undisciplined barbarians. 

6. That notwithstanding the learning of the ancients had nearly 
become a victim to the fanaticism of the early professors of 
christianity, still we are indebted to the monasteries for the 
preservation—in the darkest days of Europe—for what we 
now possess of it. 

7. That we are greatly indebted to the Mahometans—a people 
whose name has been a reproach in the ears of christians—for 

_ the revival of human learning. 

8. That nations, like individuals, are weak in proportion as they 
are ignorant, and that their memories are most honoured, 
when they have advanced the arts and sciences. 

9. That when nations give themselves up to obscure dogmas, and 
speculative reasonings ; ; when they reason from the unknown 
to the known, nature is a sealed book, and God is unseen of 
them. 

Lastly, We know from our own experience, that the mechanical 
arts most minister to the enjoyment of men, when nature and 
nature’s laws, are most studied by them; and that in that 
study there is more exquisite enjoyment than in any other oc- 
cupation, seeing that the human mind is exceedingly elevated, 
in the contemplation of the power, and wisdom, of the Author 
of creation. 

To these conclusions we should add with regret, if the dawn 
of a better state of things were not rising, that at a period when 
the most arbitrary government in Europe is cultivating astronomy 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 205 


with the most brilliant success, there is not a single Public Observa- 
tory in the United States of America: and whilst geology and other 
branches of natural history, are cherished and taught in every 
public institution, devoted to education, in Europe; there is 
not, as far as we are informed—with one exception—an officiating 
professor of these attractive and useful branches of knowledge, 
in any of the universities or colleges of this country. 
( To be continued.) 


NOTICES OF BIG-BONE LICK, 


Including the various explorations that have been made there, the animals to which 
the remains belong, and the quantity that has been found of each; with a particu- 
lar account of the great collection of bones discovered in September, 1830. By 
Wittram Coopsr, member of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Zoological Society of 
London, &c. 


(Continued from page 174.) 


Tue six species of animals, of whose remains the preceding 

catalogue has been given, comprise all of those, found at Big-bone 
Lick, that in my judgment have a well established claim to be 
' considered fossil, either as being now extinct, entirely, or under 
the same latitudes, or because they are found associated with the 
extinct species. 
_ How many individuals there must have been, to have furnish- 
ed these remains, is an inquiry, not only curious in itself, but 
which bears upon some speculations regarding the phenomena of 
their accumulation. Although it can no longer be precisely de- 
termined, some approximation may still be made. With this 
view, I have attempted an estimate from the following data : 

The total number of grinders possessed by the mastodon from 
infancy to old age, as I have elsewhere shown, was twenty-four ; 
of which there were sixteen with three or more pairs of points. 

The greatest number of those existing together in the head, 
and, though not in use, sufficiently ossified to be preserved fossil, 
was twelve. 

The number existing and in use at the maturity of the species, 
was eight. 

At last in old age there remained but four, as in the Ele- 

phant. ett 9 ' 
Supposing each individual to have been of mature age, neither 


206 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


very old, nor very young, (though examples of both have cocur- 
red here, and may balance each other,) the fair average number 
of grinders to be allowed him, is, therefore, eight. 

The whole number of teeth in the Finnell collection with not 
less than three pairs of points, is, including those in the jaws 
ninety-four ; which, with twenty-six similar, brought by me from 
the same place, makes one hundred and twenty. ‘This, divided . 
by eight, gives fifteen as the least number of individuals that 
could have furnished the teeth, contained in these two collections 
alone. 

To these aré to be added, all that have been removed by 
Harrison, Goforth, Clarke, Bullock, the citizens of Cincinnati, and 
very many others; besides some, that, it is to be presumed, still re- 
main in the bed.* If six or seven times the number are allowed 
for all these, it would certainly not exceed the probability. In 
fact I should be more inclined to say ten or twenty times as many ; 
and were big-Bone Lick on the top of a mountain, we might be 
tempted to think, that the whole race had retreated hither, to 
escape some general inundation. 

The number of individual elephants, might be conjectured in 
the same manner. They appear to have been to the mastodon, 
about as one to five. The smaller quadrupeds are probably 
fewer than might have been obtained, if more care had been 
used to collect and preserve them. In the following table, which 
is intended chiefly to show the proportions the several species 
appear to bear to each other, I have put down no more of these, 
than are known to have been found. 


SPECIES. NO. OF INDIVIDUALS. 
’ Mastodon maximus, 100 
Elephas primigenius, 20 
Megalonyx Jeffersonit, 1 
Bos bombifrons 2 
— Pallasii, 1 
Cervus americanus, 2 


It is true that the remains of several other animals besides 
those just enumerated, occur abundantly at Big-bone Lick; and 
* Mr. Bullock, however, who has been at much pains and expense to determine 


this, is of opinion “ that all the strata near the Salt Lick of Big Bone, that contain 
animal remains have been examined.” See letter to Mr. Featherstonhaugh. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 207 


Ihave myself, collected the bones of three or four more at this 
place ; the horse, the bear, the buflalo, and two or three species 
of deer, have been recorded among the fossil animals. But none 
of these appear to me to merit that epithet in the geological 
sense of the word. 

Except the first, they are all animals indigenous to the country, 
and there would be nothing surprising in finding their bones near 
the surface, or even, sometimes, at the depth of several feet, when 
it is recollected how often the ground has been disturbed by re- 
‘ peated diggings. Bear’s bones from this locality, 1 have never 
seen, nor indeed of any carnivorous animal, which I consider a 
remarkable circumstance. Antlers, jaws, and other remains of 
Cervus canadensis, C. virginianus, C. alces, and perhaps C. taran- 
dus, are not very rare. I think I have observed among the col- 
lections. made at Big-bone Lick, traces of each of these. But 
they bear no proportion to those of the buffalo, whose bones are 
dispersed through the alluvial soil, or strewn over the surface in 
great abundance.. The buffalo in modern times, as perhaps the 
mastodon in past ages, seems to have nearly monopolized this 
favourite haunt to himself. With the horse, the case is different, 
inasmuch as this animal is generally believed not to have been an 
aboriginal inhabitant of this continent.* But it isnot at all necessa- 
ry tosuppose that he was so, to account for the simple circumstance 
of finding a few of his bones at this place. Within a few yards of 
the spot where the excavations of last September were made, are 
the vestiges of a fort, and several wells, the work of the first 
settlers of Kentucky, about forty or fifty years ago. They doubt- 
less brought horses with them, some of which may have died 
here, and their bones might easily have. become more or less 
covered with earth in a place where wells were dug, and the 
ground tilled, as it has been here, for many years past. Nothing 
in regard to this point can be argued from the state of preserva- 
tion of any remains found at Big-bone Lick. I have now before 
me a tooth of a megalonyx found here, apparently as sound and 
fresh as any of the recent horse or buffalo. 

If any well identified remains of the horse had been found as- 
sociated in the same bed, with those of the extinct animals, in 
spots well known not to have been previously disturbed, we could 
not refuse to admit their equal antiquity with the rest. But Ido 


* Our author will find many individuals, entertaining a different opinion —Ed. 


208 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


not think that this point has been sufficiently made out. I saw 
nothing in support of it myself, nor have I met with any person 
who could answer for such a fact, from his own careful observation. 
In the case of those recently exhibited in this city, one of the pro- 
prietors who assisted in disinterring them, acknowledged to me, 
that the horses’ bones were generally near the surface, although 
part of a skull was found at the depth of twelve or fifteen feet; 
but that they were all separated from the great bones, which 
lay at the depth of twenty two feet, and in a different kind of soil. 
Mr. Bullock, it is true, states that “the bones of the horse were 
found at various depths, from five to twenty feet, indiscriminately 
with the other bones.” 

When the report printed in the first number of this Journal 
was presented to the Lyceum of New York, I was inclined to a 
different opinion, having been led to suppose that all the bones 
and teeth exhibited as fossil, had been found lying promiscuously 
together. But finding, upon stricter inquiry, that this was not the 
case, and that part at least of those belonging to the horse were 
undoubtedly recent, I consider it best to wait for more certain 
evidence before admitting the existence of an ancient race of 
this genus'upon our continent. It is not a new thing, however, 
to hear of fossil remains of horses in this country. The first printed 
notice of them, as far as I am aware, is contained in Mitchill’s 
“Catalogue of Organic Remains,” pp. 7 and 8. They consist of 
a vertebra and several teeth found in New Jersey. In the col- 
lection of the Lyceum are likewise others, represented as fossil, 
from other American localities, but I know not upon what evi- 
dence. 


On the Position of the Organic Remains at Big-bone ¢ Lick. 


Nearly in the centre of the valley in which the great bone 
licks are situated, as may be seen by the map,* is a fountain, 
called by the inhabitants the Gum Spring. It is the most _copi- 
ous, and the most distinguished for the peculiar properties of its 
waters of all that the valley contains. Opposite to this is a small 
island, formed by the division of one of the two principal branches 
of Big-bone creek, at its north-east point, one arm passing by the 
great spring, where it unites with the other branch, while the 
main body continues round the south side of the island, at the 


* See pl. 5, vol. I. No. 4, Monthly Journal of Guology, &e. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 209 


south-west point of which they all unite their waters to form Big- 
bone creek. 

The fossil bones have all been found on the east and south- 
east sides of the Gum Spring, either along the western branch 
of the creek, about the point opposite the spring, or on the island ; 
but always, except in a very few instances, within fifty or sixty 
yards of this spring. Within so small an area has been gathered 
the extraordinary quantity of which I have endeavoured to con- 
vey some idea in the preceding pages. Many excavations have 
been made in other parts of the valley, some in search of bones 
and others for salt water. At what is called the Big Lick, where 
a number of lime springs form a small miry spot like that at the 
Gum Spring, and about one hundred and fifty yards from it, a 
well has even been dug, and the soil examined to the depth of 
twenty-five or thirty feet, without any bones being met with. 
Yet here there would be the greatest probability of finding them 
if any where besides the spot described. 

It appears from various accounts, that at the period of the first 
settlement of the country the great bones were either lying on 
the surface of the ground, or so near it as to be obtained with very 
little labour. It is even said that they were so numerous on the sur- 
face about fifty years ago, that a person might walk over the lick 
by stepping from one to another, without touching the ground. 

Croghan gives the following short description of this place as 
he found it about twenty years previous to the occupation of the 
country by the whites. It is extracted from his manuscript 
journal of a voyage down the Ohio, now in the possession of Mr. 
Featherstonhaugh. 

“ 30th, (May 1765.) We passed the great Miami river about 
30 miles from the little river of that name, and in the evening 
arrived at the place where the elephants’ bones are found, where 
we encamped, intending to take a view of the place next morn- 
ing. This day we came about 70 miles. 

“31st. Early in the morning we went to the great lick where 
these bones are only found, about four miles from the river on 
the south-east side. In our way we passed through a fine tim- 
bered clear wood. We came toa road which the buffaloes have 
beaten, spacious enough for two wagons to go abreast, and lead- 
ing straight into the lick. It appears that there are vast quan- 
tities of these bones lying five or six feet under ground, which we 

Vor. L—27 


210 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


iscovered in the bank at the edge of the lick. We found here 

wo tusks above six feet long, we carried one, with some other 
bones, to our boats and set off. This day we proceeded down the 
river about 80 miles.” 

According to General Collaud, as quoted by Cuvier, the bones 
lay about four feet deep. General Harrison and Governor 
Clarke have never given any information on this head that I am 
aware of. 

Goforth relates, “ we dug through several layers of small bones 
in a stiff blue clay, such as deer, elk, buffalo and bear, in great 
numbers, many much broken, below which was a stratum of 
gravel and salt water, in which we found the large bones, some 
nearly eleven feet deep in the ground, though they were also 
found on the surface.” 

So recently as the summer of 1828, when I visted this place, 
bones of the larger animals were still to be found close to the sur- 
face, or in the bed of the stream near the great spring. Some 
of these, it was evident, had been previously disturbed, and there- 
fore no longer occupied their ancient position. But some teeth 
which I obtained were so large and so finely preserved, that they 
certainly would not have been left if they had been sooner dis- 
covered. These lay in a very low place, within less than two 
feet of the surface, and near the edge of the stream on the east of 
the Gum Spring. 

The bones discovered in 1830, by Messrs. Finnell and Bullock, 
were found under somewhat different circumstances from those 
just described. The following particulars, gathered from one of 
the proprietors who was present at their disinterment, and cor- 
roborated by the letters of Mr. Bullock, may be relied on. 

They were procured on the north side of the island, a little 
east of the great spring, and about fifty or sixty yards from it. 
The pit or well, originally dug by Mr. Finnell, was nine feet 
wide and about twenty-five deep. Mr. Bullock, thinking Mr. 
Finnell had not thoroughly examined it, afterwards re-opened 
and enlarged it in width and depth, and found many bones; all, 
however, on the same level, and none deeper. The great bones 
were first met with at the depth of twenty-two feet, lying in a 
bed of about three feet in thickness) The two great heads of 
mastodon, and the large elephants’ head found by Mr. Bullock, 
were lying near together. Below them, were three of the large 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 211 


tusks, and intermingled with all these a large quantity of tee 
and bones, of various animals. “They altogether formed,” says 
Mr. Bullock, “a heterogeneous mass, lying horizontally, mixed 
with angular and waterworn pieces of limestone of various sizes, 
which contain marine shells, and rounded specimens of quartzose 
and other pebbles, as well as fragments of cane, small, unknown 
to me, and also fragments of broken fresh-water shells, much re- 
sembling those now living in the neighbourhood.” I have been 
moreover informed, that immediately beneath the great bones, 
the workmen came to a bed of stiff blue clay, in which, except at 
its surface, no bones were found. This agrees with my own obser- 
vations and all the accounts [ have heard, except Goforth’s, ac- 
cording to whom, the great bones were partly found beneath the 
blue clay. Isaw, it is true, the entire skeleton ofa. buffalo, with 
part of two others, dug out of the blue clay, where it is found im- 
mediately at the surface. But there were no remains of the ex- 
tinct animals, either with these or under the clay, which I saw 
penetrated down to a dry stony layer of a kind of marl. The 
buffaloes appeared to have sunk or been trampled into the clay, 
while soft from the effects of rain or floods. 

The great inequality of the ground near the spring, is the 
principal cause why some were obliged to dig twenty-two feet 
before finding bones of the large species, while others met with 
them at eleven, four, two feet, or even less. The surface of the 
island, for example, is much higher than that of the point, on the 
north of it; and this, than the bed of the stream; so that by digging 
two feet in one place, we would reach the same level that we 
would by digging twenty feet, not many yards further off. 

The position of the bones, fossil and recent, such as I have de- 
termined it from the comparison of the foregoing accounts, with 
my own observations made at the place, shall be now described. 

The substratum of the neighbouring country, is a limestone, 
abounding in organic remains. This appears at the surface on 
the sides and tops of the hills, and along the banks of the great 
rivers. From it must have been derived the fragments mention-. 
ed in Mr. Bullock’s account, as found accompanying the great 
bones. But at this lick, the valley is filled up to the depth of not 
less, generally, than thirty feet, with unconsolidated beds of earth 
of various kinds. ‘The uppermost of these consists of a light yel- 
low clay, which, apparently, is no more than the soil brought 


212 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


wn from the higher grounds, by rains and land floods. In 
this yellow earth are found, along the water courses, at various 
depths, the bones of buffaloes and other modern animals, many 
broken, but often quite entire. 

Beneath this alluvial bed, is another thinner layer of a differ- 
ent kind of soil, presenting much of the character of a sediment, 
froma marsh or river. It is more gravelly, darker colored, softer, 
and contains remains of reedy plants, smaller than the cane 
so abundant in some parts of Kentucky, and shells of fresh water 
mollusca. It appears to be, in short, what is meant by diluvium, 
as distinguished from the alluvium, which forms the bed above 
it.* In this layer, resting upon, and sometimes partially im- 
bedded in a stratum of blue clay of a very compact and tena- 
cious kind, areWeposited the bones of the extinct species. Origi- 
nally near the surface, they have been gradually covered by the 
accumulation of alluvial matter above them. 

The depth of this alluvium is, however, variable. In some places 
it is very thin, and in others is liable to be entirely washed away 
by the inundations which are common here at some seasons of 
the year. When this takes place, the blue clay is left bare, and 
the bones exposed on the surface. It is in such situations, and 
along the banks and bed of the streams, that they have been 
found nearly or quite uncovered. ‘The Gum Spring, as may be 
seen by the map, is in the lowest part of the valley, near where 
the torrents from the surrounding hills meet, before they find a 
common outlet. The eastern branch of the stream, a few years 
ago, forced itself a new channel on the north side, of what there- 
by became the island, and united with the western, opposite the 
spring, instead of their former confluence at the south-western 
‘ point. In this new channel I found several finely preserved teeth 
and bones of the extinct animals. 

The side of the island which forms the south bank of the 
stream, opposite the spring, is steep, and much elevated above 
the surface on the other side, the yellow alluvial soil having ac- 
cumulated to.a great height. Consequently, the bones which 
were found here in 1830, were deeply buried, as has been de- 


* The difference between it and the upper layer is so obvious, even to the work- 
men, who have been employed in digging here, that they have, with propriety, de- 
nominated it, the “ bone soil ;” and this distinction is recognised whenever they meet 
with it, even in places where it does not contain bones. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 213 


scribed, but were, notwithstanding, on a level with those pre-i 
viously obtained in the low grounds to the north of them. 


On the Theory of Big-bone Lick. 


It is natural, at the first view, to suppose that the herds of ele- 
phants and mastodons were attracted hither by the salt, which 
they probably found as agreeable a condiment as the modern 
herbivorous animals; and that, like many of these, they died at 
the spot where their remains have been discovered. Such is the 
opinion of the present inhabitants, as well as of most persons who 
visit the place; the sound condition of the bones, being naturally 
attributed to the antiseptic properties of the water of the adja- 
cent springs. There can be no doubt of the conservative quality 
of these; and it is highly probable that without it, the bones would 
scarcely have remained till now so free from decay as we find 
them. But they might easily have been preserved, at least for 
a considerable period, like those of which so many instances have 
occurred both in Europe and America, without this aid. More- 
over, it may be well doubted whether these salt springs formerly 
existed here. Bones are not always found at salt licks, even in 
Kentucky. There have been other instances besides this; but 
the exceptions are, [ believe, much more numerous. In New 
York I have never heard of fossil bones being discovered at 
Onondaga, or any other of the numerous salines of this state; 
although not at too great a distance from the Wallkill, where 
these relics abound, to have been beyond the range of the same 
animals.* 

At the same time, however, [ can readily admit, that they in- 
habited the neighbouring country, and that a few, perhaps, were 
at the spot, or dispersed through the surrounding woods and 
marshes, when the catastrophe occurred, which seems to have 
extinguished their race. 

Some of the appearances which the bones exhibit, have been 
alluded to in the course of our previous descriptions; very few, 
indeed, if any, even of the smallest, were found without some 
mark of their having been subjected to violent action. Unlike 
those of which so many have been discovered in New York and 


* Part of an elephant’s tooth, preserved in the Museum of the Albany Institute, 
and said to have been found somewhere along the line of the Erie canal, is the only 
instance within my knowledge of fossil remains of these animals from that part of our 
state, 


214 Notices ef Big-bone Lick. 


New Jersey, where the animals seem to have perished quietly 
op the spot where their remains are found, the parts belonging 
to each individual lying near each other, and sometimes entire 
skeletons without a bone displaced,* the frames of those found at 
Big-bone Lick, seem rather to have been torn asunder, and in- 
termixed in the most promiscuous disorder, before they were per- 
mitted to find here a place of rest. It is rare to meet witha 
single bone of the large animals, or of those smaller ones, that 
accompany them, that is not more or less bruised or broken. Of 
all the under jaws brought from this place, I have seen but one, 
in which at least one side was not wanting ; and in this the teeth 
were all gone. This cannot be ascribed to brittleness from de- 
cay ; for, as is well known, the bones found here are remarkably 
hard and solid. Still they are much less entire than those found 
in the state of New York, whose texture is generally impaired 
by decomposition. Some of those, which I collected at Big-bone 
Lick, have their cancelli entirely filled with stony matter, by 
which their weight and hardness are much increased. But 
generally, they look like fresh bones; and the fact of their retain- 
ing gelatine, which I have verified, is well known. 

Mr. Bullock says, in his account of those discovered last year, 
which were too deeply buried to leave room to suspect that they 
had been ever before disturbed, since they were brought to the spot 
where he found them, “many of the bones are much waterworn 
and broken; scarcely any that are not so, more or less. Some 
large fragments of the tusks of the elephant are worn quite flat 
and smooth, as if they had lain half buried in a water course, and 
worn down by the action from above.” In fact, the mere cir- 
cumstance of finding so large a number of detached teeth as has 
been often found, lying together within a small compass, is alone 
‘sufficient to prove that the owners did not perish where these — 
lie. In that case, the teeth would have remained in the respec- 
tive heads, and have, consequently, occupied a much larger space. 
The teeth of buffaloes, which there is every reason to believe 
died from time to time at or near the spot, are never met with 
in heads separated from the bones, as is the case with those of 
the elephant and mastodon. 

It has been attempted to account for the heaping up of the 
bones and teeth found last autumn, which it is said formed a sort 

* See Annals, Lyceum of N. Y. vol. L. p, 143. 


Notices of Big-bone Lick. 215 


of pyramid, with three -great tusks encircling its base, and sur- , 
mounted by the great head discovered by Mr. Finnell, by ascrib- 
ing it to the aborigines, who, it was supposed, may have amused 
themselves by piling them up in this manner. In that case, it 
must have been done in some very remote age, to allow time for 
two distinct beds of soil to have accumulated over them to the 
height of twenty-five feet, and in a place where these operations 
are carried on upon so small a scale. But some allowance must 
be made for the effects of the imagination in those who thought 
they saw such appearances of order in this ancient charnel house, 
which, if it really existed, it would be difficult to verify under 
such circumstances. 

Similar heaps of fo&il bones of elephants and other extinct 
animals, have been discovered, in several parts of Europe, though 
it has not been pretended, that they were brought together in 
this manner. Indeed the human race has been supposed, not to 
have inhabited the same countries at the epoch of the deposition 
of these bones. One instance occurred at Selburg, near Canstadt 
on the Necker, in 1816, where was discovered “a group of thir- 
teen tusks and some molar teeth, of elephants, heaped close upon 
each other, as if they had been packed artificially.”* » Another 
was at Thiede in Brunswick, in the same year, where a congeries 
of tusks, teeth, and bones, belonging to the elephant, rhinoceros, 
horse, ox, and stag, was found in a heap, of ten feet square. 
There were no less than eleven tusks of elephants, some being of 
the largest size ever discovered. ‘The appearances they present- 
ed, as described by Dr. Buckland, were altogether so strikingly 
similar to those observed in the pit dug at Big-bone Lick, that 
it is no more than reasonable to ascribe them to the same cause. 

But, at the same time, that we find so much reason to suppose 
that the great bones, as well as those of the other extinct species, 
have been brought hither, since the death of the animals, and 
probably by the agency of water, it does not seem probable that 
they have been transported from.a very great distance. Most 
of the appearances they afford, seem to indicate sudden and 
violent, but not long continued action. Even the thickest and 
strongest bones are found, broken short off into several truncheons, 
but the edges and angles of the fractures are commonly sharp, 
and not rounded, as much rotting would have made them. ‘The 


* Buckland Relig, Diluy. p. 180. 


216 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 


grinders are found entire, with broken, hut undecayed portions of 
bone entangled between their roots. Such as appear rubbed, or 
waterworn, may be those that have been washed out of their 
ancient bed, in modern times, or may have been the remains of 
individuals that died before the general destruction. The later- 
ally worn tusks, already described, perhaps belonged to some of 
these ; and this abrasion may have been slowly effected, before 
the comminution of the others took place, and by different 
means. If, during some general inundation, a whirlpool had 
formed in this valley, from which, after much violent collision, 
these bones were deposited, the heads, teeth, and tusks, and other 
hard and heavy parts settling down together, where is now the 
great spring, many of the remarkable tircumstances we have 
noted, would be explained. Dr. Buckland, in endeavouring to 
account for the similar accumulations of various teeth, and bones 
found in Germany, says “ they were most probably drifted together 
by eddies, in the diluvian waters.”** I had not observed this pass- 
age, when I was led to account in the same manner, for the pile 
at Big-bone Lick; which I mention, merely to show how natu- 
rally this idea suggests itself. 

I do not venture to say any thing with regard to the period at 
which this event may be supposed to have taken place. The 
natural phenomena do not furnish data sufficient to enable us to 
fix upon this with any degree of precision. I will merely ob- 
serve, that it must be referred as far back as we can conceive it 
possible for animal substances to be preserved under the circum- 
stances described. 

Enough has been established, however, to authorize us to con- 
clude, that the region which borders the Ohio was formerly in- 
habited by different animals from those which have peopled it 
from the earliest times of which we possess any account. 

Two of these, the mastodon and megalonyx, belonged to ge- 
nera now unknown, but having much affinity to some that still 
inhabit the torrid zone. The former, though allied to the ele- 
phants, was materially different in the teeth and some other par- 
ticulars, indicating a considerable difference in habits. ‘The other 
was allied to the sloths, and their co-ordinate genera, but was 
greatly superior in size to any species now living. 


Buckland p. 181. 


Description of Vespertilio Auduboni. 217 


A third belonged to a very natural genus, of which two spe- 
cies exist in the warm regions of the old continent ; but this was 
specifically different from both, and, as regards America, the ge- 
hus even is entirely extinct. 

There were likewise others which belong to the same genera 
with some now naturally inhabitants of the same region. These 
are two species of bos, and one of cervus. 

There is no evidence of any animals of the carnivorous order 
having accompanied them. 

They appear to have perished by the agency of water, which, 
after transporting their remains a moderate distance, deposited 
them in a mass where they have since been found. 

They were succeeded, after an interval, by the species which 
now inhabit the country. 


DESCRIPTION OF VESPERTILIO AUDUBONI, A NEW SPECIES 
OF BAT. 
By Ricuarp Harway, M. D. 


Or the numerous creatures which attract our admiration, or 
excite our fears, the greater part display their appetites, or de- 
velope their instincts, during the day time only; especially— 
with few exceptions—all those remarkable for beauty of plumage, 
and vocal melody. Predacious animals are chiefly distinguished 
for their nocturnal habits; and ideas of rapine, terror and blood, 
are ever associated with the tiger, the hyena, and the wolf. 
Among the feathered tribes, the owl and the bat, also companions 
of darkness, are shunned by many, as horrible objects, and full 
of ill-omen. Haunted castles, ruined battlements, and noisome 
caverns, are the chosen abodes of these nocturnal marauders, 
and it is to such associations that these animals are indebted for 
the unamiable character they have obtained. The prejudices 
conceived against that portion of these animals, with which we 
are familiar, are founded entirely upon these their habits; for 
small quadrupeds, reptiles and fish, constitute the food of the first, 
whilst insects and fruit suffice for the other. It is at the close of 
the day, when the hum of nature is beginning to subside, that 
the patient bat steals from his dark retreat, and spreads his 
leathery wings in search of his food. 

Vox. I.—28 


218 Description of Vespertilio Auduboni. 


The new species of this little flying quadruped, which we are 
now about to notice, belongs to a very large and respectable 
family. In the days of Linnzus, they all—from their appear- 
ance at twilight—went by the family name of Vespertilio. They 
further belong to the order Carnivora, their teeth being con- 
structed for masticating flesh; though some—and in this they re- 
semble ourselyes—are also fond of fruit. In one important point, 
the whole race has a common character, in their organ of flight. 
The bones of the fingers are extremely elongated, and united by 
a membrane, which is continued down the side of the body ; and 
extending on the leg as far as the tarsus, also unites the legs and 
tail. Agreeing so universally in this particular, they form a 
very natural family, under the appropriate term, Cheiroptera, 
constructed from two Greek words, signifying hand and wing. 

The vespertilio are again divided into Genera and Species,— 
divisions which are grounded on certain peculiarities of dental 
structure, and various developements of the brachial, digital, and 
interfemoral appendages, with other modifications of the organs 
of progression. These genera include species which are dis- 
covered in every habitable part of the globe, of various magni- 
tudes, from the size of a half grown cat, to that of a half grown 
mouse. 

Of this numerous family only three genera, of modern authors, 
inhabit the United States, viz. Ruinorpoma, VESPERTILIO, and 
Tapuozous. Seven species, exclusive of the present, are all that 
have been hitherto discovered in North America. 

The following concise notice of the species, at present known 
to inhabit the United States, is offered by way of comparison: 


Genus.—Ruinoroma.—Superior incisors, separate from each 
other; nose, Jong, surmounted by a membrane ; tail, long, en- 
veloped at base. 

Species Ist. R. Caroliniensis, (Geoffroy, or Vespertilio of Linneus.) 

Is recognized by its brown pelage, and long and thick tail; it is 
two inches in length, of which the tail occupies more than one 
inch; the inferior half of the tail, free of the interfemoral 
membrane.—Inhabits South Carolina, according to Geoffroy. 


Genus.—Vesrertitio—(Linn. Cuv. Geoff.)—Dental formula, va- 
rious; superior incisors generally separated into pairs; nose 
and lower lip, simple ; wing membranes, extensive. 


Description of Vespertilio Auduboni. 219 


Species 2d. V. Caroliniensis.—Geoff. Ann. du. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. 
tom: 8, pl. 47. 

This species is of a chesnut brown colour above, and yellowish 
beneath—the ears are simple, oblong, and of the size of the 
head, with their exterior surface sparsely hairy ; auriculum 
cordiform; extreme point of the tail free. Inhabits the vi- 
cinity of Charleston, 8. C. 

Species 3d. V. Noveboracensis-—Penn. Synop. p. 367, Linn. 
Vulgo, New York Bat. 
Characterized by its short and rounded ears.—Nose, short and 
_ pointed ; pelage, brown above, pale beneath; a white spot at 
the base of the wings; tail, wholly enveloped in the inter- 
femoral membrane ; total length, tail inclusive, two inches five 
tenths; spread of the wings, ten inches. Inhabit New York 
and neighbouring states. A living specimen lately presented 
to us, taken near Camden, New Jersey. 
Species 4th. V. Pruinosus, Say—Vide Long’s Exp. to the 
Rocky Mountains, Vol. 1, p. 167. 

Mr. 'T. Say who noticed this species, when on the exploring ex- 
pedition under Lieut. Col. (then Major) S. H. Long, has thus 
distinguished it :—ears broad, not so long as the head, hairy on 
their external side, more than half their length ; auriculum, ob- 
tuse at tip, and arcuated ; pelage, hairy above, ferruginous about 
the sacrum, dull yellowish white on the throat: interfemoral 
membrane covered with fur; length, nearly four inches and a 
half, Inhabits the western states, and western Pennsylvania. 


Species 5th. V. Arquatus, Say.—Long’s Exp. ut supra. 
Head, large; ears, rather shorter, with the posterior edge ob- 
tusely emarginated ; auriculum arcuated ; interfemoral mem- 
brane naked, including the tail to one half the penultimate 
joint ; total length, five inches ; expansion of wings, thirteen in- 
ches. Inhabits the western states. 
Species 6th. V7. Subulatus, Say.—Long’s Exp. Vol. 2, p. 65. ' 
This species is the nearest allied to the Vespertilio Caroliniensis, 
of Geoffroy, from which, however, it differs in colour, form of, 
the auriculum, and in other particulars. Mr. Say observed it in 
the distant territories. A specimen was subsequently presented 
to the Academy of Natural Science, from the White moun- 
tains, New Hampshire. 


220 Description of Vespertilio Auduboni. 


Genus.—T arnozous—(Geoff)—Without incisor teeth in the 
upper jaw. Nose, simple; upper lip, very thick; ears, mod- 
erate. 


Species 7th. Z: Rufus. Figuredin Wilson’s Ornithology, Vol. vi. 
Red Bat of Pennsyloania. 


With this little animal we are all familiar. The city and its vi- 
cinity abound in them. The body is of a reddish cream co- 
lour ; membranes of a dusky red; auricule slender, rounded at 
the extremity, and situated internally. Total length four in- 
ches; spread of the wings twelve inches. 


Like other vespertilio, they enjoy the crepusculum, and are 
fond of insects, which they seize on the wing. The female has 
been known to manifest the strongest maternal affection ; a young 
lad having caught two young bats of this species, was in the act 
of bearing them off to the Philadelphia Museum, at mid-day ;— 
being watched by the mother, she followed him through the 
streets, fluttering round him, and eventually settled on his bosom, 
preferring captivity, to freedom with the loss of her progeny. 


Species 8th.—Vesrertitio Auduboni.—PI. 6. 


We propose to dedicate this new species, to our valuable friend, 
the justly celebrated naturalist J. J. Aupuzon, as a small tribute 
of respect to his eminent talents, and the highly important services 
he has rendered science. The drawing which accompanies this 
paper, is from his inimitable pencil. 


This species was first observed, during the summer of 1829, 
when an individual female flew into the apartment of the late 
Dr. Hammersly, then one of the resident physicians of the Penn- 
sylvania hospital : on the subsequent evening a male individual, of 
the same species, was also taken in the same manner. In August 
1830, a very fine specimen was brought to the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, and Mr. Audubon informs me that the species 
has very recently been observed in New York. 


Natural characters of the species—General colour black, sprinkled 
with gray above and beneath; ears black and naked ; auricu- 
lum, short and broad or obtusely triangular ; interfemoral mem- 
brane, sparsely hairy ; last joint of the tail free: two incisors, 
with notched crowns, on each side of the canine teeth of the 
upper jaw, with a broad intervening space without teeth. 


Habit of Climbing of the Rattle-snuke. 221 


Dimensions—Total length 8 inches 7 tenths; tail 1.7; length of 
ear 0.5 breadth of ear 0.4; length of leg 1.7; spread of wings 
10.7. inhabit Pennsylvania and New York, and probably the 
southern states—Cab. of Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 


HABIT OF CLIMBING OF THE RATTLE-SNAKE. 


Extract of a letter, from Cor. Asert, of the U. S. Topographical Engineers, to 
Dr, Harwan, of Philadelphia. 

I nave, within a few days, had the pleasure of conversing with 
your friend, the distinguished ornithologist, Mr. John James Au- 
dubon, a gentleman whose fame and enterprise, seem at present 
to occupy the anxious solicitude of both Europe and America ; 
each of which countries appears to rival the other, by distinguish- 
ing him with academic honours. Andif our country cannot claim 
the merit of having taken the lead in this honourable struggle, it 
can at least claim that of hailing Mr. Audubon as a citizen, and 
a native, and of furnishing him with those objects which appear 
so early to have attracted his attention and study ; and upon which 
his glowing and unrivalled pencil has bestowed so enduring a life. 

His enthusiasm in the pursuit of his favourite study, has led 
him to plan a new expedition into the hitherto unexplored 
regions of our continent ; and his object in visiting our city, was 
to obtain letters of hospitality and protection, to all our frontier 
establishments. It gives me great pleasure to say, that he has 
met with the most kind and patronising reception ; and that all 
the high functionaries of our government, animated by that 
zeal in favour of the sciences which distinguishes intelligent 
minds, have readily, and with pleasure, afforded to him the 
letters and papers of protection which he required. 

He gratified us with a view of the truly splendid illustrations 
of American birds, which compose his first volume of plates, and 
left us yesterday morning, in order to prosecute his hazardous and 
interesting enterprise. 

His plan is first to examine the peninsula of Florida ; then the 
regions west of the Mississippi, Mexico, and, if possible, to pene- 
trate into California. He also contemplates crossing the Rocky 
mountains, and pursuing the Columbia river to its mouth, and 


Qo8 Habit of Climbing of the Rattle-snake. 


thinks that he will be absent from us about two years. He is full of 
the most interesting anecdotes of the habits of animals, the result 
of his personal observations, when alone and in the wilderness, 
where undisturbed nature is found in all her grandeur, simplicity, 
and originality. I urged him to give these to the public, in the 
course of his publications: he said that he probably might, but 
that city naturalists were so unused to observing the habits of 
animals, where alone they could be observed to advantage, that 
he must yet wait, till some other adventurer had witnessed simi- 
lar scenes. But how few are there, who, to the necessary enter- 
prise, add qualifications requisite for such pursuits, and how long 
may we not, therefore, wait for such corroboration. I hope he 
will yet abandon this feeling of delicacy, and in his concluding 
volume, enrich our knowledge of animals by the many interest- 
ing facts of their habits, which he has on record. With so intel- 
ligent a mind, controlled by sound judgment and great moral and 
physical courage, it appears to me an injustice to our own un- 
derstanding, to doubt the anecdotes which he relates of his own 
observation. I would as soon think of doubting the existence of 
the new birds he delineates, because he has not done what was 
impossible for him to do under the circumstances in which he 
was placed—preserved their skins, and deposited them in our 
museums. 

Now, I haye been informed, that some of our learned city 
gentlemen, have doubted the truth of his representation of the 
rattle-snake attacking a mocking-bird’s nest, from an opinion that 
the rattle-snake does not climb. An opinion, by the way, more 
common in our cities, than with the hunters in the wilds, in 
which this reptile is generally found. 

But as I am possessed of some facts on this subject, which 
prove that the rattle-snake does climb, I will, in justice to Mr. 
Audubon, relate them to you. 

ist. When Lieut. Swift of our army, was engaged on a survey 
in Florida, in 1826; his attention was suddenly called to a group 
of his men, within about 100 feet from where he stood. They 
had just killed a snake, which the men assured him, they had 
seen seize a grey-squirrel on the limb of a tree, about fifteen feet 
from the ground, and fall to the earth with it. When Lieut. 
Swift had arrived at the place, the snake was already killed, 
and much mangled. He did not examine it for the rattles, 


Habit of Climbing of the Rattle-snake. 223 


but his Florida hunters, who are as familiar with the appearance 
of the rattle-snake, as we are with that of the chicken, told him, 
that it was a rattle-snake. 

2d. General Jessup, the Quarter-Master General of our army, 
assured me in conversation a day or two since, that he had seen 
the rattle-snake upon bushes, and particularly stated one case, in 
which he had seen a snake of that kind up a papaw* tree. He 
also added, that in one of his excursions in the woods of the west, 
he had actually witnessed a scene similar to that represented by 
Mr. Audubon, of birds defending their nests against a snake. But 
he does not recollect whether in this instance, it was a rattle- 
snake or not. : 

3d. General Gibson, the Commissary General of our army, ha 
also assured me that he has seen the rattle-snake upon. bushes, 
and upon the top rail of fences. He likewise stated a case in 
which he saw a rattle-snake in the fork of a tree, about eight 
feet from the ground, coiled and at rest. The tree stood by it- 
self, and the diameter of its trunk was upwards of one foot. He 
knocked the snake out of the fork and killed it. 

I could cite many other cases, but I prefer limiting myself to 
these, as I am personally acquainted with the gentlemen named, 
and received the stories from their own mouths. 

Now after these facts, I cannot suppose that any reasonable 
man will doubt the ability of the rattle-snake to climb. Both 
generals Jessup and Gibson are well acquainted with this snake, 
are good observers, and fond of the woods. The latter particu- 
larly so, being now one of our most expert sportsmen, and has 
been during his life, stationed in almost every state of our union. 
He is also particularly attentive to the habits of the animals, 
which in the course of his amusement, he seeks either to obtain 
or to avoid. I have been often delighted with his anecdotes on 
these subjects, and have more than once made the reflection, of 
how much information might be obtained by the naturalist if he 
would consult the intelligent and observing sportsman. In fact, 
if the naturalist does not, at times, make the dog his companion, 
and the woods his home, there are many of the works of nature 
which will be to him as a sealed book. 

Washington, Oct. 21, 1831. 


* Porcella Triloba,—Ep. 


224 Meteorological Observations. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Kept at Wilmington, Del., by Henry Gibbons, M. D. with Prefatory Remarks. 


Mereorovoey, is a branch of science, which, hitherto, in this 
country, has not received its proper share of attention. It is 
true, that many observations on temperature, and the incidents 
of the weather, are daily made and published; but the task of 
the observer mostly ends with the mere collection of those facts. 
In this, as in other departments of Natural Science, facts are 
principally useful as they lead to inferences—to principles. We 
should not only gather them with industry and precision, but we 
should arrange and compare them, so as to exhibit, as nearly as 
possible, their relation to each other, and draw from them every 
corollary which is consistent with sound reasoning. For exam- 
ple, I find, by examining the register of the weather, so as to 
‘ascertain the relation between electrical phenomena and the 
weight of the atmosphere, that a thundergust seldom occurs, un- 
less the barometer has sunk below a certain point. I also dis- 
cover, that an aurora borealis is mostly followed, within a week, 
by easterly winds, and very frequently by a storm from the same 
quarter. I further observe, that this phenomenon was exhibited 
thirteen times in the summer and autumn of 1830, but only five 
times in the corresponding seasons of the present year. From 
this, I infer that the frequent or rarer appearance of the northern 
lights, may possibly furnish some index of the severity or mildness 
of the subsequent winter.—Were the considerations I have pre- 
sented, carefully kept in view, the science of meteorology might 
become extremely useful, in its application to the foretelling of 
atmospheric changes. 

So far as J have had an opportunity of examining, the greater 
part of the tables of temperature, contained in the public jour- 
nals of the United States, at least of the middle states, are more 
or less deficient or erroneous, owing to an improper situation of 
the thermometer, from which the observations are taken, the 
improper time of making the observations, or some other cause. 
Very generally, these tables exhibit an annual temperature, 
several degrees higher than the correct average. The ther- 
mometer is probably suspended where there is not a free circu- 
lation of air, or in a place exposed to the reflected rays of the 
sun. Hence we often find in the newspapers accounts of tem- 


Meteorological Observations. 225 


perature exceeding 100° of Fahrenheit ; whereas, the real temper- 
ature of the climate of the northern and middle states, seldom, if 
ever, reaches 98°. Experience has shown that the mean temper- 
ature of the day, is very nearly ascertained by taking the mean 
of two observations, the one made at sun-rise, which is the cool- 
est period, and the other at noon, or rather an hour or two after, 
which is the warmest period. This plan will be adopted in find- 
ing the monthly mean given in the following tables, or monthly 
summaries. The observation taken in the evening, will, there- 
fore, not be used in estimating the general average. 

In regard to the winds, I have deviated from the common 
practice of classing them merely according to their direction, 
choosing rather to arrange them with reference to their general 
character. The first class, called Northerly, comprises such winds 
as flow from between the W. N. W., and N. N. E. points of the 
horizon, including those two points. They have always the same 
general character, being dry, and in the winter, cold. The 
second class, Easterly, embraces those which set in from N. E. to 
S. S. E. inclusive, which are damp, and often rainy and attended 
with storms. The other class, Southerly, consists of southerly and 
westerly winds, always warm, and in the summer dry, but ac- 
companied with rain in the winter. 

The number of clear days in a month, does not always repre- 
sent the proportion of clear weather in the same time; for many 
of the days not entirely clear, may have been partially so. 
Hence I have added the proportion of clear weather in each month, 
in which, such days as were partly clear have been regarded.— 
The remaining parts of the summary will explain themselves. 

In order to commence with the beginning of a season, the 
month of June is first given, although the “ Journal of Geology,’ 
&c. was not commenced until the next month. The sixth num- 
ber of the Journal will contain three summaries, concluding with 
October, and each succeeding number will contain the summary 
for the second month preceding its publication. At the close of 
the year, a yearly summary will be furnished. 


Meteorological Summary, for June, 1831. 


Average at sun-rise, Thermom. 64°.20 Barom. 29.89 inches. 
“ at mid-day, 79°.67 29.84 « 
“« at10P.M. 68°.60 29.84 <« 
Vor. I—29 


226 Meteorological Observations. 
Monthly average, Thermom. '71°.93  Barom. 29.86 inches. 


Maximum, 88°. 30.10 « 
Minimum, 47°, 29.67 « 
Range, 41°. 43 « 
Warmest day, (2nd) 79°. Coldest day, (24th) 57°. 
Proportion of clear weather, 17 days. 

« of cloudy “ 13.“ 
Whole days clear, 14 « 
Days on which rain fell, mh 
Depth of rain, 2 inches. 
Northerly winds prevailed, 6 days. 
Easterly  “ a LO 
Southerly, (S. to W.) 14 « 


An aurora, on the 10th, followed by changeable weather, and 
easterly winds; a dry month; very warm at the commencement, 
then cool, warm again in the middle, and again cool in the lat- 
ter part; winds light and variable; clouds electrified in the lat- 
ter half of the month ; no easterly storms. 


Meteorological Summary, for July, 1831. 
Average at sun-rise, Thermom. 67°.13  Barom. 29.89 inches. 


os at mid-day, 80°.35 29.85 

W at 10 P. M. 69°.58 29.84 “ 
Monthly average, 73°.74 29.87 « 
Maximum, 87°. 30.17. + 
Minimum, 5S, 29.53 « 
Range, 34°. 64)" « 
Warmest day, (23d) 80°4. Coldest day, (11th) 61°. 
Proportion of clear weather, 20 days. 

_ ofcloudy “ . rE ie 

Whole days clear, EG si 
Days on which rain fell, : 1s 
Depth of rain, 12.07 inches. 
Northerly winds prevailed, 9 days. 
Easterly ” rs oy 
Southerly, (S. to W.) 160 


Auroras on the 4th, 5th, and 10th, followed by variable wea- 
ther, and that on the 10th by easterly winds. A very brilliant 
one was seen in Massachusetts, on the 31st, but was not visible 
at Wilmington. A very wet month; rains heavy; nine inches 


Obituary. 227 


fell on the first nine days; three inches fell on the ninth, in less 
than an hour, producing almost a deluge, and causing a higher 
fresh in the Brandywine than had been for twenty-five years, 
except the ice freshet of 1822; much grain injured by the con- 
tinued damp weather. ‘The first half of the month mostly cool, 
the remainder warm, though not hot weather. Winds generally 
light, and very changeable. Electrical clouds and thunder storms 
frequent; clouds nearly all electric. No easterly storms. 


OBITUARY. 

Wes intended before this to have paid a passing tribute to the 
departed worth we are now about to commemorate, and to have 
given a more extended and biographical notice, in two of the in- 
stances; but we have not, even at this moment, received the de- 
tails requisite for our purpose. The recent decease of two well 
known friends to natural history, has reminded us of a duty, that 
we now, imperfectly, but most sincerely, perform. 


The late ZaccuEus Contins, one of the Vice Presidents of the 
American philosophical society, was born in Philadelphia, August 
26, 1764. He was a member of the society of Friends, and mar- 
ried January 30,1794. Mr. Collins’s devotion to the general ad- 
vancement of science, and especially to those important branches, 
botany, and mineralogy,—in which he was a conspicuous pro- 
ficient,—was a leading cause of the diffusion of that love of natu- 
ral science, which distinguishes his native city. He has, for this 
reason, always possessed the sincere and respectful attachment 
of all those who have cultivated natural history. But as a citi- 
zen, his claims to the public affection and confidence, rested upon a 
broader basis : for he took an interest in every thing that affect- 
ed the welfare of our species, and was an active and a generous 
philanthropist. As an evidence of the universal estimation in 
which he was held, and of the honourable tenor of his life, we 
notice the following, from among the various benevolent and 
learned societies of which he was a member, and the period 
when he became their associate. 

Pennsylvania society for promoting the abolition of slavery, October 1792. 

Society for the institution and support of First day or Sunday schools, 

March 1795. 
A life contributor to the Pennsylvania Hospital, March 1795. 


228 Obituary. 


A life contributor to the Philadelphia Dispensary, December 1802. 

American Philosophical Society, July 1804. 

Humane Society of Philadelphia, July 1805. 

Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture, May 1805. 

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, May 1809. 

Academy of Natural Sciences, (Vice President at his death,) March 1815. 

Honorary Member of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York, July 1817. 

Honorary Member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, June 1829. 

Chosen President of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Novem- 
ber 1828. 


He died in Philadelphia, June 12th 1831, of paralysis. 


Samuet Laruam Mircuitt, M. D. was, in every sense of 
the word, one of the most untiring friends that ever Natural His- 
tory possessed in any country. We understand that his friend 
Dr. Ackerly, the depositary of his valuable papers, is preparing 
a biography of him, at the request of the Lyceum of Natural 
History of New York, of which he was the first President. His 
writings have been so various, and he has enriched with his 
papers so many periodicals, that at present we shall make no par- 
ticular reference, except to his well known memoir, on the New 
York fishes. We know of no American scientific name that has 
been more extensively and advantageously diffused, both abroad 
and at home, than the name of Mitchill. We sincerely offer this 
slight tribute to his memory ; it is due to the worth of one whom 
we knew well, and of whom it is impossible to think, without a 
lively remembrance of his truly amiable and benevolent charac- 
ter. He died on the 7th of September, at the city of New York, 
in the 68th year of his age. 


Sotomon W. Conran, was a learned and much respected mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends; he was Professor of Botany in the 
University of Pennsylvania, a member of the American Philoso- 
phical Society, and of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phi- 
ladelphia. He died on the 8th October, 1831, of phthysis pul- 
monalis, in the fifty-second year of his age. 


Nicuoras Corin, D. D., Rector of the Swedish Churches in 
Pennsylvania, came to America about the year 1771. This 
venerable pastor informed one of our friends sometime ago, that 
before he left his native country, Sweden, he was a pupil of 


Scientific and General Memoranda. —' 229 


Linneus; and that, on taking leave of him to embark for America, 
that illustrious naturalist fell on his neck, and kissing him, bade 
him not to forget the great cause of Natural History, in that ex- 
tensive field to which he was bound. He also stated, that he 
had, at various times, sent to Sweden, nearly all the American 
forest trees that promised to stand the climate, and that immense 
numbers of them now flourished there. Dr. Collin, in 1793, pub- 
lished some opinions on the subject of Yellow Fever, which were 
opposed to those of the late Dr. Rush. He was proud of his at- 
tainments as a linguist, and was a man of much worth and learn- 
ing. We do not know what his age was at his decease, but it 
must have been very advanced, as he had reached manhood be- 
fore he left Sweden, and had resided here sixty years. He died 
in Philadelphia, October 8th, 1831 


SCIENTIFIC AND GENERAL MEMORANDA. 


Audubon’s Expedition to California, the Rocky Mountains, §:c.— 
We are authorized to state, that information of the: progress of 
Mr. Aududon will be given, from time to time, to the scientific 
world, in the pages of this Journal. 

We are gratified in being able to state, that he was received 
in the most cordial manner, at Washington, and that the distin- 
guished gentlemen in authority there, have given him such let- 
ters to the military posts on the frontiers, as will assure him the 
aid and protection his personal safety may require. We antici- 
pate the most interesting reconnoisances, both geological and 
zoological, from this enterprising naturalist, who is accompanied 
by Mr. Lehman, as an assistant draftsman, and by an assistant 
collector, who came with him from Europe. In a recent letter 
from Virginia, he says, “'The weather is pretty cool, and the 
land birds all gone south: I intend to push for the Floridas, to 
overtake the fellows ere they cross the Gulf.”—Editor. 


Volcano in the Mediterranean.—A letter from the Commander 
of H. B. M. sloop of war Rapid dated Malta, July 22, con- 
tains the following:—“On the 18th of July, 1831, at 4 P. M., 
the town of Marsala bearing, by compass, E. half N. nine miles, 
I observed from on board his Majesty’s sloop Rapid, under my 


230 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


command, a high irregular column of very white smoke or steam, 
bearing 8. by E. I steered for it, and continued to do so till 8, 
15, P. M., when, having gone about thirty miles by the reckon- 
ing, I saw flashes of brilliant light mingled with the smoke, 
which was still distinctly visible by the light of the moon. 

“Tn a few minutes the whole column became black and larger; 
almost immediately afterwards several successive eruptions of 
lurid fire rose up amidst the smoke; they subsided, and the co- 
lumn then became gradually white again. As we seemed to near 
it fast, I shortened sail and hove to till day-light, that I might 
ascertain its exact position. During the night the changes from 
white to black with flashes, and the eruption of fire, continued at 
irregular intervals, varying from half an hour to an hour. At 
day-light, I again steered towards it, and about 5 A. M., when 
the smoke had for a moment cleared away at the base, I saw 
a small hillock of a dark colour a few feet above the sea. This 
was soon hidden again, and was only visible through the smoke, 
at the intervals between the more violent eruptions. 

The volcano was in a constant state of activity, and appeared 
to be discharging dust and stones with vast volumes of steam. 
At 7, 30, the rushing noise of the eruptions was heard. At nine, 
being distant from it about two miles, and the water being much 
discoloured with dark objects at the surface, in various places, I 
hove to and went in a boat to sound round and examine. I rowed 
towards it, keeping on the weather side and sounding, but got no 
bottom till within twenty yards of the western side, where I had 
eighteen fathoms soft bottom; this was the only sounding obtain- 
ed, except from the brig, one mile true north from the centre of 
the island, where the depth was one hundred and thirty fathoms 
soft dark brown mud. 

The crater (for it was now evident that such was its form,) 
seemed to be composed of fine cinders and mud of a dark brown 
colour. Within it was to be seen, in the intervals between the 
eruptions, a mixture of muddy water, steam, and cinders dashing 
up and down, and occasionally running into the sea over the 
edge of the crater; which I found, on rowing round, to be broken 
down to the level of the sea, on the W. S. W. side, for the space 
of ten or twelve yards. Here I obtained a better view of the 
interior, which appeared to be filled with muddy water, violently 
agitated, from which showers of hot stones or cinders were con- 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 231 


stantly shooting up a few yards, and falling into it again; but the 
great quantities of steam that constantly rose from it, prevented 
my seeing the whole crater. 

“A considerable stream of muddy water flowed outward 
through the opening, and mingled with that of the sea, caused 
the discoloration that had been observed before. I could not ap- 
proach near enough to observe its temperature, but that of the 
sea, within ten or twelve yards of it, was only one degree higher 
than the average, and to leeward of the island, in the direction 
of the current (which ran to the eastward) no difference could 
be perceived, even when the water was most discoloured; how- 
ever, as a ‘mirage’ played above, near its source, it was probably 
hot there. The dark objects on the surface of the sea proved to 
be patches of small floating cinders. The island, or crater, ap- 
peared to be seventy or eighty yards in its external diameter, 
and the lip, as thin as it could be, consistent with its height, 
which might be twenty feet above the sea in the highest, and 
six feet in the lowest part, leaving the rest for the diameter of 
the area within. These details could only be observed in the 
intervals between the great eruptions, some of which I witnessed 
from the boat——No words can describe their sublime grandeur: 
their progress was generally as follows:—After the volcano had 
emitted for some time its usual quantities of white steam, sudden- 
ly the whole aperture was filled with an enormous mass of hot 
cinders and dust, rushing upwards to the height of some hundred 
feet, with a loud roaring noise, then falling into the sea on all 
sides with a still louder noise, arising, in part, perhaps, from the 
formation of prodigious quantities of steam, which instantly took 
place. This steam was at first of a brown colour, having embo- 
died a great deal of dust; as it rose gradually, recovered its pure 
white colour, depositing the dust in the shape of a shower of 
muddy rain.— While this was being accomplished, renewed erup- 
tions of hot cinders and dust were quickly succeeding each other, 
while forked lightning, accompanied by rattling thunder, darted 
about in all directions, within the column, now darkened with 
dust and greatly increased in volume, and distorted by sudden 
gusts and whirlwinds. ‘The latter were most frequent on the lee 
sides, where they often made imperfect water spouts of curious 
shapes. On one occasion, some of the steam reached the boat; 
it smelt a little of sulphur, and the mud it left, became a gritty 


232 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


sparkling dark brown powder when dry. None of the stones or 
cinders thrown out, appeared more than half a foot in diameter, 
and most of them, much smaller. 

“From the time when the volcano was first seen, till after I 
left it, the barometer did not fall or rise; the sympiesometer un- 
derwent frequent, but not important changes, and the tempera- 
ture of the sea did not bespeak any unusual influence. 

“ After sunset, on the 18th, soundings were tried for every hour, 
to the average depth of eighty fathoms—no bottom. The wind 
was N. W., the weather serene. 

“On the forenoon of the 19th, with the centre of the volcano 
bearing by compass, 8S. by W. ? W. one mile distant, good sights, 
for the chronometer gave the long. 12 deg. 41, E.; and at noon, 
on the same day, when it bore W. by N. 4 N. by compass, the 
meridian altitude of the sun gave the latitude 37 deg. 7 min. 30 
sec. N.; an amplitude of the sun, the same morning, gave the 
variation of 1} point westerly. It is worthy of remark, that on 
the 28th of June last, at 9, 30, P. M., when passing near the 
same spot, in company with the Britannia, several shocks of an 
earthquake were felt in both ships. (Signed) ‘ 

«“ C, H. Swivsurne, Commander.” 


Discovery of Rionium (Vanadium) in Scotland.—In the Journal 
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, for August, 1831, it is 
stated, “ Mr. James T. W. Johnston, has discovered Vanadium in 
Scotland, in a mineral from Wanlockhead, resembling in ap- 
pearance, an arseniate of lead; and it is a remarkable circum- 
stance, that this new substance has been discovered by three dif- 
ferent persons—Professor Del Rio, Professor Seftstrom, and Mr. 
Johnston—in three different countries, Mexico, Sweden, and 
Scotland, nearly at the same time, and without any knowledge, on 
the part of one, of what the others had done.” 

By referring to page sixty-nine of our Journal, in the August 
number, it will be seen that Professor Del Rio discovered this 
mineral about twenty-nine years before it attracted the attention 
of any Europen mineralogist; and that he consented to withdraw 
the name he had given to it, out of deference to the opinions of 
Messrs. Humboldt and Descotils. All, however, admit it now to 
have been a new mineral; but so long a period has passed over, 
since Professor Del Rio made the discovery, that his particular 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 233 


merit in the matter is quite obscured, and seems in danger of be- 
ing forgotten. We were glad to see the following passage in Dr. 
Brewster’s Journal for July, 1831, from the pen of Mr. J. T. W. 
Johnston. “It istime that the northern fashion of naming metals 
after the barbarous deities of their forefathers, should be explod- 
ed.” We have before expressed the same sentiment, and trust 
that the claim of Professor Del Rio, being now made good, it 
will be excused on our part—since the signal must be set from 
some quarter—that we have, upon this occasion, taken the lead 
in giving it the appropriate name of Rioniwm.—Ep. 


Supposed Tides of the North American Lakes.—In Silliman’s 
Journal, for July, 1831, is a very satisfactory paper by Major 
Henry Whiting, U.S. army, on this subject, with a “ table of ob- 
servations on the rise and fall of the lake at Green Bay, made 
by Gov. Cass, in 1828.” The extensive circulation of that Jour- 
nal, diminishes our regret at not having room for its insertion. 
This table, where the day of the month, the time of the day, the 
course of the wind, the strength of the wind, and height of the 
water, have distinct columns, and which commences July 15, 
1828, and ends August 29th, comprehends one hundred and 
eighty observations. In this paper, planetary influences are 
stated to have no observable appreciable effect, on the alleged 
changes of elevation in the waters of these lakes, whether pe- 
riodical or irregular; the which are probably connected with the 
causes alluded to, towards the end of Gov. Cass’s letter. We refer 
our readers, interested in the subject, to this valuable paper. 


Petrified Forest—The following remarkable account, in a let- 
ter from G. H. Crossman, to Lieut. B. Walker, both of the U. S. 
army, is taken from the Illinois Magazine. 

Jefferson Barracks, May 1, 1830. 

Dear Sir,—It affords me much pleasure to comply with your 
request, with regard to the “ Petrified Forest.” 

You ask for a “ memoir” on the subject, but you must be satis- 
fied with the following attempt to give you merely the “facts” 
as they came within my own observation, without venturing a 
single speculation beyond the effects produced. I wish rather 
to leave the subject in abler hands than mine; and if I can aid, 
in any way, to solve the problem, by a statement of simple facts, 

Vou. I.—30 


234 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


(well known, however, to most of the officers attached to the 
Yellow Stone expedition,) I shall feel more than compensated for 
any time I shall devote to.the subject. , 

The enclosed specimen -was broken off from one of the many 
large stumps and limbs of trees, found near Yellow Stone River, 
and brought away by some one of the officers attached to the 
Yellow Stone expedition in 1815. 

The most remarkable facts, perhaps, with regard to these pe- 
trifactions, of what was once a forest of thick timber, are their 
location and abundance. For a distance of twenty or thirty 
miles, over an open high prairie, upon the west bank of the Mis- 
souri river, and a few miles below its junction with the Yellow 
Stone, near latitude 48°, these remains are more abundant. 

The topography of this section of the country is hilly, and 
much broken into deep ravines and hollows. On the sides and 
summits of the hills, at an elevation of several hundred feet (esti- 
mated three hundred) above the present level of the river, and 
an estimated height (for we have no instruments) of some thou- 
sand feet above the ocean, the earth’s face is literally covered 
with stumps, roots, and limbs of petrified trees; presenting the 
appearance of a “ Petrified Forest,” broken and thrown down 
by some powerful convulsion of nature, and scattered in all di- 
rections in innumerable fragments. 

Some of the trees appear to have broken off, in falling, close to 
their root; while others stand at an elevation of some feet above 
the surface. Many of the stumps are of a large size; I measur- 
ed one of them, in company with Surgeon Gale of the United 
States army, and found it to be upwards of fifteen feet in cir- 
cumference. 


The following is a description of the Mexican Pyramids, allud- 
ed to at page 177 of our last number.—Eb. 

Pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico—At a recent meeting of 
the London Geographical Society, a communication was read 
from lieut. Glennie, descriptive of these interesting memorials. 
The village of Teotihuacan is in lat. 19 deg. 43 min., N. and in 
long. 98 deg. 51 min. W.: the variation of the needle being 9 deg. 
49 min. E. The village is elevated 7,492 feet above the level 
of the sea. The pyramids are distant about a mile and a half 
from it: the largest is 727 feet square at its base, and 221 feet 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 235 


high, with two of its sides parallel to the meridian. A rampart 
of about thirty feet in height surrounds this pyramid, at the dis- 
tance of 350 feet from its base, on the north side of which are 
the remains of a flight of steps, with a road leading from them in 
a northerly direction, covered with a white cement. The re- 
mains of steps were also found on the pyramids, which were 
covered with the same sort of white cement, as well as broad 
terraces extending across the sides. 

The number of pyramids surrounding the large one, was esti- 
mated by Mr. Glennie at above two hundred, varying in their 
dimensions. ‘They are all constructed with volcanic stones, and 
plaster from the adjacent soil, all coated with white cement, 
and the ground between their bases seems formerly to have been 
occupied as streets, being also covered with the same sort of ce- 
ment. One of the smaller pyramids was covered with a kind of 
broken pottery, ornamented with curious figures and devices; 
and in the neighbourhood of these edifices abundance of small 
figures were found, such as heads, arms, legs, &c. moulded in 
clay, and hardened by fire. 


“ Remarkable conduct of a Horse——Mr. Israel Abrahams, in the 
vicinity of this town, has a horse that will of his owa accord, 
pump a sufficiency of water for all the other horses on the farm. 
We have witnessed him, when turned loose into the barn-yard, 
go directly to the pump, take the handle between his teeth, and 
throw the water with as much force, and almost as much regu- 
larity, as a man would, until he would pump enough for his com- 
panions and himself, when he would drink, and deliberately re- 
tire. No pains were ever taken, or means used, to learn him a 
business which proves a great accommodation to himself, and re- 
lieves his owner of considerable labor.” Centreville (Ind.) Times. 


Destruction of Weeds in Garden Walks, &c.—Take 100]bs. of 
water, 20|bs. of quick lime, and 2lbs. of flour of sulphur ; boil them 
in an iron vessel, and after it is settled, draw the clear part off. 
When diluted as may be required, and paved and other walks well 
sprinkled with the preparation, no weeds, it is stated, will appear 
for many years.— Recueil Ind. 


Protection of Firemen.—The Marchese Origo, of Rome, has de- 


236 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


vised a cheap and effective mode of protecting firemen. Their 
articles of dress are dipped in a solution of alumine and sulphate 
of lime; and when dry, are saturated with soap water. Fire- 
men thus equipped have remained a quarter of an hour, exposed 
to an intense heat, without being in the least injured. These 
dresses do not cost more than ten dollars each. Flames may be 
extinguished also, by playing on them with a common engine, 
with a solution of sulphate of alumine, and common clay. 


New Method of Multiplying Dahlias—Some dahlias belonging 
to M. Jacquemin, having been injured by the wind, in the first 
days of June, and some branches broken off, he placed them in 
the ground, in hopes of developing the flower. This did not take 
place; the vegetation languished, but the plants appeared good, 
and being carefully taken up, were found furnished with tuber- 
cles. Hence a new means of multiplying these flowers, and the 
illustration of a curious physiological fact—Jour. Roy. Inst. 


Smell of Paint Removed.—The offensive smell of oil cloths, var- 
nishes, and paints, are said to be removed by chloric fumigation 
in a close room. 


Remedy against Flies——The odour of the oil of laurel is not 
disagreeable, and the stalls of butchers rubbed with it, are said 
not to be frequented with flies. ‘The frames of glasses and pic- 
tures might be preserved in this way. 


Want of Forethought in the Lower Animals——The Barbary ape, 
(Macacus Sylvanus, Lac’.) which, though a native of Africa, has 
established a colony on the Rock of Gibraltar. Here it is occa- 
sionally so cold in winter, that these poor apes are fain to huddle 
about any chance fire that may be lighted out of doors and left 
burning ; but though they are seen sitting close to the dying em- 
bers, they have never been known to adda single chip of fuel to 
continue the fire—Scott. Intell. Phila. iv. 1. 


Snakes in the Water-—Extract of a letter from a correspon- 
dent :—* I will relate to you a curious fact, about the water- 
snake, told to me by General G. He said, that fishing one day 
m a small stream for trout, he observed a water-snake lying on 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 237 


a bush over the stream, under which some chubs were swimming. 
He watched the snake, and saw it fall or plunge into the water 
from the bush, and seize a chub.” 

We have a still more curious story on this subject. A friend, 
who resides where he has constant opportunities of making ob- 
servations, states that he one day observed a snake in the midst ofa 
schoole of these small fish; and that as soon as he had seized one, 
he directed his course to the land, and having, bya jerk, thrown 
the fish there, he returned and repeated the operation several 
times.—Eb. 


Maternal Tenderness in a Sparrow.—A sparrow, which had 
built her nest on the thatch-roof of a house, was observed to con- 
tinue her regular visits long after the time when the young birds 
had taken their flight. This unusual circumstance continued 
throughout the year; and in the winter, a gentleman who had 
all along observed her, determined on investigating its cause. He 
therefore mounted a ladder, and found one of the young ones de- 
tained a prisoner, by means of a string of worsted, which formed 
part of the nest, having become accidentally twisted round its 
leg. Being thus incapacitated from procuring its own subsistence, 
it had been fed and sustained by the continued exertions of ‘its 
mother.—Raleigh Register. 


Mexican domestic Bees. (Melipona Beechei.)\—Some curious anec- 
dotes are related by the possessors as to the manners of these 
bees, one of which deserves to be recorded. They assert, that 
at the entrance of each hive a sentinel is placed to watch the 
outgoings and incomings of his fellows, and that this sentinel is re- 
lieved at the expiration of twenty-four hours, when another 
assumes his post and duties, for the same period. At all times a 
single bee was seen occupying the hole leading to the nest, who, 
on the approach of another, withdrew himself within a small 
cavity apparently made for this purpose, on the left hand side of 
the aperture, and thus allowed the passage of the individual en- 
tering or quitting the hive, the sentinel constantly resuming his 
station immediately after the passage had been effected. Many 
attempts were made to mark him, by introducing a pencil tipped 
with paint; but he constantly eluded the aim taken. With the 
paint thus attempted to be applied to the bee, the margin of the 


2388 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


opening was soiled, and the sentinel, as soon as he was free from 
the annoyance he suffered from the thrusts repeatedly made at 
his body, approached the foreign substance to taste it, and evi- 
dently disliking the material, he withdrew into the hive. A troop 
of bees was soon observed to advance, towards the place, each 
individual bearing a small particle of wax, or of propolis, in his 
mandibles, which he deposited in his turn upon the soiled part of 
the wood. The little labourers then returned to the hive, and 
repeated the operation until a small pile rose above the blemish- 
ed part, and consequently relieved the inhabitants from the an- 
noyance.— Beechey’s Voyage. 


On preventing the Discharge of a Bullet from a Gun by the finger.— 
At the sitting of the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences of 
the 20th July 1830. A letter was read from Dr. Flachin of Yver- 
dun, relative to an experiment before mentioned to the society, 
in which the ball was prevented from leaving the bottom of a 
musket when the gunpowder was fired, simply by putting the 
ramrod upon the ball, and the end of the finger upon the ramrod. 
He supposes the effect may be explained by the circumstance, 
that near the charge, the ball hasa very small velocity compared 
to that impressed upon it by the expansive force of the gases of 
the fired gunpowder, when exerted during the whole of the time 
in which it is passing along the barrel. It is well known that the 
effect thus accumulated is the reason why long pieces carry fur- 
ther than short ones, and why the breath of a man, which can- 
not exert a pressure of more than a quarter of an atmosphere, 
may,,by means of a tube, throw a ball to the distance of sixty 
steps. The experiment requires great care, especially as to the 
strength of the piece, which is liable to burst in the performance 
of the experiment.—Journal of Royal Institution. 


Penetrativeness of Fluids——Dr. J. K. Mitchell’s paper on this 
subject, is republished in the number for August 1831, of “ the 
Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain,” with the fol- 
lowing observation: “The generality and importance of this 
paper issuch, that we think it quite impossible to convey an idea 
of it by an abstract, and feel ourselves bound to bring it before 
our English readers at full length.” 


Mr. R. C. Taylor’s Fossils. 239 


Modes of obtaining the Skeletons of small Animals.—Ants, if ani- 
mals are put into their hill, will leave their skeletons in a fine state 
of preparation. To obtain the skeletons of small fishes, tadpoles 
are very serviceable. Take a jar of pondwater, with a few of 
these future frogs, both large and small, and suspend the fish in 
the water by the head and tail, with threads, fastened at a point 
above. The smaller Tadpoles will effectually clean the bones, 
in places inaccessible to the larger ones. 


MR. R. C. TAYLOR’S FOSSILS, 


WE recommend in the strongest manner to tle public, the valuable cabi- 
net now offered for sale. Dr. Harlan, of Philadelphia, is authorised to dis- 


pose of it for the proprietor.—Ep. 

A concise abstract of the contents of a Cabinet of British Organic Re- 
mains, more particularly of Tertiary Fossil Shells; designed to illustrate the 
principal English Geological Formations, and selected from their respective 
localities, during a period of twenty-five years, by Richard C. Taylor, Fellow 
of the Geological Society of London, and Associate Fellow of the Society of 
Civil Engineers of London. 

The greater portion of these specimens are fixed, upon the improved plan, 
on blocks, covered with tinted paper. Labels, attached to the foot of each 
block, exhibit the generic and specific name of each shell, arranged according 
to Sowerby’s Mineral Conchology, and referring to the tables or figures in 
that work: further, these labels describe the locality, the formation, and in 
many instances, the separate portions or known subdivisions of each forma~- 
tion characterised by peculiar fossils. 

In Geological arrangement, the collection commences with English Dilu- 
vium, so called, and proceeds downwards, by sections, from the most recent 
deposit to the oldest, which contains organic remains. It is by no means 
meant to convey that the suit is entire. Far otherwise. Nor is there yet 
formed a complete series, although several have reached more than ten times 
the magnitude of the one in question. 

Strictly speaking, it illustrates the principal English formations, examined 
by, and best known to the collector: yet is sufficiently ample to form a valu- 
able standard for comparing, and, perhaps, identifying contemporaneous de- 
posits, in points so remote from each other as England and America; and is 
probably the most authentic and complete series that has yet been introduced 
into the United States. 

In conchological classification the Univalves, the Bivalves, and Compound 
Shells are separated in distinct drawers, and reference to any individual or 
species is further facilitated under this arrangement, by an alphabetical no- 
menclature. 

On the whole, it may be asserted, that the extreme beauty and accuracy 
displayed in this arrangement, constitute the principal value of the Cabinet. 

This collection has benefited by the repeated examinations of English Pro- 
fessors and naturalists of celebrity, who kindly afforded their aid in case of 
uncertainty. It comprises also a small illustrative series of recent shells and 
zoophites, collected for comparison, together with a few of the most remark- 
able French and Italian Tertiary Fossils. These foreign and recent shells 
were named under the kind inspection of Mr. J. D. C.\Sowerby. 

The entire collection comprises about five thousand specimens, of which 


240 Mr. R. C. Taylor’s Fossils. 


about four thousand five hundred are fossils. Some of the more fragile ter- 
tiary shells were injured during the voyage, but the greater part of these are 
replaced by duplicates brought over for that purpose. As a piece of orna- 
mental furniture, this cabinet is calculated to form a splendid addition even 
to the drawing-room of the man of taste. It is constructed of beautiful carv- 
ed wood, French polished, in three principal divisions; contains eighty-three 
drawers; each having external indices, and blocks and trays made to fit ac- 
curately within; besides possessing the unusual advantage of glass covers to 
most of the drawers. 

The proprietor was strongly urged by his scientific friends, both American 
and English, to introduce this collection into the United States. It is chiefly 
in consideration of the great risk attending its removal to his present resi- 
dence, west of the Alleghenies, that, after a year’s deliberation, he has de- 
termined to offer it for sale in Philadelphia, whose scientific citizens stand 
pre-eminent in their attachment to Geological investigation. 


Bic Bee 8 sd 
Eo al ty ES aos] 
a Bex ne Zz 63 
& Bg 2G & zB 
1 Diluvium. Shells and Zoophites, 20 Brought over 3970 
2 Diluvium. Shells in sandstone, 44 Upper Green-sand, Blackdown 
3 Diluvium. Eschinites and Ammonites, and Hildown, 
4 Italian Diluvium. Pectens, 15| 45 Gault of Falkestone, 100 
5 French Diluvium. Univalves, 45|46 Upper Ferruginous Sands of 
6 French Diluvium. Bivalves, 40 Kent, &e. 
7 Upper fresh-water, Isle of Wight, mixed 47 
Shells, , 170} 48 Weald Clay, Isle of Wight, and 
8 Upper Marine formation, Isle of Wight, Weald of Kent, 
mixed, 190| 49 Lower Ferruginous Sands, Hast- 
9 Lower fresh water, I. of Wight, mixed, 85 ings, . 
10 Lower fresh-water, Hordwell Clift, Uni- 50 Lower Ferruginous Sands, Isle 
valves, 140 of Wight, &c. 
11 Lower fresh-water, Hordwell Cliff, Bi- 51 Farringdon Sands. Sponges, 10 
valves, 55 | 52 
12 Crag of Suffolk, Zoophites, 25] 53 
13 Crag of Suffolk, Sponges, 15] 54 
14 Crag of Suffolk, Sponges, 15| 55 Pisolite of Malton, : 20 
15 Crag of Suffolk, Animal Remains and 56 Calcareous Grit of Yorkshire, 10 
Echinites, 150 | 57 
16 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Univalves, A to © 125] 58 Oxford Clay, Bedfordshire, 25 
17 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Univalves, €toM 70/59 Cornbrash, Midland Counties, 5 
18 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Univalves, MtoN 80/60 
19 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Univalves, OtoT 90} 61 
20 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Univalves, TtoV 20] 62 i t 
21 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Bivalves, A toM 150] 63 Recent Corallines & Zoophites, 50 
22 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Bivalves, MtoO 90} 64 Shells resembling recent Ma- 
23 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Bivalves, PtoS 8% rine, 350 feet above the 
24 Crag of Suffolk, Shells, Bivalves, StoV 130 sea, in Lancashire, 50 
25 Sheppy Clay, Vegetables and Fruits, 125] 65 Great Oolite, Midland Co’s., 15 
26 Sheppy Clay, Testacea in casts, 650| 66 Great Oolite, Coteswald Hills, 75 
27 Sheppy Clay, Crustacea and Fishes, 120| 67 Inferior Oolites, Cotesw. Hills, 65 
23 London Clay, Testacea, Univalves, AtoF 8/68 Recent shells, named by Mr- 
29 London Clay, Testacea, Univalves, FtoM 60 Sowerby, $ 30 
30 London Clay, Testacea, Univalves, M to R 130] 69 Recent Shells, Marine, 200 
31 London Clay, Testacea, Univalves, Sto V 125| 70 Recent Shells, Land and Fresh- 
32 London Clay, Testacea, Bivalves, AtoO 150 water, 3 ’ 150 
33 London Clay, Testacea, Bivalves, Oto V 90|71 Magnesian Limestone (and 
34 London Clay, Testacea, Bivalves, ¥, 100 ’ American,) __ 15 
35 Plastic Clay, I. of Wight, &c. Testacea, 45| 72 Lias, Gloucestershire, &c. 40 
36 Plastic Clay, Woolwich beds, Testacea, 130| 73 Alden Shale, Whitby, 50 
37 Plastic Clay, 20| 74 Coal measures, Various, 35 
38 Upper Chalk, Trimingham in Norfolk, 75 Coal measures, South Wales, 20 
mixed, 40|76 Mountain Limestone, Derby-— 
39 Upper Chalk, Norwich, mixed, 65 shire and Wales, , 50 
40 Lower Chalk, W. Norfolk, mixed, 70|77 Mountain Limestone, High 
41 Fire-stone and Upper Green-sand, Wilt- Peake and Ebton, 30 
shire, 70|78 Mountain andCoal Measures, 15 
42 Upper Green-sand of Wiltshire, 15| 79 Mountain, Dudley, &e. 6 
43 Upper Green-sand, Blackdown and Hil- 80 Transition Limestone, 5 
down, Casts, 75| 81 Sundry specimens, 
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THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 


GEOLOGY 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. IL. PaitapetpuiaA, DecEmBer, 1831. No. 6. 


AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 
(Concluded from page 158.) 


Autuoven the nature of the universe began at an early period 
to attract the attention of philosophic minds, and individuals from 
time io time appeared, to advance the knowledge of the laws 
which govern the motions of the earth, as well as of its geometrical 
relations ; yet it was reserved for the nineteenth century to pro- 
duce a school of learned, acute, and disinterested men, incessantly 
directing the energy of their minds to the study of the structure 
and the ancient history of this globe. The universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge, which, during the past ages, had nurtured so 
many of those great minds which have enlarged the boundaries of 
physical science, have been the first to cherish geology. At the 
first of these Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, might, per- 
haps, but for the influence* of the scholastic bigotry of the day, 
have left a renown behind him, only second to that of the immortal 


* The following anecdote was related to us at Oxford, in 1827, by a venerable clergy- 
man, who had been connected with the university about sixty years: 

“When Blackstone prepared to deliver his law lectures, he too was considered an 
innovator, and was made to feel, in various ways, the influence of the established 
opinions. In an introductory lecture of his, which unfortunately has not been published, 
he turned the tables very successfully upon his opponents, by the following sally :—‘ In 
those scholastic days, when the inquisitive and original mind of Roger Bacon was di- 
rected to the investigation of the laws of nature, the theological animus conspired 
against him, and he was accused of holding communion with evil spirits. Upon a 
particular occasion, when he intended to exhibit some curious experiments to a few 
select friends, the secret having got out, the whole town and all the colleges of this 
university, were in an uproar. Priests, and fellows, and students, were seen flying 
about in every direction, with their gowns streaming behind them, and screaming out, 
‘No conjurer, no conjurer!’ The cry of no conjurer resounded from hall to hall, 


Vo. 1—31 241 


242 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


Newton. The important contributions which Professors Buck- 
land and Sedgewick have made to this, the most attractive sci- 
ence of modern times, can never be forgotten by those who com- 
memorate its early history, and the great and beneficial impulse 
which it has received from that school, of which they are among 
the chief ornaments. But that we may the more intelligently 
bring that early history before our readers, we shall, in con- 
formity with the plan hitherto pursued, rapidly notice the suc- 
cessive steps, by which the study of physical science has been 
promoted from the earliest times ; by which means the true cau- 
ses of the retardment and advance of a branch of knowledge, 
will more conspicuously and profitably appear; which, as has 
been remarked by Mr. Lyell, stands in that relation to the phy- 
sical sciences, which general history does to the moral. 

In the early pages of this Epitome, we have adyerted to the 
ancient cosmogonies, and to the rise of philosophy in Greece. 
Pythagoras, who flourished near five hundred years B. C., appears 
to have had very just ideas of the true theory of the solar system ; 
he even proved that the earth was not an extended plane, but 
that it had a curvature. The elementary principles of geome- 
try, from the necessity of the case, became known to men in 
the infancy of society, and Pythagoras is the most celebrated of 
the ancient geometricians; but the geometrical analysis, or the 
art of finding unknown quantities, by their relation to quantities 
that are known, became familiar to the Greeks at a later day. 
Although mathematics did not begin to flourish in Greece until 
philosophy and the arts had reached their height, yet geometry 
was well known there, before the period of those great mathe- 
maticians Euclid and Archimedes, who flourished about- the 
third century B. C. Amongst the great astronomers of that time 
was Aristarchus, who taught the true solar theory ; and Hippar- 
chus, who flourished about one hundred and forty-two years B. C., 
was so familiar with the heavens, that he undertook the enumera- 
tion of the stars. The ancients were familiar with the mechanical 
powers, sufficiently to have used them on a great scale, yet until 


from cell tocell, At a later day Galileo was condemned by men, whose names are 
now only remembered as parts of the rubbish upon which the pedestal of his fame is 
raised. And in our own times there are men who seek to raise the cry of ‘ No con- 
jurer’ against me. I tell you, you will soon find out, these good people are no con- 
jurers themselves.” 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 243 


the period of Archimedes, the principles and Jaws of mechanics 
were not laid down. His treatise on Equilibria contains an ex- 
position of these principles. He demonstrates that masses have 
a common point of pressure, the centre of gravity; and shows 
how that centre may be found in all bodies. It was he that laid 
the foundation of all the inventions, which have constituted the 
triumph of mechanics: the machines by which he caused so pro- 
tracted a defence of Syracuse against the Romans, seem, evenin our 
day, to belong to the romance of mechanical history. When we 
reflect upon the causes which retard or advance knowledge, we 
cannot but trace the one either to an abasementof the public mind, 
or the other to the influence of general education, which pre- 
pares the public mind to receive and cherish its seeds. Had Ar- 
chimedes lived in an intelligent age, the principles of his great 
discoveries, which concerned both solid and fluid bodies, would 
have received a more extensive application long ere our own 
times, and in many things we should have been anticipated by 
our ancestors; but although a few continued to walk in the light 
of his great mind, the science of statics became, as it were, sta- 
tionary after his death. The same observation may be made also, 
in relation to the genius of Pythagoras, especially in that branch 
of pneumatics which relates to the theory of sound, and to which 
he was the first to apply the rules of arithmetical and geometri- 
cal science. The doctrine of musical chords, and their analysis 
into vibrations of equal and unequal spaces of time; his transfer 
of this harmonic scale to the motions of the heavenly bodies, 
which, by a grandeur of thought belonging only to a genius of 
the highest, order, he supposed to produce sounds of the most in- 
conceivable harmony, by impinging on the ether through which 
they moved, evince how much knowledge and enjoyment man- 
kind has been deprived of, by the protracted inquiries into these 
the true principles of the theory of musical science. 

There are two natural agents, which, from time immemorial, 
have interfered with the industry and the social existence of 
man. Of the deluges which have at repeated intervals partially 
overwhelmed the surface of the earth, we have abundant evi- 
dence in practical geology, as well as in the traditions of all na- 
tions; and although similar traditions of the destructive effects 
of yolcanic power, have been less powerfully impressed upon suc- 
ceeding generations, on account of its less extensive operation, 


244. Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


still we have in geology the most conclusive evidence of the crust 
of the earth having been penetrated, in every country, by the 
most surprising masses of mineral matter in the state of igneous 
fusion. Devastations of this character are less fatal to life 
than aqueous deluges, which afford less time for escape, and are 
. not so easily forgotten as those which do not sweep away whole 
generations. It is not wonderful that we know so little of the 
effects produced by volcanoes in ancient times, or of the periods 
when they prevailed, since even the eruptions of Skapta Jokul, 
in Iceland, in 1783, are only known to the curious. Yet we are 
told, that those Icelandic lavas, spread into broad lakes of fire, 
sometimes from twelve to fifteen miles wide, and one hundred 
feet deep. 

That this planet has at all times been subject to scourgings 
both from water and fire, is most true. The ancients believed 
in alternate catastrophes of this kind. The Egyptians, especially, 
considered them to be punitive and purifying visitations from 
the gods ; an opinion adopted by the Stoics. The cataclysm, or 
deluge, swept away all organized bodies; and the ecpyrosis, or 
conflagration, consumed the globe itself. This doctrine has even 
been continued by the founders of our holy religion, who have 
taught that the Noachic deluge was inflicted upon the world, on 
account of the sins of man, and that the next punitive visitation 
is to be from fire. These opinions acquired greater force among 
the ancients by the observations they could not avoid making of 
fossil marine remains, buried at great elevations and distances 
from the ocean. Various conjectures were offered to account 
for this class of phenomena. The celebrated geographer, Strabo, 
whose extensive travels had brought the geological phenomena 
of many countries under his notice, and especially those attendant 
upon earthquakes, was the first to assert the reasonable opinion, 
which obtains in our day, that islands, as well as continents and 
seas, are sometimes elevated from below, and sometimes de- ~ 
pressed. This is one of the many instances of a great mind hay- 
ing put mankind upon the right track in vain. Strabo died in the 
year 25 of our era, and eighteen hundred years had elapsed be- 
fore this announcement of subterranean dynamics was generally 
recognized by geologists. In vain too, had the true solar theory 
been taught by Aristarchus, in the third century before Christ ; 
near eighteen centuries elapsed before it was revived by Coperni- 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 245 


cus. During the greater part of this period, and at a time when 
classical literature was falling into decay, the Ptolemaic system 
arose, which was universally received. Ptolemy flourished about 
one hundred and forty years after Christ, and made his system 
accord with external appearances, supposing the earth to be the 
immoveable centre, and the sun and planets to revolve round it. 
This deceptive theory, which coincided with the figurative lan- 
guage used in the old Testament, was received as of divine au- 
thority ; until Galileo, in the seventeenth century, finally over- 
threw it, in despite of the persecutions of the inquisition and the 
power of the church. 

Until the period when the Saracens began to cultivate letters, 
scarce any further progress was made in natural science, if we 
except the labours of Galen as an anatomist, who died A. D. 193. 
They were much addicted to the study of the virtues of plants, 
and their physicians Al Rasi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Rosch, have been 
held in honour by the Europeans under the names of Razes, 
Avicenna, and Averroes; but they added nothing to the know- 
ledge of anatomy ; for the prejudices which the Koran had created 
against dissection were powerful, as it denounced as unclean all 
who touched the corpse of any dead animal. The Saracens 
were, however, well acquainted with the writings of Galen, and 
there is sufficient evidence that it is through their channel the 
Europeans first returned to the study of anatomy ; for many of the 
technical terms used upon its revival in Europe, are derived from, 
the Arabic tongue; such as JVucha, the nape of the neck; Mert, 
the diaphragm ; Swmach, the umbilical region ; Myrach, the abdo- 
men ; Siphaa, the peritoneum; and Zirbus, the omentum. These 
terms were retained by Mondino de Luzzi, his pupil Achillini, and 
the other European anatomists, until the revival of learning led to 
thestudy of the ancient Greek writers. Their passion for astronomy 
was favourable to the cultivation of arithmetic and algebra, their 
knowledge of which, they derived, according to Playfair, from 
India. The monk Gerbert, afterwards pope Sylvester 2d, had 
studied with the Saracens in Spain, and introduced the knowledge 
of algebra into christian Europe, towards the latter end of the 
tenth century. In mechanical science they were great pro- 
ficients. As early as A. D. 799, Haroun Alraschid sent a mag- 
nificent Clepsydra, or water-clock, to the Emperor Charlemagne, 
of a remarkable construction. Chemistry, as an analytical branch 


246 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


of experimental philosophy, owes its origin to the Arabians: 
the transmutation of base metals into gold, and the composition of 
a medicine that could confer immortality, were favourite pursuits 
of this ingenious and romantic people. 

When the rays of Arabian science were reflected upon Eu- 
rope. ingenious and learned men began to arise there. Among 
the most eminent is Roger Bacon, an Englishman, born A. D. 
1214. He was a man of universal knowledge, and being a great 
alchemist, he was charged by the bigotry of his cotemporaries 
with being a necromancer. Had a mind like friar Bacon’s been 
left untrammelled, and experimental philosophy been encouraged 
_ instead of repressed, the greatest progress might have been made 
in physical science ; but the general ignorance was too great, and 
the influence of the scholastic school too powerful. We cannot 
help contrasting here the attainments of Bacon as we have spo- 
ken of them, with those of the celebrated Thomas Aquinas, born 
A. D. 1224, the glory of the scholastics and theologians, known 
by the name of “the angelical doctor.” In metaphysical and 
speculative discussions he was without a rival; but as to phy- 
sical experiments, he denounced them, upon all occasions, as the 
result of necromancy. An amusing anecdote is related of this 
holy man, who after his death was beatified. Being induced 
to go and see a curious automaton figure, which uttered sounds, 
as if in reply to questions put to it; this far famed and holy 
champion of the church, fell into a prodigious fright, and rage, 
and lifting up his staff broke it in pieces, rejoicing that he had 
overcome the devil. 

The Italians were among the first to cultivate those sciences 
which the Saracens had given to Europe. Bologna became a 
great medical school. In 1315, Mondino de Luzzi conducted dis- 
sections there, and became a.celebrated anatomist. He followed 
Galen implicitly, and used the Arabic terms. Luzzi only used 
human subjects, a mode of illustration against which strong pre- 
judices were entertained. His book was the text book of the 
anatomical schools for a century. 

The influence of the scholastic school began now to decline. 
Remarkable chiefly for speculative absurdities, discussed in an 
unintelligible language, and for a corrupted theology defended 
by the misunderstood logic and metaphysics of the ancients; the 
practice of demonstrating truth by facts, which was now be- 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 247 


coming more general, was in the end fatal to it. The school- 
men sought, not for truth, but for victory, by an ingenious and 
verbose sophistry, the great accomplishment of the day, and 
which was called dialectic skill. It was by such means christian- 
ity became corrupted, and an acrimonious spirit generated, 
which has been felt to our day. But the time was approaching 
when the ecclesiastical domination was to be put on the defensive; 
great minds were arising. Occam and Richard of Swinehead, at 
Oxford, and above all, Wickliffe, who, by his translation of the 
scriptures, gave a death blow to the scholastic system. 

The fifteenth century abounds in great men and great events. 
The learned Greeks, whom the fortune of war had driven from 
their own country, had contributed greatly to break down the 
bigotry of the times, by giving Latin versions of ancient Greek 
works. ‘The love of literature was revived, and correct criti- 
cism was substituted for false logic. Men began to think, and 
to study the ancient tongues, and thus the first step was taken 
towards a reformation in religion, by enabling men to read the 
scriptures in the original languages. Erasmus, Luther, and Me- 
lancthon arose, lights that could not be obscured. Erasmus did 
much, by the keenness of his satire, to subvert the sophistry of 
the schoolmen ; his wit was excellent, his erudition great, and 
his industry untiring; though he continued a papist, no one con- 
tributed more by his conversation and writings to reclaim man- 
kind from the delusions and ignorance of the monks, among whom 
he had passed a great part of his youth. About 1440 the 
art of printing was first made known to Europe; this art, as we 
see by the printed books of that period, was almost perfected as 
soon as discovered. ‘This was also the age of Cosmo de Medici, 
of the celebrated Regio Montanus, and of Copernicus. ‘This last 
philosopher, who was born A. D. 1472, began to doubt the Pto- 
lemaic System about 1507. His work “ Astronomia Instaurata,” 
in which the true solar system is given, was not published, from 
excess of caution, until 1543. It was dedicated to the pope, and 
he died, perhaps fortunately, the day the first printed copy was 
delivered to him. This theory, however, the Cardinal Nicholas 
de Cusa had in vain attempted to revive about 1445, A. D. 

The prejudices against using human subjects still continued in 
Italy, and Berenger of Carpi, a professor of surgery of the uni- 
versity of Bologna, delivered, in 1502, a private course of lec- 


248 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


tures over the body of a pig. He afterwards devoted himself 
to anatomy, and became very celebrated. In France the same 
prejudices existed, and Gonthier, in whose school Vesalius, Eus- 
tachius, Fallopius,—and probably Michael Servetus of famous 
memory, the original discoverer of the circulation of the blood, 
and the victim of the brutal bigotry of the Calvinists—studied, 
taught the elements of the science, principally by dissection 
of the lower animals. But the successful individuals in animal 
anatomy, were Rondelet of Montpelier, and Belon of Mans. The 
first had studied with Gonthier. He published at Lyons, in 1554, 
a natural history of fishes in eighteen books, in which both the 
zoological and zootomical characters of these animals are given. 
In this book, written in the infancy of zoology, he includes all 
the inhabitants of the waters, whether fish, cetacea and amphi- 
bious mammalia, chelonia, (turtles,) mollusca or crustacea ; whilst 
at the same time he draws a line between those which breathe 
by gills, and those which breathe by lungs. This work is dis- . 
tinguished for the detail, as well as the ability with which he pur- 
sues his physiological inquiries.—This great animal anatomist 
died in 1566. 

His cotemporary Belon of Mans, also wrote a natural history, 
“des Estranges Poissons Marins,” distinguished for the minuteness 
of his anatomical and physiological observations. But his work 
“ L’Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux,” published at Paris in 
1555, illustrated with spirited wood cuts, is exceedingly curious, 
and replete with observations of a truly original character, for 
ornithological anatomy became for the first time a science in his 
hands. He was a great enthusiast, and had travelled in Greece, 
Arabia, India, and Egypt, devoting himself to natural history. 
In his quaint manner, he says,* “No animal ever fell into my 
hands, that I did not dissect it, as soon as it was in my power. 
Whence it came that I have examined the internal parts of two 
hundred different species of birds. It is not strange, therefore, 
if I am able to describe the bones of birds, and to figure them so 
accurately.” 


* “One ne tumba animal entre nos mains, veu qu’il fut en notre puissance, duquel 
n’ayons fait anatomie. Dequoy est advenu qu’ayons regardé les intericures parties de 
deux cents diverses especes d’oyseaux. L/’on ne doit done trouver estrange si nous des 
crivons maintenant les os des oyseaux, et les portrayons si exactment.”—L’ Histoire de 
la Nature des Oyseaux. A Paris 1555. Liv. 1. chap. xii. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 249 


The sixteenth century was, above all, distinguished by the re- 
formation of religion. Luther had declared that neither religion 
or philosophy could be reformed, until the scholastic system, and 
the metaphysical theology of the schools, were utterly abolished ; 
and he lived to witness the greatest triumph of ‘which man ever 
was the hero. He died A. D. 1546, fifteen years before the birth 
of the celebrated Lord Bacon, as great a reformer in intellectual 
philosophy, as Luther had been in religion. This great philoso- 
pher taught that the qualities of bodies became known only by 
experiment, and that the way to arrive at truth, is to proceed 
step by step from what we know, till we arrive at results go- 
verned by principles of universal application; thus seeking the 
unknown by aid of the known. Strong as he was in experimental 
philosophy, and prophetic as his enlightened views were respect- 
ing future examinations of the powers of nature, yet it is as a . 
profound logician Lord Bacon stands unrivalled. No man ever 
saw more distinctly how truth was to be found, nor pursued it 
more steadily. His great mind disdained to occupy itself with 
the relations of words with themselves, but applied its powers to 
the philosophical relation between words and things. About the 
same time, also, Galileo was born. His “ Dialogues of the System 
of the World,” made public about A. D. 1613, were received by 
men of science—and this was the age of Bacon, Kepler, Napier, 
&c.—with enthusiasm. They produced the final overthrow of 
the false system then taught, although he was twice thrown into 
the dungeons of the inquisition, and his book publicly burnt. Pro- 
fessor Scarpellini informed Mr. Lyell, at Rome, that the edicts 
against Galileo and the Copernican system, were finally repealed 
in 1818, at the instance of Pius 7th. 

During this progress in the higher branches of physical sci- 
ence, the fossil organic remains found in almost every quarter, 
were too curious a phenomenon to escape the attention of inquir- 
ing minds. Some excavation made at Verona, in Italy, in 1517, 
for the purpose of repairing the city, had drawn the public atten- 
tion to certain petrifactions which abound there. 'The easiest 
way, and indeed the safest, to account for their being found bu- 
ried beneath the surface, was by referring them to the action of 
the Noachian deluge, and was, of course, adopted by the major- 
ity. Some, however, referred them to a “ plastic force,” which 
could give organic forms to stones. Fracastoro boldly declared 

Vox. L.—32 


250 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


his opinion, that the fossil shells had not only belonged to living 
animals, but that the Noachic deluge had no agency in bringing 
them there. Fallopio, a professor of anatomy at Padua, even 
taught that some Elephants’ tusks, dug up at Puglia, were earthy 
concretions. Mercati, who, in 1574, published some figures of 
fossils preserved in the museum of the Vatican, declared that they 
owed their forms to the influence of the heavenly bodies. In 
1580, Palissy, a French writer, “On. the origin of springs from 
rain water,” was the first, according to Fontenelle, to declare in 
Paris, that organic remains had once been vitalized. The Ita- 
lians, however, in the 17th century, continued to lead in geolo- 
gical inquiries, and Colonna and Steno, although they conceded 
the position of fossil remains to be owing to the Noachic deluge, 
contended for their previous existence. In like manner, the 
interesting work of Scilla, a Sicilian painter, on the fossils of 
Calabria, published in 1670, with engravings, is a mixture 
of sound opinions, restrained by what he thought due to popu- 
Jar prejudice. Quirini, in a work on fossil testacea, in 1676, 
contended that the deluge could not have brought fossils into the 
situation in which some of them were found, and was the first to 
doubt its universality. In England, in 1677, Dr. Plot, in his 
“ Natural History of Oxfordshire,” attributed fossils to the ‘ plas- 
tic virtue’ before spoken of. Lister, the conchologist, in 1678, 
thought them either “terriginous,” or representing extinct 
animals. 

Robert Hooke, M. D. in his “ Discourse of Earthquakes,” writ- 
ten in 1688, expresses many opinions, which obtain at this time. 
Speaking of organic remains found at great elevations, hesays, they 
might have been raised there by those earthquakes “ which have 
turned plains into mountains,” &c., &c.; he therefore was opposed 
to the hypothesis which accounted for fossils by the deluge. Ray, 
an able naturalist, and cotemporary with Hooke, placed a bar- 
rier in the way of his own vigorous mind, and of his sound views 
of physical science, by conceding to the prevailing theological 
opinions. Another cotemporary, Woodward, who by found- 
ing a chair at Cambridge—now filled by the Rev. Adam Sedge- 
wick—has indirectly a claim to be considered a benefactor to 
geological science, entertained the most extravagant notions of the 
flood, teaching that the whole solid fabric of the globe had been 
dissolved in it, and that the strata were the result of the general 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 251 


deposition. Burnet, towards the close of the seventeenth century, 
produced a romance under the title of “« The Sacred Theory of 
the Earth, and of all the general changes which it hath already 
undergone, or is to undergo, till the consummation of all things.” 
This work, which was so highly praised by some of his cotempo- 
‘aries, is a mere extravagant and theoretical fallacy ; but such 
was the prejudice of the theologians of that day, that those who 
in geological matters did not acknowledge the agency of the 
Noachic deluge in every thing, were exposed to the imputation 
of infidelity. Whiston followed Burnet in his adherence to the 
general interpretation of the scripture account of the deluge, 
which he supposed to have been occasioned by the near approach 
of a comet. Even the great Newton did not escape these fana- 
tics; for Hutchinson, in 1724, published his “ Moses’s Principia,” in 
which he insisted that the Scriptures contained a perfect system 
of natural philosophy, and for which reason he and his followers 
objected to the theory of gravitation. Leibnitz, who claimed to 
be the inventor of the differential calculus, ten years after Newton 
had discovered the method of fluxions, so important to the preci- 
sion necessary in carrying on astronomical calculations, published 
his Protogza, in 1680. He supposed the planet to have originally 
been a burning mass, and that it had been cooling ever since the 
creation, and that the oceans were formed by the vapours which 
had condensed during that cooling. This hypothesis of this great 
mathematician was partially adopted by Buffon, De Luc, and 
others. Buffon’s Natural History appeared in 1740. The hy- 
pothetical reasonings of this eloquent writer gave offence, and at 
the instance of the faculty of the Sorbonne, he retracted all his 
opinions which were deemed to be in opposition to the Mosaic ac- 
count. 'Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, Italy pro- 
duced many writers who speculated on fossils, Vallisneri, Moro, 
and Targioni. A Carmelite friar named Generelli, is distin- 
guished for his judicious opinions at this time. For a spirited 
sketch of the progress of geological inquiry, in Italy, at this pe- 
riod, we refer our readers to Mr. Lyell’s “ Principles of Geology,” 
an eloquent modern work, in the possession of every naturalist. 
The Itatians were greatly excited to this study, by the fossils in 
the sub-appenine formations, which lie on the flanks of the older 
rocks, and by the vast quantities of remains of extinct quad- 
rupeds found in the plains of their country, and which some wri- 


252 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


ters referred to the period of the ancient Romans and of Hanni- 
bal, as Mr. Rankin, in his extravagant writings, pretends still to 
think. 

The order of superposition of beds, began now to be understood. 
Ardusino and Lehman, in 1759, both recognized the distinction 
between primary, secondary, and tertiary rocks. In 1760, the 
Rey. John Michell, Woodwardian professor at Cambridge, wrote 
an admirable essay in the Philosophical Transactions, on the cause 
and phenomena of Earthquakes, suggested by the great earth- 
quake at Lisbon, five years before. In 1762, Fuchsel, a physi- 
cian of Rudelstadt, in Germany, published his “ Historia Terre 
et Maris.” He was a practical geologist, and is the first who 
described the Muschelkalk, a bed peculiar to Germany, in Eu- 
rope, but which we have some reason to think has its equivalent 
here. The name of this-excellent observer has been but recently 
brought forward.* The classification made by Werner, and pub- 
lished 1787, appears to be far short of the progress already made 
by Fuschel. Raspe, in 1763, in an able work, called the atten- 
tion of naturalists to the new Islands that from time to time had 
appeared, urging them to study nature “in the act of parturi- 
tion.” In 1766, Brander published his Fossilia Hantoniensia, 
with excellent figures of the tertiary shells. In 1780, Soldani 
produced some able papers, on the comparative position of un- 
disturbed fossils, with that of recent Testacea and Zoophytes. He 
also first observed that the beds of the Parisian basin were alter- 
nate deposits of marine and fresh water strata. 

About this time Pallas, a distinguished Russian naturalist, an- 
nounced the order of superposition of the lower beds in the Sile- 
sian chains, which was further illustrated by the observations of 
the celebrated Saussure in the Alps: he aided greatly in reducing 
to a regular study, the specification of beds, and the grouping of 
them into formations. Hitherto, geological phenomena had been 
considered rather as curious subjects for discussion, than as hay- 
ing a bearing upon each other of a high philosophical character. 
Important steps had been taken towards opening the considera- 
tion of the structure of the planet, in a way worthy of so lofty a 
subject; but the effort having been made in an insulated and de- 
tached manner, had not concentrated toa point. It was reserved 
for the celebrated German mineralogist, Werner, to draw the 

* See M. Keferstein’s Memoir. Journal de Geologie, Oct. 1830. p. 191. 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 253 


attention of mankind to the subject,*by one of those splendid 
generalizations, which, being apparently founded on observation, 
was for a long time implicitly received. 

Werner, in 1775, was appointed Professor of Mineralogy, in 
the school of Mines, at Freyberg in Saxony. Familiar with the 
regular succession of rocks, as well by the labours of his prede- 
cessors, as by his own observations, he had—without being ori- 
ginal in his views in relation to superposition—the great merit 
of pointing out the application of particular phenomena, to the 
purposes of mining. An eloquent enthusiast, and skilled in min- 
eralogy, he soon raised up a brilliant school, to which men of 
genius resorted from distant countries. His opinions were received 
as oracular, and disseminated over Europe. To the school of 
Werner we owe some of the most distinguished mineralogists. It 
is probable that the success he met with as a mineralogist, was 
the principal cause of his failure as a geologist, for his illustrations 
were drawn from Freyberg and its immediate vicinity. He 
therefore imagined a system which had scarce any other basis 
than the limited phenomena around him, and with an amount of 
observation, that in these days would scarce exceed the personal 
investigations due to an ordinary memoir in the geological trans- 
actions, declared—what the united labours of the most gifted and 
practical geologists of the present day, have not ventured to do— 
the law of the structure of the planet. He taught that the uni- 
versal crust of the earth was formed of beds successively pre- 
cipitated from a common menstruum, in the which he included 
the whole class of intrusive rocks, now uniyersally recognized to 
be of igneous origin. Nothing has been more fatal to his repu- 
tation, in Germany, as a geologist, than the manner in which he 
overlooked the igneous nature of the rocks in his own vicinity, 
where porphyry—which he included in his primitive rocks—not 
only sends from below its jets and dikes through the secondary 
rocks, but overlies the strata of the coal formation in mass. His 
flétz rocks too, which he represented as universally horizontal, are, 
even in the Hartz mountains—close to his type—very highly in- 
clined; so that his partizans found themselves either obliged to 
renounce his system, or to contend for the possibility of entire 
formations being at the same time horizontal and perpendicular. 
This too, when Arduino, Desmaretz, Collini, Faujas, and especially 
his countryman Raspe, all of whom preceded him, had fully shown 


254. Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


the agreement of trap rocks with volcanic products. Werner, 
therefore, who could not be ignorant of these facts, availing him- 
self of his influence, preferred, as it would seem, to sustain an 
hypothesis based upon his own inventive imagination, to the truths 
which nature taught, and which had been very ably brought 
forward. This substitution of his hypothesis had for a long pe- 
riod, the effect of suppressing the truth, and of retarding the ad- 
vancement of geological knowledge. 

Whilst in Europe the influence of Werner’s geological theory 
has entirely passed away, it is due to the memory of that great 
mineralogist to say, that the progress in mineralogical knowledge is 
to be attributed to the school he formed; and that the very awa- 
kening which geological science has received, arose from the 
boldness of his hypothesis, the enthusiasm with which it was 
maintained by him and his disciples, and the inquiries it provoked. 
Those who obstinately explained all phenomena by the doc- 
trine of aqueous precipitates, soon received the designation of Nep- 
tunists, in opposition to that of Vulcanists, which was given to the 
other side, and of whom Hutton, the cotemporary of Werner, was 
the most conspicuous member. He was a man of unwearied ac- 
tivity and application, who examined for himself, and who sought 
to account for all geological phenomena by the reasonable action 
of known natural agents. In 1788, he published his “ Theory of 
the Earth.” He presents the earth to us as a pure self-acting 
machine, operating eternal degradations and renewals. Conti- 
nents worn down by external circumstances, their ruins carried 
by streams into the oceans, there consolidated by subterranean 
heat and pressure, to be again raised up by subterranean 
power. Satisfied that trap rocks were of igneous origin, and 
finding that the phenomena of veins and dykes belonging to it, 
were common to the granite, he came to the conclusion, that the 
primary rocks were not formed from aqueous deposites, but from 
mineral matter in a state of igneous fusion. To this opinion, the 
geological theory has been for some time steadily tending: but 
that part of his doctrine which implies that all the changes 
which have taken place in the globe, have been the result of 
causes co-efficient with all time, and that the energy of subter- 
ranean power, as far as the whole globe is concerned, has at all 
times been uniform, is deemed insufficient by the greater portion 
of accredited geologists; who neither admit the inconceivable 


Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 255 


immensity of time involved in the theory, nor the uniformity of 
action alluded to; seeing that the proofs are co-extensive with 
investigations made in the most distant parts of the globe, that 
until the period of the lower secondary rocks, the evidences of an 
immeasurable and peculiar subterranean power, form the most 
obvious of all the geological phenomena; and from which we 
may, in conjunction with other important branches, infer the fu- 
ture establishment of a geological theory of a progressive charac- 
ter, rather than one of uniform mutations. 

For a long time the opinions of Hutton were injurious to the 
advancement of sound geological knowledge ; for though he was 
much nearer the truth than his Wernerian adversaries, still, 
inferences were raised, which gave occasion to the imputa- 
tion of atheistical tendency, and thus an alliance was formed 
between the Wernerians and the theologico-geologists, who 
were less concerned for the safety of science, than for the Mosaic 
account of the creation and the Noachic deluge; and thus, with 
many, geology was brought into disrepute. But the controver- 
sies and illiberalities to which these conflicting opinions gave rise, 
are now happily buried, never to be revived, as long as the spirit 
which now prevails, of reasoning from facts alone, shall have au- 
thority in science. 

About the time that Hutton’s published opinions were bring- 
ing their attacks upon him, a young man named William Smith, 
born in 1769, a native of Churchill, in Oxfordshire, who followed 
the profession of a mineral and land surveyor, was, unaided, si- 
lently laying down the foundations of true geological knowledge. 
Fossils had been the playthings of his childhood, and when at a 
mature age he recognized them imbedded in the rocks he was 
traversing, they received more than ordinary attention from him. 
He not only learned to distinguish them wherever he found them, 
but the rocks in which they were imbedded, however remotely 
they might be situated; for he found that particular fossils were 
peculiar to rocks that observed an uniform succession to each 
other as to superposition. These discoveries led him to examine 
with more attention than had hitherto been done, the range and 
extent of the successive deposites, with their general line of dip. 
In this manner he proceeded from step to step, until he had ex- 
amined extensive territorial surfaces, and had satisfied himself 
that the order of succession of the rocks was never inverted, 


256 Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science. 


and that the true way to identify them was by their imbedded fossils. 
Thus did an unaided, and unpretending individual, arrive, by his 
own sagacity, and laborious investigations, at the great funda- 
mental truths of the geological structure of the planet, in a much 
clearer manner than all the older geologists, Werner included. 
His ‘ Tabular View of the British Strata,’ was published in 1790; 
and in 1815 he published his great Geological Map of England, 
which drew from D’Aubisson, one of Werner’s most celebrated 
pupils, the following distinguished tribute of admiration—* that 
what many celebrated mineralogists had accomplished for a small 
part of Germany in the course of half a century, had been effected by 
a single individual for the whole of England.’’* 

The intemperance with which the controversies between the 
Neptunists and Vulcanists had been carried on, at length fatigued 
all parties, and a re-action took place, of the most beneficial cha- 
racter: a spirit of caution grew up, which rejected hypothesis 
of every kind. The lovers of nature began, as it were, by com- 
mon consent, to atone to her for the neglect she had received 
by the past indulgence in so much speculative imagination. Men 
began now to collect facts with great activity and scrupulous- 
ness. ‘The Geological Society of London, was established in 
1807, for the purpose of multiplying and recording those facts. 
Its success has been complete ; it has rescued geology from every 
unfriendly prejudice, and has raised up a school of eminent men, 
who, by their disinterested and active labours, have made Geo- 
logy the most attractive and popular of all the sciences. In 1830, 
the French naturalists, many of whose names we shall have oc- 
casion to mention hereafter with all praise, perceiving the use- 
fulness of the Geological Society of London, and the influence 
which it was acquiring in Europe, established one in Paris, un- 
der the title of “ Societé Geologique de France.” 

In this hasty sketch we have not ventured to speak of the la- 
bours of Cuvier, and of the extent of the obligations which na- 
tural history is under to him. Those labours are too extensive, 
too minute, and of too universal a character ; his opinions too re- 
markable for the judgment and sagacity of their author, to per- 
mit any other expression of his merits, than that he is to this age 
what Aristotle was to his own. , 

We wish, in concluding this epitome, we could say that the 

* See July number, page 29. 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 257 


impulse which practical geology once received in this country 
from William Maclure had been continued. We look with con- 
fidence to the future. 


THE JOURNAL OF COL. CROGHAN. 


Arter the peace of 1763, Col. Croghan was sent by the British 
government to explore the country adjacent to the Ohio river, 
and to conciliate the Indian nations, who had hitherto acted with 
the French. As the Editor possesses the original journal kept 
during this interesting expedition, he has thought it would be 
gratifying to his readers to transfer it to his pages. The present 
inhabitants of that fertile territory, will no doubt be pleased with 
this document, which describes so minutely, their now highly cul- 
tivated and populous country, when it knew no dominion but 
that of the Indians, and the fera natura of the forests, and waters. 
The list of the tribes of Indians in the northern parts of North 
America is both curious and valuable. Col. Croghan was, per- 
haps, the first European, or even white man, who personally visit- 
ed Big-bone Lick, now become an object of so much interest to 
naturalists, and which is here noticed. 

The Editor will esteem himself much obliged to any of his 
readers, who will favour him with documents of a similar cha- 
racter, and which have not yet been published. Ep. 


May 15th, 1765. I set off from Fort Pitt with two batteaux, 
and encamped at Chartier’s Island, in the Ohio, three miles be- 
low Fort Pitt. 

16th. Being joined by the deputies of the Senecas, Shawnesse, 
and Delawares, that were to accompany me, we set off at 7 o’clock 
in the morning, and at 10 o’clock arrived at the Log’s Town, 
an old settlement of the Shawnesse, about seventeen miles 
from Fort Pitt, where we put ashore, and viewed the remains of 
that village, which was situated on a high bank, on the south 
side of the Ohio river, a fine fertile country round it. At 11 
o’clock we re-embarkedand proceeded down the Ohio to themouth 
of Big Beaver Creek, about ten miles below the Log’s Town : 
this creek empties itself between two fine rich bottoms, a mile 
wide on each side from the banks of the river to the highlands. 

Vor. I.—33 


258 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


About a mile below the mouth of Beaver Creek we passed an old 
settlement of the Delawares, where the French, in 1756, built a 
town for that nation. On the north side of the river some of the 
stone chimneys are yet remaining; here the highlands come 
close to the banks, and continue so for about five miles. After 
which we passed several spacious bottoms on each side of the 
river, and came to Little Beaver Creek, about fifteen miles be- 
low Big Beaver Creek. A number of small rivulets fall into the 
river on each side. From thence we sailed to Yellow creek, 
being about fifteen miles from the last mentioned creek; here 
and there the hills come close to the banks of the river on 
each side, but where there are bottoms, they are very large, and 
well watered ; numbers of small rivulets running through them, 
falling into the Ohio on both sides. We encamped on the river 
bank, and find a great part of the trees in the bottoms are cov- 
ered with grape vines. This day we passed by eleven islands, 
one of which being about seven miles long. For the most part 
of the way we made this day, the banks of the river are high and 
steep. The course of the Ohio from Fort Pitt to the mouth of 
Beaver Creek inclines to the north-west ; from thence to the two 
creeks partly due west. 

17th. At 6 o’clock in the morning we embarked, and were de- 
lighted with the prospect of a fine open country on each side of 
the river as we passed down. We came toa place called the 
Two Creeks, about fifteen miles from Yellow Creek, where we 
put to shore; here the Senecas have a village on a high bank, 
on the north side of the river; the chief of this village offered me 
his service to go with me to the Illinois, which I could not refuse 
for fear of giving him offence, although I had a sufficient number 
of deputies with me already. From thence we proceeded down 
the river, passed many large, rich, and fine bottoms; the high- 
lands being at a considerable distance from the river banks, till 
we came to the Buffalo Creek, being about ten miles below the 
Seneca village ; and from Buffalo Creek we proceeded down the 
river to Fat Meat Creek, about thirty miles. The face of the 
country appears much like what we met with before ; large, rich, 
and well watered bottoms, then succeeded by the hills pinching 
close on the river ; these bottoms, on the north side, appear rather 
low, and consequently subject to inundations, in the spring of the 
year, when there never fails to be high freshes in the Ohib, ow- 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 259 


ing to the melting of the snows. This day we passed by ten fine 
islands, though the greatest part of them are small. ‘They lay 
much higher out of the water than the mainland, and of course 
less subject to be flooded by the freshes. At night we encamped 
near an Indian village. The general course of the river from the 
Two Creeks to Fat Meat Creek inclines to the south-west. 

18th. At 6 o’clock, A. M. we set off in our batteaux; the 
country on both sides of the river appears delightful; the hills 
are several miles from the river banks, and consequently the 
bottoms large; the soil, timber, and banks of the river, much like 
those we have before described ; about fifty miles below the Fat 
Meat Creek, we enter the long reach, where the river runs a 
straight course for twenty miles, and makes a delightful prospect ; 
the banks continue high; the country on both sides, level, rich, 
and well watered. At the lower end of the reach we encamped. 
This day we passed nine islands, some of which are large, and 
lay high out of the water. 

19th. We decamped at six in the morning, and sailed toa place 
called the Three Islands, being about fifteen miles from our last 
encampment ; here the highlands come close to the river banks, 
and the bottoms for the most part—till we come to the Mus- 
kingum (or Elk) river—are but narrow: this river empties itself 
into the Ohio about fifteen miles below the Three Islands; the 
banks of the river continue steep, and the country is level for 
several miles back from the river. The course of the river from 
Fat Meat Creek to Elk River, is about south-west and by south. 
We proceeded down the river about fifteen miles, to the mouth 
of Little Conhawa River, with little or no alteration in the face 
of the country ; here we encamped in a fine rich bottom, after 
having passed fourteen islands, some of them large, and mostly’ 
lying high out of the water. Here buffaloes, bears, turkeys, with 
all other kinds of wild game are extremely plenty. A good hunter, 
without much fatigue to himself, could here supply daily one 
hundred men with meat. The course of the Ohio, from Elk River 
to Little Conhawa, is about south. 

20th. At six in the morning we embarked in our boats, and 
proceeded down to the mouth of Hochocken or Bottle River, 
where we were obliged to encamp, having a strong head wind 
against us. We made but twenty miles this day, and passed by 
five very fine islands; the country the whole way being rich 


260 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


and level, with high and steep banks to the rivers. From here 
I despatched an Indian to the Plains of Scioto, with a letter to the 
French traders from the Illinois residing there, amongst the 
Shawnesse, requiring them to come and join me at the mouth of 
Scioto, in order to proceed with me to their own country, and 
take the oaths of allegiance to his Britannic Majesty, as they were 
now become his subjects, and had no right to trade there with- 
out license. At the same time, I sent messages to the Shawnesse 
Indians to oblige the French to come to me in case of refusal. 

21st. We embarked at half past 8 o’clock in the morning, and 
sailed toa place called the Big Bend, about thirty-five miles 
below Bottle River. The course of the Ohio, from Little Con- 
hawa River to Big Bend, is about south-west by south. The 
country hereabouts abounds with buffaloe, bears, deer, and all 
sorts of wild game, in such plenty, that we killed out of our boats 
as much as we wanted. We proceeded down the river to the 
Buffalo Bottom, about ten miles from the beginning of the Big 
Bend, where we encamped. The country on both sides of the 
river, much the same as we passed the day before. This 
day we passed nine islands, all lying high out of the water. 

22d. At half an hour past 5 o’clock, set off and sailed to a 
place, called the Alum Hill, so called from the great quantity of 
that mineral found there by the Indians; this place lays about 
ten miles from Buffalo Bottom ; thence we sailed to the mouth of 
Great Conhawa River, being ten miles from the Alum Hill. The 
course of the river, from the Great Bend to this place, is mostly 
west ; from hence we proceeded down to Little Guyondott River, 
where we encamped, about thirty miles from Great Conhawa ; 
the country still fine and level ; the banks of the river high, with 
abundance of creeks and rivulets falling into it. This day we 
passed six fine islands. In the evening one of our Indians dis- 
covered three Cherokees near our encampment, which obliged 
our Indians to keep out a good guard the first part of the night. 
Our party being pretty strong, I imagine the Cherokees were 
afraid to attack us, and so ran off. 

23d. Decamped about five in the morning, and arrived at Big 
Guyondott, twenty miles from our last encampment: the country 
as of yesterday ; from hence we proceeded down to Sandy River, 
being twenty miles further ; thence to the mouth of Scioto, about 
forty miles from the last mentioned river. The general course 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 261 


of the river, from Great Conhawa to this place, inclines to the 
south-west, The soil rich, the country level, and the banks of 
the river high. The soil on the banks of Scioto, for a vast dis- 
tance up the country, is prodigious rich, the bottoms very wide, 
and in the spring of the year, many of them are flooded, so that 
the river appears to be two or three miles wide. Bears, deer, 
turkeys, and most sorts of wild game, are very plenty on the 
banks of this river. On the Ohio, just below the mouth of Scioto, 
on a high bank, near forty feet, formerly stood the Shawnesse 
town, called the Lower Town, which was all carried away, ex- 
cept three or four houses, by a great flood in the Scioto. I was 
in the town at the time, though the banks of the Ohio were so 
high, the water was nine feet on the top, which obliged the whole 
town to take to their canoes, and move with their effects to the 
hills. The Shawnesse afterwards built their town on the opposite 
side of the river, which, during the French war, they abandoned, 
for fear of the Virginians, and removed to the plains on Scioto. 
The Ohio is about one hundred yards wider here than at Fort 
Pitt, which is but a small augmentation, considering the great 
number of rivers and creeks, that fall into it during the course 
of four hundred and twenty miles; and as it deepens but very 
little, I imagine the waters sink, though there is no visible 
appearance of it. In general all the lands on the Scioto River, 
as well as the bottoms on Ohio, are too rich for any thing but 
hemp, flax, or Indian corn. 

24th, 25th, and 26th. Stayed at the mouth of Scioto, waiting 
for the Shawnesse and French traders, who arrived here on the 
evening of the 26th, in consequence of the message I sent them 
from Hochocken, or Bottle Creek. 

27th. The Indians requested me to stay this day, which I could 
not refuse. 

28th. We set off: passing down the Ohio, the country on both 
sides the river level; the banks continue high. This day we 
came sixty miles; passed no islands. The river being wider and . 
deeper, we drove all night. 

29th. We came to the little Miame River, having proceeded 
sixty miles last night. 

30th. We passed the great Miame River, about thirty miles 
from the little river of that name, and in the evening arrived at the 
place where the elephants’ bones are found, where we encamped, in- 


262 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


tending to take a view of the place next morning. This day we 
came about seventy miles. The country on both sides level, and 
rich bottoms well watered. 
31st. Early in the morning we went to the great Lick, where those 
bones are only found, about four miles from the river, on the south-east 
side. In our way we passed through a fine timbered clear wood ; we 
came into a large road which the buffaloes have beaten, spacious 
enough for two wagons to go abreast, and leading straight into the 
Lick. It appears that there are vast quantities of these bones 
lying five or six feet under ground, which we discovered in the 
bank, at the edge of the Lick. We found here two tusks above 
six feet long ; we carried one, with some other bones, to our boats, 
and set off. ‘This day we proceeded down the river about eighty 
miles, through a country much the same as already described, 
since we passed the Scioto. In this day’s journey we passed the 
mouth of the River Kentucky, or Holsten’s River. 
June 1st. We arrived within a mile of the Falls of Ohio, where 
we encamped, after coming about fifty miles this day. 
2d. Early in the morning we embarked, and passed the Falls. 
The river being very low we were obliged to lighten our boats, 
and pass on the north side of a little island, which lays in the 
middle of the river. In general, what is called the Fall here, is 
no more than rapids; and in the least fresh, a batteau of any 
size may come and go on each side without any risk. This day 
we proceeded sixty miles, in the course of which we passed 
Pidgeon River. The country pretty high on each side of the 
River Ohio. 
3d. In the forepart of this day’s course, we passed high lands ; 
about midday we came to a fine, flat, and level country, called 
-by the Indians the Low Lands; no hills to be seen. We came 
about eighty miles this day, and encamped. 
4th. We came toa place called the Five Islands ; these islands 
are very long, and succeed one another in a chain; the country 
still flat and level, the soil exceedingly rich, and well watered. 
The high lands are at least fifty miles from the banks of the Ohio. 
In this day’s course we passed about ninety miles, the current 
being very strong. 
5th. Having passed the Five Islands, we came to a place called 
the Owl River. Came about forty miles this day. The country 
the same as yesterday. 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 263 


6th. We arrived at the mouth of the Ouabache, where we 
found a breast-work erected, supposed to be done by the Indians. 
The mouth of this river is about two hundred yards wide, and in 
its course runs through one of the finest countries in the world, 
the lands being exceedingly rich, and well watered ; here hemp 
might be raised in immense quantities. All the bottoms, and al- 
most the whole country abounds with great plenty of the white and 
red mulberry tree. These treesare to be found in great plenty, 
in all places between the mouth of Scioto and the Ouabache: 
the soil of the latter affords this tree in plenty as far as Ouicato- 
non, and some few on the Miame River. Several large fine 
islands lie in the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Ouabache, the 
banks of which are high, and consequently free from inundations ; 
hence we proceeded down the river about six miles to encamp, 
as I judged some Indians were sent to way-lay us, and came toa 
place called the Old Shawnesse Village, some of that nation hay- 
ing formerly lived there. In this day’s proceedings we came 
about seventy-six miles. The general course of the river, from 
Scioto to this place, is south-west. 

7th. We stayed here, and despatched two Indians to the Illi- 
nois by land, with letters to Lord Frazer, an English officer, who 
had been sent there from Fort Pitt, and Monsieur St. Ange, the 
French commanding officer at Fort Chartres, and some speeches 
to the Indians there, letting them know of my arrival here ; that 
peace was made between us and the Six Nations, Delawares, 
and Shawnesse, and of my having a number of deputies of those 
nations along with me, to conclude matters with them also on my 
arrival there. ‘This day one of my men went into the woods and 
lost himself. | 

8th. At day-break we were attacked by a party of Indians, 
consisting of eighty warriors of the Kiccapoos and Musquattimes, 
who killed two of my men and three Indians, wounded myself 
and all the rest of my party, except two white men and one In- 
dian ; then made myself and all the white men prisoners, plun- 
dering us of every thing we had. A deputy of the Shawnesse 
who was shot through the thigh, having concealed himself in the 
woods for a few minutes after he was wounded—not knowing 
but they were southern Indians, who are always at war with the 
northward Indians—after discovering what nation they were, 
came up to them and made a very bold speech, telling them that 


264 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


the whole northward Indians would join in taking revenge for the 
insult and murder of their people; this alarmed those savages 
very much, who began excusing themselves, saying their fathers, 
the French, had spirited them up, telling them that the Indians 
were coming with a body of southern Indians to take their country 
from them, and enslave them; that it was this that induced them 
to commit this outrage. After dividing the plunder, (they left 
great part of the heaviest effects behind, not being able to carry 
them,) they set off with us to their village at Ouattonon, in a great 
hurry, being in dread of a pursuit from a large party of Indians 
they suspected were coming after me. Our course was through 
a thick woody country, crossing a great many swamps, morasses, 
and beaver ponds. We travelled this day about forty-two miles. 

9th. An hour before day we set out on our march; passed 
through thick woods, some high lands, and small sayannahs, badly 
watered. Travelled this day about thirty miles. 

10th. We set out very early in the morning, and marched 
through a high country, extremely well timbered, for three hours ;. 
then came to a branch of the Ouabache, which we crossed. The 
remainder of this day we travelled through fine rich bottoms, 
overgrown with reeds, which make the best pasture in the world, 
the young reeds being preferable to sheaf oats. Here is great 
plenty of wild game of all kinds. Came this day about twenty- 
eight, or thirty miles. 

11th. At day-break we set off, making our way through a thin 
woodland, interspersed with savannahs. I suffered extremely by 
reason of the excessive heat of the weather, and scarcity of wa- 
ter; the little springs and runs being dried up. Travelled this 
day about thirty miles. 

12th. We passed through some large savannahs and clear 
woods; in the afternoon we came to the Ouabache; then marched 
along it through a prodigious rich bottom, overgrown with reeds 
and wild hemp; all this bottom is well watered, and an exceeding 
fine hunting ground. Came this day about thirty miles. 

13th. About an hour before day we set out; travelled through 
such bottoms as of yesterday, and through some large meadows, 
where no trees, for several miles together, are to be seen. Buf- 
faloes, deer, and bears are here in great plenty. We travelled 
about twenty-six miles this day. 

14th. The country we travelled through this day, appears the 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 265 


same as described yesterday, excepting this afternoon’s journey 
through wood land, to cut off a bend of the river. Came about 
twenty-seven miles this day. ' 

» 15th. We set out very early, and about one o’clock came to 
the Ouabache, within six or seven miles of Port Vincent.. On my 
arrival there, I found a village of about eighty or ninety French 
families settled on the east side of this river, being one of the 
finest situations that can be found. The country is level and 
clear, and the soil very rich, producing wheat and tobacco. I 
think the latter preferable to that of Maryland or Virginia. The 
French inhabitants hereabouts, are an idle, lazy people, a parcel 
of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. 
They took a secret pleasure at our misfortunes, and the moment 
we arrived, they came to the Indians, exchanging trifles for their 
valuable plunder. As the savages took from me a considerable 
quantity of gold and silver in specie, the French traders extorted 
ten half johannes from them for one pound of vermilion. Here 
is likewise an Indian village of the Pyankeshaws, who were much 
displeased with the party that took me, telling them that “ our and 
your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun a war, 
for which our women and children will have reason to cry.” 
From this post the Indians permitted me to write to the Com- 
mander, at Fort Chartres, but would not suffer me to write to 
any body else, (this I apprehend was a precaution of the French, 
lest their villany should be perceived too soon,) although the In- 
dians had given me permission to write to Sir William Johnson 
and Fort Pitt on our march, before we arrived at this place. But 
immediately after our arrival they had a private council with 
the French, in which the Indians urged, (as they afterwards in- 
formed me,) that as the French had engaged them in so bad an 
affair, which was likely to bring a war on their nation, they now 
expected a proof of their promise and assistance. Then delivered 
the French a scalp and part of the plunder, and wanted to 
deliver some presents to the Pyankeshaws; but they refused 
to accept of any, and declared they would not be concerned in 
the affair. This last information I got from the Pyankeshaws, as 
I had been well pos iin with them ei hy before this 
time. . 
Port Vincent is a place of none consequence fae trade, being 
a fine hunting country all along the Ouabache, and too far for 
Vou. 1—34 


Pa 


266 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


the Indians, which reside hereabouts, to go either to the Illinois, 
or elsewhere, to fetch their necessaries. 

16th. We were obliged to stay here to get some little apparel 
made up for us, and to buy some horses for our journey to Oui- 
catonon, promising payment at Detroit, for we could not pro- 
cure horses from the French for hire; though we were greatly 
fatigued, and our spirits much exhausted in our late march, they 
would lend us no assistance. _ 

17th. At midday we set out; travelling the first five miles 
through a fine thick wood. We travelled eighteen miles this day, 
and encamped in a large, beautiful, well watered meadow. __. 

18th and 19th. We travelled through a prodigious large meadow, 
called the Pyankeshaw’s Hunting Ground: here is no wood to be 
seen, and the country appears like an ocean; the ground is ex- 
ceedingly rich, and partly overgrown with wild hemp ; the land, 
well watered, and full of buffaloe, deer, bears, and all ingle of 
wild game. 

20th and 21st. We passed through some very large meadows, 
part of which belong to the Pyankeshaws on Vermilion River 5. 
the country and soil much the same as that we travelled over 
for these three days past ; wild hemp grows here in abundance ; 
the game very plenty: at any time, in half an hour we could vil 
as much as we wanted. 

22d. We passed through part of the same meadow as men- 
tioned yesterday ; then came toa high woodland, and arrived at 
Vermilion River, so called froma fine red earth found here by 
the Indians, with which they paint themselves. About half a mile 


’ from the place where we crossed this river, there is a village of 


Pyankeshaws, distinguished by the addition of the name of the 
river. We then trayelled about three hours, through a clear high. 
woody country, but a deep and rich soil ; then came toa meadow, 
where we encamped. r 

23d. Early in the morning we set out through a fine penaieaal 
then some clear woods; in the afternoon came into a very large: 
bottom on the Ouabache, within six miles of Ouicatanon; here 
I met several chiefs of the Kicapoos and Musquattimes, who spoke 
to their young men who had taken us, and reprimanded them 
severely for what they had done to me, after which they re- 
turned with us to their village, and delivered us all to their 
chiefs. ‘4 


eee el ee 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 267 


' The distance from Port Vincent to Ouicatanon is two hundred 
and ten miles. This place is situated on the Ouabache. About 
fourteen French families are living in the fort, which stands on 
the north side of the river. The Kicapoos and Musquattimes, 
whose warriors had taken us, live nigh the fort, on the same side 
of the river, where they have two villages; and the Ouicatonons 
have a village on the south side of the river. At our arrival at 
this post, several of the Wawcottonans, (or Ouicatonans) with 
whom I had been formerly acquainted, came to visit me, and 
seemed greatly concerned at what had happened. They went 
immediately to the Kiccapoos and Musquatimes, and charged 
them to take the greatest care of us, till their chiefs should ar- 
rive from the Illinois, where they were gone to meet me some time 
ago, and who were entirely ignorant of this affair, and said the 
French had spirited up this party to goand strike us. 

‘The French have a very great influence over these Indians, and 
never fail in telling them many lies to the prejudice of his Ma- 
jesty’s interest, by making the English nation odious and hateful 
to them. I had the greatest difficulties in removing these pre- 
judices. As these Indians are a weak, foolish, and credulous peo- 
ple, they are easily imposed on by a designing people, who have 
led them hitherto as they pleased. The French told them that 
as the southern Indians had for two years past made war on them, 
it must have been at the instigation of the English, who are a bad 
people. However I have been fortunate enongh to remove their 
prejudice, and, ina great measure, their suspicions against the 
English. The country hereabouts is exceedingly pleasant, being 
open and clear for many miles; the soil very rich and well wa- 
tered ; all plants have a quick vegetation, and the climate very 
temperate through the winter. This post has always been a very 
considerable trading place. The great plenty of furs taken in 
this country, induced the French to establish this post, which was 
the first on the Ouabache, and by a very advantageous trade 
they have been richly recompensed for their labour. 

On the south side of the Ouabache runs a high bank, in which 
are several fine coal mines, and behind this bank, is a very large 
meadow, clear for several miles. It is surprising what false infor- 
mation we have had respecting this country : some mention these 
spacious and beautiful meadowsas large and barren savannahs. I 
apprehend it has been the artifice of the French to keep us igno- 


268 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


rant of the country. These meadows bear fine wild grass, and wild 
hemp ten or twelve feet high, which, if properly manufactured, 
would prove as good, and answer all the purposes of the ‘hemp 
we cultivate. 

July 25th. We set out from this place (atter settling all mat- 
ters happily with the natives) for the Miames, and travelled the 
whole way through a fine, rich bottom, overgrown with wild 
hemp, alongside the Ouabache, till we came to Eel River, where 
we arrived the 27th. About six miles up this river is a small 
village of the Twightwee, situated on a-very delightful spot of 
ground on the bank of the river. The Eel river heads near St. 
Joseph’s, and runs nearly parallel to the Miames, and at some few 
miles distance from it, through a fine, pleasant country, and after 
a course of about one hundred and eighty miles ov itself 
into the Ouabache. 

28th, 29th, 30th and 31st. We travelled still along side the 
Eel River, passing through fine clear woods, and some good mea- 
dows, though not so large as those we passed some’ days before. 
The country is more overgrown with woods, the soil is sufficiently 
rich, and well watered with springs. 

August 1st. We arrived at the carrying place between the Ri- 
ver Miames and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles long 
in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshes. The 
head of the Ouabache is about forty miles from this place, and 
after a course of about seven hundred and sixty miles from the 
head spring, through one of the finest countries in the world, it 
empties itself into the Ohio. The navigation from hence to Oui- 
catanon, is very difficult in low water, on account of many ra- 
pids and rifts; but in freshes, which generally happen in the spring 
and fall, batteaux or canoes will pass, without difficulty, from 
here to Ouicatanon in three days, which is about two hundred 
and forty miles, and by land about two hundred and ten miles. 
From Ouicatanon to Port Vincent, and thence to the Ohio, bat- 
teaux and canoes may go at any season of the year. Through- 
out the whole course of the Ouabache the banks are pretty high, 
and in the river are a great many islands. Many shrubs and 
trees are found here unknown to us. ' ee 

Within a mile of the Twightwee village, I was met by the 
chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. ‘The most 
part of these Indians knew me, and conducted me to their village, 


Journal of Col. Croghan. 269 


where they immediately hoisted an English flag that I had for- 
merly given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a coun- 
cil, after which they gave me up all the English prisoners they 
had, then made several speeches, in all which they expressed the 
great pleasure it gave them, to see the unhappy differences 
which embroiled the several nations in a war with their brethren, 
the English, were now so near a happy conclusion, and that peace 
was established in their country. 

The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river, 
called St. Joseph’s. This river, where it falls into the Miame 
river, about a quarter of a mile from this place, is one hundred 
yards wide, on the east side of which stands a stockade fort, 
somewhat ruinous. 

The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, be- 
sides nine or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit, 
during the late Indian war ; they were concerned in it, and being 
afraidof punishment, came to this post, where ever since they have 
spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French re- 
siding here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, 
and spiriting up the Indians against the English, and should by 
no means be suffered to remain here. The country is pleasant, 
the soil rich and well watered. After several conferences with 
these Indians and their delivering me up all the English prison- 
ers they had, 

On the 6th of August we set out for Detroit, down the Mi- 
ames river ina canoe. This river heads about ten miles from 
hence. The river is not navigable till you come to the place 
where the river St. Joseph joins it, and makes a considerable large 
stream, nevertheless we found a great deal of difficulty in getting 
our canoe over shoals, as the waters at this season were very 
low. The banks of the river are high, and the country over- 
grown with lofty timber of various kinds ; the land is level, and 
the woods clear. About ninety miles from the Miames or 
Twightwee, we came to where a large river, that heads in a 
large lick, falls into the Miame river ; this they call the Forks. 
The Ottawas claim this country, and hunt here, where game is 
very plenty. From hence we proceeded to the Ottawa village. 
This nation formerly lived at Detroit, but is now settled here, 
on account of the richness of the country, where game is always 
to be found in plenty. Here we were obliged to get out of our 


270 Journal of Col. Croghan. 


canoes, and drag them eighteen miles, on account of the rifts 
which interrupt the navigation. At the end of these rifts, we 
came toa village of the Wyondotts, who received us very kindly ; 
and from thence we proceeded to the mouth of this river, where 
it falls into Lake Erie. From the Miames to the lake is com- 
puted one hundred and eighty miles, and from the entrance of 
the river into the lake to Detroit, is sixty miles; that is, forty- 
two miles upon the lake, and eighteen miles up the Detroit ri- 
ver to the garrison of that name. The land on the lake side 
is low and flat. We passed several large rivers and bays, and 
on the 16th of August, in the afternoon, we arrived at Detroit 
river. The country here is much higher than on the lake side ; 
the river is about nine hundred yards wide, and the current runs 
very strong. There are several fine and large islands in this river, 
one of which is nine miles long ; its banks high, and the soil very 
good. ' 

17th. In the morning we arrived at the fort, which is a large 
stockade, inclosing about eighty houses, it stands close on the 
north side of the river, on a high bank, commands a very plea- 
sant prospect for nine miles above; and nine miles below the 
fort; the country is thick settled with French, their plantations 
are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth on 
the river, and eighty acres in depth; the soil is good, producing 
plenty of grain. All the people here are generally poor wretches, 
and consist of three or four hundred French families, a lazy, idle 
people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsistence ; 
though the land, with little labour, produces plenty of grain, 
they scarcely raise as much as will supply their wants, in imi- 
tation of the Indians, whose manners and customs they have en- 
tirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, wo- 
men, and children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well. In 
the last Indian war the most part of the French were concerned 
in it, (although the whole settlement had taken the oath of al- 
legiance to his Britannic Majesty) they have, therefore, great 
reason to be thankful to the English clemency in not bringing 
them to deserved punishment. Before the late Indian war there 
resided three nations of Indians at this place: the Putawatimes, 
whose village was on the west side of the river, about one mile 
below the fort; the Ottawas, on the east side, about three miles 
above the fort; and the Wyondotts, whose village lays on the 


List of Tribes of Indians. 271 


east side, about two miles below the fort.. The former two na- 
tions have removed to a considerable distance, and the latter 
still remain where they were, and are remarkable for their good 
sense and hospitality. They havea particular attachment to the 
Roman Catholic religion, the French, by their priests, having 
taken uncommon pains to instruct them. sry 

During my stay here, I held frequent conferences with the dif- 
ferent nations of Indians assembled at this place, with whom I 
settled matters to their general satisfaction. 

September 26th. Set out from Detroit for Niagara; passed’ 
Lake Erie along the north shore in a birch canoe, and arrived 
the 8th. of October at Niagara. The navigation of the lake is 
dangerous for batteaux or canoes, by reason the lake is very 
shallow for a considerable distance from the shore. The bank, for 
several miles, high and steep, and affords a harbour for a single 
batteau. The lands in general, between Detroit and Niagara, 
are high, and the soil good, with several fine rivers falling into 
the lake. The distance from Detroit to Niagara is computed 
three hundred miles. 


A List of the different Nations and Tribes of Indians in the Northern Dis- 
trict of North America, with the number of their fighting Men. 


Names of the Tribes. | Nos. Their Dwelling Ground. Their Hunting Ground. 
Mohocks, a ....... 160 Mohock River. Between that and Lake 
George. ‘ 


Oneidas, d .........|300 East side of Oneida Lake, and on the|In the country where 
head waters of the east branch of} they live. 


: Susquehannah. 
Tuscaroras, 6 ....../200 |Between the Oneidas and Onan-|Between Oneida Lake 
; dagoes. and Lake Ontario. 
Onandagoes, 6 .....|260 |Near the Onandago Lake. BetweenOnandago lake 


and mouth of Seneca 
‘" River, near Oswego. 
Cayugas,6 ........./200 |On two small Lakes, called the Ca-|Where they reside. 
; yuagas, on the north branch of Sus- 
wi quehannah. 
Senecas, 6 ........./1000 |Seneca Country, on the waters of|/Their chief hunting 


’ 


Susquehannah, the waters of Lake] country thereabouts. _ 


"? Ontario, and on the heads of Ohio 


River. 
Aughquagas,c ...../150 |East branch of Susquehannah River,| Where they live. 
} and on Aughquaga. i“ 
Nanticokes, c ......{100 ) |Utsanango, Chaghmett, Oswego, and Do. 
Mohickons, ¢ ......|100 t on the east branch of Susque- 


Conoys, ¢ .......+-+-| 30 hannah. 15a 
Monsays,c ........|150)|At Diahogo, and other villages up| Do. 
Sapoones,c .. d ao! the north branch of Susque- “doo 
Delawares,c.......'150 hannah, 

Wh tm Jats 


gfhave are the oldest Tribe of the Confederacy of the Six Nations. = 
onnected with New York, part of the Confederacy with New York. 
cConnected with, and depending on the Five Nations. 


~ 


ey 


" yt Oe , ts SS es 7] 
wy a 


an Tat ie 


Names of the Tribes Nos.| ‘Their Dwelling Ground. __\ Their Hunting Ground. 


Delawares,d ...... 600 |Between the Ohio and Lake Erie, on Mibere r live 
: . the branches of Beaver Creek, 
_ Muskingum, and Guyehugo. ae Nabe, hae 


300 On Scioto, & branch of Muskingum. 


Shawnesse, d ...... 
In Villages near Sandusky. 


Mohickone,d ...... 
Coghnawages,d .... 
Twightwees,e ..... 


“y 


Miame River, near Fort Miame. 


ar 
S 


ct a ae Ff ..{300 mich 
Pyankeshas,f ...... ..-jg00 On the branches of Ouabache, near Between Ouitanon and 
Shockays, f ..|200 Fort Ouitanon. the Miames,. _ on 
Peierrt l g. ..--/300 2 |Near the French Settlements, in the 
Illinois, g .... ./300 Illinois Country. sparky \ eget 
Wayondotts, h .... ./250 ) |Near Fort Detroit. About Lake Erie. _ 
Ottawas,h ..... “400 pa a ee 
Putawatimes,h ....|150 oF 
Chipawas, 7 999  |On Saganna Creek, which empties|Thereabouts. = 
Ottawas,i §°°*"** into Lake Huron. , ute ic 
Chipawas, j .......|400 2 |Near Michilimachinac. On the north side of 
Ottawas, j .........|250 ke Huron. i 
Chipawas,* k......|400  |Near the entrance of Lake Supe-|Thereabouts. 
rior, and not far from Fort St. Ma, ‘ 9 
Tys. 
Chepawas, k ‘Near Fort LaBay on the Lake Michi-Their hunting ground 
mange i - (550 gan. is thereabouts. _ 
Shockeys, k 
Putawatimes, k.. Thereabouts. 


./150 i Near Fort St. Joseph’s. 


was,k .........|150 
Kicapoos, 1 On Lake Michigan and between it}Where they respective- 
ona sag and the Mississippi. ly reside. — 
usquatans ‘ : 
Miscotins, / ag00 on 
Outtamacks, / i 
Musquakeys, gi 
Oswegatches, h ..../100 {Settled at Swagatchy in Canada, on Thereabouts. Kile 
‘ si ‘ Nee nai ne Lawrence. aire 
onnesedagoes, k | ear Montre: 
Coghnewagoes, k } a 
Orondocks,k ....... 100 ) 'Settled near Trois Riviers. 
Abonakies,k ....... 150 
Alagonkins, k ....../100 : ; Me 
La Suil,t_ ........./10,000/South-west of Lake ae a 


d Dependent on the Six Nations, and Stile with Pennsylvania. 
e Connected with Pennsylvania. : 
f Connected with the Twightwees. 
f These two Nations the English had never any pies or connection with. 
Connected formerly with the French. 
a Connected with the Indians about Detroit, and dependent on the omenitition, of- 


ficer. 
j Always connected with the French. Pi 
k Connected with the French. 
Z Never connected in any trade or otherwise with the English. 


*There are several ilpecs of Chapawas settled along the bank of Lake Superior, but 
as I have no knowledge of that country, cannot ascertain their numbers. F8 


? 


¥« 


+ These are a nation of Indians settled south-west of Lake Superior, called by the French 
La Sue; who, by the best account that I could ever get from the French and Indians, 
are computed ten thousand fighting men. They spread over a large tract of country, and 
have forty odd villages; in which country are several other tribes of Indi are 
tributaries to the Lasues, none of whom, except a very few, have ever known the use 
of fire-arms ; as yet but two pie I suppose the French don’t choose to risk ¢ ‘a trade 
among such’a powerful bod. y of people, atso vastadistance. = bn 


ay mii tpl Syn, > aelaryncgye sae Tadniedt je Ait iste un 


» . 
~ 


Geological Notices of Barbary. 273 


GEOLOGICAL NOTICES OF BARBARY, 

Abstract of M. Rozer’s Geological Notices of Barbary, originally published in 
the “Journal de Geologie,” for September, December, 1830, and January 1831. 
Our object being to lay before our readers that kind of trans- 

atlantic information which is most curious in itself, and which is 
the least likely to be within their reach, we have thought they 
would be pleased with an account of the geology of that part of 
Barbary which the conquest of Algiers by the French, has made 
known. M. Rozet is a distinguished geologist, and is one of the 
joint editors, with M. A. Boue, and Jobert, of the “ Journal de 
Geologie.” The French government, which omits no opportu- 
nity to cherish science, when it sent the expedition to Africa, 
gave M. Rozet an appointment as Geographical Engineer, that 
every advantage might be taken of the expedition, in favour of 
geological science. M. Rozet has sent some very interesting me- 
moirs on this subject to France, from the three first of which we 
have made the following abstracts, and have accompanied them 
with M. Rozet’s sections. Ep. 

M. Rozet, after saying that the French army landed 14th June, 
1830, states, that “ Algiers is built on a talcose schist, like that 
on the French coast at Toulon, and is traversed in its mass by 
veins of white quartz; that it passes in the upper part into mica 
schist ; contains beds of white feldspar, subordinate masses of grey 
sub-lamellar, stratified lime stone, more than 100 metres thick, 
(328 feet English)—the strata thin, and separated by partings 
of talcose or micaceous schist, beautiful pyrites of copper in the 
mass. Near the suburbs of Babaloued there are some beds of 
white marble, worked for public buildings. This schistose groupe 
exceeds 500 metres in thickness (1640 feet.) The strata are 
irregular, and dip to the south, at an angle of from 20° to 45°. 
The mountains are 400 metres (1312 feet) above the level of 
the sea. (Mt. Banjareah.) The tops of these hills are rounded, 
and their sides very steep. They are separated from each other 
by deep valleys, through which small rivulets flow. The in- 
habited part of the country presents a magnificent vegetation ; fo- 
rests of orange, fig, and olive trees, separated by majestic palm 
trees, and tall hedges of the agave or aloe. This schistose for- 
mation is well developed around Algiers; at the east it rises to 
the summit of Mount Banjareah, and stretches along the coast 

Vor. L—35 


274 Geological Notices of Barbary. : 


at least as far as Cape Corinna. ''The fort of Twenty-four hours, 
and a! the buildings of the mole, stand upon the grey limestone. 
About the mole the beds dip to the east. The gneiss forms a 
somewhat narrow belt. stretching from east to west. It leaves the 
sea-shore in front of fort Babazoum, passes to the emperor’s castle, 
and the mountains which command that fortress, and is lost to the 
south under the tertiary deposits. M. Rozet remarks, that this gneiss 
which has all the characters of a primitive rock, reposes upon talcose 
schists, which appear fo belong to the transition ; but that the veins of 
mica schist passing through the gneiss, prove this last to be the old- 
est rock, although it covers the talcose schists which pass into mica 
slate. We leave the French geologists to reconcile this unconforma- 
ble condition of gneiss to the modern opinions concerning transition. 

The gneiss dips to the south, under the tertiary, a calcaire 
grossier, (London clay), or a grés calcaire, (calcareous sandstone,) 
passing into a pudding stone, resembling the calcaire moellon of 
Montpelier. These calcareous beds, like the gneiss, on which they 
repose, dip to the south. They pass occasionally into compact 
limestone, (at Staoueli) containing limnea and helices, together 
with marine shells. In other places, M. Rozet found large flat 
oysters, and large pectens, resembling those which characterize 
the beds in Provence. The tertiary abounds along the coast, 
from the Swedish consulate to El Aratch, with well preserved 
pectens, large oysters, and some terebratule. The tertiary is 
covered with diluvial soil, but in no part had fossil bones of quad- 
rupeds been found. The tertiary formation is thought to cover 
a surface of country of twenty square leagues. The table lands, 
the plains, and the bottoms of the valleys, are covered with dilu- 
vial soil, resembling that of France. The superficial part is 
formed of a red or yellowish marl; beneath it isa mass of marl and 
rolled pebbles, all derived from the neigbhouring mountains. On 
the narrow plain to the east and west of Algiers, the diluvial soil 
is more than ten metres (32 feet) thick, with some boulders. M. 
Rozet finds a strong analogy between the geological phenomena 
of the opposite coasts of the Mediterranean. 


Geological Notice of the country traversed by the French army, in 
the expedition of Media. 

To punish the Bey of Titery for his treason, General Clausel 

resolved to seek him out in the middle of the Atlas. The army 


Geological Notices of Eurbary. 275 


left Algiers the 17th November, traversing the tertiary hills be- 
fore mentioned, on its way to the plain of Metidjah,* and direct- 
ing its route towards the south-west, on the road to Bleidab. The 
plain was covered throughout with diluvial soil, lying in undis- 
turbed horizontal layers, about 133 feet thick, but in the bed 
of the Chieffa, at the foot of the Atlas, it was about 33 feet thick. 
The Metidjah is almost uninhabited, and nearly uncultivated, 
except where it joins the Atlas; there the town of Bleidah is 
charmingly situated, and almost surrounded with magnificent gar- 
dens of orange trees. ‘The chain of the little Atlas is here at its 
greatest elevation. rising to more than 1200 metres, (3937 feet ;) 
the valleys are deep and narrow, and the mountains covered with 
woods. ‘These mountains are formed of the same rocks as those 
of Banjareah, near Algiers, with the strata dipping to the south: 
they present the same aspect as far west as the great farm of 
Huche de l’Aga; here the aspect of the mountains changes, they 
lower rapidly to the west, the planes have a less inclination, the 
vegetation is not as fine, and a change in the soil is announced. 
The first rock that occurred on the Atlas was a greyish black 
limestone, of a conehoidal fracture, passing into a marly and 
schistose limestone, and alternately with schistose marls, in the 
manner of the lias. The general inclination of the beds is to the 
south, at an angle varying from 10 to 40°, for the hills and ta- 
bles, and which in the great escarpements rose to 70°. The stra- 
tification is often disturbed, but no volcanic rocks. This forma- 
tion is poor in fossils, some broken pectens and ostrea, but no 
gryphea, ammonites, or belemnites. ‘The schistose marls contain 
small bivalves, (possidonia) which in Europe are characteristic 
of the lias. An hour before arriving at the Col de Temiah,t 
which is on the dividing water line, the mass is almost altogether 
marly, the limestone becoming subordinate. The Col de Temiah 
has been hollowed out of these marls; the general dip is to the 
south. The strata south of the Col are cut by veins, almost ver- 
tical, of carbonated iron, and laminar sulphated barytes, mixed 
with grey copper, malachite, and a little blue carbonate. These 
veins are exposed about eighty metres, (252 feet) and the copper 
might be worked to advantage. Calcareous and schistose marls, 
and the laminar barytes, occur in like manner in Provence, Bur- 
gundy, and Ardennes, and M. Rozet considers them true equiva- 
SPL 7s) Eig. 25 { Pi. 7. Fig. 2, continued. 


276 Geological Notices of Ba bary. 


lents. This formation constitutes mountains 1100 metres (8609 
feet) above the level of the sea, with few escarpments, although 
a talus is generally to be observed. The timber is oak and cork. 
There are no fruit trees in the Atlas, and the olive is only found as 
far as Media. After passing the Col de Temiah, the road is ex- 
tremely difficult, with scarce room for two to pass abreast ; and 
after a march of an hour and a half, the army came to the foot 
of the chain, upon a small narrow table land, perfectly smooth, 
A new change in the beds appeared here, the hills were closed 
in by the sub-appenine formation. At the foot of the chain, the 
hills which abut upon the lias, are entirely composed of an ar- 
gillaceous blueish marl, not schistose like that of the north; about 
100 metres thick, (328 feet) and no appearance of stratification. 
It contains gypsum, which furnishes plaster for the buildings at Me- 
dia, Pectens, Pectunculi; and an immense quantity of that murex, 
which is characteristic of the calcareous moellon of Provence, is 
found in a yellow ferruginous sand stone, alternating with ferrugi- 
nous sand, at. the upper part of the hills. As far as Media, three 
leagues south-east from the Atlas, and a league further to the 
south, M. Rozet found the tertiary formation occurring in like 
manner. The town of Media* occupies the summit of a hill, situa- 
ted upon the north flank of a great valley, which runs nearly 
from east to west. Section No. 2, terminates at this valley, and 
No. 3, made about three miles east of it, traverses the same val- 
Jey, and shows the details of the sub-atlantic tertiary. This for- 
mation constitutes hills and small mountains, some of which are 
1000 metres, or 3280 feet above the level of the sea, and is en- 
tirely identical with that of those hills, which, stretching along 
the coast from Cape Matifon to Cherchel, border the plain of Me- 
tidjah to the north; so that this tertiary has been deposited on 
each slope of the little Atlas, but not in the interior of the chain. 
M. Rozet concludes this interesting paper, by showing that the 
beds of the lias being highly inclined, and the tertiary deposits 
abutting horizontally against them, the chain of the little Atlas 
was necessarily raised before the deposit of these. last. 

In a subsequent paper, M. Rozet further shows that to the 
north of Metidjah, the hills which extend from Cape Matifou to 
beyond Kubber Romeéerh, are formed of sub-atlantic tertiary, of 
the same character as that south of the little Atlas. Blue marl, 

* Pl 7. Fig, 3, 


Geological Notices of Burbury. 277 


covered by sandstone, (grés) alternating with sand, the sandstones 
containing the same shells with the calcaire moellon of Pro- 
vence. He had found belemnites in the supposed lias. He con- 
cludes by stating that the groupe of talcose schists is the inferior 
floor of the provinces of Algiers and Titery; that the tertiaries 
have been deposited posterior to the elevation of the schists, and 
that certain trachytic porphyrys, near the ancient Rustonium, 
about six leagues from Algiers, did not make their appearance 
until after the deposit of the tertiaries.”’ 

Our geological readers will be struck with the importance of 
the remarkable agreement of the entire formations, of the oppo- 
site coasts of the Mediterranean, as well as with the equivalent 
tertiaries south of. the little Atlas; all of which facts occasion 
many curious reflections concerning the ancient geological state 
of that part of the world. 

In concluding this abstract, we would point to the especial 
interest which these notices of M. Rozet will in future create, when 
it is known that the principal geological circumstances which he 
has so clearly made out on the coast, and in the interior of the 
province of Algiers, are, with the exception of the Atlas chain, 
repeated on our Atlantic coast; where we have the primary 
rocks stretching from New York to Florida, with occasional de- 
posits of blue marl, covered with sandstone and ferruginous sand, 
as at Mullica Hall, Tinton Falls near Long Branch in New Jer- 
sey, and many other places, the secondary character of these is 
well made out by belemnites, crocodiles, saurians, &c.—and they 
are again superimposed by acknowledged tertiaries, in New Jersey, 
Delaware, and especially in Maryland and further south, to the 
total exclusionof the great calcareous deposits connectedwith coal, 
and the numerous beds of the oolitic series and chalk formation. 
We hope, ere long, to be in a situation to enter systematically 
upon the geology of this country; but we perceive more and 
more forcibly the necessity of raising up a school, and of rallying 
practical geologists here, before we can look for such contribu- 
tions and aid, as the important task before us demands. 


278 Bones in Caves, &c. 


BONES IN CAVES, &c. 
Extract of a letter from the Rev. Dr. Bucxianp to the Editor, dated Aug. 23, 1831. 


“T wave, not Jong since, had in my custody a fine meteoric 
stone about four pounds weight, that fell in Oxfordshire at 
Launton, near Bicester, in the spring of 1830; it is the property 
of Dr. Lee of Aylesbury. An account of it has been published in 
Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History for March last. Since 
that time a piece of it has been examined by Farraday,. and 
found to contain chromium, as usual. [This was doubted. ] 

“ My expedition to Llandilo was in consequence of a report I 
received from W. Long Wrey, Esq., who resides at Llandebie, 
near Llandilo, stating that he had found a cave containing hu- 
man bones mixed with those of other animals. This is the cave 
mentioned in my Reliquiz,* and on my arrival I found, as I had 
expected, that the bones are of two distinct zras. First, at the 
top, and enveloped in stalagmite, were the human remains—pro- 
bably of Celtic inhabitants that used this cave as a place of 
sepulture. Second, between the stalagmite, in diluvial sand and 
mud, the bones of bears, elks, and smaller deer, in the usual 
state of cave bones, just like those at Torquay. Isaw none that 
had been gnawed, and too few of them had been collected to 
enable me to say whether it was a den or pitfall; and the deposit 
was so buried under the rubbish of the lime burners, that it was 
impossible to examine further, until the lime burning ceases, 
which will be in the autumn, when Mr. Wrey will again pro- 
ceed to search. The whole of the rock that covered over the 
spot in which these human skeletons lay, has. been removed. 

“T have just received intelligence of the arrival in London of 
five cases of bones for me, from the cave at Wellington valley, 
collected by Mr. Henderson, (a surgeon) for Col. Dumaresque, 
who has forwarded them to me. I have not yet seen them, but 
am anxious to compare them with those sent to the Geological 
Society by Major Mitchell: the abstract published in the pro- 


* “ The other case occurred in 1810, at Llandebie, in Caermarthenshire, where ‘a 
square cave was suddenly broken into, in working a quarry of solid mountain lime- 
stone, on the north border of the great coal basin. In this cave lay about a dozen hu- 
man skeletons in two rows, at right angles to each other. The passage leading to 
this cave had been entirely closed up with stones for the purpose of concealment, and 
its mouth was completely grown over with grass.—Reliquie Diluvian», 2d ed. p. 166. 


Bones in Caves, &c. 279 


ceedings of the Geological Society, gives the whole sum and sub- 
stance of the paper which he sent to the society, in which no the- 
ory is offered to explain their origin. In the account published in 
Jameson’s Journal,* it was stated to be a cave like Kirkdale, of 
accumulation by the agency of beasts of prey. I donot concur in 
this opinion ; there were no gnawed bones in the whole collection, 
and the mass was not collected in a horizontal cave, but ina 
great fissure, into which I conceive the animals have tumbled during 
" successive generations. 'The position of the bones in the vertical 
fissure shows it never could have been a den; they lie in heaps 
amid angular blocks fallen from the sides of the fissure,and mixed 
with stalagmite, and red earthy incrustations, forming a cement, 
such as rains and trickling water may bave introduced. There 
is no sign of violent igneous action, no rolled pebbles, no frag- 
ments of any distant rock, and in one case several bones of a 
carpus, adhering together by stalagmite: these have clearly been 
submitted to no violent agitation by water; but as the exact 
circumstances in which this specimen was found are not men- 
tioned, it is possible this carpus may be derived from one of the 
most recently introduced animals. I have no doubt the fissure 
has thus been supplied with bones by animals falling into it, as 
in the Mediterranean fissures. There is no evidence to show 
that there is in it any accumulation of diluvium. Mr. Pentland 
is positive that the large bone found high up near the top of the 
deposit, is the bone of an elephant; and Mr. Clift is equally posi- 
tive as to the tusk fixed in the anterior part of the jaw of a du- 
gong. These are strange bed-fellows for kangaroos, wombats, 
and the genus omne of present inhabitants of New Holland. The 
place of the elephant’s bone is known from the fact of a rope 
having been tied to it, to let down the persons who were descend- 


* In the account given to Dr. Jameson by Dr: Lang of Sydney, and which was 
published in the ed. N. Phil. Jour. for March, 1831, the bones are stated to have 
been found “in a third chamber, generally broken, some strewed on the floor of the 
cave, g-c.” From the various accounts published on this subject, we also fell into the 
opinion that this was a den which was not a stranger to a diluvial action of great ex- 
tent. If these repositories of bones of the present races of animals found in New 
Holland, are, as Dr. Buckland supposes, extensive fissures, into which these bones 
have accidentally come, we have yet, thanks to the elephant and the dugong, two 
pretty good bones to gnaw. In Mr. Clift’s report, that which Mr. Pentland—who 
studied with Cuvier—supposes to have belonged to an elephant, is said to bear a great 
resemblance to the radius of a hippopotamus. 


ii 


280 Scientific Meetings. 


*; 

ing to a lower part of the fissure where bones were most abun- 
dant. There are also in one part of the cavity, transverse plates 
of stalagmite enveloping bones, and separated by a thin parting 
of red earth, which shows the process of accumulation to have 
been gradual, in this part at least. There is also at the geolo- 
gical society a large dentata, sent from New Holland, from near 
Sidney, and said to have been found, not in a cave, but near the 
surface of the land. It is about the size of the dentata of a rhino- 
ceros, but is not exactly like that animal’s vertebra: it remains 
yet to be identified. 


SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 


Meeting of the Cultivators of Natural Science and Medicine, at Hamburgh, 
4 in September, 1830. 

In the April number, for 1831, of Dr. Brewster’s valuable work, 
the Edinburgh Journal of Science, is a very interesting and lively 
account, by Mr. Johnston,of the meeting of naturalists at Ham- 
burgh, in September, 1830. These German conventions of 
learned men, who cultivate the natural sciences, owe their origin 
to Professor Oken of Munich, a distinguished naturalist and au- 
thor, and Editor of the Isis, a monthly periodical, commenced at 
Jena, in 1817, and devoted to literature and science. It was in 
the Isis that Oken first proposed these annual meetings of natu- 
ralists; but it was a time when the German courts kept a sur- 
veillance over periodical literature, and the proposition coming 
from him, was not sufficiently favoured. By the introduction of 
some political articles into his Journal, he had formerly given of- 
fence, his Professor’s chair of natural history at Jena was taken 
from him, and the Isis forbidden to be published in Weimar. In 
1827, however, the King of Bavaria presented him with a chair 
in the university of Munich, where he is now Professor of Physi- 
ology. The first meeting took place at Leipsic, in 1822. It con- 
sisted of about a dozen strangers, and twenty inhabitants. In 
1823 they met in greater force at Halle. In 1824 at Wurtzburg- 
The accession this year both in numbers and talent was marked ; 
and from this time credit seems to have been given to them for 
the real objects they had in view, which were not only to pro- 
mote a friendly personal intercourse among men of science, but 


* Scientific Meetings. 281 


to draw public attention to science, and to excite governments 
to examine into the condition of their scientific institutions, and 
to seek for men of science competent to fill the chairs of public 
instruction. At Frankfort, in 1825, they were most honourably 
received. The inhabitants of this town, which has no university, 
vied with each other in the hospitable attentions they paid to 
their distinguished visitors. At Dresden, in 1826, they had also 
a very friendly reception. In 1827, Munich received them, but 
we shall give Mr. Johnston’s words. 


“ The sixth meeting, in 1827, was held at Munich, the seat of a flourishing 
university, opened only the preceding year under the favouring auspices of 
Louis Maximilian of Bavaria. This city also deserves well of the society, 
and the attentions of the king was such as it had not hitherto experienced. 
Besides general attention to the comfort and accommodation of the whole 
body, particular attentions were paid to the individual members; and each 
person, during the period of his stay, had an invitation to dine at least once 
in the palace. They now began to reckon their number by hundreds; and 
the amount and variety of subjects brought forward at their public meetings 
having increased beyond expectation, it was found necessary to break them- 
selves up into sections, of which the botanists, an amiable and enthusiastic 
race of men, first set the example. Thus time was gained; men of like 
tastes and pursuits brought more frequently and more closely together; and 
every one spared the infliction of dissertations and discussions upon the 
thousand and one subjects in which he felt no earthly interest: for, though 
all cultivators of natural science rejoice in the advancement, and admire those 
who successfully cultivate any one department, yet each one has his own fa- 
vourite branch or branches, beyond which he has little anxiety to roam, and 
unconnected with which, discussions, however learned, are often only tire- 
some. It was a judicious plan, then, to make the separation into sections, and 
thus to permit the shell and fly men to discuss the mysteries of their several 
ologies, without scandalizing the more grave and weighty pursuits of medi- 
cine and oryctognosy. This practice, begun at Munich, assumed a more ex- 
tended and definite form at Berlin, and was finally arranged and consolidated 
at Heidelberg.” 


But the most splendid meeting was at Berlin in 1828. The 
number of strangers from Germany and the northern countries 
amounted to two hundred and sixty-nine, for whom lodgings were 
provided in good and conyenient situations, gratis. Humboldt 
presided, and the king and the royal family graced, with their 
presence, some of the entertainments given to them. The dis- 
tinguished reception the meeting received in this scientific capi- 
tal, raised the Deutscher Naturforscher Versammlung to the 

Vor. L.—36 


eeu 


282 Scientific Meetings. : 


highest credit. In 1829, the beautiful and romantic city of 
Heidelberg received the convention, and in 1830, Hamburgh. 

“Tt has now become a matter of debate among the cities of Germany, which 
shall have the honour of receiving the society at their anniversary. To have 
the smallest chance, the city desirous of the honour must either be repre- 
sented by a deputation of members attending the meeting, or must otherwise 
express to the society through its president, its desires, its claims, and the 
efforts it will make for general accommodation.” 

It seems that some of the worthy Burgomasters of Hamburgh, 
and a great many more of their constituents, did not comprehend 
very clearly what all these queer mortals calling themselves JVa- 
turforscher, or investigators of nature, wanted in their old town. 
Nobody could make out that they-desired to buy any thing, and 
not one of them had been seen with any thing that was worth buy- 
ing ; and as buying and selling constituted, in their eyes, the great 
ends of existence, they took it for granted that the presence of these 
gifted individuals, would be of no great advantage to them, espe- 
cially, seeing it was generally understood they were to be fed at 
the public expense. 


“You might hear the matter discussed over a shipping list, or a newspaper, 
in the Boursen Hall; over a sample of coffee, probably on the exchange, or 
a beef steak in a restaurateurs. ‘So, many men come together to see one 
another, come so far merely to look at one another—nonsense? And then, 
said another, as he took up the thread of the affair, ‘They say we are to feed 
them ; but if the Senate spend our money in that way, the town will be about 
their ears. When you orI go a travelling on our affairs to a strange place, 
nobody will think of treating us, and why should we treat these Naturforscher, 
as they call themselves?’ But the judicious and thinking men, though they 
did not pretend to understand all the objects of the meeting, thought, gen- 
erally, that these strangers, being once within the walls, it would be for their 
own credit to use them well for a few days, when they would soon be off 
again.” 

And extremely well they were treated, as Mr. Johnston has 
abundantly shown. 

The most distinguished members present upon this occasion, 
were Berzelius of Stockholm. Pfaff and Wiedeman from Kiel. 
This last is a celebrated accoucheur, and performed the Cesarean 
operation twice upon the same individual. “He and Pfaff are the 
pride of the university of Kiel. The last isa profound naturalist, 
has an extremely lively mind, with a somewhat liberal inclination 
in politics. 


Scientific Meetings. 283 


“Travelling in Prussia some years ago, when secret societies were the 
order of the day, and the German governments in great alarm, he talked, as 
usual, more freely and boldly than was encouraged in that country. The 
Prussian government was offended, and Pfaff having got safe home, the 
Prussian ambassador at Copenhagen was charged to make a remonstrance on 
the subject; but the king paid no attention, and his ministers, therefore, 
could give the ambassador no satisfaction. Determined on pushing the af 
fair, the ambassador had an audience of the king, and signified that the 
Prussian government expected Pfaff should be punished. ‘Oh,’ said the 
king, ‘ Pfaff is my very good friend, he has only been alittle distrait ; he has 
fancied he was in his own country, where he might say any thing. A ter- 
rible satire, coming as it did from the most absolute monarch in Europe.” 

Amongst the others were Lichtenstein and Encke from Berlin, 
with the celebrated Oersted from Copenhagen. Professor Fischer 
of the Botanic Garden of St. Petersburg, and Fischer the Zoolo- 
gist and President of the Academy of Sciences of Moscow, not 
the vegetable, but the animal Fischer, as he wittily told Mr. John- 
ston when presented, Struve, eminent in astronomy, from Dor- 
pat; Oken from Munich; Dr. Schmeisser of Hamburgh, lecturer 
on chemistry, and an old friend and pupil of the celebrated Dr. 
Black, was prevented from attending the meeting by ill health, 
but Mr. Johnston has preserved some of his lively sayings, and 
amongst the rest the following pun of Blumenbach. 

* And he told [Schmeisser] with much glee, how, when the method had be- 
come newly known, he formed a quantity of artifical spermaceti from some 
half decayed muscles by means of nitric acid, and making it into candles, 
sent some of them to Blunrenbach, with the notice that they were prepared 
from the legs of a man, who in his life time had done no good, and how Blu- 
menbach punningly replied to him, ‘ Mortui lucent qui in vita obscuri fu- 
erunt.” 

There were only two or three individuals from England, and 
America was represented by Dr. Jamieson of Baltimore. The 
Naturforchers dined in public ; from five hundred to six hundred 
individuals assembled, including the wives and sisters of members. 
Notwithstanding the presence of the ladies, it seems the noise and 
confusion, the running about, and the scrambling for places, were 
perfectly intolerable. An attempt however was made to drown 
the noise by the introduction of music, vocal and instrumental, 
which in some degree succeeded. — 

The opening of the session commenced on the 18th September, 
by the delivery of an inaugural discourse from the President 
Bartels. The secretary then read the laws of the society. From 


284 Scientific Meetings. 


these it appears, every person, without election, is a member, 
who has written upon natural science or medicine: that a ma- 
jority of voices decide every thing; that the place of meeting 
shall be variable, and be determined at each anniversary for the 
ensuing year. One of the laws is, that the society shall form no 
collections, and, except its records, possess no property. What- 
ever is laid before them, shall be again withdrawn by its owner. 
Another is, that the expenses of the meeting shall be defrayed 
by the contributions of the members present. 

These preliminaries being gone through, Professor Struve de- 
livered a long oration on the history, importance, and present 
state of astronomy. After magnifying astronomy beyond all con- 
ceivable studies, he decided that Germany, of all the countries of 
Europe, held the highest rank in this branch, Russia next, then 
England and Italy, and France last of all. The discourse is 
thought to have savoured of self-adulation, and not to have been 
well received. When the business of the first public sitting 
was closed, the members retired to form themselves into sections, 
and to choose their presidents. 

These sections, or committees, appear to have proceeded 
smoothly, with the following exception : 

“On reading his report of the proceedings of the zoological section, Pro- 
fessor Luckart took occasion to animadvert, ina few ill natured words, on the 
appointment of Englishmen to preside in that section. ‘It is the first time,’ 
_ Said he, ‘that a foreigner, who did not understand the language, has been 
appointed to preside at a meeting of German naturalists.’” 

This was felt to be bad taste, and worse feeling, by all pre- 
sent; for this section had agreed to name a daily president, 
and in this way Mr. Gray, and Dr. Traill, had each been honoured 
with the chair. A Dr. Siemers, who followed him, by his judi- 
cious conduct made amends for this breach of good manners. 

The hours not devoted to science, were most agreeably filled 
up by parties of pleasure to the neighbouring gardens, to the 
island of Heiligoland, to the theatres, and to evening re-unions 
of a very agreeable kind, amongst the most distinguished natura- 
lists. On the 25th, the last day of the convention, the whole 
affair was finished off by a splendid ball, at which all the beauty 
of Hamburgh assisted. 

We have been exceedingly pleased with every part of Mr. 
Johnston’s narrative of this interesting meeting, with one excep- 


Scientific Meetings. 285 


tion, where, in ranging himself on the liberal side of the question, 
he does not appear with his accustomed liberality. It is where 
he attributes to the governments of the German States, an im- 
proper control over these interesting meetings, whilst it is evident 
to every one, that they are especially encouraged and protected 
by the very governments he hints at. The insinuations too, that - 
Prince Metternicht discourages them, contrary to the wish of the 
Emperor, appear to be brought forward merely to support a bad 
pun, ‘a la milady Morgan,’ upon the Prince’s name.—* Il est 
comme un Roi ce Mitternacht,” said a Halle man to me. 

We do not presume to express any opinion upon the manner 
in which Prince Metternicht may discharge his duty to his sove- 
reign, but we are not ignorant of Germany, and do not believe a 
word of the allegation brought—we believe without considera- 
tion,—against this distinguished personage, who is one of the best 
informed men in Europe, and whose taste and attainments in 
natural science, have, we venture to predict, insured all honour 
and protection to the Naturforscher, in their past session, which 
was to take place at Vienna in September last, under the very 
eye of the Prince. A valued friend of ours, whose name is at 
this time pre-eminently conspicuous in Europe in geological 
science, in a letter from Vienna, says, “ I met Prince Metternich 
at dinner, at Lord Cowley’s, and had a tete a tele with him on geolo- 
gy: [found him quite au courant, and certainly a most accomplished 
and universal man.” Such testimony as this, which accords with » 
what we have otherwise heard of this great statesman, makes us 
turn a deaf ear to such ill founded suspicions of his being un- 
friendly to the cause of natural history. With this single excep- 
tion, we repeat, that we have been highly pleased with Mr. 
Johnston’s narrative, which has, in no small degree, made us de- 
sirous of receiving the earliest intelligence of the meeting at 
Vienna. 

That a society of this kind, constituted by delegates from all 
the branches of science, should be imitated in other countries, 
was to be expected, and especially in England. Annual meet- 
ings of this nature, unless attended by eminent men, would sink 
into insignificance, and Germany is too extensive a country, its 
principal cities too far separated from each other, to admit of the 
most eminent men annually leaving their homes and_ pursuits, 
upon a visit to a distant country. It is probable, that ere long, 


286 Scientific Meetings. 


Germany, England, Scandinavia, Italy and France will each 
have their separate conventions; and if they are held at con- 
venient seasons, a few individuals, ardent in the pursuit of know- 
ledge, and blessed with leisure and wealth, may visit them all, 
and thus get annually a panoramic view of the progress of uni- 
versal philosophical theory. If an abstract of the proceedings 
of such meetings were published, after the manner of the pro- 
ceedings of the Geological Society of London, this indeed would 
be a highly intellectual age. 

We shall hope soon to lay before our readers an account of 
the “ Proposed general Scientific Meeting at York.” The fol- 
lowing circular was forwarded to us some time ago. 


Proposed general Scientific Meeting at York, England, to be held 
September 26, 1831. 


A strone desire having been expressed that a meeting of friends of science 
snould take place annually, in some central town in England, with the view 
of promoting unrestrained communication of scientific opinions and discove- 
ries; notice is hereby given, that a committee of the principal scientific so- 
cieties of London, Edinburgh, &c., have fixed on the city of York as a most 
desirable place for the first meeting ;—to commence on Monday, the 26th of 
September, a period of the year which has been ascertained to be most con- 
venient for the parties interested, and the meeting to be continued during as 
many days as may be deemed expedient. 

Any friends of science in Great Britain, or in any other parts of Europe, 

, who may wish to attend this meeting, are requested to send a letter (post 
paid) to the Secretary of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, York, in or- 
der that adequate preparation and accommodation may be secured. It is pro- 
posed that the visitors shall assemble in the Museum and apartments of the 
Yorkshire Philosophical Society, to receive memoirs and communications, 
and that they shall dine together daily. 

Persons arriving in York on the 26th of September, are requested to apply 
to the Porter of the Museum for information as to the hours and places of 
meeting. 

Foreigners who may honour this meeting with their presence, will find 
every accommodation prepared for them. 


London, May 25, 1831, 


This meeting, which we believe was originally proposed by Dr. 
Brewster, will probably be attended by many of the leading men 
of Great Britain. Our private letters inform us, that Babbage, 
Murchison, Greenough, Conybeare, Daubeny, Brewster, Jameson, 
and a host of eminent persons, had intimated their intention of 


Meteorological Observations. 287 


being present. We have no doubt it will produce the most bene- 
ficial effects to science, smoothing the asperities of rivalry, and 
creating a personal bond between individuals, who have the 
loftiest objects in view. Under the direction of great minds, the 
influence of such institutions will be universally felt, and thus, 
ere long, it will be acknowledged, that to study nature and na- 
ture’s laws, constitutes not only the most elevated, but the most 
useful of occupations. Ep. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
Kept at Wilmington, Delaware, by Henry Gibbons, M. D. 


Summary ror Aveust 1831. 
Therm. Barom. 
Average at sun-rise, 67°.28 in. 29.92 Proportion of clear weather, days 18 
Average at mid-day, 78°.68 29.91 | Proportion of cloudy, 13 


Average at 10 P.M. 69°.74 29.91 | Whole days clear, 13 
Monthly average, 72°.95 29.915 | Days on which rain fell, 8 
Maximum, 85°.50 30.15 | Depth of rain, inches 11.9 
Minimun, 52° 29.68 | Northerly wind prevailed, days 8 
Range, 33°.50 .47 | Easterly, 10 
Warmest day (17th,) 80°. Southerly, (S. to W.) 13 


Coldest day (29th,) 60°.50 

Auroras, none. That observed in Massachusetts, (noticed in the last number, ) 
on the 3lst. ult. was followed by unsettled weather, and a severe easterly 
storm ina week. A very wet month; rains heavy; nearly six inches fell 
on the 8th and 9th. The early part of the month cool ; the remainder warm, 
except the few last days. Winds generally light and variable. But few 
electric clouds. A severe easterly storm on the 7th and 8th. A peculiar , 
haziness in the atmosphere during this month, and the last, which will be 
noticed hereafter. 


Summary For Srpremser 1831. 


Therm. Barom. 
Average at sun-rise, 58°.03 in. 29.85 Proportion of clear weather, days 16 
14 


Average at mid-day, 70°.90 29.83 | Proportion of cloudy, 


Average at 10 P.M. 60°.86 29.82 | Whole days clear, 12 
Monthly Average, 64°.46 29.84 | Days on which rain fell, 10 
Maximum, 83°. 30.04 | Quantity of rain, inches 7.25 
Minimum, 44°, 29.44 | Northerly winds pevailed, days 11 
Range, 39°. .60 | Easterly, 7 
Warmest day,(11th,)77°. Southerly, (S. to W.) 12 


Coldest days (17th 
and 30th) 55°. 

Auroras, none. A wet month; rains frequent but not very heavy. Ge- 
nerally cool; only a few warm days. Winds not so light nor so changeable 
as in the summer months. Electric clouds more frequent than in August. 
Four easterly storms, two of them light, and one not accompanied with rain. 
A partial white frost on the 30th. 


288 


Scientific Memoranda. 


Summary ror Ocrosper 1881. 


i Therm. 
Average atsun-rise, 48°.81 in. 29.87 


Barom. 


Proportion of clear weather days 23 
8 


Average at mid-day, 62°.43 29.84 | Proportion of cloudy, 

Average at 10 P.M, 51°.74 29.84 | Whole days clear, 19 
Monthly average, 55°.65 29.855 | Days on which rain fell, 8 
Maximum, 75°. 30.18 | Quantity of rain, inches 8 
Minimum, 386°. 29.39 | Northerly winds prevailed, days 12 
Range, 39°. -79 | Easterly, 6 


Warmest day (8rd,) 67°.50 
Coldest day (28th,) 44°. 
An aurora, on the 29th, followed in two days by a transient easterlystorm, 
and subsequently by northerly winds. Several heavy rains this month; six 
inches fell on the 8th, 9th, and 10th. Temperature moderate and season- 
able ; the middle portion of the month delightful. Winds tolerably constant ; 
during the first week, and also in the last week, stormy. A few electric 
clouds in the first week. One slight easterly storm, following the aurora ; 
also a violent storm from north, with heavy rain, of 36 hours duration, on the 
9th, and 10th. Several partial frosts, and one pretty general one, with ice 
in places, on the 29th; but the tomato (Solanum Lycopersicon) and other 
garden vegetables which are considered sensitive to frost, appear very little 
injured yet. The haziness of the atmosphere, observed during the summer, 
continued through this month. The sky was scarcely ever clear of it. 


Southerly, (S.to W.) 13 


Account of an ancient Body, found in a Bog in Ireland.—The body of a 
man, in a bog ten and a half feet deep, was found about nine feet below the 
surface. The abdomen was collapsed, but it, in all other respects, bore the 
appearance of recent death. The face was that of a youth of fine features, 
with hair long and black, loosely hanging over the shoulders. ‘The dress, 
which was tight, and reached to the elbows and knees, was composed of the 

_skin of an animal, probably the moose deer, laced with thongs, and having 
the hair inwards. There were no weapons, but a long staff or pole was laid 
on each side the body. Varro derives the Sagum of the Romans from the 
Sac, or skin dress of the Gauls and Britons, which probably was tight, and 
not flowing, from the nature of the material. The Suevi according to Ta- 
citus bore flowing hair, and the staffs were familiar to the Silures, according 
to the same author. From the depth at which it was found, an immense pe- 
riod of time must have passed to admit of nine feet of vegetable matter having 
grown over the body, and all the circumstances concur to make it probable 
that the body was of a very remote period ; for before the arrival of the Eng- 
lish, the Irish wore, for the most part, ill made garments, made from their 
black sheep.— Abstract of a paper in Edin. N. Phil. Jour. June 1831, 


Collection of Natural History from India.—M. Delamare Picot has brought 
from India, into France, an extraordinary collection, for a private individual, 
of objects in natural history, and of Indian antiquities. Fifty three species 
of Mammifera, among which the Rhinoceros Javanus, found hitherto in Java 


only, and which the Jardin des Plantes did not possess. 
Pros. R. A. S. of Paris. 


Ne 


Plate Vi. 


Centre of ‘the Farth 


e Karth 


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_ 
S 
es 
= 

SS 
s 
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v 
s 
“4 


Diagram “or the /ssay on the Gust of the Earth. 


LALLA 


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J 


AN 


N° Lat 12°41 E Long 


Th 


Ls 


ALO "CELA MI 


"500 


37°7 


f . u 
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fam Chilels & 


THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 


GEOLOGY 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vou. Tn Puiwapetputa, January, 1832. No. 7. 


GEOLOGY. No,1—ON THE CRUST OF THE EARTH, 


Havine in the preceding numbers given our readers a rapid 
sketch of the rise and progress of science, and of the causes 
which have affected that progress at various periods of society, 
we trust that the lesson to be derived from it may be deemed 
useful to this young and prosperous country; the citizens of 
which have, for one of their most important duties, to act under 
the belief, “ that nations, like individuals, are weak in proportion 
as they are ignorant ; and that the memories of both are most ho- 
noured, when they have advanced the arts and sciences.” 

We now commence the first number of the promised Essays 
on Geology, and shall endeavour to redeem the pledge given in 
our prospectus, “ to treat the subject in an elementary manner, 
divested of all unexplained technicalities; so that the great 
principles, from which philosophical views of the arrangements 
and operations of nature are drawn, may be lucidly brought 
forward.” 

We enter upon this duty with a desire to make our labours 
instructive and amusing to all, and aware that we shall have to 
attend to the wants of two classes of readers, the initiated, and 
those who have even the elements of our science to acquire. 
We shall have to throw ourselves upon the indulgence of the 
first, the members of which must bear with us for awhile, if we 
seek the simplest, and the surest means of accomplishing the 
object we have in view—the general diffusion of the study 


of nature. They will remember the time when they were, 


as well as ourselves, ignorant of elementary principles, and will 
Vou. I. —37 289 


290 Geology.—On the Crust of the Earth. 


patiently accompany us in the—to ourselves—not most grateful 
task, of going over, as it were, the horn-book of geology. This 
task, however, we cheerfully enter-upon, and shall persevere in 
it, urged by the general advantage we hope to accomplish.— 
Having no fancies of our own to cherish, no theory to support 
which is not raised upon principles of universal application, no 
duty to perform but that of placing facts in an intelligent man- 
ner before our readers, we shall hope that by the accumulation 
of one simple fact upon another, and by the connexion of results 
satisfactorily deduced from those admitted facts, we may raise 
such accumulated evidences from nature, that their concentrated 
light will at length beam with splendour upon the higher phe- 
nomena of our science; and that our earth, which to some, per- 
haps, appears an incongruous assemblage of inexplicable diffi- 
culties, and the study of it a hopeless and repelling pursuit, may 
at length be recognized as a temple of nature, not less remark- 
able for the magnitude of its dimensions, than for the order, the 
design, and harmony of its parts; and these manifesting a con- 
stant physical adaptation to the loftiest moral ends. We trust 
that the subject, treated as we here propose, unincumbered 
with any speculative views, will be acceptable to all, and 
that our more learned readers, whilst elementary principles are 
engaging our attention, will find some compensation in the higher 
branches of geology of other parts of our Journal. . 

Geology,—which is derived from two Greek words, meaning the 
science of the earth,—in its most comprehensive sense, means the 
study of nature, and of all natural objects; whether those recent 
ones belonging to the present order of nature, or those fossil ones, 
belonging to more remote periods; and which are supposed to 
have preceded the creation of man, because no vestige of the 
existence of our race has been found co-eval with them. And 
since all the forms in nature present themselves to us, either in 
organic or inorganic bodies,—meaning bodies which have the 
faculty of continuing their kinds, and those which have not ;— 
it is evident that geology stands in relation with all the physical 
sciences, and that the geologist who is diligent and faithful in 
the practical line of his pursuit, must necessarily become ac- 
quainted with mineralogy, zoology, and botany; since the first 
comprehends all inorganic bodies, and the two last all organic 
bodies. By many the term geology is understood in a more 


Geology.—On the Crust of the Earth. 291 


limited sense, comprehending only the mineral structure of rocks, 
their relative position, and the fossils embedded in them. Al- 
though the naturalists who have restricted their investigations 
to these branches, have added to the general stock of informa- 
tion, yet in such hands the study could not rise to the dignity of 
a science. The origin of mountains and valleys, the changes of 
the bed of the ocean, the action of rivers and nature of volcanoes, 
and the highly liberal study of comparative anatomy, were all 
excluded by this narrow field of observation, and with them all 
the high philosophical views of the harmony of nature, by the 
aid of which Geology may claim to be considered as a study 
which leads to the knowledge of all natural science. Such is the 
definition we would give to our favourite pursuit. 

In this Essay we propose to speak of that superficial part of 
the globe which is called the crust, and which has been vari- 
ously exposed to our observation either by the action of natural 
agents, or by human labour. It is from the geological pheno- 
mena thus disclosed, that we become acquainted with the rela- 
tion in which Geology stands to all the physical sciences. Let 
us first begin with the surface upon which we stand, and let us 
suppose an individual whose mind has never been awakened to 
this subject, contemplating, for the first time, the nature of that 
surface, the sublime height of the mountains, the profound val- 
leys, the extensive plains without hills or vales, the oceans, lakes 
and rivers, and the thousand irregular beauties which give so 
much grace to the face of nature. Yet would this superficial 
aspect perhaps awaken no further idea with him, than that the 
earth was a homogeneous mass of rocks and clays and sands, as- 
sembled without order and design. But at the sea shore, where 
the rocks have been worn down to mural escarpments, he will 
perceive the beach to be covered with shingles or pebbles, tri- 
turated against each other, and thus divested of the angular 
form they had, when first broken off from the parent mass, 
where they once were, as geologists say, im situ, or in place. 
These will at once remind him of the rounded pebbles of a simi- 
lar character found on the dry land, almost universally, and far 
above the level of the sea; in many instances thousands of feet 
above the marine level. The moment he begins to think of the 
cause which could have produced this agreement betwixt 
pebbles found in such dissimilar situations, he enters upon the 


292 Geology.—On the Crust of the Earth. 


study of Geology. This is one of its first and most important 
lessons, and the solution to the inquiry will be found to be the 
key to similar phenomena, in situations still more extraordinary. 
To trace these rounded pebbles to their native rocks—and on 
the dry lands they are sometimes found, hundreds of miles from 
their parent beds—they must be compared with other pebbles, 
which are generally to be found strewed through countries, to 
the original masses. Here a slight knowledge of mineralogy, 
one of the branches of geology, is necessary. ‘The next question 
the young geologist asks himself is, whether the whole substance 
of the planet is one solid mass of rocks resembling those he finds 
near the surface. If he has hitherto observed no mineral differ- 
ence in the rocks he has examined, and if the territory under 
examination furnishes several members of the geological series 
of beds superimposed upon each other, he will find some indica- 
tions of the presence of those members either in the mural es: 
carpments on the sea coast, in the ravines inland which haye been 
worn by the action of rivers, in valleys or depressions, or in 
the fissures which have been caused by any natural agents. In 
such situations he will often find the mineral structure of the 
rocks corresponding on the opposite sides, where the continuity 
of the surface has been interrupted, the same beds presenting 
themselves on each side. When he is fully satisfied that there 
are various mineral beds lying beneath the arable soil on the 
surface containing rolled pebbles, he will be still more anxious 
to learn the nature of all the beds lying beneath those he has 
examined. And thus it is by travelling and practical inyestigation, 
and by books and the conversation of learned men, that the 
young geologist at length comes to the knowledge, that the earth 
is not a mass of rocks and clays and sands, accumulated without 
order and design; but that a portion of the superficial part of the 
planet, now called the crust, is composed of a series of rocks, 
cJays and sands, differing from each other in very material cir- 
cumstances, and of which the respective members are, at very 
great geographical distances, found in a constant relation to each 
other, in the general geological series of beds. This geological 
series has been described with great fidelity, and will be the 
subject of our next Essay. 

By the crust of the earth, we understand that portion of it of 
‘which we have a practical knowledge. There are certain rocks 


“7 


Geology.—On the Crust of the Earth. 293 


at the bottom of the geological series, which have obtained the 
name of granite, from the granular form of their constituent mi- 
nerals. The class of rocks to which granite belongs, has, for dis- 
tinction’s sake, been called primitive: this designation was given 
in the infancy of geology. It was conceived because no rocks 
had been discovered beneath granite, that it was the most an- 
cient mineral portion of the earth, and hence it got the hypo- 
thetical name of primitive. To steer as clear as possible of hy- 
pothesis, we shall not use that term, but speak of those rocks as 
Primary, in relation to their position in the geological series in 
the ascending order; that is, counting from the granite to the 
arable soil at the surface, or the diluvium, as this also has been 
hypothetically called, though perhaps with better cause. Of the 
depths to which this granite extends we know nothing; it is true, 
we know from inspection, that in many situations the volcanic 
lavas come through the granite, and of course may infer that 
they exist in a state of fusion beneath the granite, or-—which is 
a reasonable conclusion derived from the aftinity of their consti- 
tuent parts—that they are granite in a state of igneous fusion, 
and that consequently there must be vast cavities in the planet, 
inferior to the crust. 

The existence of volcanic action through every part of the 
known world, either by the eruptions of active volcanos, or by 
earthquakes, is an assurance that there must be vast cavities in 
the globe, where igneous action is fiercely at work, and of which 
these volcanoes are the safety valves. Of their extent, some 
‘opinion can be formed from the great distances at which parti- 
cular earthquakes have been felt. That of Lisbon, in 1755, not 
only affected the lakes and springs in every part of Europe, but 
was sensibly felt in North America. That of New Madrid, in 
1811, shook the valley of the Mississippi for several hundred 
‘miles. Such disturbances are to be considered as the effect of 
the resistance which the solid parts of the crust of the earth op- 
Pose to the expansive power striving in those profound cavities. 
- We at length apply this force to many phenomena of our science, 
“and thus comprehend what would otherwise be incomprehensi- 
“ble: it is thus we come to understand how the tops of the high- 
jest mountains, and the bottoms of the lowest valleys, are formed 

of the same primary rocks; for when we observe some of the 
” stratified beds which lie much higher up in the series than the gra- 


294 Geology.—On the Crust of the Earth. 


nite, reposing at high inclinations upon the flanks of the granite 
mountains, with accompanying marks of violent dislocation, the 
truth flashes upon us, and we perceive that these mountains 
have once existed at lower levels, and that they have been 
forced up through the superincumbent beds, by the expansive 
power for ever struggling in the interior of the globe. It is thus 
we become acquainted with the existence of a power capable 
of the mightiest mechanical exertions. If earthquakes in our 
own time rend the earth, dislocate its solid parts, and ingulph 
portions of it in the chasms they produce, it may have. been so 
co-eval with the existence of the planet. If the volcano of 
Skapta Jokul in Iceland, could, in 1783, pour out streams of lava, 
sufficiently hot and voluminous, not only to melt down the an- 
cient lavas, but to more than fill the gorge of a river two hun- 
dred feet wide, and six hundred feet deep, damming up the 
streams and inundating the whole country, so may it have been 
in ancient geological times. If in 1822, the coast of Chili was 
raised to the height of five feet, for one hundred miles, by a sin- 
gle volcanic paroxysm, we can conceive of continents and moun- 
tain chains being raised to their present elevation, by repeated 
shocks in ancient times. In the account of the recent rising of 
the volcano of Hotham Island in the Mediterranean sea, it will 
be observed that the interval between the eruptions, was uni- 
form between one hour and a quarter and one hour and a half, 
and that the eruptions were followed by an evident increase in the 
size of the island. The details of this rare spectacle are highly 
valuable; they will be seized upon with great avidity by geolo- 
gists, many of whom, we have no doubt, will consider the pheno- 
menon as an epitome of those ancient parturitions of the ocean, 
geology is so pregnant with. Finally, if at the present day, 
springs peculiar to volcanic countries, deposit silex, bitumen, 
lime, and other substances, so it may always have been. And 
indeed we have the physical assertions of these probabilities, in 
the disturbed state of the lower stratified rocks, the extent of the 
trap formations, the elevation of Italy, the Alps, and many other 
regions, and the ancient beds of quarts, pitchstone, primary lime- 
stone and oolites, which last approach so near to the modern 
travertinos of Italy. Wherever volcanic waters are, there we 
find calcareous and other mineral substances, and under circum- 
stances encouraging the opinion, that they have at all times de- 


Geology.—On the Crust of the Earth. 295 


rived their origin from the interior and unsearchable parts of 
the globe. 

To some who have never reflected upon this subject, it may 
appear startling to hear, that continents and chains of mountains 
have been raised from the interior parts of the earth by the force 
of subterranean expansive power; but every effect is propor- 
tionate to its cause, and where the first is definite and the last 
immeasurable, we must submit to the reasonableness of the pro- 
position, remembering always, that although human power 
dwindles into insignificance, when applied in imagination to dis- 
turb a mineral mass like the crust of the earth, which has a 
thickness of between seven and eight miles attributed to it; yet 
that the semi-diameter of the earth exceeds more than five hun- 
dred times the space occupied by that crust; and that it is de- 
monstrable that a gaseous pressure may be generated in such a 
radius, to which the known mineral mass could make no resist- 
ance. In reasoning therefore upon these high matters, we must 
not measure unknown forces by our own feeble powers, but by 
the effects they are capable of producing, and must treat of the 
causes and of the effects of this high planetary character, in 
relation to the proportion in which they stand to each other. 

Mr. De la Beche, in his Sections and Views illustrative of geo- 
logical phenomena, has an admirable Plate on this subject, which 
will do much towards reconciling the most incredulous to the 
views we have offered. We have made this plate somewhat 
more elementary, in accordance with our plan. *A. Fig. 1, 
is the radius of the earth, from which at B. a line is set off at 
100 miles from the level of the sea. A. Fig. 2. represents the 
same radius multiplied 10 times. JB. is a line at 100 miles 
from the level of the sea. C. a line eight miles from the tops of 
the highest mountains. D. the level of the sea. LE. the height 
of the Himalaya and Andes. F. the Alps. 

The crust of the earth has been often likened to the propor- 
tion which the varnish on a cabinet globe bears to the mass it 
encloses, but this Diagram appeals more strongly to the imagi- 
nation. It is evident that the pneumatic forces which may be 
generated in this radius, are capable of producing inequalitica 
upon the earth’s surface, that would, to use the language of 
Shakspeare, “ make Ossa like a wart,” even if they had their 
“ft » * Vide Pl. 8. 


296 On the Causes which retard Geological Knowledge. 


seat within the line B, extending itself at a depth of one hundred 
miles from the level of the sea. Mr. De la Beche ridicules the 
“ stupendous mountains” and “ tremendous dislocations” of some 
writers; and in truth, when we consider this Diagram, we are 
not only apt to hold mountains, and earthquakes, and fissures 
very cheap, but to wonder how it is that we are permitted to 
keep possession so quietly. Our readers, however, will not take 
alarm at our A’s and B’s and C’s; they know that there isa 
power both wise and benevolent that controls the fearful agents 
appointed to work his will. ‘These, whilst they beautifully dis- 
pose the surface of the earth for our benefit and enjoyment, re- 
member the voice, “ thus far and no farther.” With great con- 
fidence, therefore, we may all say with the psalmist, “Therefore 
will we not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the 
hills be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters rage 
and swell, and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the 
same.” 
Norr.—Lest it should be supposed that some of the language 
of this Essay has been borrowed, without acknowledgment, from 
geological writings heretofore published, where the name of the 
writer may not have been affixed; the Editor requests those 
who may observe any coincidence of this kind, to believe, that 
he never quotes from a previous publication without acknow- 
ledgment, except where he has been the unknown author. 


ON THE CAUSES WHICH RETARD GEOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 
(From a correspondent, dated London, October 12, 1831.) 


“I take great pleasure in speaking encouragingly to you, of 
the success of your Journal in England. I am sure you will be 
satisfied with the various commendations it has received. The 
review of your first number, in the Philosophical Magazine for 
this month, is conclusive as to its reception here; and I think 
your numbers for August and September sustain well the praises 
which it has amply given to that for July. American geology 
has been in such a state of confusion, and we have been so much 
in the dark about it, that we are very much gratified in the 
prospect before us, of having the geological facts of your country 
brought intelligently out ; and I know that this feeling is partaken 


On the Causes which retard Geological Knowledge. 297 


by many of the leading continental geologists. [also know that 
the tone of the “Introduction” in your first number, bas given 
particular satisfaction here. Your friendly critic in the Philoso- 
phical Magazine has but done you justice on that subject. You 
have certainly taken the correct philosophical view of the man- 
ner in which geologists should treat that—with inexperienced 
minds—too attractive branch of our science, and have hap- 
pily freed both your Journal and the subject from the appre- 
hensions which would enable prejudice to raise up an unfriendly 
spirit against them. In truth, the material origin of this planet 
is by no means a proper topic for geological writers, and you 
may observe, that all writers, who—as they thought—have been 
laying a great deal of strength out upon it, are now entirely dis- 
regarded, and are indeed classed among the weakest of those 
writers who have entered the lists. See the inventions and 
opinions of Burnet, Whiston, Buffon, De Luc, and many others, 
whose names have at different periods greatly influenced science : 
we look back with surprise, mingled with pity, upon the effusions 
of great minds like theirs, which aspired to instruct mankind in 
some of the loftiest branches of physical science, whilst yet un- 
conscious of its elements. 

“Tt has been an axiom in education for a long period, that it is 
of the very nature of truth, that we should be led to it by practi- 
cal induction; yet how much is that axiom disregarded, to the 
detriment of science, and to the bringing of names—otherwise 
meritorious—into disrepute. It is lamentable to see how men 
erect altars, from time to time, as if to immolate themselves upon. 
Men who knew little or nothing of practical geology, have written 
on the subject as if for the express purpose of deterring others 
from the pursuit of it; they have cherished the false idea that 
modern geology and true religion do not accord with each other. 
Some of them have affectedly assumed a tone of piety, merely to 
entrap their readers; and, indeed, as you say, if the modern 
leaders in geology had not, by their learning, industry and pru- 
dence, succeeded in eradicating these groundless opinions, the 
science would have been very much retarded with us. In like 
manner on your side of the Atlantic, in order to prevent the few 
from misleading the million, you will find it necessary to assail all 
wild and affected speculations, whether religious or irreligious, 
and to tell your readers what is not geology, before a steady at- 

Vor. 1.—38 


298 On the Causes which retard Geological Knowledge. 


tention can be drawn to the facts upon which a knowledge of 
the science can be raised. In Europe there are sufficient sound 
geologists to check all affectations in the science. This is not the 
case in countries where the science has not been actively pur- 
sued, nor can it be supposed there is the same check upon the 
propagation of errors in the United States: hence the teachers 
of geology there have a great responsibility upon their hands, 
and it is certain that the progress of geological knowledge will 
be commensurately slow in America, if, to the discarded theories 
and prejudices of Europe, others of native growth are superadded. 
I do not know that any information I could send you from this 
side of the water, would be as valuable as the result of the ex- 
perience of this country in the study of geology, and which you 
can apply, if you choose, with the same success to the present 
state of that science with you, that you do all the other instruc- 
tive lessons you derive from Europe, which is at present a great 
experimental schoo] for America. 

“The re-publication in your country of the third edition of 
Bakewell’s ‘ Introduction to Geology,’ was some evidence of a 
strong taste for that science, for the author of that work is an 
experienced practical observer ; and the one hundred and twenty 
pages of matter appended to it by the American editor, himself 
a professor of geology, induced the friends of science here to ex- 
pect a summary of American phenomena, to contrast with those 
European ones Mr. Bakewell has brought forward with so much 
ability. In this we have been greatly disappointed. This volu- 
minous Appendix, which has both Preface, Introductory Views, 
and an Index, and which professes to be an outline of the Philo- 
sophy of Geology, is not only barren of practical instruction, but 
has by no means steered clear of those conceits and fancies, which 
have rendered the labours of so many writers utterly useless. 
This is greatly to be regretted, coming from a public teacher, 
who has it in his power to bias the minds of so many ingenuous 
youths. It is by no means with unkind intentions to the writer, 
that I enter upon a brief analysis of some parts of this appendix. 

“Page 7. ‘ Are the discoveries of geology consistent with the 
history contained in the book of Genesis? 

“« Respecting the deluge, there can be but one opinion, and that 
opinion has been already stated; geology fully confirms the scrip- 
‘ture history of that event.’ 


On the Causes which retard Geological Knowledge. 299 


“«'There is doubtless more difficulty as to the earlier periods ; 
but the writer, after studying the subject for many years, has 
formed the opinion, that the geological facts are not only consis- 
tent with sacred history, but that their tendency is to illustrate 
and confirm it.’ 

“The sum total of the meaning of these passages is, that the sedi- 
mentary deposit found so extensively upon the present surface, 
was deposited there by the Noachic deluge recorded in the 
scriptures; for there are no other discoveries in geology, that 
have any reference to any thing contained in the book of Gene- 
sis. And when he says, “ there can be but one opinion,” and a 
confirmative one, that geology fully confirms the scripture his- 
tory of that event, he either speaks unadvisedly, or without in- 
formation ; for the leading names in geology with us in Europe, 
have been for some time divided on that point. Lyell, Murchison, 
Sedgewick, (a clergyman, and professor too, at Cambridge,) 
Scrope, Fitton, and many others, distinguished Fellows of the 
Royal Society of London, have declared they do not believe 
geology confirms the scripture history of the deluge. ‘To these may 
be added the distinguished names of Blainville, J effroy, Demarest, 
&c. &c. from the continental geologists. Not one of these phi- 
losophers has ventured to impugn the scripture account of a 
great deluge, but they do declare, that their laborious investiga- 
tions have led them to the opinion, that the sedimentary matter 
ascribed by some geologists to the Noachic flood, has been de- 
posited by partial and local inundations, arising from causes still 
in action, and which have been immemorially degrading old sur- 
faces, and producing new ones. They see no evidence of one 
universal inundation of the earth, in practical geology, and few 
men have seen more than themselves. The antagonist names 
of others who hold modified opinions on this subject, are also of 
great weight ; for if any men deserve the confidence of the scien- 
tific world, it is Buckland, Greenough, Conybeare, De la Beche, 
Warburton, in England; Cuvier, Brogniart, Cordier, Elie de 
Beaumont, &c. in France. Thus we see, that although there 

‘may be only one opinion in Yale college on this point, yet out of 
it, the scientific world is divided into two great parties. There 
are other passages in this appendix, of a similar nature, and even 
‘more censurable. 

“Page 25. ‘Indeed, it is generally agreed, that judging from 


300 On the Causes which retard Geological Knowledge. 


the appearances of things, we must conclude, that the earth was 
originally, and for a long time, submerged ; and that its crust, at 
least, has been in a soft and impressible state, if not partially, or 
wholly in solution.’ 

“* Geology declares, that the original, or at least early state of 


the surface of the planet, was that of a watery abyss; and the, 


book of Genesis, in the concise account which is there exhibited 
of the origin of things, reveals the same fact, as well as the re- 
cession of the waters, by which the dry land was made to 
appear.’ 

«<The most important fundamental rocks of our globe are com- 
posed, in general, of crystalline materials, bearing every appearance 
of having been deposited from a state of prevailing repose,’ &c. 

«“* We may therefore take it for granted, that the aqueous abyss 
preceded the habitable condition of the earth, and we are at 


liberty to reason upon its probable constitution and possible ef- 


fects.’ 

« After all which suppositions taken for granted, follows a full 
analysis of this said aqueous abyss; containing all the chemical 
agents, the sulphuric, muriatic, nitric, phosphoric, fluoric and car- 
bonic acids; the allcalies, potassa, soda, lithia; the metallic ox- 
ides: carbon, and other combustibles: oxygen, chlorine, iodine, in 
short, every thing a chemist could possess in his laboratory,—for 


it is there the author must have learnt to concoct aqueous" 


abysses—all acting with intense energy, ‘“ as they came from the 
hand of the Creator.” Solutions, decompositions, precipitations, 
&c. &c. With such a fermentation as this strange mess must 
have made, it is impossible to conceive how it could be got quiet 
enough to assume that state of “ prevailing repose,” necessary to 
the production of his crystalline rocks, his garnets, his tourma- 


lines, his beryls, as they are found in all their beauty at Haddam, 
Connecticut. That any geologist ever discovered a spoonful of 


such a concoction, is not to be believed. ‘The Dead sea is pure 
compared with it. JVot a syllable is mentioned of it in the Bible, 
and thus we are obliged to submit to the conclusion, that it never 
existed out of the chemical imagination of the writer, who very 
innocently believes, as we may gather from the following passage, 
that no one can possibly disagree with him on this subject. 


« Page 27. ‘For while decisive facts declare it to the mere. 


phil osopher, revelation unfolds it to the beliey er, and both con- 


Causes which retard Zoological Knowledge. 301 


spire to establish the truth in the minds of that large and re- 
spectable class of individuals, who combine both these characters 
in one.’ 

“In the present state of geological knowledge, it is impossible 
to read the passages I have cited, without animadyerting upon 
the extraordinary delusion they betray. Much as we agree with 
the professor in his reverence for the scriptures, we have long 
come to the opinion, on this side of the water, that it is the ham- 
mer and not the bible we are to take up when we would enter 
upon the study of geology ; besides, all Europe is now on the side 
of the igneous origin of the inferior rocks, and nothing can be 
more superfluous than such an extravagant chemico-aqueous 
abyss. 

he I make these strictures with reluctance; the acknowledged 
friend to science they concern, must break through the web he is 
weaving around himself and others, if he would not obscure his 
reputation by indulging in empiricisms unworthy of the age.” 


ON THE CAUSES WHICH RETARD THE ADVANCEMENT OF 
ZOOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 


Critical Notice of “ Synopsis Reptilium, or Short Description of the Species 
of Reptiles—By Joun Epwarn Gray, F.R.S. F. G.S. &c.—Part L— 
Cararnracta. London, 1831.” 

Tue higher branches of mathematics, politics, and metaphy- 
sics, for many years occupied the vigorous intellect of the British 
nation, whilst natural science was comparatively neglected.— 
For some time, however, its various branches have excited great 
interest, and their importance is now duly appreciated and ac- 
knowledged, in many departments vying with the most forward 
nations, and in Geology, absolutely taking the lead. 

In the work before us we have a very neatly printed octavo 
of eighty pages, constituting one, of the many attempts of English 
naturalists to classify and arrange a very interesting department 
of zoology; but one which has been characterized by great 
confusion, and which yet requires much labour and research to 
make the system complete. To us it appears that the great 
fault of most of the writers on zoological nomenclature since the 
days of Linnzus, consists in a laboured effort at a display of 


302 Causes which retard Zoological Knowledge. 


learning in coining useless new names of objects, already long 
described, and well known to naturalists. The changing of 
names, and adding to the already confused state of the synony- 
ma; the elevating varieties into species, and cutting up the spe- 
cies into numerous sections, families and genera, on the most tri- 
fling distinction, or on no distinction whatever. The study of 
natural history is thus rendered as dry and uninteresting as a 
Greek vocabulary, and the interest of the object absolutely lost 
in the learned pleonasm in which it is buried. Thus it will con- 
tinue to be until there arises a powerful reformer, some modern 
Linnzus or youthful Aristotle, to make a clear sweep of this 
Augean stable, who, guided by nature alone, and governed by 
that admirable simplicity so forcibly displayed in all her opera- 
tions, will present the world with a system at once comprehen- 
sive and intelligible. In the words of one of the purest writers, 
“If I was to form a system, it would be that of simplicity; it should 
pervade all works of imagination, all inquiries of science, all per- 
formances of the chisel and pencil, all behaviour, and all dress. 
Carry this idea even to the most awful height, what is simplicity 
- but truth, the great basis of virtue and religion? Simplicity is 
the child of nature; the love of it seems implanted in us by Provi- 
dence; yet all the labour of erring mortals is to depart from this 
great and open road, and to return to it when they have seen 
the fallacy of winding paths and doubtful mazes.”—Jounson. 

The recently formed genera, Kinixys, Pyxis, Kinosternon, Ster- 
notherus, Hydrospis, &c. will be considered of no avail in such a 
system, seeing that they consist in unimportant variations in co- 
lour, and slight modifications of the form of the shell, which pro- 
duce no difference of consequence either in the habits or general 
organization of the animals themselves; and constitute, in fact, 
mere varieties of species, in some instances not characteristic of 
any peculiar genus; and in one instance at least, the character 
absolutely becomes obliterated by age. 

This work is principally characterized by such learned dis- 
plays in nomenclature, and too frequently at the expense of ac- 
curate knowledge of the subject discussed. 

Had one half the talent, labour, and observation, which the 
author has displayed in this little treatise, been applied to detect 
the true habits of the animals, as displayed in the woods, the 
fields, the rivers and the seas; or had he directed his observa- 


cc. 


ERRATA. 


In the January Number, p. 303, 18th line from the bottom, for 
‘¢Emys decupata,” read Emys decussata. 
Same page, 10th line from bottom, for “habits,” read habitat. 


Causes which retard Zoological Knowledge. 303 


tions to their internal organization as unfolded by zootomy, he 
would have added greatly to the cumulative mass of solid in- 
formation, and would have spared himself much unproductive 
labour. 

We have, nevertheless, perused the treatise with both profit 
and satisfaction; it not only shows considerable research, but 
convinces us of the increasing taste for similar pursuits in Eng- 
land. 

With these preliminary observations we propose to note a 
few of the inaccuracies and oversights which are but too evident 
to the practical herpetologist. There is occasionally displayed 
a looseness of style, which might have been dispensed with in a 
work strictly scientific; speaking of the class reptilia, he says, 
“ the young are like the mother.” Now we have raised numbers 
of these little creatures in our own garden, and can assure Mr. 
G. that the young not unfrequently betray a strong likeness to 
the father! 'The characters which distinguish some of his ge- 
nera, are in reality no distinction whatever; thus his genus 
“ Chelys,” at page 7, is designated by marks equally applicable 
to the very different genus Trionyx. : 

He sometimes founds specific distinctions, on slight difference 
in colour, or some insignificant markings: see for example his 
Emys decupata, compared with E. serrata; whilst in other in- 
stances, species, perfectly well characterized by recent authors, 
are confounded in the synonyma: thus TEstupo elephantopus, is 
quoted as synonymous with T. indica—the former differing in 
the number and form of the marginal plates, in the presence of 
a nuchal plate, and in the totally different direction of the poste- 
rior marginal plates—not to mention other peculiarities obsery- 
able in the head andinteguments. We consider these species to 
be as distinct in organization, as they are distant in their habits. 

After having stated that the marginal plates of tortoises re- 
present analogically the costal cartilages of mammalia; Mr. G. 
remarks, “ the testudo areolata (Thunb.) is apt to vary in the 

number of dorsal and marginal plates,” which is to admit a vari- 
ation in the number of ribs and of their cartilages; a difference 
of this nature, we think, rather points to specific distinction ; 
‘much more so, indeed, than the “ sculpture of its shields, and pe- 
culiar scaling of the animal.” Vide page 13. 

The Testudo pusilla, (Linn.) Mr. Gray describes for the 


3804 Causes which retard Zovlogical Knowledge. 


eighth time, under almost as many names, and has given a tole- 
rable good figure; he here calls it Cumrsina angulata, having 
previously described it as T. Bellii: vide Gray, spic. zool. t. 3.— 
If the synonyma he quotes are to be depended on, then the real 
Linnean name of the species must be retained, bearing in mind 
always, that the genus Cuersina of Merrem, is only the old 
genus Trstupo, with the sternal plate slightly projecting ante- 
riorly, and would include T. polyphemus of Bartram. 

Concerning the genus “ Kinrxys” of Bell, it may be remarked, 
that, if the peculiarity noticed in the back-plate of the species 
of this genus be not only accidental, as Baron Cuvier states it to 
be, it can serve only to distinguish a variety common to two or 
more species of testudo: and the genus “ Pyxis” of Bell, also ap- 
pears to us as representing a variety of the genus Cisrupa, or 
common box tortoise. 

The very natural genus Cistupa, first established by that sen- 
sible and classical naturalist, Mr. Fleming, (Vide Philos. of 
Zool.) and adopted by Mr. Say two years subsequently, (Vide 
Jour. A. N.S. vol. iv.) Mr. Gray places in the family EMYDZ, 
and represents these animals “ as living in ponds and ditches, 
only taking their food while in the water,” and thinks he has 
observed 36 species, 18 of which come from America; (vide p. 17.) 
The cistuda clausa, or common “ boa turtle” of North America, 
possesses none of. the habits above enumerated, but is in every 
respect a “ land tortoise,” which is the name by which this ani- 
mal universally goes by in this country; and Mr. Say remarks, 
very judiciously, (vide Long’s Ist Exped.) that he examined this 
species as it came under his observation throughout the country, 
from the shores of the Delaware to the base of the Rocky 
Mountains, and could detect only a single species, presenting 
many varieties in colour and markings. In like manner, the 
Testuno trifasciata of Bell, or Cistuda trifasciata, Gray—is a 
variety of Cistuda clausa of other authors. 

Mr. G. is most fruitful in synonyma: the land-tortoise of Eu- 
rope, so familiarly known, is dignified by ten titles, not doubting 
but that it possesses legitimate claims to all of them. 

The genus Emys of Gray, only differs from the other species 
of this genus, as adopted by other authors—and from which this 
is taken—in having the back and breast-plates united by solid 
(not osseous) symphysis; the habits and general organization be- 


Causes which retard Zoological Knowledge. 305 


ing similar, they naturally arrange themselves under one genus, 
but admit of being divided into two sections. 

Mr. Say had confounded the Testudo scabra of Linn., which 
inhabits South America, with a kindred species existing in New 
Jersey, in the vicinity of Philadelphia. This species was subse- 
quently described as distinct by Major Le Conte, under thename ~ 
of Emys inscripta. Mr. Gray has unnecessarily increased the 
synonyma by adding the specific appellation of “ speciosa” to this 
tortoise. (Vide p. 26.) 

The Emys concentrica, or centrata, is the only tortoise vulgarly 
called Terrapin in our country; it has been so long and so high- 
ly esteemed as a luxurious article of diet with us, as to have oc- 
casioned the almost total extinction of the species in the vicinity 
of Philadelphia; but the Emys serrata, or red-bellied terrapin,— 
E. rubriventyis of Le Conte, is beginning to appear in our market 
to replace it in some degree; the former have been sold for six 
dollars a dozen, and are brought from a distance of more than a 
hundred miles: we have seen a black-spotted variety of this 
species from South Carolina. 

The Emys vittata of Gray, is very probably the young of the 
E. concinna of Le Conte.—Vide Cuv. Regne Anim. 

E. decussata, KE. rugosa, and E. scripta, of Gray, are mere vari- 
eties of E. serrata, (Daudin,) which is very common in our middle 
and southern states. 

The E. Lesweuri, (Gray,) has been more descriptively named 
E. geographica by Lesueur himself; writers cannot too scrupu- 
Jously avoid adding to the already plethoric list of synonyma. 

E. Bellii, E. Kinosternoides, and EK. Annulifera, of Gray, do not 
appear as yet specifically identified. Vide pp. 31, 32. 

In two of our fresh water tortoises, viz. E. odorata and E. pen- 
syloanica, the anterior and posterior lobes of the sternum, are 
frequently united to the middle lobe by a cartilaginous suture 
only, admitting of slight motion; a peculiarity which was thought 
sufficiently important by Spix, on which to construct a new ge- 
nus, under the name of Kinosternon, an arrangement adopted 
by Bell and Gray, although it is admitted that these sutures are 
liable to become obliterated by age; under which circumstance, 
an old individual of E. odorata was pronounced a distinct species 
by Daudin and Merrem, and named “ Glutinata!” 

The fourth genus, Cuetypra, of Schweiger, also constructed 

Voi. L—39 


306 Causes which retard Zoological Knowledge. 


on the old genus Emys, possesses stronger claims to distinction, 
‘though we at the same time prefer the more classic name “ Cus- 
Lonura,” of Dr. Fleming, for this genus: it consists, according 
to Mr. Gray, of only a single species, vulgarly called alligator- 
tortoise, or “ snapping-tortoise,” of the middle states, and known 
to the African slaves of the southern states by the name of 
‘“‘couta,” probably from some fancied resemblance to an animal 
of their own country. We have, however, seen the shells of three 
other distinct species of this genus; one from our northern lakes, 
one from South America, and another from oriental India, from 
the river Silet, a branch of the Burrempootra. 

The family “ rrionycuips,” includes a very interesting group 
of fresh water tortoises: two or three species having been re- 
cently observed with more than three claws; the genus trionyx, 
will not, as heretofore, include all the species—Mr. Gray’s re- 
marks on the species of this genus would be more useful, had he 
stated the dimensions, in his descriptions of animals varying in 
size, from a few inches, to a foot, and more. 

The remarks of our author on the sea tortoises, (family cHELo- 
NIADG,) are not without interest; his first genus, spHarcis, of 
Merrem, has been better named “cortupo,” by Fleming.—Vide 
Philosophy of Zoology.—These animals attain to a great size oc- 
casionally on our coasts, as noble specimens preserved in our mu- 
seums abundantly testify. An individual now in the New York 
museum, purchased by the proprietor for $500, was thrown on 
the coast of Long Island, in a recent N. E. gale, and weighed 
1400Ibs. Mr. Gray gives as the habitat of this species, “in mare 
Mediterraneo.” 

In the second order,—or emyposaurt, of Blainville, are ar- 
ranged all the living crocodiles and alligators. We think the 
denomination of crocopitint, applied by Oppel to this group, pre- 
ferable on many accounts. Alluding to the general characters 
of this group, Mr. Gray repeats the exploded error, relative to a 
very important point in their anatomy: viz. “ the heart is three 
celled,” &c.—Vid. p. 55.—This oversight is the less excusable in 
Mr. G. inasmuch as he quotes the book, in which correct infor- 
mation is contained relative to this subject. 

The habits which our author attributes to the animals of this 
group, will not apply in any respect to our alligator, which feeds 
chiefly on live fish. (Vid. Bartram’s Travels, et passim.) We re- 


a re 


a ee ee 


On a New extinct Fossil Vegetable. 8307 


commend the author of this synopsis to peruse carefully the 
Journal of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, and 
promise him much useful information on the anatomy and clas- 
sification of reptilia. 

For the habits of crocodilus acutus, (Cuv.) Mr. G. quotes, er- 
roneously, Bartram and Descourtilz, whose observations refer to 
c. lucius (Cuv.) only, which in this synopsis adds another to the 
interminable list of names, and figures as alligator mississipiensis!! 

When will closet writers learn to copy that beautiful simplicity 
which we observe displayed by nature, in all her operations 7— 
In the Journal of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadel- 
phia, Mr. G. may obtain more interesting materials concerning 
the fossil crocodiles. 

The third and last order of this treatise, or ENALIOSAURI of 
Conybeare, consists of fossil extinct genera and species, and are 
more particularly interesting to the geologist and comparative 
anatomist ; but as they constitute a new order of reptilia, are 
very properly treated of in a general synopsis: in this, as in al- 
most every other instance in the volume before us, Mr. G. has 
failed to do justice to American writers; the new genera and 
species which they have added to this order, are not even noticed. 
—Is this to be attributed to ignorance, ill nature, or criminal in- 
difference towards his collaborators? R.8. T. 


ON A NEW EXTINCT FOSSIL VEGETABLE OF THE 
FAMILY FUCOIDES. 


By Ricuanp Hartan, M. D. Philadelphia, Dec. 6th, 1831. 


Natural order, ALGQ#.—Linnzus. Family, Fucomwrs.—Stern- 
burg and Brongniart. Ateacrres, Schlotheim. Section, Cta- 
poryTEs.—Harlan. 

F. Brongniartii—Fronde elongata, sub-quadrangularis, cana- 
liculata, transverse rugosa ; ramulis inequalis, sparsis, remotis, 
compressis, rugatis, recurvis, nudis. 

Place in the series.—Compact sand-stone, subjacent to the coal 
formation: occurring in slabs from one to three inches in thick- 
ness, the upper surface being tinged ferruginous. 
| Locality— Western part of the state of New York: the fossil 
is also stated to abound on the Welland canal, Canada. 


| 


308 On the Constituents of Primary Rocks. | 


This fossil fucus is readily recognized as a species allied to the 
F. alleghaniensis, which I recently described in the Journal of the 
Academy of Natural Science, vol. vi. from which it differs prin- 


cipally in the elongation and uniformity of the stem, its sub-quad- 
rangular form, in general, and in being more compressed and» 
elevated on the surface of the stone. The branches of the pre-. 


sent species are less fastigiated, and more remote from each other: 
in no instance are the tops of the branches exposed to view in 
the specimens which have come under my cognizance. The 
largest stem is one third less in its greatest visible diameter in 
the present species, and they intercept, cross, or run into each 
other in various directions, so as occasionally to assume an ap- 
pearance not unlike the asterias. 

I have seen a very perfect specimen of this fossil, from the vi- 
cinity of Lockport, N. Y. in the possession of W. R. Johnson, Esq. ; 
and Mr. Peale’s museum of N. York possesses a very large slab 
of these fossils. I am indebted to the politeness of P. A. Brown, 


Esq., for the opportunity of describing this species, who obtained . 


it in the state of New York, during a geological excursion last 
summer. Specimens in the cabinet of the Academy of Natural 
Science, cabinet of Mr. P. A. Brown, &c. 


In consideration of the great obligation under which Dr. 


Brongniart has placed all admirers of oryctology, by the publica- 
tion of his invaluable “ Vegetaux fossiles,” I have taken the liberty 
to designate this species by his name. 


GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CONSTITUENTS OF 
PRIMARY ROCKS. 


We have on this continent a very extensive geological limit, 


constituted of primary rocks and their subordinates. It consti- _ 
tutes an inflected line, commencing in the north, and passing _ 


southwardly from the indented shores of Maine, New Hampshire, 


ad) 


Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, to the city of — 


New York, of which it forms the base. Thus far, this limit is 
bounded by the ocean, and has for its general mineralogical cha- 
racter, the rocks commonly called granite and gneiss. There 
are many varieties of these two rocks, occasioned by the varying 


proportions in which their respective constituents are found _ 
together. Granite has for its constituents, felspar, quartz, and, 


On the Constituents of Primary Rocks. 309 


mica, and in general, granites are distinguished by having a much 
greater proportion of felspar than of either of the other two 
minerals. Sometimes the felspar is formed into well defined 
crystals, either white or red, it is then called a porphyritic 
granite. The quartz of such rocks is usually of a glassy lustre, 
and in very irregular shaped grains. The mica is disseminated 
in it, in small blackish or silvery scales. Granite rocks of this 
character, although they pass gradually into gneiss, differ re- 
markably from it in one particular, all granite being massive. 

When the predominating mineral of the granite, felspar, de- 
creases very much, and the mica greatly increases, and its innu- 
merable plates become formed into well defined parallel layers, 
then granite losing its massive structure, splits in the direction of 
the mica, and becomes a true gneiss, recognizable by the eye 
by the parallel lines it externally bears. Students in geology 
will also observe, that the granite we have been describing, is 
always found subjacent to the gneiss, and indeed, from no other 
rock being found inferior to it, granite is considered as the basis 
of all the primary rocks; and gneiss, from the constancy with 
which it is found reposing upon the granite, is considered the next 
in order of succession. When the principal constituent parts of 
gneiss, quartz and mica, are finely combined together, and have 
a yellowish or greenish lustre, then they form a rock which splits 
into tables easily, and is called mica slate. Sometimes the plates 
of mica in this rock are larger, and then they form a mica slate 
of a coarser character. Mica slate is the third rock in the order 
of succession. ‘There are other rocks in this marine part of the 
geological limit, occasionally found subordinate to the three 
members of the primary rocks we have enumerated; these are 
principally the hornblende, serpentine, and that calcareous for- 
mation usually called primitive marble. As the gneiss, which is 
the base of the city of New York, re-appears across the Sound 
on Long Island, so the serpentine, which is found massive at Ho- 
boken, on the Jersey shore, re-appears on the east side of the 
river not far from the city of New York. 

At Philadelphia, we find this line of primary rocks inflecting 
inwards from the coast. Near the public Water-works, a well 
defined gneiss—not different from that at the city of New York— 
is quarried extensively for foundations of houses. Associated with 
this, is the Hornblende, which appears close to the Water-works, 


810 On the Constituents of Primary Rocks. 


and stretching to the south and west, fronts the Delaware river, 
as far as Wilmington, in the State of Delaware; whence it can 
be traced inland, in the neighbourhood of Baltimore, and much 
farther into the southern states. The varieties of these horn- 
blende rocks are very great; and as it is of these the Delaware 
Breakwater is now constructing, we have thought it due to the 
communication which Major Bender has favoured us with, to ac- 
company his table of specific gravities, with some remarks on the 
mineral nature of these rocks. Having personally visited most 
of the localities mentioned in this table, we have had occasion to 
observe how generally the erroneous designation of trap, is given 
to some of the varieties of hornblende rocks, and as some of our 
correspondents have also requested information from us on this 
subject, we have thought to render a service to our readers by 
entering into such details of the primary rocks, as may enable 
them to judge with success for themselves, of the proper names 
to give those varieties which fall under their observation. We 
have spoken of felspar as forming the principal mineral in granite, 
with quartz and mica; when it is compounded with the mineral 
called hornblende, it constitutes that class of rocks of which we 
have spoken as extending from Philadelphia to Wilmington. 
Hornblende, called by the French, amphibole, is heavier than 
quartz or felspar, and when scratched, gives a light green streak. 
It contains a great proportion of magnesia, which felspar has 
not; and when the quantity of magnesia is increased, it passes 
into serpentine. The Germans call these combinations of felspar 
and hornblende, griinstein, or greenstone, especially when they 
have a granitic structure. When hornblende forms the princi- 
pal part of such rocks, they take a greenish black colour. When 
it is combined in lamellar grains with felspar, it is called sienite. 
In some instances, as at Quarryville, on the Delaware, near 
Wilmington, the felspar is in beautiful resplendent lamellar erys- 
tals, of an oval form, and of a lightish red colour. ‘This in the 
common language of mineralogy may be called a bo 
greenstone. 

We have remarked, that the erroneous designation of trap Bas 
been given to these hornblende rocks; and this, no doubt, has 
grown out of there being an intimate combination, in some in- 
stances, of hornblende and felspar. This is also the case with 
the rocks which haye received the generic name of trap, from 


—_———_e 


On the Constituents of Primary Rocks. 311 


their dividing into prismatic forms, and forming steps or stairs. 
(Trappa, in the Swedish tongue, means a stair.) Cabinet speci- 
mens of these respective rocks, sometimes resemble each other 
so closely, that they would puzzle a good practical geologist to 
decide whether they did not belong to the same class of rocks. 
There is also another mineral, augite, which combines with fel- 
spar in the same manner that hornblende does, and which is dif- 
ficult to distinguish from it. The dark black basalts, which 
geologists are now agreed, have the same origin as the true trap, 
are composed of felspar and augite, finely combined, with some- 
times grains of the mineral called olivine, and black oxide of iron. 
However these greenstones may resemble in their constituent 
particles, the traps—now universally admitted to have had an 
origin of the same nature with lava, of modern times—an expe- 
rienced geologist can at once decide when he observes them 
aperto campo. Nothing can be more dissimilar with the massive 
hornblende rocks, fronting the Delaware river,—and undoubtedly 
associated with the primary rocks,—than the true trap on the 
Hudson river, at the Palisades, that at Hartford and New Haven, 
in Connecticut, and that at the Passaic falls, New Jersey, all 
of which overlie secondary rocks. ‘To call the hornblende rocks 
then, of which we have been speaking, trap, is to confound very 
important geological distinctions. _The various combinations of 
felspar and hornblende, and felspar and augite, have produced 
the rocks called greenstone, sienite, trap, and basalt; together 
with all the varieties which a change in the proportion of con- 
stituents occasions, such as are clinkstone, pitchstone, amygdaloid, 
and other porphyries. 

To these rocks formed of hornblende and felspar, the French 
have given the name of diabase ; and to those basaltic compounds, 
into which augite enters, they have given the name of dolerite. 
We know of no name more appropriate to the rocks we have 
been considering than hornblende rocks, because hornblende is 
chiefly found combined with felspar, when associated with the 
-_primary rocks; whilst augite is more peculiar to rocks of ac- 
knowledged volcanic origin, although hornblende is also found in 

_ them. The term diabase, is applicable to any rock having a 
_ double base, and we, therefore, prefer a name that expresses at 
_ once the mineral to which the rock owes its distinctive character. 
_ We trust that this subject will receive proper attention from 


312 Specific Gravity of Rocks. 


Messrs. Conybeare and Sedgewick, in the continuation of that 
admirable work, The Geology of England and Wales, of which 
the first volume has already given so much distinction to the 
name of Mr. Conybeare. Since the history of the primary rocks 
can receive no assistance from organic remains, we have nothing 
left to determine with accuracy the character of those rocks but 
their constituent minerals. And as the English language on this 
continent and in Europe, is destined to be spoken by the most 
important family of civilized society, we trust those gentlemen 
will give appropriate scientific names cognate to the English 
tongue. We despair of a universal nomenclature, and the sooner 
we have a well considered one, accommodated to our own over- 
spreading language, the better. 
We now proceed to give the table of specific gravities of the 
rocks used in constructing the Delaware Breakwater, for which, 
together with the preliminary information, we are indebted to 
that intelligent officer, Major Brnprr, of the United States 
Army.— Eprror. 


SPECIFIC GRAVITIES OF THE ROCKS USED IN THE CONSTRUC- 
TION OF THE DELAWARE BREAKWATER, 
Communicated by Major Grorce Benper, United States Army. 


“The two straight insulated stone dikes which form the work, 
are constructing on a clayey anchorage ground, in a depth of 
water from twenty-seven to thirty-four feet below the lowest 
spring tides. The principal one is to be twelve hundred yards in 
length, measuring from a point five hundred yards distant from 
the line of twenty-four foot water, near the extreme point of 
Cape Henlopen, and running in a W. N. W. direction from said 
point. At the distance of three hundred and fifty yards from the 
westernmost end of this, the other has also been commenced, and 
is to run W. by §. five hundred yards. These dikes, or islets of 
stone, are both to have a height of five and one third feet above 
the highest springtides, with a breadth at bottom of one hundred 
and sixty-seven feet, and at top twenty-two feet. The inner 
slope is made to assume an angle of forty-five degrees, while the 
outer has one hundred and six feet base to thirty-nine altitude, 
and being covered with blocks of stone weighing from three to 
five tons, and upwards, from six feet below low water, to the 
summit, is such as experience has shown that the sea will break 


Specific Gravity of Rocks. 313 


upon, without disturbing the materials. These dikes will in no 
part be more than about one mile distant from the shore, and 
when completed, will afford a shelter from the waves over seven 
tenths of a square mile, having a depth of water of eighteen feet 
at lowest springtides. That portion of the compass from E. to W. 
round by the south, is protected by the formation of the shore. 

The whole work will constitute an aggregate mass of about 
nine hundred thousand cubic yards of stone, the largest portion 
of which is to be in pieces exceeding a ton weight each, and 
although a smaller work than those of either Cherburg or Ply- 
mouth, yet from the comparatively great distance from whence 
the material is obtained, it is one of necessarily slow execution. 

The country for many miles around being a sandy alluvion, 
the contractors for supplying the stone commenced with bringing 
it from the Palisade rocks on the Hudson river; but the tedious- 
ness of the navigation, which consumed upon an average, ten 
days for each trip, retarded the first season’s operations very 
much. Since then, the largest portion has been obtained from 
quarries on the Delaware, between Wilmington and Crum creek, 
a mile or two above Chester. Upwards of two hundred and 
seventy-nine thousand tons have been already deposited, of which 
eighty-one thousand were from the Hudson, and one hundred 
and ninety-eight thousand from the Delaware, and the same 
having been principally used in forming the upper end of the 
first mentioned dike, it has afforded a shelter which was used by 
the pilots, and by vessels engaged in the work, for protection 
against the N. and N. E. gales, during the last two or three 
months of the late working season. 


Specific Gravities of the Rocks. 


Seas pst Hornblende or 

1 From Christiana Creek below Wilmington, 3,020 3-4 § Gussie 
2 Brandywine, below the lowest mills, 2,990 1-2 do. 

3 © Quarryville, north of roadto Wilmington, 2,668 do. 

A byry fF do. near the river, south do. 2,980 do. 

5 ‘ WNaaman’s Creek, south do. 2,688 do. 

6 « do. north, do. 2,680 1-2 do. 

7 “ Vicinity of Marcus Hook, north, do. 2,751 1-2 do. 
ge" do. do. do. do. 2,618 do. 

9  “ Young’s Quarry, Chester creek, do. do 2,700 Gneiss. 
10 . “ Clark’s do. do. do. 2,764 1-2 do. 
11“ Hennis’ do, do. do. 2,649 do, 

Vor. I.—40 


314 New Volcano of Hotham Island. 


12 From Hennis’ Q. on Chester creek, n. Wilm. ro. 2,752 3-4 Gneiss. 


13. “ Worral’s do. do. do. 2,672 do. 

14. © Smith’s do do. do. 2,717 do. 

15 “ Murray’s on Ridley Creek, do. do. 2,713 1-4 do. 

16. “ .Burk’s do. do. do. 2,700 do. 

17. © Shoemaker’s do. do. do. 2,713 1-4 do. 

18 “ Clyde’s do. do. do. 2664 do. 
19 “ MIlvaine’s do. do. do. 3,130 : pr agtred 
20,6 do. do. do. do, 2,726 Gneiss. 

21. « do. do. south do. 2,654 1-2 do 

22 © Churchman’s do. do. do. 2,638 1-2 do. 

23° “ J. L. Crosby’s do. north do. 2,664 do. 

24 « do. do. do. do. 2,618 do. 

25 © R. P. Crosby’s do. do. do. 2,649 do. 

26 “ Leiper’s Crum Creek, south do. 2,649 do. 
27“. Hills do dot) (Ao: 4 768 ne ug MOREE 
i MG do. (Island Field) do. do. 2,805 1-4 do. 

29 © Palisades at Fort Lee, Hudson river, 2,990 1-2 Trap. 

BO) ance do. Claster do. 2,968 3-4 do. 
SU Nyack do. 2,955 1-4 do. 


THE NEW VOLCANO OF HOTHAM ISLAND. 


In a letter to Professor Daubeny of Oxford, from Captain 
Ballingal of the Royal Marines, dated “ H. M. S. St. Vincent, 
Malta, 27th July, 1831,” which the Professor had the goodness 
to send to us, is the following account of the voleano:— 

The situation of the volcano is in lat. 37° 10’ N. long. 12° 44’ 
E. the crater of which, above water, is about 70 or 80 yards in 
external diameter, and about 20 feet in height from the surface 
of the sea, lying between the island of Pantalleria and Cape 
Granitula, on the south-west coast of Sicily. The eruption is in 
a state of great activity. Large columns of fire, dust, and dense 
smoke, are constantly emitted, accompanied every hour and a 
half with an eruption of great velocity, throwing masses of stones 
of several tons weight, with cinders, and jets of mud and water, 
to a height equal to the mast-head of a first-rate man of war. 
Prospero Schiffino, the master of the Santa Arona, a coasting 
vessel from Sardinia, arrived here, and reported to our admiral, 
that three days before, while off Cape Bianco in Sicily, he dis- 


New Volcano of Hotham Island. 315 


covered the extraordinary phenomena of three distinct columns 
of smoke issuing from the sea, accompanied by a sub-marine noise, 
which he compared to that made by the “ wheels of a vast steam 
vessel.” In the evening of the same day, a second report was 
brought by a vessel from London. No appearance of lava was 
to be seen. The admiral instantly directed two officers to pro- 
ceed and verify the report. On the night of Wednesday the 
20th inst., while proceeding on their voyage, they first discovered 
it at 25 or 30 miles distance, shooting upwards rays and flashes 
to a great height. The next day, observing that the intervals 
between the eruptions occupied almost a correct uniformity of time, 
viz. from an hour and a half, to an hour and a quarter, afforded 
them the chance to approach at one time within 60 yards of the 
crater, where they sounded, and found the side of the cone in 33 
fathoms, the armory of the lead bringing up a small piece of 
black stone, being the only substance we got during three days’ 
constant perseverance, whose specific gravity was greater than 
water, which I am sorry it is not in my power to transmit; but 
IT have secured some cinders and ashes, which I shall have the 
pleasure to send home in the Melville, which will leave this 
shortly for England. Since writing the above, I have just 
learned that Lord William Thynne, on the morning of the 19th, 
on his return from Gibraltar to this place, was enabled to ap- 
proach within 20, and to sound in 18 fathoms. At this time the 
island was just above the surface, and on the 2lst my friend 
found it 20 feet in height; and I have now learned that the 
day before yesterday, viz. the 25th inst., it had acquired the 
height of 40 or 45 feet. Any further information you may wish 
to acquire, I shall be able to collect, as [ shall in a day or so 
visit the scene.” 

The following report by the officers of the Philomel, has been 
published at Malta, by Admiral Hotham.“ The Philomel brig 
of war, which left Malta harbour on Tuesday afternoon the 
19th of July, with the masters of the St. Vincent and Ganges, 
to ascertain the correct particulars of the new volcano island 
forming off Sciacca, in Sicily, discovered the object at 1 A. M. 
on Thursday the 21st; at 3,spoke an Austrian ship from Algiers, 
bound to Alexandria, the master of which reported, that he had 
seen dense smoke and much fire issuing for the last three days. 
At 6, observed a thick smoke issuing apparently from the sea, 


316 New Volcano of Hotham Island. 


the spot bearing N. W. ? W., and on steering in that direction, 
fell in with the Hind cutter at 9, which vessel had left Malta on 
Sunday the 17th, but had not yet reached the new volcano, ow- 
ing to calms. The island then bore N. W. by W. six or eight 
miles distant. At 9h. 45m. the Philomel hove to, three miles to 
windward. Capt. Smith, with the two masters, and Col. Bathurst, 
a passenger, left the vessel in boats for the purpose of taking 
soundings as near as they could approach with safety, but had 
scarcely got one mile away, when the volcano burst out with a 
tremendous explosion, resembling the noise of a very loud thun- 
der-storm, and flames of fire, like flashes of lightning. The boats 
were covered with black cinders, which also fell on board the 
vessel, and all around, to a distance of at least three miles from 
the volcano. The eruption lasted in all its fury seven minutes, 
and when the smoke had somewhat cleared away, the island had 
encreased in size twofold. 

The volcano bursts out regularly at about every two hours, 
and emits all around it a suffocating, sulphureous stench. On 
first making it a long distance, it resembles a cluster or groye of 
cypress trees. The English brig Bootle, of Liverpool, an Ame- 
rican, and one or two foreign vessels, were off the place. 

Its precise latitude is 37° 7’ 30’ N. and longitude 12° 44’ E. 
the soundings in the vicinity, say 80 yards off the island, bearing 
N. E. are 70 to 75 fathoms; W. + of a mile, 72 to 76 fathoms. 
At five and six miles distance, they vary from 70 to 80 fathoms. 
The volcano appears composed mostly of cinders of a rusty black 
colour, having only a sprinkling of lava, of an oblong shape; and 
the island, as last seen on Friday the 23d, was not less than 
three quarters of a mile in circumference. The N. W. point is 
the highest, say about 80 feet above the level of the sea, and 
gets lower towards the southern extremity. The S. E. side of 
the crater has fallen in to the side of the sea. The sea is drawn 
in with a very loud noise, and occasions an immense volume of 
white vapour to rise up in the air, curling and spreading high 
and wide: then succeeds rapidly the eruption of cinders and lava, 
thrown to the height of from 400 to 500 feet, and on some occa- 
sions to 1000 feet, forking and branching out in all directions i in 
its ascent, and afterwards falling and pouring down in stupen- 
dous masses, with such violence as to cause a noise like heavy 
thunder, and making the sea, for a considerable distance around, 


New Volcano of Hotham Island. 317 


one entire sheet of foam—altogether a sight not to be ima- 
gined.* 

Matra, Ave. 4.—Our reports respecting the volcano, since 
the foregoing, are very unsatisfactory. There can be little doubt, 
however, that the island continues to increase in size. A boat, 
with five or six officers, returned yesterday afternoon, and they 
assert that the island is at least three miles in circumference, and 
from 200 to 300 feet high. They landed upon it, and, for os- 
tentation’s sake, J suppose, hoisted the union flag. The other 
stories, as to the increasing dimensions of the place, are too vague 
to speak on. 

We learn from the coast of Sicily, that the town of Sciacca 
has been entirely abandoned by its inhabitants, the reported 
shocks, and trembling of the earth, leading to a belief that it 
will sink into the sea.”—Jameson’s Edin. New Phil. Journal, Octo- 
ber, 1831. 


Captain Swinburne’s report concerning this volcano, to Admi- 
ral Hotham, will be found in our number for November, page 
229. It appears that the captain of an Italian vessel, had, as 
early as the 9th of July, seen a great quantity of dead fish, and 
some black matter floating on the water; and that he heard 
a noise like thunder, which he attributed to volcanic action. The 
succeeding day, at gunshot distance, he perceived a column of 
water, with a circumference of near four hundred fathoms, rise 
to the height of about sixty feet. Smoke continued to rise from 
the place, and on his return from Girgenti, on the 16th, he found 
a tract of volcanic land, twelve feet above the level of the sea. 
During his absence, the masters of two other small Italian ves- 
sels, on the 13th of July, saw three columns of smoke issuing 
through the water; they remained, on account of the calm, in 
the vicinity near three days; a noise proceeding all this time 
from that part of the sea, whence the smoke arose, like that pro- 
duced by the wheels of a steam vessel. 

In the plate, (ix) the highest point of the island is about eighty 
feet above the level of the sea, and the circumference about 
three quarters of a mile. It is circular, and the opening on one 
side, represented in the shaded part of the drawing, admits the 
sea. Epiror. 


} * Plate 9. 


e 


318 Crystal of Native Copper. 


DESCRIPTION OF A CRYSTAL OF NATIVE COPPER, 
In the Cabinet of Coronex Axenrrt, at Washington. 


Tuer primitive form of crystals of native copper, is stated to be 
acube. The form of the crystal in question is that of a cube, 
with all its solid angles replaced by triangular planes. 

The decrement of the solid angles by the triangular planes, is 
extended, until the angles of the triangular planes meet at the 

centres of the edges of the faces of the primary cube, forming a 
regular figure of six square faces, and eight triangular faces, 
the square faces being also the faces of the primary cube. 

Measurement does not prove either face to be a perfect square, 
or a perfect equilateral triangle; the differences from such figures 
are, however, very slight, and occasioned in some of the faces, by, 
evidently, artificial indentations of some of the angular points. 

Several of the faces have slight incrustations of carbonate of 
copper upon them, and all of them have striz, which have 
been considered by some who have seen the crystals, as marks 
of a file, used to free the crystal from the crust in which it was 
enveloped, when first found. But I have not considered them as 
resulting from such a cause. They are irregular in depth, width, 
and length, not always parallel, are strongest near the edges of 
each face,—the middle of several of the faces being entirely free 
from them. The colour of the striz, also indicates an exposure 
equal to that of any part of the crystal. 

The edges of the square faces are, of course, varied from the 
position of the edges of the primary cube, and are now parallel 
to what would have been a diagonal of a primary face; and the 
square faces are smaller, by the extent of the decrement. 

Mr. J. P. W. and Dr. M. of Philadelphia, were both disposed 
to consider it a genuine crystal of native copper. 

I am not quite sure of its history, and am now endeavouring 
to trace it out, but believe it came from South America. It was 
among coppers from that quarter, from England, from Siberia, 
and from Germany; and if any label had ever been aftixed to it, 
‘noting its history, it has been rubbed off. 

The doubts which have been raised in relation to this erystal’s 
being a natural formation, are founded upon its unusual size. 

Taking the faces of the cube by pairs, the following are its 
dimensions, or the direct distances between each pair of faces: 


Geographical Tables. 319 


First pair, one inch, seventeen and a half twentieths. 

Second pair, one inch, seventeen twentieths. 

Third pair, one inch, sixteen and a half twentieths. 

It may be seen by these dimensions, that with the present 
faces of the cube, had there have been no decrement of the solid 
angles, but the whole space filled, and the cubic faces extended to 
form a square figure, it would not have beena perfect cube. A. 


TABLES 
For converting French Toises and Metres into English Feet, and the contrary. 


Reapers of philosophical works, and foreign journals, frequent- 
ly meet with dimensions expressed in French measures. To 
enable such to convert them readily into English measures, the 
following tables have been computed. The length of a toise and 
a metre in English measure, which are the foundation of the ta- 
bles, have been taken from Baily’s Astronomical Tables and For- 
mule, and he deduced them from their lengths, as given in the 
Base du Systeme Metrique, vol. iii. and Captain Kater’s paper on 
the length of the French metre, in the Phil. Trans. for 1818. 


TABLE I. 
1 French Toise = 1.949036 French Metres = 6.394950 English Feet. 
1 French Metre = _ .513074 Toise == 3.280899 English Feet. 
1 English Foot — .156373 Toise = .304794 French Metre. 


TABLE Il. FOR CONVERTING FRENCH TOISES INTO ENGLISH FEET. 


English { English ] English 


Toises. | Feet. || Toises. | Feet. || T+] Feet. 


1000 6394.95 100 639.50 |) 10] 63.95 
2000 12789.90 200 1278.99 || 20] 127.90 
3000 19184.85 300 1918.49 }| 30} 191.85 
4000 25579.80 400 2557.98 || 40) 259.80 
5000 31974.75 500 3197.48 || 50| 319.75 
6000 38369.70 600 3836.97 || 60| 383.70 
7000 44764.65 7 4476.47 || 70| 447.65 


51159.60 800 | 5115.96 || 89} 511.60 
57554.55 3. 


Fogiish English English Eng En Eng. 

Metres. | “Reet, || Metres.| “ficop || M- Feet, || reer. || M | weet. || M Feet, 
~j000 | ~ 3280.90 100 10| 32.81 | 1 | 3.28] 1] .33 |}.01] .03 
2000 6561.80 200 20| 65.62 | 2} 6.56]| 2] .66 ||.02] .07 
3000 9842.71 300 30) 98.43 | 3 | 9.84]) .3] 98 ||.03] .10 
4000 | 13123.60 400 40| 131.24 | 4 | 13.12]| 4] 131 |}.04] 13 
5000 | 16404.50 500 50| 164.04 | 5 | 16.40]| .5 | 1.64 |}.05] .16 
6000 | 19685.40 600 60} 196.86 | 6 | 19.69]} .6 | 1.97 ||.06] 20 
7000 | 22966.29 700 70 | 229.66 | 7 | 22.97]] .7} 2.30 ||.07] 23 
8000 | 26247.19 800 80 | 262.47 | 8 | 26.25], 8] 2.62 ||.08] .26 
9000 | 29528.09 900 90 | 295 9 | 2953 | 9 | 2.95 |}.09} .30 


10000 | 32808.99 


320 Atomic Weight of Mercury. 


EXaMPLe orf TABLE 11.—Convert 2205.23 Toises} EXAMPLE or TABLE I11.—Gay Lussae ascended 
(height of Mount Blane above the Lake of Ge-) with a balloon to the height of 7028.3 Metres, as 


neva) into English Feet. determined by a barometer,—convert this into 
Toises. Eng. Feet. English Feet. 
2000 = 12789.90 Metres. Eng. Feet. 
200 = 1278.99 7000 == 22066.29 
5 = 31.97 20 = 65.62 
2 = 1.28 8 = 26.2: 
1 19 = 0: 
2205.23 = 1410233 7028.3 = 23059.14 


4 Miles 1939 Feet. 


TABLE IV. REDUCTION OF DECIMETRES, CENTIMETRES, AND 
MILLIMETRES, TO ENGLISH INCHES. 7 


From De La Bechés Geological Manual. 


Dec! Inches. | Cent. | Inches. 


Mini. | Inches. 


1 3.937 iL 0.393 1 0.039 
2 7.874 2 0.787 2 0.07; 5 
3] 11.811 3 1.181 3 0.118 
4) 15.748 4 1.574 4 0.157 
" 5 | 19.685 5 1.968 5 0.196 
6 | 23.622 6 2.362 6 0.236 
7 | 27.559 7 2.759 7 0.275 
8 | 31.496 8 3.149 8 0.314 
9] 35.433 9 3.543 9 0.354 
10 10 3.937 10 0.393 


ON THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF MERCURY. 
To the Editor of the Monthly American Journal of Geology, &c. 


Sm,—I beg leave to call your attention to a matter, which, 
though brought before the scientific public some time since, 
seems not to have received that attention from chemists, which 
its importance ought to command. 

Three years ago, Mr. S. Allinson, jr. of your city, published 
an article in Silliman’s Journal, in which he maintained that the 
atomic weight of mercury, as stated in the current treatises on 
chemistry, was incorrect, and offered several good reasons for his 
opinion. This article (in a much improved and enlarged form) 
was subsequently published in the Journal of the Philadelphia 
College of Pharmacy, for July, 1829; and to this Journal I would 
refer those who may wish to see the experiments and observa- 
tions, which induced Mr. A. to call in question the correctness of 
the commonly received statements. Now I desire that some 
practical chemist or any one else, who may have the apparatus 
and skill requisite, would decide who is in the right. Mr. A., or 
the text books. 

The doctrine of chemical equivalents is very justly regarded 
as one of the most interesting and important departments of 
chemistry; and it is certainly much to be desired that every thing 


Atomic Weight of Mercury. 321 


relating to it be thoroughly investigated, and established with all 
possible certainty. Surely, it cannot be a very difficult matter 
to determine whether protoxide of mercury (for example) con- 
sists of 200 parts (by weight) of mercury, and 8 of oxygen, or 100 
mercury, and 8 oxygen ;—or whether protochloride of mercury 
is composed of 200 M. + 36 Chlo., or 100 M. + 36 Chl. ;—and it 
appears to me that it requires nothing more than the determina- 
tion of these or similar questions, to decide whether the chemical 
equivalent of mercury is 200 or 100. J think it much to be de- 
plored that a matter of this sort should be suffered to remain in 
a state of uncertainty, and I do, therefore, earnestly hope that 
some of your correspondents will take up the subject and give 
the result in an early number of your valuable Journal. With 
great respect, I am yours, &c. A. B. H. 


P. S.—lIf you think the following worthy of a place, I would 
thank you to insert it. 


In the fourth edition of Ure’s Chemical Dictionary, published 
in London the present year, is an article which shows a most 
lamentable ignorance of the progress. of chemical science and 
discovery in this country. The article is one concerning sangui- 
narine ; or, as Dr. Ure, in defiance of all analogy, spells it, sangut- 
nari. He sets out with a doubt whether it is in fact a vegetable al- 
kali, and then goes on to say, it was first “ obtained by M. Dana,” 
whom (from the title he gives him) he probably considers a French- 
man. The whole matter is dispatched in six lines, while Delphi- 
nine, an article not a whit more important, occupies seventy. The 
fact that sanguinarine is a vegetable alkali, was fully established 
five or six yearsago. The properties of the substance, and those of 
many of its salts, have since been investigated to a considerable ex- 
tent. Details of the processes for obtaining the alkali and its salts, 
have often been published in the medical journals of the country, 
and in some treatises on chemistry ; and if I mistake not, in some 
places the article is used in medicine with considerable success. 

I would recommend to Dr. Ure, that before he publishes a fifth 
edition of his Dictionary, he should take a look at the New York 
Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. 6, p. 218. American Medical 
Recorder, Vol. 13, (Phil. 1827,) and Silliman’s Chemistry, Vol. 2. 

New York, Dec. 5, 1831. A. B. H. 


We have published with pleasure the communication of 
Vor. 1—41 


322 On Round Sterns for Ships of War. 


A. B. H., and shall be gratified if any of our correspondents will 
give us further opportunity of obliging him. 

We have read Mr. Prideaux’s able papers in the Philosophical 
Magazine and Annals of Philosophy,* on atomic weights. He 
has there truly stated, that the general tables of Thompson and 
Berzelius, are at variance, and that the practice in atomic in- 
quiries, is to obtain approximations by different modes of opera-" 
tion, and take a mean number, subject to proper corrections. 
We also know, from what we deem the best authority in this 
country, that the atomic weight of mercury, as reported in the 
standard books, is deemed sufficiently accurate for common pur- 
poses. Nevertheless, perfect accuracy is desirable, and we offer 
our pages cordially towards effecting so desirable a result.—Ep. 


ON ROUND STERNS FOR SHIPS OF WAR. 


Premium of 2000 francs offered by the French Government for the best Memoir 
on ROUND STERNS for Line-of-Battle Ships and Frigates. 


We extract from an article in Dr. Brewster’s Journal, the 
conditions proposed by the French Minister of Marine, for the 
best memoir to be forwarded to him, before the Ist of July 1832, 
in order to determine, “ among all the forms that can be pre- 
sented, that particular one, which shall unite in the highest de- 
gree all the requisite conditions, that the seaman, the naval ar- 
chitect, and the geometrician may require.”—Jndividuals from 
every country are eligible to receive the premium.—Ep. 

“To furnish the best plans for the circular sterns for line-of- 
battle ships and frigates, with all the exterior and interior fit- 
tings, the manner of disposing the timbering so as to combine the 
necessary conditions for defence, with strength, lightness, a dis- 
persion of the weight in proper proportion to the displacement 
of each part, the efliciency of the rudder, the convenience of the 
water-closets, and the general suitableness of the accommoda- 
tions. 

“This manner of fitting the stern must possess facilities for 
enabling the commandant to be aware of whatever manceuvres 
may be in progress, without being obliged to appear on deck. 


* Phil. Mag. and Annals of Philos., April, Sept. and Dec. 1830. 7 


Icebergs. 323 


“'The style of ornament which it would be proper to adopt, 
as well for the forward as for the after part of these new con- 
structions, is also to be described. ‘The competitors are to re- 
member, that nothing of importance is to be at all sacrificed to 
these decorations. 

“The side of the ship at the stern must have the same thick- 
ness as at the corresponding places in other parts of the ship. 
The ports must be so disposed, that it may be easy, on each deck, 
to bring guns to bear right aft, and on the angles of the quarters, 
to command those points which the other guns cannot be brought 
to bear upon. 

“The rudder may be fitted either without board, or within 
with a circular head; but reasons must be given for whatever 
plan may be proposed. Reasons also are to be stated for the 
station which may be proposed for the water closets, whether 
they are fitted interiorly, or in an exterior gallery. 

“The officers of the different branches of the naval service 
are called upon to send their proposals to the minister before the 
Ist of July 1832. Other persons wishing to become competitors, are 
eligible to do so. 

“ The memoir in which each competitor explains his propo- 
sals, must be accompanied with all the calculations and drawings 
which may be necessary to render his plan perfectly complete 
and intelligible in all its details. 

“Each proposal must have a motto affixed to it, of which a 
copy is to be enclosed in a sealed letter, containing also the name 
and residence of the proposer. 

“ A medal of the value of 2000 francs will be given to the 
author of the best memoir presented to the minister of marine 
before the stated period.” 


ICEBERGS. 


Remarks on several Icebergs which have been met with, in considerably low 


latitudes, in the Southern Hemisphere. 


Tue following is an abstract of a paper read before the Royal 
Society, by Capt. Horsburg, hydrographer to the East India 
Company. 

“The journal of the ships belonging to the East India com- 


324 Icebergs. 


pany during the whole of the last century, contain no account of 
Icebergs having been seen in the course of their navigation in the 
southern hemisphere, although several of these ships proceeded 
into the parallels of latitude forty degrees, forty-one minutes, and 
forty-two degrees. But, during 1828, and 1829, it appears that 
icebergs were occasionally met with by several ships in their 
passage, very near the Cape of Good Hope, between the lati- 
tudes of thirty-six and thirty-nine degrees. The particulars 
relating to these observations, are detailed in the paper. The 
most remarkable occurred in the voyage of the brig Eliza, from 
Antwerp, bound to Batavia, which, on the 28th of April, 1828, _ 
fell in with five icebergs, in lat. thirty-seven degrees thirty-one 
minutes, S. long. eighteen degrees seventeen minutes E. of Green- 
wich. ‘They had the appearance of church steeples, of a height 
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet; and the sea 
broke so violently against these enormous masses, that it was at 
first suspected they might be fixed on some unknown shoal, until, 
on sounding, no bottom could be discovered. 

It is remarkable, that, in general, icebergs seem to be met in 
low latitudes, nearly at the same period of the year, namely, in 
April or May, in both the northern and southern hemispheres, 
although the seasons are reversed in these two divisions of the 
globe. In order to account for the origin and accretion of the 
southern icebergs, the author thinks it probable, that there 
exists a large tract of land near the antarctic circle, somewhere 
between the meridian of London and the twentieth degree of E. 
longitude, whence these icebergs have been carried in a N. and 
N. E. direction, by the united forces of currents, winds, and 
waves, prevailing from 8. S. W. and S. W. Bouvet’s and 
Thompson’s islands are not of sufficient magnitude; and Sand- 
wich Jand and Kesguelin’s island are too remote to be the source - 
of the icebergs lately observed in the vicinity of the Cape. From 
their unprecedented descent during the last two years, it is most 
probable that the disruption of these masses of ice, from the 
places of their formation, was the effect of some powerful cause, 
of rare occurrence, such as an earthquake or volcano, which has 
burst forth and conyulsed the inaccessible regions of the south, 
leaving no other testimonials of the event, than some few frag- 
ments of ice, scattered ata distance in the Indianocean.. 


_ Philos, ce 


Scientific Memoranda. 325 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Made at Wilmington, Delaware, by Henry Gibbons, M.D. 
Summary ror Novemesr, 1831. 


Therm. Barom. 
Average at sun-rise, 33°.23 in.29.70 | Proportion of clear weather, days 21 
Average at mid-day, 47°.30 29.68 | Proportion of cloudy, 9 
Ayerage at 10 P.M. 37°.87 29.69 | Whole days clear, 16 
Monthly average, 40°.26 29.69 | Days on which rain fell, 4 
Maximum, 10th and Days on which snow fell, 4 
11th, 61°. 30.03 | Depth of rain, including melted 
Minimum, 30th, 20°. 28.73 snow in.3.02 
Range, 41°. 1.30 | Depth of snow, 4 
Warmest day, 11th, 59°. Northerly winds prevailed days 21 
Coldest day, 30th, 26°. Easterly, 6 


Southerly, (S. to W.) 3 


Observations.—Auroras, none. Rain, less than in any month since June. 
Temperature, seasonably cool in the forepart of the month, without any se- 
yere frost: but the two last weeks wintry; the thermometer falling below 
the freezing point on 11 of the last 15 days, although previous to this period 
it had not sunk so low as 82° during the whole autumn. On these 15 
days, the average at sun-rise was 29°. This cold weather was extensively 
felt. The navigation of the Potomac, from Washington to Alexandria, was 
obstructed by ice on the last day of the month. A snow storm occurred on 
the night of the 21st; slight at Wilmington, but severe in the New England 
states, and covering the ground 6 or 8 inches deep a few miles West of Bal- 
_ timore. There were three small snows besides this. Barometer unusually 
low in its range. On the evening of the 2st, previous to the snow-storm 
above noticed, it sunk to 28.73 inches, a depression which it had not before 
experienced since the destructive easterly storm of “ Easter Sunday,” in 
March 1822. Winds, high and pretty constant. Clouds, very changeable 
in form; electrified once. Three slight easterly storms, in two of which the 
wind soon changed to south. 


SCIENTIFIC MEMORANDA. 


Account of a new Mode of Propelling Vessels—A paper by Mr. 
Wm. Hall, was read before the Royal Society on this subject. 
The author ascribes the want of success, which has hitherto at- 
tended all attempts to propel vessels by a discharge of water 
from the stern, to the injudicious plan of the apparatus employed, 
and not to any defect in the principle itself, for he considers that 
the re-action upon the vessel from which a volume of water is 
thrown, depends in no degree on the resistance it meets with 
from the medium into which it is ejected, but simply upon the 
momentum given to the mass. The author proposes to accom- 


326 Scientific Memoranda. 


plish the object of propelling water, by means of an instrument 
having the form of an eccentric curve, resembling the spiral of 
Archimides, made to revolve on an axis. The resistance offered 
to the fluid in which it is immersed, results from the different dis- 
tances of the two ends of the spiral propeller, from the axis. This 
propeller acts in a box, having also a somewhat spiral shape, 
and the space between the two ends of the spiral, after deserib- 
ing one turn, is open to allow of the exit of the water driven out 
by the propeller. The bottom of the box has a circular aper- 
ture, of which the radius is equal to the shorter end of the pro- 
peller from the axis. The water within this circle meets with 
no resistance until it arrives at the line joining the two extremi- 
ties of the propeller, when it is immediately acted upon by the 
eccentric curved surface of the propeller—Philosoph. Mag. 


On the errors in the course of vessels occasioned by local attraction, 
with some remarks on the recent loss of his majesty’s ship, Thetis ; by 
Peter Barlow, Esq. F. R. 8. 

This paper was read before the Royal Society. The author 
observes, that the errors arising from the deviation of the com- 
pass produced by the attraction of ships, were formerly much less 
considerable than at present, from the comparatively small quan- 
tity of iron existing in the vessel. The increase of this disturb- 
ing force in a modern ship of war, is easily accounted for by the 
immense proportion of iron now employed in its construction, by 
the use of iron ballast and iron tanks, of iron knees, iron cables, 
and above all, of iron capstans, besides various other articles 
made of the same materials, forming altogether a very large and 
powerful magnetic mass. 

The direction and intensity of the deflecting forces thus pro- 
duced, vary in different latitudes and on different sides of the 
equator; being greatest in the highest latitudes, where the dip 
is considerable, and when the ship’s course is east or west: and 
in high southern latitudes, being the reverse of what it is in high 
northern latitudes. In his majesty’s ship Gloucester, which may 
be taken as an example, the deviation of the compass in the east 
and west points was found to be, in the British channel, nine 
deg. thirty min.; so that after running ten miles, the vessel 
would be more than a mile and a half to the southward of her 
reckoning ; and so on in proportion as the distances increased. 


Scientific Memoranda. 327 


An error of this magnitude, occurring in a narrow channel and 
in a dark night, were it unknown or disregarded, might lead to 
the most fatal consequences; and the disaster might perhaps be 
erroneously ascribed to the prevalence of a powerful current, 
the existence of which was before unknown. 

The Thetis sailed from Rio Janeiro, in December last, with a 
million of dollars on board, in the finest weather, directing her 
course to the S. E. The next day, thinking they were clear of 
land, they tacked, and were sailing at the rate of nine knots, 
when the first intimation they had of being near land, was the 
striking of the jib-boom against a high perpendicular cliff, which 
broke the bowsprit short off, and sent all three masts over the 
side; thus, in a moment, bringing utter destruction on this fine 
vessel and her valuable cargo. ‘The author shows that the de- 
viation of the compass arising from the attraction of the iron, 
was exactly of the kind which was likely to occasion this great 
mistake in the ship’s reckoning; for the distance run by the 
Thetis, being about eighty miles, if the local attraction of the 
ship had been equal to that of the Gloucester, she would have 
passed five miles nearer to Cape Frio than her reckoning,—an 
error quite sufficient to account for the fatal catastrophe-—The 
author hence infers the importance of bestowing more attention 
than has hitherto been given to the influence of the local attrac- 
tion of vessels, and to the application of the proper means of cor- 
rection. Philos. Mag. 


Continuation of Conybeare and Phillips’s Outlines of the Geology 
of England and Wales—We have the best authority for announ- 
cing, that a second volume of this celebrated work is at length 
- determined upon. Our geological readers will remember, that 
the first volume only includes the tertiary and secondary forma- 
tions. The entire want of a satisfactory survey of North Wales, 
the death of Mr. Phillips, the fall which the Rev. Mr. Conybeare 
got, and which was all but fatal, have combined with other 
circumstances, to interrupt the continuation of the remaining 
formations comprehended in the transition and primary Rocks. 
There will be no reason, however, to regret the delay which 
has taken place, since the coadjutor who is to assist Mr. Cony- 
beare at the termination of his labours, is the Rev. Adam Sedge- 
wick, of Trinity College, Cambridge. This gentleman has for 


328 Scientific Memoranda. 


many years been arduously engaged in examinations of the 
Cambrian system, including the old formations of Westmoreland 
and Lancashire: also the lower beds in Devonshire and Corn- 
wall, together with their systems. Last year he completed the 
‘survey of the Cheviots on the Scotch border, and as soon as his 
examinations of the principality of Wales are terminated in the 
course of the next summer, the results comprehended in these 
elaborate investigations will be given to the public in the con- 
cluding volume of “Outlines of the Geology of England and 
Wales.” 
If a revised edition of the first volume were published at the 
same time, giving it the advantages of the second, by extending 
to it the appropriate geological] information, produced since the 
first volume was written, this would be a standard work for fu- 
ture geological writers in every country. It would be a vain 
thing to expect that two individuals (both clergymen of the 
church of England,) more learned, more diligent, and more ac- 
curate than Messrs. Conybeare and Sedgewick, could ever unite 
their labours upon any subject connected with the physical 
sciences. Eprror. 


Professor Rafinesque.—This indefatigable and veteran natural- 
ist has just published “ A continuation of a Monograph of the 
Bivalve Shells of the River Obio, and other Rivers of the West- 
ern States,” containing 30 new genera, and 47 new species, 
with “ A Supplement on the Fossil Bivalve Shells of the Western 
Region.” They are offered for sale. The professor observes, 
«Some of these shells are so very rare, that I have only met 
them once in 4000 miles of travels and explorations; others 
I have never seen except in collections, such are the umio ridi- 
bundus, and the alasmodon complanatum, for instance. I shall 
describe here, only those which J have now before my eyes, and 
with the names given them ten years ago, at their discovery.” 
He accuses by name, some of the modern conchologists on this 
side the water, of systematically excluding his discoveries, for 
the selfish pleasure of naming them over again; and of one of 
these gentlemen, he remarks, “I had respectfully noticed, in 
1820, his previous labours; but he has never mentioned mine, 
and knows so little of the animals of these shells, as to have mis- 
taken their mouth for their tail.” Of the testaceous animadver- 

- ‘ 


Scientific Memoranda. 329 


sions dealt out, in this interesting scientific tract of 8 pages, price 
25 cents, to “ one half of our naturalists, botanists, and geologists,” 
Mr. Amos Eaton comes in for a conspicuous share in the follow- 
ing passage :—“ Prof. Eaton, I regret to say, has (in his Zoologi- 
cal Text-book, Albany, 1826) noticed 33 species of wrio, and alas- 
modon of Say and Barnes, but none of my previous ones! and 
put them all back to the old genus Mya of Linnewus! This, as 
well as his whole zoological book, proves that he is forty years 
backwards in the science of zoology, as he is thirty years back- 
wards in botany, and about twenty years in geology.” Four- 
score and ten years old in backwardness. A very reverend age, 
truly ! 


Weare glad to see the author of “ Ancient History, or An- 
nals of Kentucky,” occupied in the publication of his own disco- 
veries. We are well aware of the practice he complains of. 
Latin and Greek compounds, now that the trick is so common, 
are insufficient to protect the property of a naturalist. ‘The 
learned professor would escape this injustice, if he were to give 
us the Indian names to his genera—he is unrivalled there. The 
Indian names to many shell-fish obtain yet on the Atlantic coast, 
and are in common use in some parts of Long Island. 


Circumstances attending the birth of two young Armadillos belong- 
ing to the Zoological Society of London —On the morning of the 
Ist February 1831, it was discovered that the female had made 
a nest of straw, close up to the pipe that conveys the warm wa- 
ter round the building, and had brought forth two young, which 
were quite blind, and measured about four inches from the head 
to the tail. The male was immediately removed to another cage, 
but it was supposed that he had injured one of the young ones on 
the head before they were discovered, of which hurt it died on 
the following morning. At that time the other young one seemed 
to be perfectly well, and was sucking; but it also was found 

_ dead on the morning of the 3d of February: it was bitten on se- 
_ veral parts of the head by the mother. It is probable that the 
_ injuries were inflicted by her in consequence of her young hav- 
_ ing been moyed about; and measures have been adopted to pre- 
_ vent the recurrence of such disturbance on any future occasion. 
wbx Phil. Mag. 
Vou. I.—42 


330 Scientific Memoranda. 


A new practice of Painting : communicated to the Royal Institu- 
tion of Great Britain —Mr. Robertson paints in water-colours, and 
upon paper. He uses isinglass, dissolved in hot spirits of wine, 
between and over his colours, by which they acquire the bril- 
liancy and force of oil; and when the picture is finished, he 
covers it with a colourless copal varnish. The pictures, when 
large, are covered with canvass and tin-foil. The durability and 
steadfastness of the colours appear to be extreme.—Phil. Mag. 


Description of a new Species of Ichthyosaurus—A paper on this 
subject by Daniel Sharpe, Esq. F.G.S. was read before the Geo- 
logical Society of London.—This Ichthyosaurus was found in a 
quarry of lias limestone, about four miles from Stratford-upon- 
Ayon. The whole length of the animal must probably have 
been about seven feet; the parts of it which remain exhibit the 
upper portions of the head from the nostrils backwards, in a very 
crushed state, a continuous series of 52 vertebrae, from the atlas 
to the commencement of the tail, with nearly all the spinous 
processes; one scapula, and nearly the whole of one fore paddle. 
The teeth (by which the four species formerly described have 
been chiefly distinguished) are entirely wanting in this indivi- 
dual; the author, however, considers it to be a new species, from 
the following peculiarities of character:—1. The length of each 
vertebrz is uniformly three-fifths of its breadth, a proportion not 
found to exist in any hitherto described species. . 2. The paddle 

sis of great size, and including the humerus, must have been 
equal to one-fifth of the length of the whole animal. In the ulna 
or radius, (it is difficult to say which,) there is a notch on the 
outward edge, and all the other bones of the paddle are very 
nearly circular or oval; thus differing essentially from the an- 
gular shaped phalanges of I. communis, tenuirostris, and inter- 
medius. On account of the large size of its paddle, the author. 
names this species “ Ichthyosaurus grandipes.” 
Proceedings G. Soe. of London. 


Formicological Waterloo—On the 16th of last May, I was 
walking in the garden before breakfast, when my attention was 
attracted by an unusual assemblage of ants in the gravel walk ; 
the species, I believe, was that of which Huber, in his History of 
Ants, has given a representation, and is called by him formica 


Scientific Memoranda. 331 


fusca. On a closer examination I found they were fighting : they 
were collected in groups of forty or fifty, running rapidly about, 
and then stopping and pulling each other with their mandibles. 
The field of battle did not extend over a surface of more than 
three feet square, and there were probably five or six groupes 
all eagerly contending with each other. After watching them 
with much attention for about half an hour, I was called in to 
breakfast; and, on returning, after a lapse of twenty minutes, the 
battle was still raging. How long the conflict lasted Iam unable 
to say; for when [ first saw them, they evidently had been some 
time engaged in their deadly game, and I was compelled to leave 
them before the battle was over. I however visited the spot again 
about one o'clock, and they were then busily employed in re- 
moving their slain comrades. I counted about thirty dead ants on 
the field; more, probably, had fallen, as doubtless many had been 
removed before my return. In one small spot, not more than an 
inch square, seven dead ants were extended. Their courage is 
very extraordinary ; for in several instances, with such fury and 
obstinacy had these little warriors contended, that two might be 
perceived locked in each other’s embraces, having died in this, 
their last mortal struggle. We have all read of the battles of 
ants, but as far as my inquiries have extended, I believe but few 
have witnessed their combats. I have observed ants for many 
years, but with this exception, never saw any thing like hostility 
among them.—0O. Loudon, March 1831. 


Magnetic re-action of Platina—In a piece of Russian Platina 
the size of a walnut, Gobel detected the two magnetic poles. Its 
magnetism was so powerful that a middle sized needle was at- 
tracted by it, and a magnetic needle was, at a certain distance, 
set in motion by it. Many similar pieces of platina, from the size 
of a hazel-nut to that of a hen’s egg, in the collection of the im- 
perial mining academy of St. Petersburg, exhibit similar pro- 
perties.—Jameson. 


| Interesting discovery of fossil animals-—There has been lately 
sent to the garden of plants, a collection of fossil bones, from the 
cacustrine deposits of Argenton, (Indre,) consisting of five or six 
species of Lophiodon, from the size of a large rabbit, to that of a 
horse; also species of the genus anthrocotherium, of the trionyx 


332 Scientific Memoranda. 


and crocodile. Some recent discoveries in the diluvian ossiferous 
deposite of Chevilly, (Loiret,) of the bones of the extremities of 
the animal called gigantic tapir, by Cuvier, show that this animal, 
by the test of its osteology, is closely allied to the living tapir, 
although equalling, if not exceeding, the rhinoceros. The Indre 
and Loiret are departments in the central districts of France. 


| 

Teleo-Saurus.—M. Grorrroy Sr. Hizrame has communicated 
to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, some particulars re- 
specting the fossil remains of an extinct animal, discovered at 
Caen, and which he has named Teleo-Saurus. M. St. Hiliare sup- 
poses it to be, from the form of the teeth, herbivorous, like the 
Iguanodon, discovered by Mr. Mantell; and that it probably fed 
on the alge, and other marine plants. It is of the period of the 
ichthyosauri, and M. St. H., as usual, draws it into one of his in- 
genious theories. 


The Eagle and the Weasel—A group of haymakers in Selkirk- 
shire, saw an eagle rising above the steep mountains that enclose 
the narrow valley. The spectators were soon aware of some- 
thing peculiar in the flight of the bird they were observing. He 
used his wings violently, and the strokes were often repeated, as 
if he was unusually agitated, wheeling in circles constantly de- 
creasing, whilst his ascent was proportionally rapid. He rose 
until he was nearly out of sight, when at length he appeared to 
descend, and with great rapidity, but ia the manner of a shot 
bird. When he reached the ground, a black-tailed weasel came 
from the body, as the haymakers came up, looked around, stood 
on its hind legs for 2 moment or two, and then ran into a bush. 
The eagle was dead, covered with his blood; upon examination 
it appeared the weasel had eaten into his throat and destroyed 
him.— Abstract from Mag. Nat. Hist. Vol. 3. p. 2. 


Winter Quarters of Frogs.—In draining a bog, or springy piece 
of ground in the winter, (during the frost,) I discovered a large 
quantity,—some hundreds, I suppose,—(frogs,) imbedded about 
three feet below the surface, in the head or source of a more 
than usually strong spring. Upon being uncovered, they appear- 
ed very inactive, but not torpid or motionless, and attempted 

bury themselves again in the sand, which, from the flowing of 


Scientific Memoranda. 333 


the water, was so easily separated as to admit a pole of con- 
siderable length to be run down it, with a slight pressure. The 
cavity in which they were, and which apparently was formed 
by them, was so placed that the water of the spring flowed 
through it, and prevented their feeling the effects of the frost. 
In cleaning ditches or stagnant ponds during the winter, I have 
never seen any but at the bottom of ponds, in which, I am 
told, they are common. Are we not to infer from this, that they 
instinctively seek springs, as the water is less liable to freeze? and 
as they were in the instance mentioned, capable of moving, that 
they do not hybernate, or become torpid during the winter, but 
that they respire in water, or in their hiding places? I have 
never observed them in ditches.or pools, until near their spawn- 
ing time, viz.; after a few warm days in February or March, 
when their “ croaking” is considered the precursor of spring, and 
provocative of sport to “ boys ;” after which the embryo frogs 
appear as black spots in a large mass of gelatinous matter. 
J. F. B—Mag. Nat. Hist. Vol. 3. p. 93. 


Paganini.—On the 16th of May, Dr. Bennati read a physio- 
logical notice of this extraordinary man, in which he gives it as 
his opinion, that the prodigious talent of this artist, is mainly to 
be attributed to the peculiar conformation which enables him to 
bring his elbows close together, and place them one over the 
other ; and to the elevation of his left shoulder, which is an inch 
higher than the right one,—to the slackening of the ligaments of 
the wrists, and the mobility of his phalanges, which he can move 
in a lateral direction at pleasure. Dr. Bennati also alluded to 
the excessive developement of Paganini’s cerebellum, as connect- 
ed with the extraordinary acuteness of his organs of hearing, 
which enables him to hear conversations carried on in a low tone, 
at a considerable distance. M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire remarked, 
that he had been particularly struck with the prominence of the 
artist’s forehead, which hangs over his deeply seated eyes like a 
pent house.—R. Acad. Scien. Paris. ? 


~ New plan of drawing, for Charts—M. Coplin presented a topo- 
graphical chart of the islands of La Perouse, in which, by a new 
plan of drawing, in imitation of relief, he has succeeded in so well 
availing himself of the process of shading, that not only the geo- 


334 Scientific Memoranda. 


logical constitution, and the direction of the declivities, but also 
the variations in the surface of the different mountains are dis- 
tinctly exhibited to the eye.—R. Ac. Scien. Paris. 


Geology of Africa.—M. Cordier, at a meeting of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, communicated some geological 
observations, made by Rozet in Africa. M. Rozet is now of 
opinion, that the earths which he had formerly considered as 
terrains de transition, are, in fact, to be classed amongst those 
belonging to the epoch of the lias and the calcareous gryphites. 
The most elevated summit of that part of the lower Atlas visited 
by M. Rozet, and measured with the assistance of the barometer, 
was 1399 metres (4590 feet) above the level of the Mediter- 
ranean. 


Chloride of Lime a preservative against Small-Pox and Measles.— 
M. Remy, a physician at Chatillon, has made some successful 
experiments on chloride of lime, as a preservative against the 
small-pox. In a village where the small-pox raged, he caused 
the only twelve individuals in the place, who yet remained sub- 
ject to the infection, to be washed thrice a week with a solution 
of chloride of lime, and gave them at the same time two drops 
of the solution in a glass of eau sucree. 'Two of them had a slight 
eruption, similar to a vaccine which had not taken well; the 
other ten, who were not separated from those suffering from the 
small-pox, had no symptoms of illness. In another village afflicted 
with the small-pox, of fifteen individuals still subject to it, ten 
were treated in the same manner, and escaped; whilst two of 
the remaining five caught the malady. M. Chevalier stated to 
the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, that he was the first to 
suggest chloride of lime as a preservative against the small-pox; 
and observed, that it might be used also as a protection against 
the measles, by keeping in the chamber of the child whom it 
was desired to prevent from infection, a saucer of dry chloride of 
lime, renewed from time to time, and dipping its shirts in a solu- 
tion of one ounce of concentrated liquid chloride in twelve quarts 
of water.—Abstract from Jour. Roy. Inst. 


The adult Frog retains the character of the Tadpole.—It appears 
that some full-grown animals, which have passed through trans- 


Scientific Memoranda. 335 


mutations, retain characters proper to the functions of their pre- 
vious state. ‘Thus the adult frog has a head, with a depressed 
and semi-elliptical form. The reason is, that the tadpole, which 
breathes through gills as fishes do, has its voluminous gills under 
the back cranium; and as the bones of the auricular region 
cover these extended gills, their developement is in proportion to 
the volume of the gills— Geoffroy St. Hilaire. 


Pterodactylus Crassirostris—The genus Pterodactylus until now 
only comprehended four species; the P. longirostris, brevirostris, 
medius, and Macronyx of Buckland. Dr. Goldfuss has added a 
fifth, which he calls P. Crassirostris, and which has been disco- 
yered by Count Munster in the Lithographic Limestone of Dait- 
ing in Bavaria. The author has added to it the description of a 
new Ornithocephalus, O. Munsteri, and of a new Lacerta, L. 
Neptunia, in the same rock at Monheim. He describes and 
figures also some curious fossils, from the Dusodil of Stoschen 
near Lintz, of Friesdorf, of Orsberg near Erpel, and of Rott near 
Geistingen. Two species of fish from thence, have been for 
some time known, to the smallest of which M. Bronn gave the 
name of Cyprinus Carbonarius. There are besides insects of the 
genus, lucanus, meloe, dytiscus, buprestis, cantharis, cerambyx, pa- 
randra, belostroma, cercopis, locusta, anthrax, and tabanus. M. 
Bronn has also remarked a small crab. The new species de- 
scribed by M. Goldfuss, are Rana diluviana, Salamandra Ogygia, 
Triton noachicus, Ophius dubius.—Journal de Geologie. 


- A Golden-green Light Reflected from Moss.—A. correspondent 
of Mr. Loudon’s, W. C. T. states, “ When making a tour in Corn- 
wall, I was struck by a ‘singularly brilliant golden-green light,’ 
similar to that described in your Magazine (vol. ii. p. 406.) On 
looking into a small cavern by the roadside, near Penryn, I ob- 
served in its recesses a small moss (apparently minute plants of 
Dicranum taxifolium,) which, when seen in some particular posi- 
tions, appeared of a most beautiful emerald green colour, with a 
phosphorescent brilliancy.” In De Luc’s Geological Travels, vol. 
iii. p. 131, is the following account of a similar phenomenon: 
“Passing by Botter Rock, Mr. Hill led me to a part of the foot 
of that Tor, where there are hollows like small caverns; and in 
these he showed me a vegetable phenomenon, which I had never 


336 To Readers and Correspondents. 


seen but in the granitic mountains separating the country of 
Bayreuth from Bohemia. The innermost part of these cavities 
is lined with a very pretty moss, which reflects the light in the 
same manner as the eyes of a cat. So little light reaches these 
remote recesses, that, on looking in from without, they appear 
quite dark; but when viewed from a particular point, the part 
of the rock which is covered with this moss is suddenly seen to 
shine with a fine emerald green.” 


NE ——————————————————————— 


TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 


By a curious comcidence, not arising from any pre-concert on our part, we publish in 
this number some strictures upon an American writer on geology, from the pen of an 
Englishman, and some strictures upon an English writer on zoology, from the pen of an 
‘American. We have entitled the one, “ on the causes which retard the advancement of 
geological knowledge ;” and the other, “on the causes which retard the advancement of 
zoological knowledge.” ‘This is the second communication we have published from our 
valued correspondent in London; from the sources of whose accomplished mind, we hope 
often to enrich.the pages of our Journal. The able and accurate paper from our Ameri- 
can correspondent R. S. T. we have a particular pleasure in publishing ; it will be found 
by those who peruse it understandingly, that our correspondent has, upon this occasion, 
well kept up the balance of our critical trade in natural history. We rejoice in being the 
medium through which these friendly exchanges of criticism are effected. 


We have observed, in numerous instances, that selected passages from our Journal 
have been re-published in other periodicals, with an acknowledgment of the source from 
whence they were drawn. Although our copy-right is secured, we have not, in any of 
these instances, taken umbrage at this practice, nor do we know that we should, where it 
does not extend so far as to infringe upon our original right in important matters. In 
many instances, we have, on the contrary, felt gratified at seeing our labours noticed ap- 
provingly in other periodicals. 

But instances are at this moment before us of a different and less grateful character, 
and we may as well notice them now, in a general manner, as at another time. If they 
have taken place inadvertently, which we are willing to believe, we hope they will not 
occur again. Itis always our intention, and we believe has been our practice, to be just 
to others; and therefore, when we transfer to our pages any passage from the numerous 
periodicals we receive, we always refer in some mode or other to our authority. We oe- 
casionally however make abstracts, for convenience sake, of interesting papers, and refer 
at the conclusion to the title of the work containing the paper of which we have made an 
abstract. When our cotemporaries republish such abstracts, condensed by our own la- 
bour, and drawn from scientific works for which we pay, and do not even allude to our 
Journal as the source from whence they have drawn them, they are not only unjust to us, 
but do that which the law forbids. Honey to be sure is very pleasant, and perhaps none 
the worse when it is obtained without labour, but even the little bees will turn again 
when they are robbed of it; which predicament we shall conceive ourselves to lie under, 
if our attention should be drawn to the subject again. 


We have complied with the wishes of our correspondent A Minor, and he will find a 
note addressed to him, according to his wishes. { 

We repeat, that a number of papers are lying on our table, without signature or 
designation of any kind; some of which, we desire to return to their authors. Other 
papers which have been sent to us, with particular initials from unknown writers, are 
unnoticed at present; because we have not had leisure to verify the rather severe criti- 
cisms some of them contain. When well drawn up papers, with avowed names, are 
presented to us, we have not that cause for hesitation, because the responsibility is not 
with us for the animadversions they may contain. But anonymous criticisms of a severe 
character, require, in our estimation, to be carefully investigated, and this supposes leisure 
and facilities, not always at hand. That some papers of this character have not yet been 
noticed, is not because we are afraid of stating the truth, but because we are desirous 
of avoiding to state what may not appear to be true to all. 


be on , Lae 


NATURAL TUNNEL. SCOTT COUNTY VIRGINIA. 


From Childs & Inman's Frass- 


THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 


GEOLOGY 
AND NATURAL SCIENCE. a 
Rete ty eee ee ee 
Vor. I. Puitapepuis, Fesruary, 18382. No. 8. 


GEOLOGY, No. 2.—ON THE ORDER OF SUCCESSION OF THE 
ROCKS COMPOSING THE CRUST OF THE EARTH. . 


‘ ‘Tne existence of an expansive subterranean power, generated — 


7 
oe 


by heat, is so well established by volcanic phenomena, as to ren- 
der it unnecessary at present to support that opinion, by enter- 
ins upon any discussions respecting what has been called central 
heat, founded upon the temperature of the earth, the ocean, or 

tha t of the thermal springs found in ifferent parts of the world. 


in every part of the world, then we might generalize still fur- 


ther, and.say, that this observed order of of the beds, was an effect 
of causes general to all the parts o of the , world ; he the’ present 
state of geological knowledge does not authorize us to assert 


universal formations. 
Although we know that all these beds of the general geologi- 


Vor. L—43 337 


ie bi 4S a ak * py eee oe ee ee oe 


338 Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 


A TABULAR VIEW 


: Of the known Rocks of the Crust of the Earth. 
No. | | Feet. 
. 41 | Alluvium | 
bm i 40 | Diluvium | 
& || Sz |a0) Upper fresh Water 
B a 8 | 38 | Upper Marine |_160 
| Bo 37 | Lower fresh Water, Gypseous | 170 
= Wore sLondoulClay arvev. fx Toy ras] 
35 | Plastic Clay | aan 
Tonle ner 724 | Chalk with Flints 700 
Chalk without Flints ; 
33 | Upper Green Sand | 100 
32 | Gualt | 150 
31 | Lower Green Sand | 250 
30 | Weald Clay | 300 -| 
29 | Hastings Sand | 400. 
28 | Purbeck Limestone | ~ 200 
Pa 27 | Portland Oolite | 120 
e 8 26 | Kimmeridge Clay |__500 
i=] ° 25 | Coral Rag | 150 
& || 3 |Sf1___ Oxford Clay |__600 
z A | 23 | Cornbrash |. 30 
g eB | 22] Forest Marble [4°50 
= @ |] | Bradford Clay [50 
an | 20| Great Oolite | 130 
19 | Fuller’s Earth | 140 
18 Inferior Oolite |. 180 
17 | Lias ~ | 500 
16 | Variegated or red Marle | 500 
15 | Muschelkalk |. 300 
14 | New red Sandstone | 300 
13 | Zechstein |. 500 
12 | Exeter red Conglomerate | 500 
11 | Coal Beds | 1000 
38 | 10 | Millstone Grit and Shale | 700 
a a 9 | Carboniferous Limestone | 850 
=O] 8] Old red Sandstone | 1500 _, 
rare 7\ Grey wacke | 
oe 6 | Transition Limestone | 
ta) 4 | Alum Slate 
Be eh 5 Whetstone Slate 
a 3 Flinty Slate 
= oa Serpentine 
5° Greenstone Slate 
b a 4 Talcose Slate 
=| Hornblende Rocks | 
= Primary Limestone aay 
3] Mica Slate 
a FI g & 2| Gneiss | 
428|-7]— Granite | 


Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 339 


cal series have been found in their respective positions, wherever 
they have been observed, still in no part of the world have all 
the beds been found, in any one particular place, thus overlying 
each other. In every part of the world some of them are want- 
ing. In Europe, that groupe of beds called the oolitic series, or 
calcaire du Jura according to the French, and which includes 
Nos. 17 and 27, (Lias and Portland oolite)—with the interme- 
diate beds,—of our Tabular View, is very common, but has not 
yet been observed in North America: this groupe has an aver- 
age thickness of 2700 feet, in England. The groupe including 
Nos. 12 and 16, usually called the new red sand stone formation, 
is common in Germany; but in this last country it includes a 
member for which no equivalent has yet been found in England, 
viz. the Muschelkalk, which has an average thickness of 300 feet. 
The defective distribution of particular beds in various parts of 
the world, affords, however, no argument against the successive 
order in which all the beds have come to their places in the se- 
ries; for wherever they are found, they are constant in their re- 
lative succession to each other. The occasional absence then of 
particular beds, is to be attributed to causes which are the legi- 
timate objects of geological research. Without practical inves- 
tigations, we are not authorized to say, that the absence of any 
bed is a casus omissus, occasioned by the local deficiency of the 
causes which have produced the bed in other places; because 
the bed may have been deposited, and have subsequently disap- 
peared, through the agency of causes which have frequently 
changed the condition of the surface of the earth, by wasting 
extensive portions of it. 

The chalk, which in some parts of Europe has an average 
thickness of 700 feet, is remarkable, above all other beds, for 
containing, in the upper part of its white mass, irregular beds of 
nodules of dark coloured flint. We remember standing on the 
summit of Haldon Hill in Devonshire, England, half way be- 
tween the city of Exeter and the coast, whence one of the most 
magnificent views in Europe is to be enjoyed, and replete with 
geological interest. At the foot of the hill lies a rich and broad 
valley, with the river Ex flowing through it: to the right lies the 
ocean. At a great distance, in front, the chalk cliffs in Dorset- 
shire are perceived. Haldon Hill is composed of green sand, No. 
33, and is there lying on the red marle, No. 16; all the other 


340 Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 


beds to No. 30, inclusive, being deficient : it will be remembered 
that the bed which covers the green sand in the series, is the 
chalk No. 34. But the chalk is not there; and an unobserving 
traveller would cross this lofty barrier without being reminded 
of the chalk. A geologist, however, is at once struck with the 
immense heaps of flints deposited in various parts of this hill, 
some in entire nodules, exactly as they are found in the chalk, 
and others broken up and comminuted into a thousand pieces, 
His eyes are soon opened to the truth, and he sees that the chalk 
has once been here, and that some cause has put an immeasura- 
ble water power into operation, which has scooped out the vale 
of Ex, washed out all the cretaceous matter for many miles, in 
which the flints were embedded, and left them behind as monu- 
ments of their former position and its irresistible force. We con- 
sider this as one of the remarkable proofs of diluvial action. 
Neither is this the only part of Europe where chalk flints are 
found similarly distributed. They occur in other parts of England, 
and in Scotland, where no chalk has been yet observed. In 
Lower Saxony, chalk flints are very extensively distributed ; 
the destruction of the chalk beds there has not been so entire 
as in other places, for Dr. Buckland observed a chalk pit near 
Luneberg. 

The deficiency of beds is not peculiar to Europe, being com- 
mon to North America. We have seen that the oolitic series so 
common in the former country is wanting here; yet this circum- 
stance by no means affords ground for an argument, that the 
general geological system of North America has been established 
by causes of a different character: if it proves any thing, it 
proves that the causes to which the absence of particular, beds 
is to be ascribed, have been common to both countries, and hence 
we may the rather infer that general agreement of geological 
causes which observation has already established. We propose 
hereafter to make it appear that a great portion of the beds be- 
longing to the geological series of Europe, is regularly represent- 
ed in this country, and that the beds, including the granite and 
the coal beds, Nos. 1 and 11, occur on this continent in the regu- 
lar order. Taking the estimated thickness of the crust of the 
earth at 40,000 feet, comprehending all that man has seen in the 
deepest mines, up to the tops of the loftiest mountains, and de- 
ducting from it the aggregate thickness of the beds lying above 


Geology.—On the order of Succession of Rocks. 341 


‘the coal, No. 11, in the general series, which is about 7,500 feet, 
we can assert that the geological agreement in relation to 
mineral structure and succession of rocks between America 
and Europe, is as 32,500 to 40,000. We shall hereafter show 
other mineral analogies which raise the scale of agreement of 
this country with transatlantic geology, and without drawing 
upon the branches of organic nature. 

In relation to the absence of particular beds of the general 
series, on this continent, we have many curious instances. We 
have personally examined a geological line, extending from 
Boston, in Massachusetts, to Washington, in the District of Co- 
lumbia—and which we know extends much farther, both north 
and south,—where the extremes of the geological series meet. 
At Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, 
there are no beds between the primary recks and the superficial 
soil, No. 40, usually called diluvium. Of the particular causes 
which have produced this extreme continuous deficiency, we 
shall not treat here, and shall only observe, that no deduction 
can be drawn from this circumstance to support an opinion, that 
any set of causes has been in operation on this continent, in the 
construction of the primary, other than those which have pro- 
duced the primary beds in Europe; because at one of the 
points of the geological line we have spoken of—New York— 
whilst the compact part of the city is built either upon the di- 
luvium which rests upon the gneiss, No. 2, or upon the gneiss 
itself; at a very short distance from the city, we find the ser- 
pentine, No. 4, branching from Hoboken, in New Jersey, under 
the Hudson river, and superincumbent upon the gneiss; and a 
few miles further to the north, the primitive limestone in its 
proper place, lying upon the mica slate, No. 3. And as in many 
other instances we find each of the beds of the general series of 
unequal thickness; sometimes in thick stratified masses, which 
taper off to a point and then disappear, to re-appear again at un- 
equal distances; so we are not to conclude that deficiencies of this 
various character are the effect of the absence of causes here, which 
have operated in other parts; or that the difference between the 
state of the geological series of rocks in this and in transatlantic 
countries, is to be attributed to the action of antagonist causes; but 
rather hold to the opinion, that these deficiencies are in fact inter- 
ruptions of continuity, occasioned by the irregular action of the 


842  Geotogy.—On the Order of the Succession of Rocks. 


causes which have deposited all beds. We have said thus much 
in relation to deficiencies of beds in the general geological series, 
knowing how necessary it is for students to have proper views of 
this branch of the subject; and we take leave of it for the present, 
with the remark, that our uninitiated readers are to remember 
that the tabular view we present them with, does not represent 
any actual section in nature: that we know of no part of the 
world where all the beds are laid upon each other horizontally 
in the order here enumerated; but that some of the beds are 
found in some countries, and others in other countries, and that 
in England they have all been found with the exception of the 
Muschelkalk before mentioned, No. 15; and that wherever each 
and every bed has been found, it has always been found, as to its 
place in the series, in the same relative position, never above its 
superior number, never below its inferior ; from whence we satis- 
factorily infer, that each of the beds has come in succession into 
its place ; and that if they were all collected and laid upon each 
other in one column, the tabular view we have annexed to this 
article, would be a true representative of it. 

We have now to speak of another class of rocks, which we 
have excluded altogether from the tabular view, on account of 
the very irregular manner in which they are found in various 
parts of the geological series. These have received the generic 
name of trap, a term derived from the Swedish word trappa, a 
stair, from rocks of this kind being sometimes found in prismatic 
forms, rising in stages above each other, and resembling steps or 
stairs. We refer our readers to our last number, where, at page 
311, they will find some information about these rocks. Their 
constituent minerals are generally the same as those which con- 
stitute modern lavas. The igneous origin of these trap rocks is now 
universally admitted. Such is the intensity of heat of modern 
lavas, that they are capable of melting down the older rocks; and 
indeed the lava of Skapta Jokul, in Iceland, to which we haye 
referred at page 294, did this to a great extent in 1783, spread- 
ing itself out into broad lakes of fire, sometimes from twelve to 
fifteen miles wide, and one hundred feet deep. Eleven years after 
this period, smoke was still rising from parts of the lava, and hot. 
water was found in several of the fissures. Rocks of this intrusive 
kind, and of the same mineralogical character, are found in 
various parts of the geological series, sometimes overlaying in 


Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 343 


prismatic forms extensive areas; at other times existing in amor- 
phous masses which put out numerous branches into the adjacent 
rocks, ejected from those masses, as it were, with intense heat 
and velocity. There is a singular mineral vein of this kind in 
England, which we have personally traced more than fifty miles, 
passing easterly from the county of Durham, to the sea in 
Yorkshire, between Whitby and Scarborough. This Dyke, as it 
is there called, cuts, in its upward course, through the carbonifer- 
ous limestone, No. 9, the coal beds, and many other superin- 
cumbent beds into the oolitic series. It appears to be broader the 
nearer it approaches to the primary rocks. Mr. Bakewell ob- 
served it 30 feet broad at Sillow Cross, and twice that width 
further west. When we reflect that all modern lavas are poured 
out from volcanos, which are but the vents of a fierce igneous 
action striving in profound depths, and that lavas in various parts 
of the world have been observed to have flowed out to the sur- 
face, through the granite, the lowest of all rocks; we can but 
concur in the now universally received opinion, that these trap 
or intrusive rocks have an igneous origin, and that they all, at 
various periods, have been projected from those cavities which 
are inferior to all the known rocks, and which are unsearchable 
toman. ‘These ancient eruptions having, like the modern ones, 
taken place at separate periods, we of course find the evidences 
of them irregularly distributed through the geological series. It 
is for this reason we have excluded them from a system of beds 
remarkable for its regularity in all parts of the world, where its 
members have been recognized ; a systematic regularity, the im- 
portance of which no one can be insensible to, who is not dis- 
posed to attribute invariable succession to mere chance. The 
geological phenomena consequent upon the origin and action of 
these intrusive rocks, forming one of the most conspicuous 
branches of geology, we shall hereafter have frequent occasion 
to return to them. 

We now feel bound to offer some explanation to our readers, 
of the nomenclature contained in the tabular view. When we 
come, in another number, to treat successively of the different 
beds, we shall offer explanations of the names by which we 
have at present designated them, being those by which they 
are known in the various geological treatises in the English 
tongue. That this nomenclature may be hereafter greatly modi- 


344 Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 


fied, or entirely merged, together with the modern classification 
of rocks, in the improved views which may belong to a further 
progress in the science, is not improbable: we are of opinion, 
however, that the present state of geological knowledge does not 
warrant any material interference with the arrangements ac- 
companying the tabular view. No part of the world presents 
such a complete assemblage of the rocks of the geological series 
as England, and in an especial manner of the secondary rocks, 
It is this circumstance which has caused geological knowledge to 
be pre-eminently cultivated by the English. Mr. William Smith, 
the father of English geology, was the first to assign a proper im- 
portance to the rocks of the oolitic series: many of them received 
local names connected with the places where he identified them ; 
the term cornbrash has been censured as a barbarism ; but it was 
eminently characteristic—as upon a future occasion we shall 
show—of the rock to which Mr. Smith, in the first instance, ap- 
plied this designation. Many of these English names thus given 
by Mr. Smith, have been changed by French geologists. Kim- 
meridge clay, so called from a small place on the English coast 
where this bed is found, has already received in France the re- 
spective names of marne argileuse havrienne, and argile de hon- 
fleur. Osford clay is called argile de dives. This perhaps is in- 
separable from the building up of the science ; observations made 
simultaneously in different countries, will be noted in the respect- 
ive language of the countries where they are made, and the final 
simplification of what is really injurious to science, is often re- 
tarded by a degree of national feeling it is painful to sacrifice. 
At some future day, no doubt a more simple character will be 
applied to classification and nomenclature in geology, and what 
Lavoisier did for chemistry will be done for this science. We 
shall receive it with gratitude, whether it comes from the country 
of Cuvier, Al. Brogniart and Elie de Beaumont, the acknow- 
ledged ornaments of the French school of geology, or from any of 
their celebrated colaborators across the channel; but since we 
cannot adopt the synonymes of all nations into a tabular view of 
the geological series—and we foresee that the war of classifica- 
tion and synonymes will be waged among geologists before a 
treaty of peace is signed amongst the Zoologists—we recommend — 
to our readers to adhere to the established names we present . 
them with, because they are recognised in the treatises most ac- | 


é 


Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 845 


cessible to them, and because we believe there are already more 
geological readers in our overspreading language than in any 
other, and that the proportion will greatly increase. 

To our uninitiated readers, we think it due to offer a short his- 
tory of one of those subdivisions of the geological series, which we 
have connected with our tabular view. Primary, transition, se- 
condary, and tertiary. For an account of the first, we refer them 
to our last number, page 293, which contains our reasons for 
substituting the term primary, for primitive. The rocks, 1 to 4 
inclusive, are those comprehended in the primary division; they 
have hitherto been found entirely composed of inorganic matter; 
whether because organized vegetable and animal beings had not 
been produced, when these rocks were first consolidated ; or whe- 
ther because the igneous origin of the greater part of these rocks 
was inconsistent with the preservation of organic forms. 

In the early periods of the history of Geology, all rocks were © 
divided into primitive and secondary ; the evidences of organic na- 
ture being entirely confined to this last and most numerous 
branch. This last division being evidently too cumbrous, could not 
escape further subdivision ; and it being observed that the lowest 
rocks in the secondary portion contained the first and the sim- 
plest forms of organized bodies, the lowest portion of the se- 
condary got the name of transition, as if at the period of the 
consolidation of these rocks, the planet was in a state of transition 
from inorganic to organic matter. The exact line where the 
transition begins, and where it ends, has not yet been agreed 
upon universally. ‘Those slates which are subordinate to the 
transition limestone, are considered, by geologists, as containing | 
the first organic remains, none having yet been found in the ser- 
pentine, the talcose rocks and slates; or the hornblende rocks 
_ and calcareous deposits, which are superincumbent in the series” 
to the primary. The English geologists have limited the extent ” 
of the transition to the graywacke, No. 7, inclusive ; whilst the 
continental geologists would include in it the old red sand stone, 
the carboniferous limestone, and some of them even the coal 
beds. As this difference in opinion may, perhaps, at no very dis- 
tant day, be reconciled by the oblivion into which the transition 
itself may fall; and as it is a question of organic remains, some- 
what of a speculative nature, from the imperfect examination 
those rocks have received, we shall content ourselves with the 

Vou. 1—44. 


846 Geology.—On the Order of Succession of Rocks. 


explanation we have given of the meaning of the term. The re- 
maining part of the series, from the coal to the chalk inclusive, 
is universally called secondary. 

The tertiary includes that portion of the series from the chalk 
to the present surface of the earth. It is replete with interest, 
whether we consider it as the terminating part of a long series 
of rocks, connecting the present with the ancient order of nature, 
or as being rich, in an exceeding manner, in marine, fresh wa- 
ter, and organic remains. 

The other subdivision of the geological series into five orders, 
superior, supermedial, medial, submedial and inferior, is from the 
Rey. Mr. Conybeare. It is disconnected with every kind of the- 
ory, and pretends to no merit beyond the very convenient man- 
ner in which it arranges the geological series into five subdivisions. 
There is not a more gifted geologist in Europe, than Mr. Cony- 
beare ; nor one more capable, in the present state of the science, 
of offering to the public a more philosophical arrangement, 
founded upon natural distinctions. 

We have prefixed numbers to the beds, for more convenient re- 
ference, beginning with granite, the lowest of the primary rocks, 
and terminating with No. 41, the superficial alluvium, being the 
last bed in the series, and that which is constantly forming by 
the agency of floods, streams, and tides. The other column of 
numbers represents the average thickness of the respective 
beds in Europe, as it has been computed by the most reputed 
geologists. 

It is proposed, in the course of these essays, to review each of 
these beds in detail; explaining their position, mineral structure, 
and the nature of the organic remains imbedded in them. An 
opportunity will then be presented of describing the beds in 
North America, and of comparing the geological phenomena be- 
longing to them, with those of other countries. It is by such 
means alone, that an effectual progress in general geology can 
be made; for, to use the language of the Rey. Mr. Conybeare, 
“we may be sure that any analogies which are common to localities, 
geographically so distant, and placed under physical conditions so 
distinct, are, in truth, analogies belonging generally to the whole globe ; 
and thus we shall obtain a data adequate for the foundation of a 
general geological theory.” The attention which has been hitherto 

\ paid to North American geology, has been, comparatively, so 


Description of a Natural Tunnel. 347 


slight, that it would be absurd to offer the series of North 
American beds, as we are now acquainted with them, as a gene- 
ral type for students: that course, therefore, will be followed, 
which promises the greatest general degree of instruction on the 
subject, and which may lead new observers into the field. When 
inaccurate statements concerning North American geology are 
brought forward—and to which we are unavoidably exposed— 
we shall be gratified if some of our correspondents will furnish us 
with correct information, relying upon our sense of justice to give 
them proper credit for it. 

In regard to scientific terms and technicalities, where we are 
obliged to use them, we shall endeavour to accompany them 
with proper explanations: but as many terms used in geology 
require a somewhat more elaborate definition, than they hitherto 
appear to have received, it is our intention, from time to time, to 
insert such definitions in our Journal, and at appropriate periods. 


DESCRIPTION OF A NATURAL TUNNEL, IN SCOTT COUNTY, 
VIRGINIA. 
By Lirut. Cot. Lone, U. S. Army. 


Dourine the past summer, I visited a remarkable natural bridge 
in Scott county, Virginia, to which I have given the name of 


~ Natural tunnel, on account of its striking resemblance to artificial 


structures of that kind. An account of a phenomenon ‘0 rare, 
and hitherto unknown beyond its immediate neighbourhood, ap- 
peared to me to deserve a place in the Monthly American Jour- 
nal of Geology. I esteem myself fortunate in being able to con- 
tribute so interesting a novelty to its varied pages. 

The immediate locality of this tunnel is upon a small stream 
called Buck-eye, or Stock creek. This last name owes its origin 
to its valley having been resorted to by the herdsmen of the 
country, for the attainment of a good range, or choice pasture 
ground for their cattle. The creek rises in Powell’s mountain, 
and is tributary to Clinch river, which it enters at the distance 
of between two and three miles below the tunnel. The aspect 
of the surrounding country, and especially of that to the north- 


ward of the tunnel, and constituting the southerly slope of the 


mountain just mentioned, is exceedingly diversified and broken, 


348 Description of a Natural Tunnel. 


by elevated spurs and ridges, separated from each other by deep 
chasms, walled with cliffs and mural precipices, often presenting 
exceedingly narrow passes, but occasionally widening into 
meadows or bottoms of considerable extent. The mural pre- 
cipices just mentioned, occur very frequently, bounding the val- 
leys of the streams generally in this part of the country, and 
opposing ramparts of formidable height, and in many places 
utterly insurmountable. Such are the features peculiarly cha- 
racteristic of Wild Cat Valley, the Valley of Copper Creek, of 
Powell’s and Clinch rivers, and of numerous other streams of 
less note, all of which are situated within a few miles of the 
natural tunnel. . 

To form an adequate idea of this remarkable and truly sub- 
lime object, we have only to imagine the creek to which it gives 
a passage, meandering through a deep narrow valley, here and 
there bounded on both sides by walls or revetements of the charac- 
ter above intimated, and rising to the height of two or three 
hundred feet above the stream; and that a portion of one of 
these chasms, instead of presenting an open thorough cut from the 
summit to the base of the high grounds, is intercepted by a con- 
tinuous unbroken ridge more than three hundred feet high, ex-_ 
tending entirely across the valley, and perforated transversely 
at its base, after the manner of an artificial tunnel, and thus 
affording a spacious subterranean channel for the passage of the 
stream. 

The entrance to the natural tunnel on the upper side of the 
ridge, is imposing and picturesque, in a high degree; but on the 
lower side, the grandeur of the scene is greatly heightened by 
the superior magnitude of the cliffs, which exceed in loftiness, . 
and which rise perpendicularly—and in some instances in an im- 
pending manner—two to three hundred feet; and by which the — 
entrance on this side is almost enyironed, as it were, by an am- - 
phitheatre of rude and frightful precipices. 

The observer, standing on the brink of the stream, at the dis- 
tance of about one hundred yards below the debouchure of the 
natural tunnel, has, in front, a view of its arched entrance, rising _ 
seventy or eighty feet above the water, and surmounted by hori- ‘ 
zontal stratifications of yellowish, white and grey rocks, in depth | 
nearly twice the height of the arch. On his left, a view of the 
same mural precipice, deflected from the springing of the arch i in 


Description of a Natural Tunnel. 349 


a manner to pass thence in a continuous curye quite to his rear, 
and towering in a very impressive manner, above his head. On 
his right, a sapling growth of buck-eye, poplar, linden, &c., 
skirting the margin of the creek, and extending obliquely to the 
right, and upward through a narrow, abrupt ravine, to the sum- 
mit of the ridge, which is here, and elsewhere, crowned with a 
timber growth of pines, cedars, oaks, and shrubbery of various 
kinds. On his extreme right, is a gigantic cliff lifting itself up 
perpendicularly from the water’s edge, to the height of about 
three hundred feet, and accompanied by an insulated cliff, called 
the chimney, of about the same altitude, rising in the form of a 
turret, at Jeast sixty feet above its basement, which is a portion 
of the imposing cliff just before mentioned. 

Desirous of illustrating this paper by a front view of the natu- 
ral tunnel where the creek issues from it, I have, with the as- 
sistance of a particular friend in this city—to whom | am in- 
debted for the accompanying drawing*—been enabled to furnish 
a sketch which very faithfully represents some of the appear- 
ances I have described. The embellishments last mentioned, how- 
ever, viz. the chimney and its aecombaneacoys could not be 
comprised in the landscape. 

In order to give a more full description a the magnificent 
spectacle which forms the subject of this paper, I shall transcribe 
some of the minutes taken from my private notes, whilst on the 
ground ; but first I shall give an extract from a letter addressed to 
me by my friend P. C. Johnston, Esq. of Abingdon, in the adjoin- 
ing county to Scott, a gentleman well acquainted with this inter- 
esting locality. 

“The rocks through which Stock creek flows, are a light blue 
and gray limestone, of a subcrystalline character; the strata are 
nearly horizontal; and this arrangement of the strata is obvious 
for several miles north-eastwardly ; but in every other direction, 
very near the bridge, (natural tunnel,) they have the dip usual 
in the country to the S. E. at an angle generally of from 30° to 
50°. This tunnel is near what I have believed to be the N. W. 
boundary of the transition formation, a little within it. Ihave 
not been able to discover any organic remains in the limestone 
there, or in the neighbourhood. On the little projections of the 
rock which occur on the walls, near the lower (S.) end of the 


* See Plate X 


380 Description of a Natural Tunnel. 


tunnel, a crystallized deposit is lodged, which you no doubt re- 
collect, that seemed to my taste to be a mixture of salt-petre and 
alum. No attempt has been made to analyze it. The earth found 
near the upper (N.) extremity of the tunnel some years ago, (the 
first time I visited it,) afforded salt-petre. The crystallized de- 
posit seems to be made from a stratum apparently not more than 
six inches thick, which is so high that it cannot be reached for 
examination. The growth of timber is such as is common in the 
neighbouring country, white, red, spanish, black-oaks; hickory, 
white-walnut, dogwood, poplar, chesnut, birch, ironwood; some 
hemlock and papaw (asimina triloba) on the banks of the creek, 
and the edges of the cliffs fringed with cedar. On the creek, be- 
low the tunnel for two miles, is found that variety of ash called 
the fringe tree, (chionanthus virginica,) the long white fringe- 
like blossoms of which are so delightfully fragrant.”* 

The following passages are from my own private journal. 

“Saturday, Aug. 13, 1831. Having ascended Cove ridge, we 
turned aside from our route to visit the natural bridge, or tunnel, 
situated on Buck-eye, or Stock creek, about a mile below the 
Sycamore camp, and about one and a half miles from a place 
called Rye cove, which occupies a spacious recess between two 
prominent spurs of Powell’s mountain, the site of the natural tun- 
nel being included within a spur of Cove ridge, which is one of 
the mountain spurs just alluded to. Here is presented one of the 
most remarkable and attractive curiosities of its kind to be wit- 
nessed in this or any other country. The creek, which is about 
seven yards wide, and has a general course about 8. 15 W. here 
passes through a hill elevated from two to three hundred feet 
above the surface of the stream, winding its way through a huge 
subterraneous cavern, or grotto, whose roof is vaulted in a peculiar 
manner, and rises from thirty to seventy or eighty feet above its 
floor. The sides of this gigantic cavern rise perpendicularly in 
some places to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and in others, 
are formed by the springing of its vaulted roof immediately from 


* This plant, in the natural system, belongs to the oleacez, or olive tribe. The 
flowers of the olea fragrans are used for flavouring tea in China, We offer this 
hint to our readers who have access to the chionanthus. Ep. 

{ This designation has been given to a spot in the valley of the creek, where 
formerly stood a hollow sycamore (platanus occidentalis) tree of an enormous size, 
the remains of which are stillto be seen, and in the cavity of which, whilst it 
stood, fifteen persons are said to have encamped at the same time together. 


@ 


Description of a Natural Tunnel. 351 


its floor. The width of the tunnel varies from fifty to one hundred 
and fifty feet; its course is that of a continuous curve, resembling 
the letter S, first winding to the right as we enter on the upper 
side, then to the left, again to the right, and then again to the 
left, on arriving at the entrance on the lower side. Such is its 
peculiar form, that an observer, standing at a point about mid- 
way of its subterranean course, is completely excluded from a 
view of either entrance, and is left to grope in the dark through 
a distance of about twenty yards, occupying an intermediate 
portion of the tunnel. When the sun is near the meridian, and 
his rays fall upon both entrances, the light reflected from both 
extremities of the tunnel, contributes to mollify the darkness of 
this interior portion into a dusky twilight. 

«The extent of the tunnel from its upper to its lower extremity, 
following its meanders, is about 150 yards, in which distance the 
stream falls about ten feet, emitting, in its passage over a rocky 
bed, an agreeable murmur, which is rendered more grateful by 
its reverberations upon the roof and sides of the grotto. The dis- 
charge of a musket produces a crash-like report, succeeded by a 
roar in the tunnel, which has a deafening effect upon the ear. 

“The hill through which this singular perforation leads, de- 
scends in a direction from east to west, across the line of the 
creek, and affords a very convenient passage for a road which 
traverses it at this place, having a descent in the direction just 
mentioned, of about four degrees.” 

The rocks found in this part of the country are principally 
sandstone and limestone, in stratifications nearly horizontal, with 
occasional beds of clay slate. A mixture of the two former fre- 
quently occurs among the alternations presented by these rocks. 
A variety of rock resembling the French burr, occurs in abun- 
dance on Butcher’s fork, of Powell’s river, about twenty miles 
northwardly of the natural tunnel. Fossils are more or less 
abundant in these and other rocks. Fossil bones of an interesting 
character have been found in several places. Salt-petre caves 
are numerous. Coves, sinks, and subterranean caverns are strik- 


ingly characteristic, not only of the country circumjacent to the 


hi 


natural tunnel, but of the region generally situated between the 


» Cumberland mountain and the Blue ridge or Apalachian moun- 
_ tain. Bituminous coal, with its usual accompaniments, abounds 
in the northerly parts of this region ; and in the intermediate and 


352 Description of a Natural Tunnel. 


southerly portions; iron, variously combined, often magnetic, to- 
gether with talcose rocks, &c. &c. are to be met with in Bical 
abundance. sid 

The mountains in this vicinity, long. 82° to 84° W. from ct 
wich, lat. 35° to 36° N. are among the most lofty of the Allegheny, 
range. Several knobs* in this part of the range, among which, 
may be enumerated the Roan, the Unaka, the Bald, the Black, 
and Powell’s mountains, rise to the height of at least four thousand. 
five hundred feet above tide. ) 


REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. 


Our acknowledgments are due to that distinguished traveller, 
Col. Long, for having enriched our Journal with a notice of a re-, 
markable phenomenon of this continent, which no man has ex- 
plored more extensively than himself. The natural tunnel which 
that gentleman has so well described, is a very rare spectacle, 
and considering its extent, unique of its kind. It belongs no doubt 
to that class of natural aqueducts which owe their origin to. 
natural cavities in the rocks, and which are generally sub-_ 
terranean. Col. Long observes that coves, sinks, and subter- 
ranean caverns are strikingly characteristic of the whole region _ 
adjacent to the natural tunnel. This is the common character of 
that great limestone formation (carboniferous) which extends | 
over so vast an area in North America, and which abounds in 
extensive subterranean caverns, whether in Kentucky, Virginia, 
or the Helderberg hills in New York. These caverns in the two. 
former states, are of a surprising extent, and have been pene- 
trated several miles. Many coves, and curiously complicated 
dells and vales in the south-western parts of the Apalachian _ 
ridges, probably owe their origin to the disintegration of the 
rocks, and the consequent destruction of the natural caverns. — 
That this natural tunnel has not been worn through the rock 
by the long continued action of running water, is evident, not 
from the cavernous structure alone of the general country, but 
from the form of Powell’s mountain, in a spur of which, this 
natural tunnel passes transversely. Powell’s mountain is one of 
those innumerable knobs, out-liers, or independent hills, divided. 
from the adjacent mountains by dells or vales, which are sonumer- © 
ous in that vast assemblage of Apalachian mountain ridges, which ~ 


* Outliers of any particular ridge. bas 
; | wo¥ 


Description of a Natural Tunnel. 353 


extends N. E. and S. W. 1200 miles, and has a mean breadth of 
about 100 miles between the Ohio river and the Blue ridge, in 
Virginia. In those dells, or vales, the head waters of those rivers 
which effect the drainage of the country east and west, have 
their rise. In the south-western corner of Virginia, where the 
eastern part of Tennessee, and the western part of North Caro- 
lina meet, there are slopes which send down the great Kenhawa 
to the north-west, the Tennessee to the south-west, and the 
Roanoke to the south-east. The Blue ridge has its north-eastern 
termination in York county, Pennsylvania, and from thence 
stretches south-west in an almost unbroken line to Burke county, 
N. Carolina, a distance of more than 350 miles, where it becomes 
the main ridge,* dividing between the waters of the Atlantic 
ocean and the Ohio river. West of this primary ridge lie the 
other ridges belonging to the transition and secondary The 
sources of the Roanoke lie at an elevation of about 1500 feet 
above tide water, on the western side of the Blue ridge, and con- 
tiguous to the sources of the great Kenhawa, which traverses the 
remaining part of the distance to the Ohio river, descending 
the vales, passing through the gaps of the ridges, and the dells 
and vales which separate the independent hills. 

Stock creek is one of those sources of the Tennessee, and rises 
in a dell at the foot of Powell’s mountain. On its way to Clinch 
river, to which it is tributary, and which itself is tributary to the 
Tennessee, it encounters a spur of Powell’s mountain, which 
under the name of Cove ridge, terminates, as Col. Long has re- 
marked, with a slope of about four degrees, affording a very con- 
venient passage for a road. The stream passes through the tun- 
nel not far from the termination of the spur, so that if originally 

* It should, moreover, be remarked, in reference to the main ridge dividing between 
the Atlantic and Ohio waters, which may be regarded as the back bone of 
the Allegheny or Apalachian mountains, although distinguished by different names 
in different parts of its range, is nevertheless completely unbroken by ravines or 
water courses, throughout its whole extent, from its south-west extremity near the 
sources of the Tombeckbee river, in lat. 34 1-2 N. and long. 88° W. to the point 
where it is intersected by the west branch of the Susquehanna, in lat, 41 1-2 N, 
and long. 77 1-2 W. Beyond this point, north-eastwardly, the ridge or back bone 
ceases to maintain its characteristic continuity; but spreads in that direction into 
numerous ramifications, dispersed over a large extent of country, and presenting 
themselves in the form of detached knobs, or out-liers. The crest of this ridge has 
no where an elevation less than 2000 feet above tide ; its course is very serpentine, 
and its entire length between the points above designated, is about 600 miles. 

Vou. 1.—45. 


354 Description of a Natural Tunnel. 


there had been no natural cavity in the rock, it is evident that 
the stream would have been deflected from its line ; would have 
followed the base of the hill, and have turned the extreme point. 
We, therefore, without hesitation, refer the origin of this aque- 
duct to an original cavity in the mountain, and highly approve 
of the name of natural tunnel, which col. Long most appropriate- 
ly has given to it. 

We have been led into these remarks chiefly from a desire to 
draw the public attention to some conspicuous desiderata in the 
geology of this country. No geological surveys having yet been 
undertaken, our knowledge of the Apalachian mountains is very 
limited. The ridges, independent hills, and vales, are very 
numerous and diversified, and have not yet been geologically dis- 
entangled from each other. We are consequently unable to say, 
with confidence, where the mineralogical structure of the gold 
region has its precise limits, or where the primary rocks termi- 
nate, and the secondary begin. In truth, geologically speaking, 
very little is known of the details of the Apalachian ridges, even 
as it respects the place to which their rocks belong in the geologi- 
cal series. Of some portions of them, it is true, we have some 
information ; but among these we cannot include the south-west- 
ern portion in the country of this natural tunnel. 

There is another very interesting branch, and as connected 
with the Apalachian ridges, of great importance. Many have 
considered them under their common designation of Allegheny 
mountains, as the dividing line of the western and eastern rivers. 
This is by no means so. The Susquehanna rises to the north be- 
yond their area, and traverses obliquely their Pennsylvania ter- 
minations, on its way to the coast. ‘The Potomac pursues for a 
while a north-east course, then turns to the east and penetrates 
through the greater mass of those ridges, before it takes its regu- 
lar south-east course; and although the Rappahannock and 
Roanoke may be said to descend from the eastern slope of the 
Apalachians, yet the James river rises in their central parts, and 
the great Kenhawa, which flows north-westward into the Ohio, 
has its sources interlocking with those of the Roanoke. We want 
not only the details from which to deduce the causes which have 
governed the courses of these rivers, but proper data to reason 
upon, for the cause of those interruptions of continuity in the 
Apalachians, which have left so many knobs and hills, independ- 


Visit to Big-bone Lick. 355 


ent of the ridges, and for the origin of those gaps through which 
the streams now pass. We want to know whether by far the 
greater portion of them have been worn, not by the action of 
advancing streams, but by a retrocessive action, similar in nature 
to that which has removed the Falls of Niagara from Queens- 
town to their present station, of which we think to have given 
the proofs in our number for July, 1831, in an article on the an- 
cient drainage of North America. 

It will give usa lively sactisfaction to receive sensible and 
practical papers from our correspondents, on these interesting 
subjects. 


VISIT TO BIG-BONE LICK, IN 1821. 
By ©. 8. Rartnzsave, Professor of Historical and Natural Sciences, &c. 


~ Mr. Cooper, in his account of Big-bone Lick, has craved further 
information from other explorers. I shall, perhaps, add some ad- 
ditional facts to his. He has omitted Mr. John D. Clifford and my- 
self among the explorers. To my knowledge Mr. Clifford visited 
the place in 1816 or 1817, and dug for bones. He procured many, 
which I have seen in his museum, in Lexington, among which a 
fine tusk of mastodon, and some horns of the oxen found there. 
His collection of bones has been removed, by purchase, to the 
museum of Cincinnati, and latterly to the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, of Philadelphia. 

We proposed to visit this lick together in 1820; but his death 
that year prevented us. In 1821, T went with Dr. Short, from 
Lexington to Northbend, at the mouth of the great Miami. I left 
him there at his brother’s seat on the Ohio, and went on purpose to 
the Lick by myself to explore it, and wait for him on his return. 
A horse having been lent to me, I went by the road of Cincinnati, 
following the banks of the Ohio. I visited in the way a beautiful 
elliptical mound, near the banks of the river, and the house of 
major Pratt. It has been preserved intact, with the trees that 
grow onit. The base measures 550 feet in circumference; it is 
25 feet high, and the top is level 100 feet long from N. E. to S. 
W., by 50 feet broad. This mound, or altar, is nearly half way 
between the stone fort, at the mouth of the Miami, and the 
ancient city, temples, circus, and mounds on which Cincinnnati 


356 Visit to Big-bone Lick, in 1821. 


has been built, now mostly levelled and destroyed. All are on the 
second bank of the Ohio. 

Without stopping long in Cincinnati, I crossed there the Ohio 
to Covington, in Kentucky, on the west side of the mouth of Lick- 
ing river. I went to survey the singular ancient monument near 
Covington, at Mr. Jacob Fowle’s ; the main road passes between 
two circular mounds of unequal size; the eastern is 12 feet high; 
the western 25, and has a pavilion on the top; but the singular- 
ity consists in a long sickle-shaped esplanade, running out of it to 
the south, which is 350 feet long, about 80 broad, and 8 feet high. 

From Covington to Big-bone Lick, the distance is only 18 miles, 
nearly 8. W. over the limestone upland, gently undulating: near 
the Lick the ground is more broken into ravines which open into 
the Big-bone valley. 

I remained several days at the Lick, which is a watering place, 
with ample accommodations; but I found the actual owner a 
very surly man, who would no longer allow any excavations, 
haying imbibed the notion that digging would take away the 
water from the spring, around which a pavilion and seats had 
lately been erected. Seeking for bones was then out of the 
question, and I spent my time in taking an ample survey of the 
place, the valley, and the landing on the Ohio, with the sur- 
rounding hills and monuments, now only two miles from the lick, 
where steam boats land their passengers. I made some maps 
and drawings, and collected several plants and fossils. 

Mr. Cooper’s account of the place is tolerably correct, but his 
map does not show all the streams, ravines and springs around 
the place, and omits entirely the remarkable ancient mound, con- 
nected with the Indian traditions mentioned long ago by Jeffer- 
son, in his notes on Virginia. Yet this mound is only 300 yards 
from the large boarding house, but in the woods on the steep hill 
behind it, towards the 8. E. It is elliptical, 10 feet high, 430 feet 
in circuit at the base, 150 feet long, from N. to S. and is level on 
the top, with a hollow in the centre, which I ascribe to some late 
excavation, but am not positive, as no rubbish is seen, 

This was the mound from which the Great Spirit destroyed 
the last mastodon, according to the tradition recorded by 
Jefferson. 

Behind this mound, and towards the landing, are three small 
sepulchral mounds near one of the springs of the western branch 


Visit to Big-bone Lick, in 1821. 357 


of Gunpowder creek, which empties itself into the Ohio at the 
landing ; but the main branch comes from the north. The ridge 
separating the waters of Gunpowder and Big bone creeks, is not 
very high, and forms a kind of gap where the road crosses it: the 
lick may have once communicated with the Ohio by this gap.* 

I walked to the landing, where there was a very inconvenient 
landing place; near it was a farm house only, the cliffs being 
there very near to the Ohio, quite steep, and subject to avalanches. 
I was told by the farmer, that not long ago, in a storm at night, 
he was frightened by a dreadful noise like an earthquake, which 
lasted a long while; and in the morning found a small ravine south 
of his house almost filled up by an avalanche of huge stones from 
the cliffs. I went to see the place, and found it so; the stones 
were of all sizes and shapes, but all angular; some must have 
weighed many thousand pounds, and yet had rolled 200 yards or 
more. These cliffs, as usual, are of limestone, in horizontal] strata, 
and 200 feet at least above the river. 

The water at the Lick springs ‘contains salt and sulphur; it 
has a bluish cast, like that of the Blue licks, on Licking river ; 
both are limpid, but of an abominable taste, although readily 
drank by the idlers who come there to loiter, drink, bathe, and 
kill the game—very plenty yet on the hills. 

I should have wished to follow Big-bone creek to its mouth, but 
had not time. I have since regretted it, when I heard some years 
afterwards that a very singular ancient tomb had been found 
there. It was formed by two large slabs uniting into an angle 
above, and covered by the soil; some human bones were found 
in it, the fate of which I could not learn. I am inclined to believe 
it situated in the alluvion of the creek, which is ample in some 
places, and even contains many fossil shells, or unios, the same 
as those now inhabiting the creek and the Ohio. It would be in- 
teresting to know what connection may exist between this tomb, 
the mound on the hill, and the regular arrangement of the fossil 
bones at the lick, although I should myself be inclined to believe 
in the diluvial eddy which may have brought the bones there in 
a regular heap, in the bend of the valley. 

~ At Blue licks, in a rocky valley, no bones and no monuments 
are found, but Drennon’s lick has bones and mounds. Out of the 


* Which is badly laid out in the map, as well as Gunpowder creek, erroneously 
called River creek. 


358 Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 


limestone region, in the sandstone hills, many licks are found 
with fossils, but no bones and no monuments. Is it not strange 
that there should be an apparent connection between them, or 
rather their locality? as if some Indian tribe had collected these 
bones as relics. 

The valley of Big-bone creek is nearly a mile wide at the lick 
and above it, but becomes much narrower below it, as if the 
lick had been formerly a basin, or small lake. All the hills are 
of horizontal blue limestone, with some shells, chiefly terebra- 
tulites, productus, &c. But the valley, with the sides of the hills, 
are of clay. ‘This clay is of various hues and consistency, often 
mixed with sand and gravel, damp in the middle, dry and arid 
on the sides of the valley. Jt contains in the ravines several fos- 
sils, chiefly alcyonites and entrochites. The hills rise 120 to 180 
feet above the valley. They are wooded and full of game, but 
with a very thin soil. The soil in the valley, near the lick, is 
rather sterile, but higher up becomes fruitful, and is well cul- 
tivated. 

Many pretty plants are found in the valley and hills, but no 
saline plants. ‘The stream of Big-bone often changes its course, 
and washes away its banks when it overflows in the spring. The 
back-water of the Ohio, when very high, comes near to the lick, 7‘ 
and may have reached it formerly. 

No bones were protruding or visible in the banks, in 1821; 
but some were visible as late as 1810, at least. The first Euro- 
pean discoverer of this place was Longueuil, in 1739, who took 
away many bones to Louisiana and France. They were then 
quite out of the ground. He was led there by the Indians, who 
held the place as holy, and never took away the bones. 

Having well explored the lick and valley, I returned to Lex- 
ington with Dr. Short, as soon as he called for me. This was in 
September, 1821. 


NO. 1—LETTER FROM AUDUBON TO THE EDITOR. 
St. Augustine, East Florida, Dec. 7, 1831. 
I am now seated in earnest to give you an unceremonious sum- 


mary of my proceedings up to this time, since we left Richmond, 
in Virginia. Asa geologist, I venture to suppose you would have 


Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 359 


been but indifferently amused, if you had been with us in our 
journey from this latter place to Charleston, in South Carolina ; 
and as an ornithologist, I cannot boast of the enjoyment I found; 
poor coaches, dragged through immense deserted pine forests, mis- 
erable fare, and neither birds or quadrupeds to be seen. We at 
length approached Charleston, and the view of that city from 
across the bay, was hailed by our party with unfeigned delight. 
Charmed as we were with having terminated our dreary jour- 
ney, it did not occur to us to anticipate the extraordinary hospi- 
tality which awaited us there, and which led to a residence of a 
few of the happiest weeks I ever passed. 

I had passed but one night in the city, when I was presented 
to the Rev. Mr. This benevolent man, whom I am proud 
to call my friend, would not suffer the ‘American woodsman’ to 
repose any where but under his roof; and not him alone—all his 
assistants too. When I tell you that he was an old friend of Alex- 
ander Wilson, that he shoots well, is an ornithologist, a philo- 
sophical naturalist, and that during the time we enjoyed his hos- 
pitality, he took us all over the country with his carriages and 
servants, in search of specimens, and that he was every thing 
that a kind brother could be to me, you may suppose that it is 
with great sincerity I say, and ever shall say, God bless him! 
When I first saw this excellent man, he was on horse-back ; but 
upon my being named to him, it seems the love of ornithology 
rose within him, he leaped from his saddle, suffered his horse to 
stand at liberty, and gave me his hand with a pressure of cordiali- 
ty that electrified me. I saw in his eyes that all he said was good 
and true; and although he spoke of my labours in terms far ex- 
ceeding what is due to them, L listened to him, pretty well as- 
sured that he did not intend me to play the part of Gil Blas over 
again; for myself, my assistants George Lehman and Henry 
Ward, our arms, with our baggage, were removed in a jiffy to 
his own mansion, introduced to the family, and at work the very 
next morning. Whilst there, the weather, to be sure, was shock- 
ingly hot great part of the time; we nevertheless shot a vast 
quantity of birds, without meeting with any thing new. The 
picked specimens, after preparation, were despatched to our mu- 
tual friend H —, where great care will be taken of them until my 
return. I believe we prepared about 300 specimens, consisting of 
about sixty species of land and water birds. I jumped at once 


360 Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 


into my wood-hunting habits. All hands of us up before day- 
break, and soon at work, either in the way of shooting, taking 
views, or drawing birds: after sunset—scribbling in our journals. 
At Mr. ’s, our evenings were passed in a very agreeable 
manner. I received a great deal of information from him respect- 
ing the migration, residence, and nidification of many species, 
whose habits I was but partially informed of. In the early part 
of November, the alligators had gone into their winter quarters; 
the migratory birds were passing swiftly on towards the south, 
although we had had no frost. The planters considered the coun- 
try as still unhealthy, and resorted to the city at night. If I had 
been governed by the practice and advice of many, I should not 
have put a foot in the mud, either salted or fresh; but difficulties 
of this character must be disregarded by the American woodsman, 
while success, or the hope of it, is before him. 

[It is impossible to do justice to the generous feelings of the 
Charlestonians, or to their extreme kindness towards me. Many of» 
the gentlemen took the greatest interest in my pursuits; one, Dr. 
» presented me with an excellent New-Foundland dog, and 
other valuable memorials of his regard. Another, Dr. » gave. 
me a collection of shells, from the adjacent waters. The ladies 
presented me with a capital supply of snuff Desirous of going to 
Cole’s Island, distant about 25 or 30 miles, to look after some 
marine birds, a boat, four hands, and a pilot, were immediately 
offered to me, free of all expense, with liberty to detain them as 
long as it was agreeable to me. It is not possible for me to ex- 
press properly the sense I feel of the kindness I received from 
that warm-hearted and intelligent people. 

And now, as you have good naturedly listened to what J have | 
felt bound to say on the score of gratitude, I will tell you what I 
know you are impatient to come to—something about my pro- 
ceedings at Cole’s Island. It lies south from Charleston, about 25 — 
or 30 miles; there we arrived and encamped for the night: cer-» 
tain beef-steaks we brought with us, we roasted upon sticks, and 
the adjacent shore provided us with excellent oysters: gaiety, 
good appetites, and our hearts all right, made the time pass 
pleasantly, and it was with some reluctance we spread our 
blankets, and arranged the fire preparatory to going to rest. 
Nothing is more valuable to a naturalist, and particularly to an . 
ornithologist, than the first hours of day; therefore, long ere the, 

of 


Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 361 


sun had glowed over the broad sea that lay before our camp, we 
had reached another island where birds resort to roost by thou- 
sands; but, notwithstanding these multitudes, not a new species did 
we procure. We, however, had the pleasure of observing two 
noble “ birds of Washington,” sailing majestically over the broad 
watery face. 

But it was necessary to bring my stay in Charleston to a close, 
and it was somewhat difficult too. My friends had increased in 
number, they were in the habit of accompanying me in my 
shooting excursions, I was becoming very much attached to 
them, invitations poured in from various parts of the country; 
and I really believe, that had I been willing, we might have re- 
mained there and in the neighbourhood, if not all our lives, at 
least as long as would have caused a rare scarcity of the feather- 
ed tribes, in that portion of the Carolinas. But my mind was 
among the birds farther south; the Floridas, Red river, the Ar- 
kansas, that almost unknown country California, and the Pacific 
ocean. I felt myself drawn to the untried scenes of those coun- 
tries, and it was necessary to tear myself away from the kindest 
friends. 

We embarked in the schooner Argus, the wind was fair, and 
we hoisted all sails for the Floridas. Our passage was not short, 
the wind changed, and we put back into St. Simon’s Island Bay. 
This was one of the few put backs in life of a fortunate kind for — 
me. I made for the shore, met a gentleman on the beach, pre- 
sented him my card, and was immediately invited to dinner. 1 
visited his gardens, got into such agreeable conversation and quar- 
ters, that I was fain to think I had landed on some one of those 
fairy islands said to have existed in the golden age. But this was 
not all; the owner of this hospitable mansion pressed me to stay 
a month with him, and subscribed to my Birds of America, in the 
most gentlemanly manner. This was T. R. K., Esq. But the 
wind shifted, and I was sent for, and our voyage for St. Augus- 
tine resumed. 

St. Augustine, whatever it may have been, is far from being a 
flourishing place now. It lies at the bottom of a bay, extremely 
difficult of access, even for vessels of light draft, which seldom 
reach the “city” in less than a day. I cannot say much for the 
market, nor for the circumjacent country. Oranges and plenty 
of good fish, seem to constitute the wealth of the place. Sands, 

Vor. I.—46 


862 Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 


poor pine forests, and impenetrable thickets of cactus and pal- 

mettos, form the under growth. ' Birds are rare, and very shy; 
and with all our exertions, we have not collected one hundred 
skins in a fortnight that we have been here. I have received 
many kind attentions, and numerous invitations to visit planta- 
tions, on our way to the south, where I shall direct my steps in a 
few days. I have drawn seventeen species, among which one 
mongrel vulture, which I think will prove new. You will see it, 
I hope, very soon. 

I will give you a sketch of our manner of passing the time. 
We are up before day, and our toilette is soon made. If the day 
is to be spent at drawing, Lehman and I take a walk, and 
Ward his gun, dog, and basket, returning when hungry, or fa- 
tigued, or both. We draw uninterruptedly till dusk, after which, 
another walk, then write up journals, and retire to rest early. 
When we have nothing on hand to draw, the guns are cleaned 
over night, a basket with bread and cheese, a bottle with old 
whiskey, and some water, is prepared. We get into a boat, and 
after an hour of hard rowing, we find ourselyes in the middle of 
most extensive marshes, as far as the eye can reach. The boat 
is anchored, and we go on wading through mud and water, amid 
myriads of sand-flies and musquetoes, shooting here or there a 
bird, or squatting down on our hams for half an hour, to observe 
the ways of the beautiful beings we are in pursuit of. This is 
the way in which we spend the day. At the approach of even- 
ing, the cranes, herons, pelicans, curlews, and the trains of black- 
birds are passing high over our heads, to their roosting places; 
then we also return to ours. If some species are to draw the 
next day, and the weather is warm, they are outlined that same 
evening, to save them from incipient putridity. I have ascer- 
tained satisfactorily that, feathers lose their brilliancy almost as 
rapidly as flesh or skin itself, and am of opinion that a bird alive 
is 75 per cent more rich in colours than twenty-four hours after 
its death; we therefore skin those first which have been first 
killed, and the same evening. All this, added to our other avo- 
cations, brings us into the night pretty well fatigued. Such, my 
dear friend, is the life of an active naturalist; and such, in my 
opinion, it ought to be. It is nonsense ever to hope to see in the 
closet what is only to be perceived—as far as the laws, arrange- 
ments and beauties of ornithological nature is concerned—by 


s 


Beds upon which Philadelphia stands. 363 


that devotion of time, opportunities, and action, to which I have 
consecrated my life, not without hope that science may benefit 
by my labours. 

As to geology, my dear F., you know as well as myself, that 
I am not in the country for that. The instructions you gave me 
are very valuable, and I shall be vigilant. The aspect of the 
country will soon begin to change, and as I proceed, I will write 
to you about all we see and do. Whatever I state to you, you 
may rely upon; and if you think my letters, such as they are, are 
worthy of a place in your valuable Journal, there you are at 
_ liberty to place them, or any part of them. Do not be afraid of 
my safety; I take a reasonable care of my health and life. I 
know how to guard against real difficulties, and I have no time 
to attend to that worst of all kind of difficulties, imaginary ones. 
Circumstances never within my control, threw me upon my own 
resources, at a very early period of my life. I have grown up in 
the school of adversity, and am not an unprofitable scholar there, 
having learnt to be satisfied with providing for my family and 
myself by my own exertions. The life I lead is my vocation, full 
of smooth and rough paths, like every vocation that men variously 
try. My physical constitution has always been good, and the fine 
flow of spirits I have, has often greatly assisted me in some of 
the most trying passages of my life. I know that I am engaged 
in an arduous undertaking; but if I live to complete it, I will 
offer to my country a beautiful monument of the varied splen- 
dour of American nature, and of my devotion to American orni- 
thology. Joun Jamzs Aupvuson. 

Ther. this day at 2, P. M. 78° Fahr. ‘ 


ON THE GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF THE BEDS UPON WHICH 
THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA STANDS. 
By Pzren A. Brownz, Esa. 


Dr. Troos?, in his geological survey of the environs of this city, 
has stated, that it is placed on an alluvion. I am of an entirely 
different opinion; and the distinction between alluvial and di- 
Juvial, is important, and has been well pointed out by Conybeare, 
and other geologists. ‘These two deposites should never be con- 
founded. ‘The superficial soil upon which the city is built, con- 
sists of boulders, gravel, sand, loam, clay, and iron. All these 


364 On the Geological Character of the Beds 


appear to have been derived from the primitive rocks. The 
boulders are granite, gneiss, mica, schist, hornblende, and quartz. 
The gravel stones are principally quartz. There are a few 
rolled pieces of chert, old red sandstone, &c.; but their numbers 
are so comparatively small, that their presence may be consider- 
ed as accidental, and they can lay no claim to giving a general 
character to a deposite which is manifestly diluvial in its origin. 

The boulders and gravel stones are partially rounded, indi- 
cating that they have not been brought from a great distance, 
and the nearest rocks in place are primitive. The felspar in the 
granite boulders is a dull opaque white, and in a state of partial 
decomposition. So it isin the neighbouring mica schist. Dr. H. 
Hayden, author of the geological essays, is of opinion, that the 
rolled pebbles of the diluvial districts of this country, lie generally 
from three to five miles, and sometimes more, from their original » 
gangue, or locality. Guided by these considerations, we may 
venture to pronounce the superficial deposite upon which Phila- 
delphia stands, to be a “ primitive diluvial.” 

The next subject of inquiry is, by what means it was trans- 
ported to where it is. ‘The magnitude of the boulders, and the 
immense quantity of diluvial matter, preclude the idea that they 
have been brought by the Delaware and Schuylkill, even aided 
by any freshes, judging from present appearances, with which 
these rivers have ever been agitated. ‘That a mighty current of 
water has, at no very distant period, passed over this continent, in 
a direction from N. and E. to 8. and W., appears to be a fact 
well proved. ‘The able manner in which Dr. Hayden has ex- 
amined this subject, precludes any discussion of it here ; I would, 
however, remark, that when Coats street and Fair Mount street 
were digging down to the regulation, I inspected the upper surface 
of the mica schist rock, as it was laid bare, and discovered furrows 
upon it, all tending from N. E. to S. and W., as if something 
hard or heavy had been dragged over it. This current, was 
probably consequent upon a flood of a general character, and to 
which the diluvial matter owes its origin, being the comminuted 
materials of the rocks it had torn and abraded. 19 

The materials of which this diluvial deposit is composed, are 
now found, according to observation and the best information, in 
the following order. vii 

Ist. A vegetable sod, or mould, which, mina the suena 


; Upon which the City of Philadelphia stands. 365 


level, and has not been disturbed by cultivation, is generally from 
four to six inches deep. 
2d. When the situation is not very low, ten or twelve inches 
of a yellow, tough, silico-argillaceous earth, called “loam.” When 
the situation is very low, this is of a gray colour. 
3d. In some places, gray and yellow sand and clay; the sand 
sometimes coarse, and at others nearly impalpable; silicious peb- 
bles, from the size of an egg to mere grains, are found here. In 
other places, under the yellow loam, the substance becomes hard 
and sandy, first of a slightly brown colour, and afterwards 
changing to gray sand. The depth of this stratum varies from 
three to six feet. Between this and the next stratum is some- 
times found six or seven inches of black clay, in the lower side 
of which embedded pebbles are commonly found, some as large 
“as paving stones. 
4th. A fat, tenacious, and plastic clay, containing very little 
‘silicious sand, and very few pebbles. The depth of this varies ; 
it is sometimes six or seven feet. Not more than one fourth of 
the site of Philadelphia has any of this stratum; where there is 
no clay, the place is supplied by sandy loam, mostly running into 
gray colour, as it approaches the next stratum. When the clay 
is regular, its depth is, on an average, three to four feet. This 
clay is what is called potter’s clay. The three last strata mixed 
together form what is called brick clay. When the potter’s clay is 
‘superabundant, it is sold to the potters, or reserved to mix with 
‘the sand and loam of other places, to make brick clay. 
5th. A yellowish, and frequently dark brown mixture, partly 
‘chemical, and partly mechanical, of silicious, argillaceous, and 
ferruginous particles, passing into a sort of imperfect iron ore. 
This seldom exceeds in thickness two or three inches. 
6th. Gravel, containing boulders as before stated. The gravel 
is coloured red with iron, and contains a small quantity of clay, 
‘which imparts to it an adhesive quality, and renders it a fine ma- 
terial for making gravel walks, or covering roads. Near the 
‘Schuylkill the boulders are large, and the gravel coarse; but the 
boulders gradually diminish in size and quantity, and the gravel 
‘gradually becomes finer as you approach the Delaware river. At 
‘Seventh street it isa fine sand. It is difficult to ascertain the 
depth of the gravel; mater 3 is -aneaghe found in vit, at the -— 
of sixteen feet. da, 


366 Beds upon which Philadelphia stands. 


As to organic remains, while digging a cellar in Oak street, 
in the Northern Liberties, a large mass of madrepore was found 
in sand, eight feet below the surface. This happened so near to 
the Delaware, that I conjecture it came there with alluvial 
matter. Ihave never been able to detect any organic remains 
in the gravel; but in digging a well at the south end of the naval 
asylum, built by the United States, after passing the various 
strata above described, about on a level with the Schuylkill 
river, the workmen struck upon a bed of black alluvial, resem- 
bling river mud, in which was found wood, leaves, and bark ; the 
latter so sound that it retained its natural colour, and upon in- 
spection it was pronounced by good judges to have belonged to 
the hemlock. Before reaching this stratum of mud, the workmen 
found some pretty large stones, resembling paving stones. 

It would then seem, that before the deposit of this diluvial mat- 
ter, there was a vast valley at this place, through which the 
Schuylkill river ran its peaceful course; that the bed of the river 
was strewed in the usual way with pebbles, and its banks shaded 
with hemlock trees. 

About 38 years ago, a friend of mine dug a sink in a cellar, at 
the N. W. corner of Cherry and Seventh street, Del.: at the 
depth of about thirty feet from the bottom of the cellar, which 
was eight feet below the surface of the earth, the workmen 
found black marsh mud, in which were buried hickory nuts, 
acorns, leaves, and a log of wood; the latter in a high state of 
preservation. Before coming to the mud, the workmen passed 
through a stratum of plastic clay, a stratum of gravelly sand, 
coloured with iron, and a stratum of fine white sand. This fur- 
nishes an additional proof, that the present site of Philadelphia 
was, in ancient times, a hollow basin, or valley. 

How gratifying thus to withdraw the curtain of time, and pene- 
trate into the secrets of a remote antiquity. The apparently 
insignificant gravel stones which we indifferently tread under 
foot, when submitted to the scrutiny of the geologist, are found to 
be so many historical medals. They are indeed mute; but when 
compared with their parent rocks, and the beds which they now 
occupy, they speak eloquently of important changes this planet 
has experienced, and which tradition has confirmed. 

In the clay of the site of Philadelphia are found some objects 
which are supposed by many to be fossil remains ; others believe 


clnte wahglolalid dobar ogy ath — ae. 
ila ian eternal» bnee, ation dea ap ereneipw ape oa tea oh te LO SO emoneenen 


te uO an mete agp i olictve wojnmnon semi -fe al 2h 


391-08 basin qi d sii oe aise old te si toot Seat 
iin Ady Boots otter Ii snutoopaos dandy" rowalh 
iecnion did bate bsgob: al aida eet seu E ay) 


~— 


ba oil} ' torts dios och) Ye dw a siAtiylivsd ~ ‘korong ult fi 


ine ae piers qo sip - fabnie bona shied Ihde ite 

I. a diivw loyal Ae. tuo » dhodinzayb aveds nyate 
a lntvasile. a: mle i bad s Hoge 3 7. wate. ‘Wonstiow: od} eotit 
zovngl hoor binyst enw ds icbar a, burns soir aeiid 

ie: oles Luwwior ei ‘boougey h Satt benson ad jaltel 
Dial” Gal ad aoyb if hos vd hs piecal aw tt apidanqe 
‘a pdt), biasnt ‘oa mite ail? yaitio sot oitodl oh volnucat eddy 
siesagshy % ai mea nitildersent extort oyu vi): — nenoe Lagat 


yan de gen et) at hier euwW 
soot Aolerat diiw 
ii Hy PL tuod A 
ft or en e0 WV add 
sri sid Moods Jo Aiqab 
edt ¥9 ie 4d) wolse dos), ‘iduls «anys 
jor rod vd bo td ieee nit buen de esi 2 itd bya} 
ih itlyid gai wink” it + bow? lo wol 5 bree ppreal anos 
aoaudion add bau oft 0d pititon exotatl moe rro8o1g - 
giis Vieng to tnuiarde 6 yralo oitealg eo pishande A is quod? 7 
iif oni to weutetten bas .cot sive bowalow 
atin hus: en ort Lisi hoor bys tnt obibbs an a 


@  iupivas » pe ot #8 ig stgntios pared 
ar: dottlw easota devin” re, 

Ho-yailu De alt id banbdivg Ay 

nba nea oi 


Si) 


vrisd .7 


: 


, 


Thoughts upon the Nature of Heat and Electricity. 367 


them to be mere nodules of iron and clay. The following are the 
forms in which they most generally appear.* 

No. 1. Body simple, free, funnel formed, concentrically lami- 
nated; interior filled with extraneous matter; exterior rather 
smooth ; pedicle rather long, tapering, bent slightly, and perfo- 
rated; the whole beset with a few, remote, thorn-like points. 

No. 2. Body tuberose, hollow; pedicle very short, bent, and 
perforated. Laminz and points as in No. 1. 

No. 3. Body cup-formed, hollow, and termination papillous ; 
no pedicle, the points very remote. - 

No. 4. Body ovato-oblong, apex obtuse, smooth, pedicle short, 
no points, perforation entire. 

No. 5. Body subglobose, with many protuberances ; no pedicle 
or points, perforated. 

No. 6. Body sub-cylindrical, transversely striated, perforated 
throughout, no points. 


THOUGHTS UPON THE NATURE OF HEAT AND ELECTRICITY. 
To the Editor of the Monthly American Journal of Geology, Ge. 


Smr,—The following remarks are drawn up rather with the 
hope of attracting attention toan obscure subject, than to display 
original views. They are the sum of considerable reading upon 
electricity, &c. without claiming scientific experiment as their 
basis. But hints often strike out sources of thought ; and if these 
remarks can do that, they effect the whole design. I place 
them in your Journal because I wish it success, and because I 
am a subscriber. 

Among many other bodies, the tourmaline is capable of display- 
ing electrical phenomena. Heat, however, is necessary for this 
purpose, apparently offering an evidence of the intimate con- 
nection between heat and electricity, though it does not extend 
to a satisfactory argument, for the theory that they are distinct 
forms of matter. It may be presumed that electricity exists in 
the crystal, and that heat developes it. There is certainly nothing 

surd in this view, though it may appear too exaggerated an 
i to arise from such insufficient reasons. The connection, 

jowever, between them is immediate, and something more than 


‘ * See Plate, 


368 Thoughts upon the Nature of Heat and Electricity. 


an influence exerted by one over the other. For it is difficult to 
suppose that any natural phenomena could be caused, so entirely 
distinct from any of the known results produced by the agency 
of heat, where a similarity in nature and in function existed. 
There is certainly combustion, heat, light, &c., effected by elec- 
tricity, in common with caloric; and this is a fair cause for sup- 
posing at least a direct reaction between them, a mutual inter- 
change of duties, and almost that the one is a modification of the 
other. But no operation of mere caloric will discharge the pistol 
containing hydrogen, or decompose water, or display opposite 
effects at the same moment, by one portion of an instrument, or 
original form of matter becoming negatively or positively electri- 
fied. In developing the electricity of these substances, heat is 
necessary, though not a high temperature, and their electricity 
thus acquired, lasts while the body cools, though the polarities 
become changed. It would almost seem suflicient evidence that 
heat and the electric fluid were independent forms of matter, by 
this assuming of polarities. The cause of their formation it 
would require a deep insight into nature to discover. We can 
see no analogy between this result and any of the properties of 
caloric. An iron poker becomes magnetized by standing in a per- 
pendicular position, and the magnetism is lost by heat. Now it 
would be a natural suggestion, that two fluids, thus reciprocally 
affected, were entirely opposite ; that heat, destroying the mag- 
netic property, could not of course exist with it. Yet it has been 
asserted that the green ray magnetized a needle exposed to it; 
and it is not doubted that heat and light co-exist ; so that caloric 
and magnetism may be combined in the same kind of matter ; and 
as caloric and electricity are more intimately related than light 
and magnetism, they may, for a strong reason, be found together. 
There is some connection, as yet unknown, and I believe unsus- 
pected, between magnetism, perhaps caloric electricity, and the 
principle of gravitation; for the attraction of gravitation can 
only be considered as an effect of some undiscovered power. 
If any division could be made of these subjects, electricity might 
be considered as a property of the air, magnetism of the earth, 
and caloric an universally existing principle through the 
globe, and essential to the very being of matter. Heat may be 
presumed the result of a reaction among the particles of bodies; 
and one philosopher has gone so far as to suppose that a calorific 


Thoughts upon the Nature of Heat and Electricity. 369 


atmosphere exists around the particles of bodies, and that when 
excited, it produces expansion ; if left at rest, the body contracts. 
Such an idea would follow immediately, from the knowledge 
of latent heat, whose discovery proves that caloric is a component 
part of all matter. If this be true, can matter remain the same 
after its remoyal? A body is made to yield caloric by being 
hammered, and in time becomes brittle by its abstraction; but it 
can exhibit the same phenomena if heated. Here the idea is at 
once formed, that the beating has driven the caloric out of it, 
and that this has been renewed by the application of fire. I see 
no objection to such a conception, though Davy calls it rude; yet 
it follows as a direct inference, from the assertion of the calorific 
atmosphere, which must partake of the usual habitudes of mat- 
ter, and be liable to destruction. There is something so obscure 
in all relating to caloric, that it is almost useless to speak of it; 

for how can one comprehend that caloric is matter, and yet re- 
newed faster than we can destroy it. Suppose a wheel had been 
put in motion at the moment of the creation, would it or not be 
capable of heating the axle on which it turns? A carriage wheel 
is probably as hot in five minutes after it commences motion, as 
at any time, and will continue so during a thousand miles, grow- 
ing hotter and hotter, according to the speed, till it could be in- 
flamed and consumed. Now if caloric be a component part of 
matter, why is it not wasted at once—and whence is it renewed? 
from the air, or the wood and iron? Speculations like the above 
may, by practical men, who deal—perhaps are only capable of 
dealing—with facts, be considered useless. They are so, when an 
immediate advantage is considered; they are not so when an 
enlarged view is taken, and remote ends anticipated. In this 
nation of common sense, there isa vast mass of hambug spouting 
from the ignorant and superficial, upon what they call practical 
utility. He who attempts any science, without a capacity for 
facts, can make nothing of it; but he who engages with nature, 
possessing that alone, is a mere day Jabourer, a compiler of 
crudities. There must be, in a contest with so subtle and protean 
a jade, intellect, powerful and comprehensive; invention, rapid 
and unceasing ; habits of quick observation and zeal, with an en- 
tire devotion to the pursuit. When these are found united, 

America. may rank among other nations in her contributions to 
science, but not till then. Lest, however, there should oe a sneer 

Vor. I.—47 ” A 


370 Ohio Shells. 


at my love of a fine and well woven speculation, I will plant a 
loaded battery at such a breach in knowledge, and just say, no 
man has ever been quick in any thing without a mind that grasp- 
ed effects, and originated causes. Bacon speculated, Newton, 
Locke, Galileo, Davy, Dalton, and every man who will wave a 
flag over the ruins of the future. 


OHIO SHELLS. 


Notices of Western Botany and Conchology.—By C. W. Sxort, 
M. D. and H. Hurserr Eaton, A. M. (R. 8.) 


Monograph of the Bivalve Shells of the River Ohio.— Translated 
from the French of Professor Rafinesque, by C. A. Poutson, Esq. 


Tue interesting paper under this head, which we find in the 
Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the Associate Sciences, 
published at Lexington, Kentucky, deserves to be transplanted 
from the medical journal we have named, that it may be more 
generally accessible to the lovers of natural history. The oppor- 
tunities which naturalists enjoy, who are residents of the western 
country, of personally investigating—and im place—all those ob- 
jects of so much interest to the now numerous body of inquirers, 
must always give them great advantages over their colaborators 
in natural science, who, bound to the Atlantic shores, by various 
urgencies, must study, and of course describe at the greatest dis- 
advantage, objects that are often transmitted to them in a de- 
fective state, and that are accompanied by the ambiguous rela- 
tions of the inexperienced persons who transmit them; for such 
we may generally suppose them to be, taking it for granted that 
resident naturalists choose always to announce their discoveries, 
rather than put their friends at a distance to the unnecessary 
trouble of doing it in a less effective manner. Remembering how 
exceedingly deficient we were once ourselves, it is by no means 
with the intention of speaking slightly of the imperfect attempts 
of the zealous uninitiated, to convey their views, that we make 
these remarks: the elementary course of geological instruction 
we have adopted for this Journal, is a proof of our solicitude to 
favour, as much as we know how, the incipient efforts of all 


lovers of nature. We have rather intended to mark our de- 
- ate rerTy bo 


Ohio Shells. 371 


ference and respect for the labours of those naturalists who are 
resident in the western country, and to express our regret that 
we have not more frequent opportunities of noticing them. ‘They 
have a boundless field of inquiry ; they are on the spot, and a host 
of anxious naturalists in Europe and America, ever ready to re- 
ceive information from them. These are great inducements, and 
are sure to operate beneficially in the end; but we are of the 
present day, and are desirous of possessing all the information 
which the actual spirit of natural science solicitously calls for. 

We take occasion to repeat here, that we shall always be 
ready to notice, in the most favourable manner, the discoveries 
and opinions of the naturalists of the western country; and the 
article now under consideration would not, perhaps, have escaped 
our attention so long, if it were not that a paper devoted to 
natural history, which is corked up, as it were, in a medical 
journal, although of the greatest respectability, was not likely to 
come under the notice—at the earliest day—of an editor who is 
not medical, and who has enough to do to keep up with the 
journals devoted to natural science. 

Messrs. Short and Eaton made an excursion to the Ohio river, 
about eighty miles due north from Lexington. They directed 
their attention to the vegetable productions of the intermediate 
country, and to the shells of the Ohio, and the great Miami river. 
Of these objects they have given catalogues, restricted to those 
found during the excursion. The summer and fall had been un- 
usually hot and dry; the catalogue, however, is represented to 
be a fair specimen of the latest autumnal flora of that part of 
the country, no plant being mentioned in it which was not found 
in flower, and the severe frosts which had commenced (16th 
Sept. 1830) before their return from the excursion, having finally 
arrested the florification of plants. This was, however, favoura- 
ble to their other branch, conchology ; the waters of the Ohio and 
Miami, being unusually low, and the shores more easily searched 
for some distance into the beds of the streams. The localities which 
were particularly resorted to for shells, were “those portions 
of the Ohio river, on the northern side, lying a mile or two above 
and below the mouth of Muddy creek, fifteen miles below Cincin- 
nati, and the eastern borders of the great Miami, contiguous to 
the village of Cleves, in Hamilton county, Ohio.” In the botani- 
cal catalogue, fifty plants are enumerated. Lycopus europceus. 


372 Ohio Shells. 


L. virginicus. Collinsonia canadensis. Commelina communis. 
Schollera graminifolia. Ceresia fluitans. Isnardia palustris. Che- 
nepodium botrys. C. anthelminticum. Gentiana quinqueflora. G. 
saponaria. Impatiens pallida. I. fulva. Lobelia syphilitica. L. 
inflata. L. Cardinalis. Onosmodium hispidium. Elodea petiolata. 
Mimulus ringens. M. Alatus. Mentha borealis. M. tenuis. Ge- 
rardia tenuifolias Verbena hastata. Zapania nodiflora. Capraria 
multifida. Lindernia attenuata. Chelone glabra. Hyssopus ne- 
petoides. Scrophularia marilandica. Erisimum palustre. Cleome 
dodecandra. Strophostyles angulosa. Rudbeckia triloba. -R. ful- 
gida. Coreopsis tricosperma. Bidens bipinnata. B. chrysanthe- 
moides. Actinomeris squarrosa. Conyza camphorata. Eupatorium 
perfoliatum. E.Celestinum. Aster conyzoides. Prenanthes. Gna- 
phalium uliginosum. Helenium autumnale. Eclipta procumbens. 
Acnida cannibina. Ambrosia trifida. Asplenium angustifolium. 

Of the shells collected in this excursion, we find thirty-six 
species of bivalves enumerated, and four species of univalves; 
but as we are desirous of making a few remarks on this branch 
_of the paper, we shall now take up the neat monograph whose 
title appears at the head of our article, and which is entirely 
devoted to that subject. 

We mentioned in our last number, “a continuation of a mono- 
graph of the bivalve shells of the river Ohio, and other rivers of 
the western states,” which that veteran naturalist professor Ra- 
finesque had just published. Since that period a translation of 
the monograph itself has been published by Mr. Poulson, and we 
have never seen any thing of the kind done with more ability, or 
with less ostentation. A well executed figure of the unio verrucosa 
is prefixed to it, which is sufficiently explanatory of the progres- 
sive motion of the animals which inhabit these bivalves, and 
about which there has been a great deal of misunderstanding. 
Conchologists, we believe, are agreed now, that the laws of 
physics may be as appropriate to the motion of shell fish as to 
that of dray horses; and that it is as well not to have the 
load too far from the draft power of the animal. We. are 
glad of this, as it must have been the iron age to these little 
‘mollusca, whilst men of science gave them such Bien oe long 
trace ropes. nvedtl 

Mr. Poulson dedicates’ his translation. to: William Hembel, 
esquire. It is not our place here to pronounce the eulogium of 


Ohio Shells. 373 


this gentleman; but when so appropriate an occasion presents 
itself, of expressing our most sincere respect for the virtues and 
talents of a venerable and untiring friend to science, in all its 
various branches, we should be conscious of an omission if we 
were to say less than we do upon this occasion. From this neat 
and appropriate dedication, we extract the following passage, 
which will bring us at once in medias res. 

“Tn publicly addressing to your notice a translation of professor Rafinesque’s mo- 
nograph of the bivalve shelis of the river Ohio, and its tributaries, it seems proper to 
remark, that this paper was originally published at Brussels, in September, 1820, 
in the ‘ Annales Generales des Sciences Physiques.’ Extra copies were transmit- 
ted to the author in this country, who distributed them among individuals, and the 
libraries belonging to scientific institutions in this city and elsewhere. It is there- 
fore a curious circumstance in the history of American conchology, that this sin- 
gular evidence of the author’s acumen, zeal, and industry should have thus ex- 
isted for more than eleven years, while but four of the numerous species discovers 
ed and described by him, are known by his names, either in the works of Ameri- 
can authors, or in our collections.” 


Now, four species out of sixty then made known, is 62 per 
centum ; and although 62 per centum is very good interest in 
money matters, yet we have but an indifferent opinion of divi- 
dends of this character, in natural history, particularly when by 
adroit arrangements of others, this 6 per centum is only once 
paid, and must figure away ever after as all the capital the 
original holder is entitled to. This is pretty much the predica- 
ment in which professor Rafinesque has been placed by the man- 
‘agement of others, according to the account of himself and his 
friends. He paid into the hands of the commissioners of con- 
‘chology, sixty species, dead and alive; and lo! and behold! when 
he comes to ask for his annual interest out of the reputation 
fund, he is told that no more than four species appear entered 
in the books to his credit. If this had been a money transaction, 
there would have been a great noise about it; but as it is only 
about shells without any oysters in them, people disregard it, 
nay, even laugh at it; which is very wrong. Now we love fair 
play, and what is better, we love shells better than oysters, and 
therefore we feel disposed to get up a little noise about this mat- 
‘ter, but in a good natured way, and with a view to justice and 
future harmony. ' 
That our readers may have professor Rafinesque’s statement 
from himself, we extract from his “Continuation of a Mono- 


374 Ohio Shells. 


graph,” published in Philadelphia, October, 1831, the following 
passages. 


“ Hardly a dozen species of North American fluviatile bivalve shells had been 
mentioned by Bosc, Lamark, Say, and Lesueur, before 1820, when I described, ina 
special and ample monograph, 75 species of them, with 40 varieties, mostly dis- 
covered by myself, in my travels of 1818 and 1819, and figured 28 of them.” 

“ Since 1820, several American conchologists have attempted to notice, describe, 
or figure these shells. Barnes in 1823. Lea, Say, and Eaton, later still. They had 
a fine field before them, in elucidating them by good figures, and describing the 
new kinds; but led astray by various motives, they have neglected to verify, or 
properly notice my previous labours, although they were known to them. Mr. 
is, above all, inexcusable. I had respectfully noticed, in 1820, his previous labours; 
but he has never mentioned mine, and knows so little of the animals of these shells, 
as to have mistaken their mouth for their tail, and their anterior for the posterior 
part of the shells! 

“ Tf he had seen these animals alive, feeding, moving, and watched their habits, 
as I have done repeatedly, he would not have fallen into such a blunder.” 

“This continuation will be a supplement to Mr. Poulson’s translation of my 
monograph of 1820. I mean to givein it my shells, under my own names, im- 
posed as soon as found in 1821 and 1822 chiefly ; the undoubted right of a pre- 
vious discoverer and explorer. If some of them are already well named and de- 
scribed, let their names be aa and the oldest or best prevail, as those of my 
old monograph ought in all cases.’ 


The whole question as to the quantum of injustice done to 
professor Rafinesque, lies in the compass of a nutshell ; either his 
discoveries in 1820 preceded those of the conchologists he has 
alluded to, or they did not ; and they have been describing and 
naming shells he had previously described and named, or they 
have not. We must presume his monograph was known to them, 
as it was notorious, both in Europe and this country ; and a true 
son of nature never pretends to occupy ground with permanent 
views, of which the pre-emption rights have not been examined 
into, and extinguished. Those who act otherwise, are conchologi- 
cal squatters, and are subject to a declaration of ejectment being 
filed against them. Into this matter we shall not further enter, 
as we haye reason to believe that one of our correspondents, 
better fitted to do justice to the subject, is likely to give us his 
views on it ere long. 

Professor Rafinesque has no reason to reproach Messrs. Short 
and Eaton with injustice to him, as they have given him full 
credit ; there is an air of candour and intelligence about their 
paper, which recommends it highly. They appear to be familiar 
with the labours of all the American conchologists, and their own 


Ohio Shells. 375 


practical remarks upon ine shells whose structure they have 
studied in their native beds, have a somewhat satirical cast. We 
hope these practical remarks will be continued ; they will prove 
an admirable corrective to that fault of extensive generalization 
from slender premises, which inexperienced and ardent persons 
are apt to fall into. Our readers, perhaps, understand that the 
characters which some writers on these shells have resorted to, 
upon which to found their species, are derived from their shape, 
and the external marks which they bear. Thus the unio plicatus 
is so called from having inequalities on the shell, which are called 
folds ; the unio sulcatus, from its having indents or furrows ; the 
unio cornutus, from protuberances, which are called horns ; the 
unio verrucosus, from protuberances, thonght to resemble warts ; 
the unio tuberculatus, from protuberances resembling tubercles ; 
the unio securis, from a resemblance to the edge of an axe: then 
there is the unio circulus, unio orbiculatus, unio subrotundus, unio 
triangularis, from their approximation to a round or angular 
shape. It is usual to find the unios of the Ohio, very much de- 
corticated at the beaks; one, from being particularly so, has been 
called unio cariosus, or the carious unio. 

Messrs. Short and Eaton lay the axe at the root of all these 
hasty attempts at classification, by showing that the carious unio 
of the Ohio, is also found in the Miami, where it is not in the least 
degree carious ; and that some of these shells are nearly circular, 
some quadrangular, some ovate, and some almost perfectly elipti- 
cal, so that here we have a unio which is without its own specific 
characters, whilst it has got those of almost every other shell ; for 
it has got its place in the books as wnio cariosus, whilst it is never 
carious in the Miami, and has the distinctive cognominal charac- 
ters of the unio ellipsis, the unio circulus, the unio orbiculatus, the 
unio subrotundus, the unio ovatus, &c. &c. &e. 

Thus we see how insecure are the grounds upon which men 
build, who trust to the external forms of shells, as the sole means of 
giving to an important family of molluscous animals their proper 
place in the scale of animal existences. These animals could not 
pursue the same object with less effect, if it were given to them 
to attempt to assign a natural place to our biped race, by de- 
scribing all the dwelling houses between the Delaware and 
Schuylkill, where some are amorphous from want of taste, some 
mean from the poverty of the owner, others ornamented and 


376 Ohio Shells. 


spacious, for the contrary reason ; and where all the varied forms 
have grown out of the indispensable wants, the abilities and 
taste of the inhabitants, whether these have been acquired in 
America, Europe, or in China. Decorticated beaks would not be 
wanting ; yet Chesnut and Arch streets—those Miami’s of houses 
—would furnish abundant exceptions; and then as to cornutus, 
horns, as long as chimneys were standing, would not he wanting, 
long or short. In regard to the unio cornutus, it fares no better 
in the hands of Messrs. Short and Eaton, than unio cartosus. 
They remark on this shell, to which they have assigned pro- 
fessor Rafinesque’s original name of unio torulosus: “all pos- 
sible varieties of this heteramorphous shell were found in the 
Ohio: the unio foliutus of Hildreth, which Mr. Lea thinks nothing 
more than a variety of the unio cornutus of Barnes, was found, 
and among our numerous specimens of this variety, not one had 
hardly the rudiment of a horn.” 

Here we have horned shells without horns, as we before had 
carious shells perfectly sound. What would be said of the want 
of sense of cattle breeders, if they were to talk of long horned 
cattle with no horns, and Durham short horns with long horns. 
These practical men know that the Durham short horn, and the 
Bakewell breed of sheep, both of which, externally, differ from 
all other animals of the same races, are artificial varieties pro- 
duced by particular treatment ; but that if the circumstances to 
which the varieties were owing, no longer influenced them, the 
varieties would disappear. We have seen that the same shell 
can differ greatly in its shape; that it is sound in one river, and 
carious in another. What the particular causes of such carious- 
ness are, we know not at present ; but we do know that mollusea 
repair their own shells when injured, and may infer that the 
degree of intelligence requisite for that act, may govern the 
young mollusca in modifying the primary form of its shell, ac- 
cording to the exigences of the circumstances which surround 
it; and that when it is much varied, it is but evidence of what 
the animal is capable of doing for conservative purposes. | 

When conchologists study the animals more, and the shells 
less, or rather when they consider the animals themselves as the 
proper objects of study, every accession to our knowledge of this 
branch, can be carried to the general account of natural history, 
to the honour of the discoverer. Writers who contend for priority 


¢ 


Meteorological Observations. OTT 


‘in naming shells, even when they succeed in establishing their 
claims, will acquire no lasting reputation, unless they show they 
have studied the animals too. We mean no offence in our re- 
marks to any one. Several of the most conspicuous conchologists 
of this country, Say, Barnes, Lea, and others, have made import- 
ant remarks on the structure and habits of the mollusca ; but at 
present the general pursuit appears to be after the shadow, 
rather than the substance; and we regret it both for the sake of 
zoology and for the sake of our conchologists. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
Made at Wilmington, Delaware, by Henry Gibbons, M.D. 
Summary ror Drecemser, 1831. 


Therm.  Barom. | Proportion of clear weather, days 18 
Average at sun-rise, 19°.39 in.29.83 | Proportion of cloudy, 1 


Average at mid-day, 28°.94 29.76 | Whole days clear, 12 
Ayerage at 11 o'clock, Days on which rain fell, ul 

P. M. 20°.77 29.77 | Days on which snow fell, 8 
Monthly average, 249.16 29.795) Quantity of rain, in. 2 
Maximum, 21st, 41°. 30.20} Depth of snow, 6.75 
Minimum, 16th, He 29.23 | Of water,* 2.10 
Range, 41°. 97 | Northerly winds prevailed, days 16 
Warmest day, 24th, 353°. Easterly, 6 
Coldest day, 16th, 63°. Southerly, (8. to W.) 9 


. Auroras, none. The month rather dry: snows frequent, but not deep; 
rain fell only once, and then in very small quantity. Temperature uni- 
formly cold; much below the usual standard for this month. The thermome- 
ter was above the freezing point at sun-rise on one day only, and at noon 
on nine days. (See the review of the year.) Winds occasionally high, and 
mostly unsteady, flowing from no one quarter of the compass so long as two 
successive days, except on twooccasions. Noelectrified clouds. Four easterly 
storms, three of them with snow, the other dry ; none of them severe. 


OM, Review of the Weather for the year 1831. 


Tue last month of 1830 was mild, and the weather continued 
open till the 9th of January, 1831, when winter set in with a 
storm of sleet and snow, from N. E. This was followed by the 
memorable snow-storm which commenced on the evening of the 
14th, and terminated at noon on the 16th, after a duration of 
42 hours, exceeding in violence any thing that had before oc- 


? 
, _* Nine inches of light snow are equivalent to one inch of water; the propor- 
tion, however, varies with the character of the snow. 


Vor. 1.—48 


378 Meteorological Observations. 


curred within, the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The snow 
was excessively drifted; its average depth being about two feet. 
The storm extended beyond the Alleghanies, but was there un- 
attended with wind; so that the snow fell calmly to the depth of 
near three feet. After much severe cold, and several other storms 
of snow and rain, the winter quietly broke up towards the latter 
end of February. The navigation of the Christiana creek, and 
of the Delaware river, near Philadelphia, was closed, or ren- 
dered impracticable by ice, from the 12th of January, to the 
3d of March—a period of seven weeks. 

The spring of 1831 was rather forward, and generally mild. 
In the second week of April, however, several severe frosts oc- 
curred, which injured much of the earlier fruit, then in bloom. 
A good deal of rain fell in March and April; but in May, there 
was only one rain of consequence, and that one not very heavy. 
The month of May was, of course, very dry, so as to injure mate- 
rially some of the crops. The few last days were unseasonably hot. 

After the middle of June, the summer of 1831 was remarkable 
for damp weather, and excessive rains, which extended over a 
great part of the United States. The grass crops had been in- 
jured by drought ; and now the crops of grain were very much 
damaged by wet. So moist was the atmosphere, that the “ dry- 
goods,” of store-keepers, became mouldy on the shelves, in many 
instances. Two feet of rain fell in July and August. There was 
no hot weather, though it was often Neate ss on account of 
the moisture which loaded the atmosphere. In the third week 
of August, a dense haze obscured the sky, imparting a peculiar 
colour to the sun and moon—a yellowish green tinge. From the 
beginning of July to the termination of the year, the air was 
scarcely clear of a haziness for an hour ata time. It appeared to 
have aclose connexion with the tendency to produce clouds, which 
was observed at the same time to exist in the erial laboratory 
of nature. Doubtless its cause must be referred to the precipita- 
tion of vapour. The ruddy haze of Indian summer is a phenome- 
non very analagous; but when we consider the vast quantity of 
vegetable exhalations which must result, at this season, from the 
decomposition of plants, and the desiccation of the foliage of the 
immense American forests, we cannot but grant to the effluvia 
of decaying vegetation, some agency in the formation of the haze 
of our autumnal sky. ~ © 


Meteorological Observations. 379 


The temperature of the autumn months was seasonable. In 
September and October, much rain fell; but not so much in 
November. On the whole, the fall of 1831 may be considered 
very pleasant. Not a single severe frost occurred till after the 
middle of November; but winter then set in, without any pre- 
liminary steps, at least one month earlier than usual. 

The year 1831 exhibits several calamitous events in the his- 
tory of the weather. The unrivalled snow-storm of January, ren- 
dered the roads, for a time, impassable. ‘The drought of May, 
(which, however, was not very extensively felt,) excited the rea- 
sonable apprehension of the husbandman ; whilst the subsequent 
torrents of rain were still more injurious. Finally, the sudden 
onset of winter, for which many were unprepared, put a period 
to the navigation of the rivers, and gave rise to much suffering 
among the crews of vessels on the coast. 

The month of December, 1831, will hold a conspicuous place 
in the annals of meteorology, and will require more particular no- 
tice, in connexion with the winter of which it forms a part. l 
will take the liberty of remarking in this place, that the meteoro- 
logical year ought to consist of four successive seasons, commencing 
with December, or with March. According to the Julian calen- 
dar, the year which begins with January, comprises only three 
entire seasons, and portions of two winters. 

For the present, it will suffice to say, that the thermometer has 
never before sunk to zero, in this month, since the commence- 
‘ment of the 19th century—that the December of 1818 was the 
‘only one which equalled it in its average degree of cold since 
1807, and perhaps for a longer period—that during the same 
term of 24 years, there was not so much snow in any one De- 
cember, nor so small a quantity of rain. Before the termination 
of the month, the ‘old fashioned” winter was a topic of general 
remark ; and it was discovered by many savans, that the “ goose’s 
bone” predicted a hard winter ! 

In the following table, the mean given for each month is the 
average of two series of observations ; the one taken at sun-rise, 
and the other at noon, or a little after. The yearly temperature 
‘of 51°, is at least one degree below the average standard of this 
latitude, which may be ascribed almost entirely to the cold of 
the last month of the year. In one column is given the number 
of days in each month, on which high winds occurred, which 


380 Meteorological Observations. 


will be found to bear some relation to the range of the barome- 
ter. In the column of easterly storms, are included those which 
were unaccompanied with rain, amounting to about one third 
of the whole number. The column of electrified clouds indicates 
the number of days on which electrical phenomena occurred, to 
any considerable extent. In some remarks, published in the 5th 
No. of this Journal, the manner of obtaining the results in-most 
of the remaining columns, is explained. For the sake of compari- 
son, the summary for the year 1830 has been added. 


Electrified clouds | ~S= = 7SVerSans 


Auroras. [SARA MSConSeSo Hw 
Easterly storms: | WANVROSM DAS aH g = 
oe % |High winds. | Torsone 
= 
8S BOQ VOWOS Igo 
S A {Southerly winds. | eset 8 38 
Easterly winds, Rete ISS 
2 ES yoo Or anc oO 
Ss Northerly winds i aA mT as = S 
Yr) Seti k ied = 
: Do of water. BSSSSSSSRSSA BS 
2 . . . Jrterindtarant S A 5 
~ m wD 
a to a 
S E |Do. of snow. | gricicocoocoes gs ‘ 
Z 
" , . |BRBSSSSeRSRS 4 § hour 
= Quantity of rain [aaarsanannwc e¢ 
8 
ya No hh bs SE SeaaSe= aS 
oD No; Of daya rainy | [SS / 9S Os koe 0S Os an : 
Smaavcst 7) 
@ 2 a Whole days clear | @RSARARSAR SA ES a) a 
to | @ ~ 
= = = 
Gt || A | Proportion or [27 RRRaSa""8 BS ‘ 
i=) cloudy do. 
2 & Proportion of |EQSSASRESRAS RS 
5 a clear weather ’ 
= ‘ ~ ‘ 
= 3 Range. fSSzanGSoenRes = F 
a= a dl 
3 eS ROD RO Owos = : 
4 ,a rte -Mmortams fe 4 
c ak) ows oi Ce ~ 
= = = |Minimum. RRREEEEEEEEE os 
3 8 | RSGRSRRARRSR AF 
8 g ReaStenesaeR 2 2 
SSesh=nesse 
FS 3 taken forked pepe SR ee 
<= |Maximum. SERRSSRRRRRR S_E t! ay 
iS a SRetto Cato on eR 
sy Weak SRESKRZSASLSE EF E ‘ 
‘ HHASAGASRARA HB R ; 
eg ———— 6» inH ” wc) > 
= Coldestday. |/Seaeebssarae © x 
1 ) 7) Cer eee) 
§ Warmest day. | sASSERSSESSR Bd 
: | a 
Ps A 3 
a imei lsgesess BS 
3 2 |Minimum. T*8RRRSes o ; 
" . rr 
& |Maximum. fia waive : ait 
2 [33! & Z 
FI {32 rt Se | : 
} gq |Mean. Perens 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 381 


ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
Officers for the Year 1832, elected 27th Dec. 1831. 


President, William McClure. 

Vice Presidents, George Ord, William Hembel. 

Corresponding Secretary, S. G. Morton, M. D. 

Recording Secretary, T. McEuen, M. D. 

Treasurer, G. W. Carpenter. 

Librarian, C. Pickering, M. D. 

Curators, J. P. Wetherill, T. McEuen, M. D., 8. G. Morton, M. D., 
C. A. Poulson. 

Auditors, C. Hedelius, W. Morris, Jr., P. B. Goddard. 

Publication Committee, S. G. Morton, M. D., C. Pickering, M. D., T. 
McEuen, M. D., C. A. Poulson. 


AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
Officers for the Year 1832, elected January 6, 1832 
President, P. 8S. Duponceau. 
Vice Presidents, N. Chapman, J. Hopkinson, Geo. Ord. 
Secretaries, F. Bache, C. C. Biddle, J. Kane, W. H. Keating 
Counsellors, W. Rawle, W. Hembel, R. Hare, M. D., C. D. Meigs, M. D., 
J. Mease. 
Curators, J. P. Wetherill, R. Griffith, J. Lea. 
Treasurer, J. Vaughan. 


SCIENTIFIC AND GENERAL MEMORANDA. 


Limestone Caves in Schoharie, State of New York.—Some of 
those extensive and irregular cavities, which are so conspicuous 
in the carboniferous limestone of the United States, and of a few 
of which—situated in the Helderberg hills, near Albany—de- 
scriptions have been given, have been lately explored in the con- 
tinuation of the same chain, near the village of Schoharie. Mr. 
John Gebhard, with some enterprising mineralogical friends, 
visited, in September last, one of those interesting natural phe- 
nomena. Mr. Hubbard was let down one, a perpendicular fissure, 
about ten feet long, and six feet broad, a distance of about seven- 
ty-five feet, where the descent declined to the south, and where 
he awaited the arrival of Mr. Branch. 'They followed this new 
direction at an angle of about sixty degrees, for about fifty-five 
feet, when the descent became again perpendicular, for fifteen 
feet. Overcoming this, and resuming the preceding direction for 


382 Scientific ana General Memoranda. 


about thirty feet, they reached the bottom, where they found a 
stream of limpid water, running south. Whilst pursuing the course 
of this stream, they visited a spacious. apartment, about twenty 
feet broad, and more than a hundred feet high. In this room they 
found the skeleton of an animal, believed to be a fox, which, per- 
haps, having fallen through in some part, had died for hunger. The 
‘stream led to a body of water, which, having no means of ex- 
ploring, they returned upon their steps, and rejoined their friends. 

In October, Mr. Gebhard, Mr. Bonny, and Dr. Foster, haying 
constructed a boat, contrived to get it afloat upon this subter- 
ranean lake, and with other friends, having manned the boat, 
navigated the lake for three hundred feet, through various passa- 
ges, in one of which the water was thirty feet deep, and transpa- 
rent to the bottom. At a shelving ascent on the right shore of the 
lake, the water appeared to be lost by an invisible drainage. 
They were here rewarded by the discovery of a very magnifi- 
cent apartment, the description of which we shall borrow from an 
account ofthe adventure, drawn up, we presume, by one of the 
party, and which a friend has forwarded to us in a number of 
the Troy Céntinel. 


“ Advancing up the shelving ascent, about twenty feet, they entered an 
aperture in the rock, directly in front, of about the size of an ordinary en- 
trance to a house, where a scene, grand beyond description, burst upon the 
view. They advanced through this opening into a vast amphitheatre, hitherto 
untrod by mortal foot, which, from its perfectly regular and circular form, 
obtained at once the name ofthe rotunda. Upon giving this apartment a par- 
ticular examination, after the first feelings of surprise had subsided, they 
found it about one hundred feet in diameter, and apparently more than a 
hundred feet in height, regular in its form, the floor descending on all sides, 
gradually, to the centre, and forming a spacious gallery around its whole 
circumference, and enclosed above by a horizontal roof. ‘The vast size of 
this apartment, the magnificence ofthe gigantic walls, and fretted roof, both 
entirely encrusted with transparent crystals, which sent back the blaze of, 
the torches in a thousand different dyes, at once satisfied the beholders, that 
they had penetrated into the very temple, in these hitherto unexplored realms.” 


After freighting their little bark with a rich cargo of minera- 
logical curiosities, they returned to the upper world, delighted 
with the success of their voyage. 


Zoological Weather Glass—“ At Schwitzingen, in the post- 
“house, we witnessed, for the first time, what we have since seen 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 383 


frequently—an amusing application of zoological knowledge, for 
the purpose of prognosticating the weather. T'wo frogs, of the 
species rana arborea, are kept in a glass jar, about 18 inches in 
height, and six inches in diameter, with the depth of three or 
four inches of water at the bottom, and a small ladder reaching 
to the top of the jar. On the approach of dry weather, the frogs 
mount the ladder; but when wet weather is expected, they de- 
scend into the water. These animals are of a bright green, and in’ 
their wild state, climb the trees in search of insects, and make a 
peculiar singing noise before rain. In the jar, they get no other 
food than now and then a fly, one of which, we were assured, 
would serve a frog for a week, though it will eat from six to 
twelve ina day if it can get them. In catching the flies put alive 
into the jars, the frogs display great adroitness.”—Mr. Loudon. 


Attachments between Animals.—Mrs. Bowditch relates, in the 
Mag. of Nat. History, that when. she was in Paris, there were 
two remarkable fine ostriches, male and female, at the Jardin 
du Roi, and that one of them died in great agony, after swallow- 
ing a broken piece of glass. From the moment his companion 
was taken from him, the male bird had no rest; he appeared to 
be incessantly searching for something, and daily wasted away. 
He was moved from the spot, in the hope he would forget his 
grief; he was even allowed more liberty, but nought availed ; 
and he literally pined himself to death. Upon another occasion, 
she states, that a curious expedient was resorted to, to prevent 
a similar catastrophe. A gentleman had, for some years, possessed 
two cranes, (ardea pavonina;) one of them died, and the sur- 
vivor became disconsolate. He was apparently following his 
companion, when his owner introduced a large looking glass into 
the aviary. The bird no sooner beheld his reflected image, than 
he fancied she for whom he mourned had been restored to him; he 
placed himself close to the mirror, plumed his feathers, and showed 
every sign of happiness. The scheme answered completely ; the 
crane recovered his health and spirits, passed almost all his time 
before the looking glass, and lived many years after. These are 
curious instances of the strength of the social principle in birds. 


_ Presentiment in a Goose.—The following anecdote is from. the 
Mag. of Nat. History. “ An old goose, that had been sitting upon 


384 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


her eggs for two weeks, in a farmer’s kitchen, was perceived, on 
a sudden, to be taken violently ill. She soon after left the nest, 
and repaired to an out house where there was a young goose of 
the first year ; this she brought with her into the kitchen. The 
young one immediately scrambled into the old one’s nest, sat, 
hatched, and afterwards brought up the brood. ‘The old goose, 
as soon as the young one had taken her place, sat down by the 
side of the nest and shortly after died.” The young goose had 
never been in the habit of entering the kitchen before, and the 
person who relates the transaction, received the account the 
same day it occurred, from his sister, who witnessed it. 


Delta of Oroonoko and Maragnon.—M. Gutmuths states the in- 
crease of the mud, which is encroaching on the sea, on the 
Guiana coast, is aided by the tangled roots of the Rhizophora 
Mangle, which extend to the very edge of the waves, and even 
under the water. The sea is muddy along the shore, 200 geo- 
graphical miles in length, by 10 in breadth, whilst at the same 
time the rivers are limpid. The Maragnon no doubt contributes 
a great portion of the aliuvial matter; it has a course of 1350 
miles, a great depth, and a breadth of 50 miles at its mouth ; and 
during the freshes occasioned by the rainy season, and the melt- 
ing of the snow upon the Andes, it exhibits the inundations of 
an immense sea ef «vater, charged with earthy detritus and ve- 
getable remains. The current is then so strong, that it is per- 
ceptible at sixty miles from the coast; and this, being opposed 
by the usual current of the Atlantic, from east to west, gives 
origin to vast banks of sand towards the shores of Brazil, on the 
north-west of Guiana. One of the circumstances which contribute 
so powerfully to this effect, is the pororoca, or high flux, which 
occur. at the mouth of the Maragnon, three days before every 
new and every full moon. It arrives in two hours at the beach, 
in mountainous waves, of 12 to 15 feet high. The sea is then 
driven more vi- — tly towards the north-west, and, along the 
coast of Guiana. rms very strong currents towards Esequibo 
and the gulf of Paria, becoming still stronger as they approach 
the Amazon river. The pororoca destroys the shores entirely, 
between Fort Macapa and Cape North; and, if there were no 
rocks, the beach would be still more dismantled, and the mouth 
of the Maragnon turned altogether to the north —.Mag. Vat. Hist. 


THE NATURAL BIR TDG ih. 


Rock - Bridge COctn tty liryiutn. 


THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


OF 
GEOLOGY y 
AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 
Vo. I. Puiwapetputa, Marcu, 1832. No. 9. 


GEOLOGY, No. 3—ON THE CONSTITUENT MINERALS, AND THE 
STRUCTURE OF THE PRIMARY ROCKS. 


Atruoucn the exact line which divides the primary rocks | 
from the division called transition, has not yet been universally 
agreed upon by geologists, yet we conceive this to be in a great 

_ measure occasioned by the prevalence of a theoretical opinion, 
which has drawn their attention too much from characters of a 
more definite kind, than those depending upon a supposed first 
appearance of organic remains. If it be true, that there was a 
moment in the history of our planet, subsequent to the existence 
of inorganic matter, when organized bodies, vivified by animal 
and vegetable life, first began to appear, and that the evidence 
of such appearance is now to be found in the crust of the earth, 
we conceive,—without denying the reasonableness of this theory 
—that the substantial proofs of it have not yet been brought 
forward. It will require a prodigious concurrence of observa- 
tion, that we cannot reasonably look forward to, in our own 
time, before a unanimous opinion can be produced, that the 
lowest bed, in the descending order of the series, has been ascer- 
tained, which contains organic remains, and that the search 
need be continued no further. Practical geologists are well 
aware of the great difficulties attending the establishment of a 
line, to be considered as the basis of this hypothesis, which has 
formed so strong a connexion with geology, and which, if it could 
be demonstrated, would raise it to a very high rank as a science, 
both for its exactitude, and the dignity it would derive from so 
remarkable an illustration of ant-ceval chronology. 

Vor. I.—49 384 


386 Geology.—On the Constituent Minerals, &c. 


We have the less regret in believing we shall never witness 
the demonstration of this hypothesis, because we think a line 
exists, separating the primary rocks from those called transition, 
which will serve all the purposes of the proposed theoretical 
division, depending upon organization, and which every one may 
demonstrate for himself, who has a proper knowledge of the 
mineral character of rocks. Our desire of making what we 
have to say on this branch of our subject, intelligible to our un- 
initiated readers, will lead us at present into some elementary 
details, necessary to a clear understanding of the mineral nature 
of all rocks, and especially of the great characteristic difference 
between those beds comprehended in the primary division, one to 
four inclusive,* and all the other beds enumerated in the series. 
The line of which we have spoken, we conceive to be constituted 
where the primary rocks terminate; for, as it will be hereafter 
seen, although the constituents of all the rocks contained in the 
crust of the earth, are substantially the same, yet all geological 
writers of any reputation, now agree that the primary and se- 
condary rocks—including in these last, all rocks lying above the 
primary,—have been brought into their places by two different 
agents. It appears, therefore, to be more consistent with ob- 
servation to say, that a transitionary state of the beds of the 
planet commenced, when the agency which brought the primary 
rocks into their places appears to have ceased, and when that 
which deposited the secondary rocks, appears to have com- 
menced. In this view of the subject, we exclude, for the present, 
the intrusive rocks, which, as we have stated at page 342, we 
have also excluded from the tabular view. We have adopted 
this manner of treating the subject, that our readers may pursue 
it, uninfluenced by the prejudice which the theories and terms 
belonging to the infancy of geology have impressed too many 
with. We now proceed to elementary details. 

All the rocks, in whatever part of the series they may be 
found, have, for their constituent elements, very few substances 
or earths. The four principal ones are silica, alumina, lime, and 
magnesia. Potash and soda also, with iron, in various states of 
oxidation, enter, with these earths, as ingredients into many 
rocks. We owe to Sir Humphrey Davy the brilliant discovery 


*Vide Table, page 338 


yy 


# ; Geology.—On the Constituent Minerals, gc. 387 


that all these earths are compounds of oxygen united with me- 
tallic bases, so that the whole mineral volume of the planet, may 
be considered as a mass of metals and their modifications. Ochre, 
or ferruginous earth, is easily converted into iron, as it is con- 
stantly done at the furnaces. It stands in the same relation to 
that metal, which the rust found upon polished steel does, when 
exposed to moisture; both of them are oxides of iron. Quartz, 
flint, sand, all substances which are purely silicious, can also, 
but with greater difficulty, be converted into their metallic base, 
silicum. ‘The same may be asserted of lime and magnesia. 

Mineral bodies are purely simple, when they consist of one 
kind of earth unmixed with any other; and compound, when 
their constituents are formed of more than one mineral substance. 
Besides this variety in their composition, it is to be remarked, 
that their structure is various, some being formed of separate 
minute bodies of the same substance mechanically approximated 
together, and others being an aggregate of irregular crystals, 
produced by an apparent simultaneous crystallization. This 
distinction is of the highest importance in relation to the dividing 
line, of which we have spoken, between the primary and se- 
condary rocks. 

_ Silica, is the basis of rock crystal, quartz, flint, chert, and 
sandstone. ‘The first of these substances presents us with silica 
in its purest crystalline form; the last is an aggregate of minute 
bodies of silica mechanically approximated together. 

Alumina, is the basis of the sapphire ; but the best kind of 
Fuller’s earth, and the purest clays, are aggregates formed of 
alumina. 

Lime, is the basis of all calcareous bodies, but the best statu- 
ary marble, as well as many sub-crystalline limestones, is an 
aggregate of irregular crystals, produced by an apparent simul- 
taneous crystallization. 

Magnesia is not frequently found pure, but it enters freely 
into the composition of some of the primary rocks, as we shall 
hereafter have to state, and occurs also in certain limestones. 

These earths, sometimes simple, sometimes in a compound 
state, together with the alkalies, oxides of iron and manganese, 
sulphur in combination with lime, carbon, and a few other 
metals, sometimes disseminated in, at other times imbedded, are 
the constituents of compound rocks, which often present an uni- 


388 Geology.—On the Constituent Minerals, &c. 


formity of appearance, where particular minerals predominate, 
as in the case of mica slate and hornblende. A very slight 
practical acquaintance with rocks will enable students in geo- 
logy to detect their leading characters. The conglomerate rocks 
are more easily distinguished than the rest, being compounded 
of fragments of other rocks, united partly mechanically, and 
partly chemically; these fragments are of various sizes, from 
that of the smallest particle of gravel, to masses of many pounds 
weight. Having thus treated, in an elementary manner, of the 
general nature of the simple bodies which are the constituents 
of rocks, we proceed to describe that rock, called granite, which 
lies at the bottom of the whole series, and which is of such uni- 
versal occurrence in all countries. 

Granite, so called from its granular appearance, is a compound 
rock, formed of one simple mineral, quartz, and two compound 
minerals, felspar and mica. 'The properties of quartz are great 
hardness, giving abundance of sparks. It is infusible without 
alkalies, but with them it melts and forms glass. It is often 
slightly combined with alumine. In granite, it has a vitreous 
translucent appearance, appears to be the result of an imperfect 
crystallization, and may be considered as a silicious mass im- 
bedding imperfect crystals of felspar and mica. The various 
proportions in which these three substances enter into granite 
rocks, constitute a great many varieties. In some of them, the 
grains are very small; in others, the crystals of felspar are 
large, and more regular. Granites, of this last class, have re- 
ceived the awkward name of porphyritic granites, a term badly 
applied to white coloured crystals. 

Felspar, is a compound mineral, consisting of various propor- 
tions of silica, alumina, potash, and, occasionally, soda, a small 
portion of lime, and iron. It sometimes constitutes the largest 
part of granite rocks. When ina perfect state it is nearly as 
hard as quartz; but when it decomposes, which is often the case, 
the particles constituting the granite rock, no longer cohere, but 
fall into the condition of gravel. The usual colours of felspar, 
are white, and many varieties of red. This mineral sometimes 
occurs in immense masses, when it is called compact felspar, 
trachyte, white stone, eurite. In many countries, beds of felspar 
are worked for the porcelain manufactories. In the State of 
Delaware, there are extensive localities of it, as well as on the 


Geology.—On the Constituent Minerals, :c. 389 


borders of the adjoining State of Pennsylvania, both compact 
and decomposed. 

Mica is also a compound mineral, consisting of various pro- 
portions of silica, alumina, potash, a considerable quantity of 
owide of iron, and some magnesia. It readily divides into very 
thin and transparent lamine, or scales, with a fine silvery lustre. 
These lamin are elastic, and in this quality differ from talc, 
which is a mineral compound of the same nature, but whose 
lamine, or plates, are non-elastic, although flexible. Mica is 
always translucent, sometimes black, and in the granitic veins, 
and beds of compact felspar on this continent, is frequently 
found in congeries of hexagonal plates. 

The various proportions in which these constituents of 
granitic rocks meet in mineral masses, have produced many 
varieties of that kind of rock which lies at the bottom of the 
geological series, and which has received the name of granite. 
This term, however, is frequently misapplied to other rocks, 
which do not lie at the bottom of the primary division, from 
their having a vague resemblance to true granite. When horn- 
blende is present, to the exclusion of mica, it generally becomes 
a syenite, a rock which is found frequently much higher up in 
the series, although hornblende is occasionally found in true 
granite. When it is an aggregate, compounded of felspar and 
hornblende, to which the French mineralogists have given the 
name of diabase, it is a true mineralogical greenstone. (Vide p. 
311.) Compounds, also, of felspar and quartz, are called graphic 
granite. This mineral is found in granitic veins, and beds of 
felspar, which, probably, are only ancient dykes of felspathic 
matter. It has a very beautiful appearance, from the curious 
intermixture of the felspar and quartz. The mass of the felspar 
has a pearly aspect, with a glassy and:resplendent fracture, oc- 
casioned by a parallel polarity of all its minute portions. The 
quartz intervenes and crosses, in a manner to present a confused 
resemblance to ancient literary characters; hence its name of 
graphic granite. From the whole surface of the felspar, the 
incident rays are reflected to the eye, at the same angle, with 
very striking effect. 

When the felspar decreases in granite, and the small scales 
of mica increase in quantity, and are arranged in layers, the 
rock loses the massive structure belonging to granite, and be- 


390 Geology.—On the Constituent Minerals, &c. 


comes schistose, or slaty, and splits into parallel tables. Werner 
applied the term gneiss to those slaty granites, of which there 
are many varieties. ‘That kind which is nearest in position to 
the granite, is generally large grained, its foliation imperfect, 
and contains occasionally patches of true granite. This kind 
of gneiss is less fissile than the slaty or schistose varieties. 
From the parallelism of the layers of gneiss, which often gives 
it a striped appearance, it has not only been deemed by some a 
stratified rock, but that this linear regularity is the result of 
aqueous’ deposition. We conceive these opinions to be prema- 
ture, and derived from partial examinations. No doubt this 
rock often, for considerable distances, presents a stratified ap- 
pearance, arising altogether from the distinct parallelism of the 
layers of mica; but these layers, and the consequent fissile pro- 
perty of the rock, may be as reasonably referred to igneous 
fluidity, since other minerals occur in traps, arranged in a lami- 
nar way, and giving a fissile tendency to the rocks they are 
thus found in; mica itself, too, has been found in veins of trap, 
holding the same parallelism that it does in gneiss. Sometimes, 
in gneiss, these layers, after maintaining their linear appear- 
ance, are gradually lost in amorphous masses; it is difficult 
to conceive of the possibility of materials being thus brought 
together by aqueous deposit; and the passage of granite into 
gneiss, which has been proved in such various ways, together 
with other circumstances, certainly points to a common origin 
for both granite and gneiss. 

Some of the varieties of slaty gneiss pass into Mica slate. 
When quartz and mica, two of the constituents of granite, are 
well combined together, they form this rock, which splits easily 
into tables. Sometimes the plates of mica are ‘so large, as to 
give it a coarse character; at other times, the quartz and mica 
are so intimately combined, that the mica slate is very fine. It 
usually has a light gray colour, derived from the black and 
white mixture of its constituents, but has frequently a yellowish 
and greenish hue, with a pearly lustre. Sometimes beds of this 
mineral are found alternating with gneiss, and it is frequently 
traversed by seams of quartz, running parallel with the plane 
of its own bed. ‘These seams increase in thickness as they de- 
scend, indicating their inferior origin. Mica slate is usually found 
associated, more or less, with the granite and gneiss of this con- 


Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 391 


tinent, and in some situations, is studded with brilliant small 
garnets. F 

This rock as well as the gneiss has been considered by some 
of aqueous origin, from the regularity of its beds, and especially 
from its enclosing occasionally fragments of breccia of quartz, 
granite, and even limestone. This conglomerate character has 
been thought important towards deciding its aqueous character. 
We have seen, however, in the case of gneiss, that a parallel 
disposition of mineral laminz, is also common to rocks of avowed 
igneous origin ; and as brecciated fragments of older rocks have 
been found in trap veins, their appearance in mica slate is 
only a phenomenon of the same kind: primary limestone, it is 
true, is not an older rock, according to the geological series, than 
mica slate; but nodules, and patches of this mineral substance, 
have been found even in gneiss, as we shall have occasion here- 
after to state. : 

We shall consider the important subject of mineral and me- 
tallic veins, as they are found in the primary rocks, in our next 
number. We purposely defer it, as it is probable we shall com- 
mence, in that number, a mineralogical and geological account 
of what is called the gold region of this country. We hope to 
make this more interesting by a general account of mineral and 
metallic veins, one of the most curious and interesting branches 
of geology. 


ON THE COMPARATIVE ENCOURAGEMENT GIVEN TO THE STUDY 
OF NATURAL HISTORY IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA. 


A paper on so interesting a subject as our title comprehends, 
ought to be favourably received in this country. If the compa- 
rison should prove favourable to us, our naturalists will not be 
without encouragement, and, at any rate, it will be well enough 
for them to know the truth. We have long wished to lay before 
our readers some details and reflections concerning that branch 
of our literature, which is more or less devoted to natural sci- 
ence, and the late republication of Audubon’s Ornithological 
Biography, furnished us with an agreeable opportunity for doing 
so. On the appearance of that work,—which, independent of 


: e 
er, 


392 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 

its great merit, is one of the handsomest volumes the American 
press has ever produced,—we were not quite prepared; as it - 
was our intention, to close our observations, by a general view 
of Mr. Audubon’s labours. We perceive, it will not be consistent 
with the arrangements made for the present number, to include all 
we have to say in the limited monthly pages at our command, and 
as we give, in the present number, a very interesting letter from 
Mr. Audubon, we have determined to divide the subject; to give 
our remarks on the comparative encouragement which the study 
of natural history receives in Europe and America, in the pre- 
sent number, and our review of Mr. Audubon’s labours in the 
next. 

It is an exceedingly difficult thing to persuade those who have 
never expended a thought on the subject, that all the comfort 
of civilized nations, depends upon the proper application of that 
sort of knowledge, which is only to be attained by the study of 

_nature itself. It is equally difficult to persuade them, that the 
most charming moments in life, are those when the mind clearly 
perceives the simple fitness and beauty of nature’s ways, so dis- 
similar to the tortuous labyrinths of human conduct, as it is ex- 
emplified in the actions of men. We live in the midst of nature, 
it is nature who teaches us every thing; who taught Newton the 
laws of matter, the properties of light; who taught Watt how 
to manage heat for the benefit of mankind ;—nay, if we look to 
the moral power possessed by nations and individuals, it is al- 
ways the result of a profound and various attention given to 
nature—and yet there are thousands who are told this, who do 
not believe it, or will not take the trouble to think on the sub- 
ject. In the history of the progress of the human mind, we see 
the manifestation of this great truth. During the fourteenth 
century, the annals of European literature are altogether barren 
of natural history, and with a few solitary exceptions, none ap- 
pear who had successfully cultivated the physical sciences, or 
who excelled in mathematics or astronomy. Nature was at 
that time a sealed book. Roger Bacon, in the preceding cen- 
tury, had been stigmatized as a necromancer, because he de- 
lighted in a and because he was free 
from that spirit, which had turned all Europe into a scholastic 
logomachy, where speculative absurdities were discussed in a 
barbarous jargon, and a corrupted theology defended, by the 


+ 
Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 393 


misunderstood logic and metaphysics of the ancients. It was not 
truth the schoolmen of that day sought for, but victory ; and 
dialectic skill, the substance of which was an ingenious and ver- 
bose sophistry, was the great accomplishment of the minds of 
that period. 

But ecclesiastical domination of this character, was soon to 
be put on the defensive. Wickliffe, by his translation of the 
Scriptures, gave a death-blow to the scholastic system ; he laid 
the foundation of a reformation in religion, by teaching men how 
to look into the sources of divine truths. Next came the age of 
printing, of the Medici, of the learned and witty Erasmus, who 
having been brought up by the schoolmen, knew them well. 
Then followed Copernicus, Luther, the second Bacon, Galileo, 
Kepler, and those great mathematicians and astronomers who 
prepared the way of the physical sciences for the immortal 
Newton. As this flood of light then impending over the human 
mind advanced, the influence of the scholastic philosophy began to 
decline. Luther had said, that neither religion or philosophy could 
be reformed, until the system of metaphysical theology should be 
abolished. Fifteen years after his death, arose the great intel- 
lectual reformer, Lord Bacon. He taught that the qualities of 
bodies are only to be known by experiment; and that in the 
pursuit of knowledge, we must proceed step by step from what 
we know, till we arrive at results governed by principles of uni- 
versal application. His great mind disdained to occupy itself 
with the relation of words with each other, which was the 
system that had so long enslaved the human mind, but applied 
its powers to the philosophical relation between words and 
things. 

It was in the early part of the sixteenth century, that fossil 
organic remains began to attract the attention of the curious, 
and speculations to be indulged in concerning their origin. But 
these first efforts in favour of natural history were restrained by 
the same bigotry, which, at a later period, consigned Galileo to 
the dungeons of the inquisition. At first it was not permitted to 
any one to attribute their origin, in relation to the situations in 
which they are found, to any agency but that of the Noachic 
deluge ; men who reasoned otherwise, were pronounced infidels, 
and treated as such; and when it was demonstrated that they 
were occasionally found in situations where the Noachic deluge 

Vor. 1.—50 


« 3 ‘ 
394 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 


could have no agency in placing them, then it was said, that 
they were not the remains of animals, but that they were sports 
of nature, formed in the earth by a “ plastic force.” Thus was 
it attempted to stifle, in its infancy, the study of the structure, 
and the early history of our planet, as it had before been at- 
tempted to suppress the knowledge of the true theory of the 
solar system. 

Over these efforts of ignorance, time has prevailed, happily 
vindicating the freedom of human thought, both in religion and 
physics. The benign influence of this freedom of opinion has 
immeasurably extended the power of man.’ Science and the 
arts have enabled him to visit the most distant countries with 
certainty and punctuality; to collect facts from every quar- 
ter, accumulating them, and the information derived from them, 
so as to give an almost physical ubiquity and omniscience to the 
general mind. If, as we have before said, the general and indi- 
vidual happiness depends upon the extent to which this kind of 
knowledge is possessed, it becomes an interesting inquiry, to ex- 
amine through unprejudiced witnesses, how far the civilized na- 
tions of the world are comparatively in possession of these great 
advantages. As we take it for granted, no argument is re- 
quired to prove that an individual is honoured of his fellow 
men, in proportion to his well applied attainments, and that this 
kind of consciousness forms the most unequivocal source of hap- 
piness to himself, we shall content ourselves with saying, that we 
believe what may be said of such an individual, may be truly 
attributed to a nation so distinguished. 

Of the attainments of an individual, the world has no means 
of forming an accurate judgment, but from his acknowledged 
writings; and it is in this manner we must attempt to form a 
comparative opinion of the attainments of nations, the works 
respectively published in each of them, constituting their proper 
statistics in science and literature. Of these, we shall only con- 
cern ourselves with the first, being of opinion, that a correct 
taste in national literature, depends essentially upon the culti- 
vation of that kind of judgment, which is generated from, and 
reflected by the study of nature; to say nothing of the utter 
poverty of that literature, from which the rich illustrations fur- 
nished by the inexhaustible realms of the animal, mineral, and 
vegetable kingdoms, are excluded. 


4 
Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 395 


As a detailed catalogue of all the scientific periodicals and 
publications now circulating in Europe, would be more tedious 
than instructive; we shall content ourselves with giving such a 
summary of them, as will forcibly impress upon our readers the 
importance of the view we have taken of this subject. It will 
be seen how conspicuous, in this point of view, that enlightened 
part of the globe is above all the rest; and if in Africa there is 
not a total blank, it is because a ray of European light has pene- 
trated there, as in New Holland and Java. In the Fast Indies, 
we see still greater fruits of that same intelligence. Cuba con- 
tributes twice as much to the general stock of information as 
Norway and Peru. When we come to treat upon the existing 
state of scientific literature in the United States, we propose to 
make the application of these comparative statistics, in order to 
give additional evidence of the truth of the maxim, that “ Know- 
ledge is power.” 

How much the successful cultivation of natural science de- 
pends upon the general tranquillity, will appear from the fact, 
that before the year 1818, when England was beginning to feel 
the benefit of the repose of the world, the number of periodical 
works, published in Great Britain, and which took a direct in- 
serest in natural history, only amounted to ten. The Reports of 
the Board of Agriculture, which contained some of the earliest 
geological papers, the Transactions of the Royal Societies of London, 
Edinburgh, and Dublin, the Transactions of the Geological Society 
of London, the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society of Natural History, 
and the two monthly journals, now conducted by Mr. Taylor, and 
united under the title of T’he Philosophical Magazine and Annals of 
Philosophy. ‘The other two were the Edinburgh and Quarterly 
Reviews, where occasional summaries were found of the progress 
of natural science. But the influence of a general peace, which 
released so many active minds from a long restraint, was soon 
felt: distant journeys were undertaken, the study of the modern 
languages ardently commenced, scientific expeditions commenced 
by governments, gifted individuals, of various nations, became 
known to each other, and thus the general illustration of natural 
history became more easy and more attractive, and the bonds 
of the human family drawn closer together. Geological know- 
ledge introduced mineral surveying as a profession, and not only 
led to new undertakings in mining, but to the advantageous ap- 


' ea 


396 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 


plication of geological principles, to many important mines which 
had been abandoned. The great afflux of knowledge, flowing 
in this direction, could not be pent up in the ancient beds, but 
sought new channels to relieve its own pressure, and to fertilize 
the minds that were thirsting for it. At this moment, Great 
Britain publishes about thirty distinct works of the same charac- 
ter, of which five are quarterly, besides five quarterly reviews 
of literature, of the class of the Edinburgh and Quarterly. In 
addition to these, are the numerous independent works on various 
branches of natural history, which are annually published, pro- 
ceeding from the pens of Buckland, Mantell, De la Beche, Lyell, 
and a host of others; as well as the papers on natural history 
found in Encyclopedias, and periodical works more immediately 
devoted to polite literature. Within the same period, too, have 
arisen at least forty distinct societies in the various cities and 
towns of Great Britain, devoted more immediately to the illus- 
tration of the geology and natural history of their own neigh- 
bourhood; and containing, among their members, many able and 
enthusiastic naturalists, whose care is to enrich the libraries and 
collections of their respective societies. 

n France, the spirit of inquiry, under all political changes 
01 ted by the government, has developed itself in an equally 
extraordinary manner. Before the year 1818, there were but 
two journals where natural history was cherished; M. de Blain- 
ville’s Journal de physique et d’histoire naturelle, and the Bulletin 
de la societe Philomatique ; at present there are no less than eigh- 
teen monthly publications connected with natural science, six of 
which are published in Paris, besides thirteen annual works that 
appear under the auspices of societies established in different 
parts of the country. The total number of regular and irregular 
works of this character, published in France, is thirty-eight. 
None of these appear quarterly, and the French periodicals are 
somewhat deficient in that external neatness which is so liberally 
bestowed upon those which come from the English press. Nei- 
ther have the French produced any thing to vie with the splen- 
did sections and illustrations which enrich the Transactions of the 
Geological Society of London, the beauty of Mr. Sowerby’s Mi- 
neral Conchology, or the neatness and variety of Loudon’s Maga- 
zine of Natural History. It is to be regretted, that the country 
which has produced the Regne animal, the Ossemens fossiles, the 


Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 397 


Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, and so many unrivalled 
works, should be so deficient in this respect. 

Germany, including Prussia, which, previous to 1818, issued 
from the press thirteen works of this kind, of which three were 
monthly, five were annuals, and the other five the occasional 
publications of learned societies ; has increased her total number 
to forty, whereof fifteen are monthly, and three quarterly. These 
are “ Jahrbucher fur Mineralogie, Geologie, und “ Petrefactenkunde” 
of Leonhard and Brown. “ Archiv. fur Mineralogie und Geog- 
nosie,” Jc. by Karsten, and “ Kritischer Wegweiser im Gebiete der 
Landkarten of Berlin. The German publications are becoming 
very much devoted to geology. Austria, exclusive of her Italian 
dominions, contributes twelve publications of this nature, three 
of which are monthly, and all of them, save one, are posterior to 
the year 1818. The brother of the emperor, the Archduke 
John, is a zealous promoter of natural history, and has been at 
great pains to extend geological reconnaissances over the district 
under his government. Prince Metternicht, also, has paid a 
great deal of attention to Geology.* Under the auspices of such 
men, and through the impulse which will be given to natural 4 
science, by the annua! meeting of naturalists, composing the _ 
Deutscher Naturforscher Versammlung, which was to convene tk ie 
year at Vienna, it is probable that Austria, strong in mineralogy, 
will soon become distinguished in the cultivation of natural his- 
tory. 

Italy, which before 1818, possessed but five periodicals, has 
now fifteen, of which ten are monthly, and the Annali of Fusi- 
nieri, once every two months. In Russia, which, before 1818, 
produced only two annual works, there are now twelve, of 
which six are monthly, the others are published by different 
societies. ‘The Imperial Mineralogical Society of St. Petersburg, 
and the Society of Naturalists of Moscow, are patronised by the 
emperor. In astronomy, Russia is now taking the lead in Eu- 
rope. Sweden also, since the same period, has tripled her pub- 
lications, which amount at this time to nine. Denmark has 
increased hers in the same proportion, and has now three. Nor- 
way has one; at Christiania, in that country, geology is a 
favourite pursuit. Holland possesses five journals, a monthly, a 


*See American Monthly Journal of Geology and Natural Science, December 
1831, p. 285. 


Pres 


398 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 


bi-monthly, and a quarterly ; the other two are from societies. 
Belgium has two, Poland two, Sicily two, Savoy two, and Swit- 
zerland seven. From the Cape of Good Hope we have the 
South African Quarterly Philosophical Journal: and, above all, a 
great promise of information in natural history, from the British 
East India possessions, where there are already three annual 
publications established, of a high character—the Asiatic Re- 
searches, and the transactions of the Bombay and Madras Socie- 
ties, besides a weekly publication at Calcutta. Itis probable, that 
through the enterprise of the many engineers in that country, in 
the British service, several of whom unite the character of engi- 
neer and naturalist, and the establishment of numerous new so- 
cieties, that we shall soon be well informed of the natural history 
and geology of that extensive peninsula. We shall conclude this 
trans-atlantic statement by adding New Holland and Java, each 
of which has its scientific society and publication ; and by stating, 
that in the publications we have just enumerated, all those of a 
strictly literary character are excluded, it being intended only 
to speak of those, either entirely devoted to natural science, or 
of such as habitually contain papers on the physical and natural 
sciences, or reviews of the progress made in them. 

In speaking of the state of scientific literature on this side of 
the Atlantic, we shall first briefly notice De la Sagra’s Annales 
de las Ciencias, begun at the Havana in 1829, and the bi-monthly 
Journal of Science and the Arts published at Lima. The period 
of repose may be said to have scarcely commenced for the other 
governments of South America. We have little doubt, however, 
that Mexico, whose affairs appear to be in the hands of a wise 
and moderate government, will soon turn her attention to natu- 
ral science: the successful working of her mines will call into 
action the resources of her mineralogists; and happily for her, 
the school of Del Rio is not yet extinct. That venerable and 
respected individual is at present in this country, superintending 
the publication of a work intended for public instruction in his 
own country, in chemical science. Luis de Alaman, too, one 
of the ministers of state, is an intelligent and zealous friend to 
science. In the British American colonies, the cause of natural 
science is cherished: there is already a scientific society at St. 
John’s, in Newfoundland, a literary and historical society at 
Quebec, and a society of natural history at Montreal. These 


a, 
ve 


Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 399 


two last mentioned societies have each published a ‘quarto 
volume. 

We now come to speak of the scientific literature of these 
United States, and first of its periodical works. The American 
Journal of Science and Arts, published at New Haven, Connecti- 
cut, is upon the plan of the Scotch scientific quarterlies, a re- 
pository for papers of every description, connected with natural 
and physical science, including mathematics and the mechanical 
arts. This is a quarterly publication. Next we have “ The 
Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science,” pub- 
lished at Philadelphia. The leading character of this work is 
geological, and it may be considered as devoted to the exposition 
of the geology and natural history of this continent; and to ele- 
mentary instruction, concerning the principles and details of these 
important branches of knowledge. Of a similar character, in 
part, are “ The Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Phi- 
ladelphia,” and The Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of 
New York, both of them the interesting fruits of the labours of 
the members of these societies. It is to be regretted, that they 
only appear occasionally. We have also the American Botanical 
Register, published monthly, at Washington. The American 
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia was founded in 1769; 
and it has been observed with pleasure, that its transactions 
of late have shown an increasing inclination to cherish natural 
history. 

We have, besides these, The Transactions of the Philosophical So- 
ciety of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and of the Albany Institute of 
the State of New York, both of them published occasionally. The 
Journal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and The Ameri- 
can Journal of Improvements in the Useful Arts, of Washington, are 
monthly publications, the first, devoted to mechanical arts, and 
the last, which has also for its title, Mirror of the Patent Office, 
may be considered of the same class. Two other monthly pub- 
lications are, Doughty’s Cabinet of Natural History, of Philadelphia, 
and The Illinois Magazine. Yn the first of these two, natural 
history is rather the handmaid to the fine arts; and in the latter, 
which is published in Vandalia, it is brought forward in spirited 
sketches of western nature. There is also a monthly publication 
from Boston, The JVaturalist, a work of a character more descrip- 
tive than scientific. In conchology, we have Mr. Say’s work, 


400 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &. 


published at N: ew Harmony, and Mr. Conrad’s, published in Phi- 
ladelphia, both occasional. 

To all these may be added, The Monthly Museum of Foreign 
Literature, Science, and Art, published in Philadelphia, and 
three literary reviews, quarterly, where scientific subjects are 
noticed ; and a quarterly medical work, published at Lexington, 
Kentucky, The Transylvania Journal of Medicine, and the Associate 
Sciences, where interesting notices of western botany and con- 
chology have appeared. 

It results that there are five quarterly periodicals, eight 
monthly periodicals, and seven works published occasionally by 
scientific societies or individuals, all connected, more or less, with 
natural science, in the United States; and that of these, Phila- 
delphia furnishes one quarterly, four monthly, and three occa- 
sionals. Boston and Cambridge, one quarterly, one monthly, and 
one occasional; Washington, two monthly; New Haven, one 
quarterly; Charleston, 8. C. one quarterly ; Lexington, one quar- 
terly ; Vandalia, one monthly; New York, one occasional; Al- 
bany, one occasional ; New Harmony, one occasional. 

These are exclusive of the medical, agricultural, horticultu- 
ral, and miscellaneous publications, somewhat cognate to these 
pursuits. 

It appears, that Philadelphia contributes eight-twentieths of 
ty the whole of this scientific literature ; whilst New York, with a 
greater population, does not possess a single periodical of this 
character, and only occasionally produces the annals of one 
scientific society. If New York, with a population of 230,000, can 
do no more for science than this, the propriety of establishing a 
national society of science there,—as we perceive, has been at- 
tempted by a late literary convention held in that city—as well 
as the probability of its ultimate success, may be well doubted ; 
for what hope have we that a national society, fitted for 
the wants of this active age, capable of watching over the 
interests of science, and of elevating the scientific character of 
the country, at home and abroad,—which should be the great 
objects aimed at,—can be raised in the uncongenial atmo- 
sphere of a commercial community, which has given no proofs 
of being in that state of preparation, which invites the establish- 
ment of so important an institution as the one now contemplated, 
and which can only be safely and encouragingly placed under the 


Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 401 


government of a community capable of cherishing it, both prac- 
tically and theoretically? We cannot forget the fate of the 
Literary and Philosophical Society of that city, or of that most re- 
spectable society, the Lyceum of Natural History, which, when 
it had made, by a great and worthy effort of its members, a very 
rich collection, and a valuable library, was, by the corporation 
of the city, turned out of the rooms it occupied, together, we be- 
lieve, with the Academy of Fine Arts and all its paintings, the 
Historical Society and its valuable library. The fate, also, of 
the American Geological Society, established at New Haven, 
Connecticut, and founded many years ago, should be a warning 
to the projectors of this new national institution. Its president, 
William M’Clure, resides in Mexico: where the other officers 
of the society are, or who they at present are, we do not know ; 
but: we do know that the society has neither house, nor home, 
nor transactions, nor collections; and that this is to be attributed 
to nothing else but the impossibility of raising an important na- 
tional scientific institution, in any community where there is 
not the greatest amount of practical and theoretical knowledge ; 
and in every country, there is one city where these advantages 
exist, and where they show themselves. 

For the opinion we have here expressed, we refer to the un- 
deniable fact, that natural science has been suffered to languish 
and decay in the city of New York, notwithstanding the ac- 
knowledged learning, activity, and zeal of many individuals, and 
especially of those meritorious persons who have, in the most 
disinterested and constant manner, and in the face of every kind 
of adversity, held up the Lyceum of Natural History from total 
ruin. If, in a wealthy community like. New York, which is 
sometimes prodigal in its patronage of less worthy pursuits, the 
unostentatious and admirable labours of such men as we have 
now spoken of, are disregarded, and their collections, with them- 
selves, ejected from their philosophic retreat by the-magistrates 
of the city; if individual friends to science, literature, and the 
arts, cannot be found in sufficient numbers to sustain the gene- 
rous, yet modest efforts which have been made ; where, we ask, 
are the working members to come from, of a great national so- 
ciety, that can only flourish through those frequent meetings, 
and that active and various intelligence and zeal, which are in- 
dispensable to the success of such undertakings? Of the inten- 

Vor. I.—51 


‘Sat: 


402 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, §c. 


tion of the promoters of this society, we entertain a just and 
a favourable opinion. There are many good men, and some 
excellent minds engaged in this project, which deserves a success 
we do not believe it will meet with. That Philadelphia repre- 
sents the scientific literature of the country, is evident from the 
fact of its contributing eight works out of the twenty furnished 
by the whole United States. We would not say that in this 
city there are greater minds than in any of the other large cities, 
but every plant has its region where it flourishes, and in this 
systematic and rectangular abode of steady men and agreeable 
women, there is much good sense. The men take time to act, 
because their actions are the result of system; they take time 
to think, even in their pleasures, which are moderate and lasting, 
because they are generally the pleasures of the mind. It is im- 
possible to live long in Philadelphia, without perceiving in the 
quiet regulations of society, in the comfortable cleanliness, in the 
benevolent administration of its institutions, and in the tempe- 
rate, yet general pursuit of knowledge; the influence of that 
excellent spirit which still hovers over the city of brotherly love, 
and with which heaven itself seems to have inspired its illustrious 
founder, William Penn, one of the most conspicuous ornaments 
of the human race. 

The following summary will exhibit ‘the number of scientific 
publications, as well as the population of the countries whence 
they are issued : 


Number. Population. 
England - - - - - 35 - - - - 22,000,000. 
France - - - - 38 - - - 33,000,000. 
Germany, including Prussia, - 40 - - - - 26,000,000. 
Austria, - - - - 12 - - - 32,000,000. 
Italy, excluding Austria, - - 1 - - - - 9,000,000. 
Russia, - - - - 12 - - - 60,000,000. 
Sweden, - - - - - 9 including Norway, 4,000,000. 
Denmark, - - - - 3 . - - 2. 000,000. 
Norway, - - - . he ki es - - - 
Holland, - - - - 5 
ie a t - = = 6,000,000. 
Poland, - - - . 2 - - - - 4,000,000. 
Two Sicilies, - - - Ee: - - - 7,000,000. 
Savoy, - - - - - 2 - - - ~ 
Switzerland, - - - Rate - - - 2,000,000. 
Cape of Good Hope, - = - Lia a 
East Indies, - - ~ - 4 - - - 
New Holland, - - - iL - - - 
Java, - - - - - Jj _ » = 
Havanna, - - - - 2 = - 


tm 


Comparative Encouragement lo the Study, §c. 403 


NRC eres ee 

British American Colonies, - 3 - - - - 1,000,000. 

United States of America, = 20 . - whites, 10,000,000. 
218 total. 


Our readers will be struck with the omission of Spain in this list 
of nations and communities. At this moment we are not aware of 
any scientific work, of the character of those we have enumerated, 
being published in that country, which has a population of 
12,000,000. The agitations and embarrassments which have af- 
fected both her people and government so long, have been unfa- 
vourable to those pursuits, that require private ease and public 
tranquillity ; but the example of the English geologists, who have 
recently visited that country, and the general spirit of inquiry, 
will soon rouse her up. The government appears to be by no 
means insensible to the advantages which attend the cultivation 
of natural science, and either has established, or proposes to es- 
tablish, a school of mines at Almaden, the beneficial effects of 
which will soon be felt. Many students have already been sent to 
the school of mines at Freyberg in Saxony. In the current litera- 
ture of this year, published in that country, we observe many 
valuable works on mineralogy, botany, meteorology, natural his- 
tory, even treatises on rail roads, which are already constructing 
there. There is reason to believe that this country, so rich in 
great and glorious remembrances, and still inhabited by the 
same high minded race, is making sure and steady advances in 
those improvements which mark the present age. 

The twenty publications we have enumerated, exceed the 
proportion of the United States, which is about sixteen,—taking 
England as the standard—but there are considerations which 
require considerable abatements to the fair understanding of the 
comparative state of the scientific literature of this country, with 
that of Great Britain. In this last country, what is done has a 
permanent character, because it is well and punctually paid ; 
we do not hear of works undertaken by competent persons being 
discontinued, for want of encouragement; on the contrary, new 
publications are constantly appearing under promising circum- 
stances, independent of the various works on natural history, 
with which the press teems. Here, on the contrary, no original 
works appear, except the enumerated ones; neither have these 
a permanent character. The American Journal of Science, 


404 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, Sc. 


which was first published in 1814, has, according to statements 
made not long ago to the public, by the editor, barely supported 
itself, although at the time, it was the only publication of the 
kind in the country, and was issued at a price not exceeding the 
average cost of British publications of the same character. The 
Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science, is 
but half the price of the last mentioned work; it was published 
at a low rate, for the express purpose of diffusing itself more 
amply through the country. The experiment has been of too 
short duration, to form a proper estimate of its probable success. 
The other periodicals, we believe, are struggling against their 
expenses, which absolutely prevent liberal editors from doing 
justice to their undertakings. Except the transactions of a few 
societies, the seven occasional works mentioned, have no perma- 
nent character, for the same reasons. 

Tn despite of this unfavourable state of things, we are disposed 
to look upon the appearance of twenty works of a_ scientific 
character in the United States, as indicative of a good prelimi- 
nary state of things; we see in it the cause of natural history 
putting out its feelers—to use an appropriate figure—in search 
of nourishment ; and we find every confirmation of this opinion, 
in the increasing interest with which this subject is regarded in 
private society, and in the other encouragements it has received. 
Still, when we look at the immense quantity of newspapers pub- 
lished in this country, amounting, we believe, to about nine hun- 
dred, all of which must be paid for, and which are evidence of 
an immense intellectual activity, we cannot but wish that a por- 
tion of this patronage were directed to that true kind of know- 
ledge, that leads to a sound and a cheerful state of mind. We 
shall not be accused of undervaluing the labours of that press 
which daily ministers to our own information and pleasures when 
we state that too great a portion of our political country journals 
are more calculated to confuse, than to enlighten our citizens ; 
who, as to the honesty and ability of our politicians, are left pretty 
much in the same state of mind with the deaf watchman of 
Stoke Pogis, whom, during its famous insurrection, having been 
sent out by some female anti-reformers to reconnoitre, brought 
back the important information, “ that the boys were letting off 
a great many crackers in the streets, and that there were so 
many reports, he did not know which to believe.” There is 


Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 405 


another part of this subject on which we desire to make an ob- 
servation. It is well known that the French government has 
the cause of natural science under its own immediate patronage, 
that no opportunity is neglected by it of cherishing natural his- 
tory. The establishment of the Jardin des Plantes and its pro- 
fessors, for which specific appropriations are made every year 
in the ways and means, is a monument of its wisdom. But for 
the existence of that institution, Cuvier, and many other great 
names, together with their invaluable labours, would perhaps 
for ever have remained unknown. The other continental gov- 
ernments, also, more or less cherish natural science. The British 
government, although it has no establishment like the Jardin des 
Plantes, encourages, with a munificent hand, these important 
interests. It is to be mentioned to its honour, that when that 
most immoral of all systems for raising money from the people, 
the lottery, was destroyed, the government marked the sense it 
entertained of the value of the labours of the Geological Society 
of London, by assigning to it the apartments at Somerset house, 
formerly appropriated to the lottery office. 

We had occasion, a short time ago, to correspond with an en- 
lightened statesman of this country on this subject, and were 
struck with the following expression in one of his letters :— 
“From the structure of our government, the patronage of the 
arts must always be exercised by private wealth and taste, 
unaided by legislative contribution.” We should deplore this, 
if it were true, and were to comprehend that encouragement 
due to the physical sciences, which has been so liberally extended 
to them in other countries. We know not that there is any 
thing in the constitution of this government, which restrains a 
congress, disposed to cherish the arts and sciences, from extend- 
ing to them a wholesome and moderate patronage, during their 
infancy. We have a precedent in the congressional appropria- 
tion for Colonel Trumbull’s. national paintings; and if ever a 
national observatory shall be erected in these United States, it 
must also be authorized by the legislature. The friends of — 
science in the United States, feel it as a deep reproach to this 
country, which claims some pre-eminence for its free institutions, 
that it should yet remain without a public observatory ; whilst 
Russia, which we are in the habit of looking upon as the head 
quarters and source of modern despotism, and whose territory 


406 Comparative Encouragement to the Study, &c. 


has come into the pale of civilization, at almost as late a period 
as that of the United States, stands first and most illustrious, 
in this most intellectual age, for the protection astronomy has re- 
ceived, and for the progress which it has made. It is not, in our 
humble opinion, sufficient for the citizens of this great country, 
that its friendship should be sought on account of its resources, or 
that we should glory alone in holding up the example of its free 
institutions, as a light to other nations; we ought to claim some 
admiration for it, on account of that wise liberality, which, 
whilst it lays the foundation for some intellectual renown, tends 
to develope all those resources, which lay within the province 
of natural science. 

To have established a just government among men, is a high 
meed of praise; to govern so as to bring the greatest attainable 
quantity of happiness among them, is a still greater: this cannot 
be done without high intellectual improvement, nor can we con- 
ceive of any branch of knowledge more congenial to the inge- 
nious minds of the people of this extensive country, than that 
comprehended by natural science. A society, too, framed like 
ours, can best be defended from the dangers of its own institu- 
tions, by the only practical equality,—an equality in intellectual 
attainments: and we must say, that independent of the comforts 
and facilities which men procure to themselves by the study of 
nature, and nature’s laws, natural history is to be preferred 
above all other pursuits, for the still more exquisite enjoyment 
we receive in the contemplation of the power and wisdom of the 
author of creation. 

It is for these reasons we should rejoice to see a moderate ap- 
propriation applied by congress, towards the support of an in- 
stitution for natural history, to be established at Washington ; 
by means of which, the representatives from the different states 
might acquire sufficient taste and knowledge, not only to turn 
their attention to their own districts, but to enrich the institu- 
tion with geological collections. With very moderate means, 
judiciously employed, a geological map of the United States 
might be constructed, that would be both useful and honourable 
to the country ; and if something of this kind is not done, this 
will soon be the only country in Christendom without a proper 
knowledge of its own mineral resources. Let it be remembered, 
too, that this is a country fertile above all others, in interesting 


Letter from Audubon. 407 


natural objects, of which that portion which has been made 
known to us, creates the most anxious solicitude for what re- 
mains unknown. The country, too, where Wilson studied nature 
so well and feelingly, though for want of patronage he died in 
poverty ; and where Audubon has excelled all other men in the 
justice which genius can do to nature, though, for the want of 
the same patronage, he was driven to England to seek his bread. 
By what extraordinary attainments he found both it, and a fame 
that will never die, we shall relate in our next number. 


LETTER FROM J. J. AUDUBON, TO THE EDITOR. 
Bulowville, East Florida, December 31, 1831. 


My Dear F'.—I have just returned from,an expedition down 
the Halifax river, about 40 miles from this place, and 80 south 
of St. Augustine. I feel confident, that an account of it will be 
interesting to you; and I therefore set to.—Mr. J. J. Bulow, a 
rich planter, at whose house myself and party have been a 
whole week, under the most hospitable and welcome treatment 
that could possibly be expected, proposed, three days since, that 
we should proceed down the river, in search of new or valuable 
birds; and accordingly, the boat, six hands, and “ three white men,” 
with some provisions, put off, with a fair wind, and a pure-sky. I 
say a pure sky, because not a cloud interrupted the rich blue of 
the heavens in this generally favoured latitude——We meandered 
down a creek for about eleven miles—the water nearly torpid 
yet clear—the shore lined with thousands of acres covered by 
fall grapes, marshes, and high-palm trees; rendering the shore 
quite novel to my anxious eye—Some birds were shot, and 
secured so as to be brought back, in order to undergo the skin- 
ning operation.—Before long we entered the Halifax river, an in- 
land arm of the sea, measuring in breadth from a quarter to 
nearly a mile. The breeze was keen from the north-east, and 
our light bark leaped over the waves gaily onward, toward the 
spot which we all anxiously anticipated to reach ere night came 
on. We did so, passing several plantations on the western bank, 
and at last reaching a schooner from New York, anchored at 
what is here called a live-oak landing. —Kindly received by the 
master and his men, we spent the night very agreeably, and as 


408 Letter from Audubon. 


comfortably as circumstances would permit. At sun-rise the 
next morning, I and four negro servants proceeded in search of 
birds and adventures. The fact is, that I was anxious to kill 
some 25 brown Pelicans, (Pelicanus fuscus) to enable me to make 
a new drawing of an adult male bird, and to preserve the dresses 
of the others.—I proceeded along a narrow shallow bay, where 
the fish were truly‘abundant. Would you believe it, if I was 
to say, that the fish nearly obstructed our head way ?—believe 
it, or believe it not, so it was; the water was filled with them, 
large and small.—I shot some rare birds, and putting along the 
shore, passed a point, when lo! I came in sight of several hundred 
pelicans perched on the branches of mangrove trees, seated in 
comfortable harmony, as near each other as the strength of the 
boughs would allow. I ordered to back water gently: the 
hands backed water. »I waded to the shore under cover of the 
rushes along it, saw the pelicans fast asleep, examined their 
countenances and deportment well and leisurely, and after all, 
levelled, fired my piece, and dropped two of the finest specimens 
Tever saw. I really believe I would have shot one hundred of 
these reverend sirs, had not a mistake taken place in the reload- 
ing of my gun. A mistake, however, did take place, and to my 
utmost disappointment, I saw each pelican, old and young, leave 
his perch and take to wing; soaring off, well pleased, I dare say, 
at making so good an escape from so dangerous a foe. 

The birds were all gone, and soaring high in the pure atmo- 
sphere ; but the fish were as abundant as ever. I ordered the net 
to be thrown overboard; and, in a few minutes, we caught as 
many as we wanted—fine fish too, bass and row mullets. The 
porpoises were as busy as ourselves, and devoured them at a 
great rate. 

The tide now began to leave us; and you must know, that 
in this part of our country, the tide goes down not a-pace, but 
in a hurry: so much so, indeed, that notwithstanding our rowing 
before it, we were, on several occasions, obliged to leap into 
the briny stream, and push the boat over oyster banks sharp as 
razors. 

After shooting some more birds, and pulling our boat through 
many a difficult channel, we reached the schooner again; and as 
the birds, generally speaking, appeared wild and few—(you 
must be aware that I call birds few when J shoot less than one 


Letter from Audubon. 409 


hundred per day)—my generous host proposed to return towards 
home again. Preparations were accordingly made, and we left 
the schooner, with tide and wind in our teeth, and with the 
prospect of a severe cold night. Our hands pulled well, and 
our barque was as light as our hearts. All went on merrily 
until dark night came on. The wind freshening, the cold aug- 
menting, the provisions diminishing, the waters lowering, all— 
all depreciating except our enterprising dispositions. We found 
ourselves fast in the mud about 300 yards from a marshy shore, 
without the least hope of being able to raise a fire, for no trees 
except palm trees were near, and the grand diable himself could 
not burn one of them. Our minds were sodn made up to do— 
what? Why, to roll ourselves in our cloaks, and to lay down, 
the best way we could, at the bottom of our light and beau- 
tiful barque. Good God, what a night! to sleep was impossible ; 
the cold increased with the breeze, and every moment seemed 
an hour, from the time we stretched ourselves down until the 
first glimpse of the morn: but the morn came, clear as ever 
morn was, and the north-easter as cold as ever wind blew in this 
latitude. All hands half dead, and masters as nearly exhausted 
as the hands—stiffened with cold, light clothed, and but slight 
hope of our nearing any shore ; our only resort was, to leap into 
the mire, waist deep, and to push the barque to a point, some 5 
or 600 yards, where a few scrubby trees seemed to have grown, 
to save our lives on this occasion. “ Push, boys, push! Push for 
your lives!” cry the generous Bulow, and the poor Audubon— 
* All hands push!” Aye, and well might we push: the mire 
was up to our breasts, our limbs becoming stiffened, and almost 
useless, at every step we took. Our progress was as slowly per- 
formed as if we had been clogged with heavy chains. It took 
us two and a half hours to reach the point, where the few trees 
of which I have spoken were; but, thank God, we did get there. 

We landed!! and well it was that we did; for, on reaching 
the margin of the marsh, two of the negroes fell down in the 
mud, as senseless as torpidity ever rendered an alligator, or a 
snake ; and had we, the white men, not been there, they certainly 
would have died. We had them carried into the little grove, to 
which, I believe, all of us owe our lives. I struck a fire in a 
crack ; and, in five minutes, I saw, with indescribable pleasure, 
the bright, warming blaze of a log pile in the centre of our 

Vor. [.—52 


410 Letter from Audubon. 


shivering party. We wrapped the negroes in their blankets— 
boiled some water, and soon had some tea—made them swallow 
it, and with care revived them into animation. May God preserve 
you from being ever in the condition of our party at this junc- 
ture; scarcely a man able to stand, and the cold wind blowing 
as keenly as ever. Our men, however, gradually revived—the 
trees, one after another, fell under the hatchet, and increased our 
fire—and in two hours I had the pleasure to see cheerful faces 
again. We all got warm again, and tolerably gay, although the 
prospect was far from being pleasant: no road to go home, or to 
any habitation ; confined in a large salt marsh, with rushes head 
high, and miry; no provisions left, and fifteen miles from the 
house of our host. 

Not a moment was to be lost; for I foresaw that the next night 
would prove much colder still. The boat was manned once more, 
and off through the mud we moved, to double the point, and 
enter the creek, of which I have spoken, with a hope, that in it 
we should find water enough to float her. It did happen so, 
thank God! and as we once more saw our barque afloat, our 
spirits rose—and rose to such a pitch, that we in fun set fire to 
the whole marsh: crack, crack, crack! went the reeds, with a 
rapid blaze. We saw the marsh rabbits, &c. scampering from 
the fire by thousands, as we pulled our oars. 

Our pleasure at being afloat did not last long. The north- 
easter had well nigh emptied the creek of all its usual quantum 
of water; and to wade and push our boat over many a shallow, 
was again our resort, with intent to make a landing, from whence 
we could gain the sea beach. 

We did effect a landing at last. The boat.was abandoned— 
the game fastened to the backs of the negroes—the guns re- 
loaded, and on we proceeded through the marsh first, then 
through the tangled palmitoes and scrubby sturdy live oaks, 
until we reached the sea beach. 

The sea beach of East Florida—have you ever seen it? If 
you have not, I advise you strongly never to pay a visit to it, 
under the circumstances that brought me and my companions 
to it yesterday morning. We saw the ocean spread broad before 
our eyes, but it looked angry and ruffly, strewed with high, agi- 
tated waves, that came in quick succession towards the desolate, 
naked shore: not an object in view but the pure sky and the agi- 


Letter from Audubon. 411 


tated waters. We took up our line of march in a poor plight, be- 
lieve me. The Poles, on laying down their arms, could not have 
felt more done up than we did at this moment. Pretty walking 
along the sea side beach of Florida in the month of December! 
with the wind at northeast, and we going in its very teeth, 
through sand, that sent our feet back six inches at every step 
of two feet that we made. Well, through this sand we all waded, 
for many a long mile, picking up, here and there, a shell that is 
no where else to be found, until we reached the landing place 
of J. J. Bulow. Now, my heart, cheer up once more, for the 
sake of my most kind host—troubled with rheumatic pains as 
he is. I assure you, I was glad to see him nearing his own com- 
fortable roof; and as we saw the large house opening to view, 
across his immense plantation, I anticipated a good dinner with 
as much pleasure as I ever experienced. 

All hands returned alive: refreshments and good care have 
made us all well again, unless it be the stiffness occasioned in , 
my left leg, by nearly six weeks of daily wading through swamps 
and salt marshes, or scrambling through the vilest thickets of 
scrubby live oaks and palmitoes, that appear to have been cre- 
ated for no purpose but to punish us for our sins; thickets that 
can only be matched in the cantos of your favourite Dante. 

To give you an account of the little I have seen of East F'lo- 
rida, would fill a volume, and therefore I will not attempt it just 
now: but I will draw a slight sketch of a part of it. 

The land, if land it can be called, is generally so very sandy 
that nothing can be raised upon it. The swamps are the only 
spots that afford a fair chance for cultivation : the swamps, then, 
are positively the only places where plantations are to be found. 
These plantations are even few in number: along the coast from 
St. Augustine to Cape Carnaveral, there are about a dozen. These, 
with the exception of two or three, are yet young plantations. 
General Hernandez’, J. J. Bulow’s, and Mr. Durham’s are the 
strongest, and perhaps the best. Sugar cane will prosper, and 
doubtless do well; but the labour necessary to produce a good 
crop, is great! great!! great!!! ‘Between the swamps of which 
I now speak, and which are found along the margin laying west 
of the sea inlet, that divides the main land from the Atlantic, to 
the river St. John of the interior of the peninsula, nothing exists 
but barren pine lands of poor timber, and immense savannas, 


/ 


412 Letier from Audubon. 


mostly overflowed, and all unfit for cultivation. That growth, 
which in any other country is called underwood, scarcely exists ; 
the land being covered with low palmitoes, or very low, thickly 
' branched dwarf oaks, almost impenetrable to man. ‘The climate 
is of a most unsettled nature, at least at this season. The ther- 
mometer has made leaps from 30 to 89 degrees in 24 hours: 
- cold, warm, sandy, muddy, watery—all these varieties may be 
felt and seen in one day’s travelling. © 

Iam extremely disappointed in this portion of the Floridas, 
and would not advise any one to visit it, because he may have 
read the flowery accounts of preceding travellers. ‘The climate 
is much more unsteady than in Louisiana, in the same latitude, 
or any where along the Mexican gulf to the Sabine river, which 
is our boundary line. Game and fish, it is true, are abundant; 
but the body of valuable tillable land is too small to enable the 
peninsula ever to become a rich state. 

I have seen nothing deserving your attention in a geological 
point of view, except quarries of stones which are a concrete 
of shells, excellent for building, and laying immediately under 
the surface of the sand, which every where seems to predomi- 
nate. This concrete is curious in itself, and my friend, Bulow, 
who is now erecting some very extensive buildings for a sugar 
house, has given me specimens, which I will forward to you, 
showing the different grades or ages of their formation. The 
fragments are cut out of the quarries with the common wood 
axe, and fashioned with the same instrument for buildings. 
You, of course, will readily make out, that the water found in 
the neighbourhood of all concretes, is hard or calcareous, being 
filtered through a kind of natural shell lime. 

I have done but little, ] am sorry to say, in my way. Birds 
are certainly not abundant here at this season; and I can readily 
account for this deficiency in the land birds: it is for the want 
of mast—mast, so abundant in almost every portion of our coun- 
try. But the water birds, notwithstanding all the fishes in every 
river, creek, or even puddle, that I have seen, are scarce beyond 
belief. It is true, a man may see hundreds of pelicans, and 
thousands of herons; but take these from the list, and water 
birds will be found very rare. I will see what spring will do, 
and then write more fully on this my ever devoted subject. 

If I did not believe the day to be gone by, when it was ne- 


Letter from Audubon. 413 


cessary to defend my snake stories, I could send you very curious 
accounts of the habits of those reptiles; and I should do it, if it 
were not that I might be thought to enjoy—too much—that 
triumph which the feeble hostility of three or four selfish indi- 
viduals has forced upon me. I receive so many acts of real 
friendship and disinterested kindness, that, I thank God, there is 
no room left in my heart to cherish unkind feelings towards any 
one. Indeed, I am not now so much surprised at the incredulity 
of persons who do not leave cities, for I occasionally hear of 
things which even stagger me, who am so often a denizen of 
woods and swamps. What do you think of rattlesnakes taking 
to the water, and swimming across inlets and rivers? I have not 
seen this, but I believe it; since the most respectable individuals 
assure me they have frequently been eye-witnesses of this feat. 
I can conceive of inducements Which reptiles may have for tra- 
versing sheets of water to gain distant dry land, especially in a 
country much intersected by streams, and subject to inundations, 
which compel them to be often in the water. In such countries, 
it is not an uncommon occurrence to find snakes afloat, and at 
great distances from the shore.* 'This appears, no doubt, sur- 
prising to those who live where there is almost nothing but dry 
land; still they ought to be good natured, and believe what others 
have seen. It has now been made notorious, that numerous re- 
_ spectable individuals, whom duty, or the love of adventure, have 
led into the wilds of our country, have often seen snakes—and 
the rattlesnake too—in trees: the good people, therefore, who 
pass their lives in stores and counting houses, ought not to con- 
tradict these facts, because they do not meet with rattlesnakes, 
hissing and snapping at them from the paper mulberries, as they 
go home to their dinners. They should remember that they 
ought to go farther than that daily distance, if they wish to see 
any thing extraordinary. 

And now, my dear-F’., adieu. In my next, I hope to give you 
some account of the St. John’s river, and of the interior of the 


* Snakes have frequently been met with in England, crossing broad straits. In 
the Mag. of Nat. History for Sept. 1831, is an account, by Mr. Bakewell, of snakes 
swimming across the Menai, more than two miles broad, to the Isle of Anglesea, 
where they deposit their eggs on the low grounds. When swimming they pro- 
duce an oscillatory motion of the head and neck.—Ep. 


414 Natural Bridge in Virginia. 


peninsula of East Florida, to the exploring of which I mean to 
devote some time.—Very faithfully your’s, 
Joun James Aupuson. 


NATURAL BRIDGE IN ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 


Tue celebrity which Mr. Jefferson, in his JVotes on the State of 
Virginia, gave to this remarkable natural curiosity, has been 
deservedly great. He has very elogently expressed the emotions 
which an upward view of this “arch, so elevated, so light, and 
springing as it were up to heaven,” excites in the spectator. 

In a geological point of view, it is in all respects the same as 
the natural tunnel so well described by Lt. Col. Long, in our 
last number ; being originally a natural cavity in the limestone 
rock, (carboniferous,) enlarged by the. disintegration of the 
rock in long periods of time. Cedar creek, the small stream 
which passes under it, has its source only about two miles from 
the bridge, where it is only from 20 to 30 feet wide. It cannot 
be readily supposed, that a limited drainage of this nature could 
have perforated this rock; we therefore suppose, and for the 
reasons given in our remarks on Lt. Col. Long’s paper, that the 
stream has always escaped through one of those natural cavities, 
so abundant in this limestone. The height of the two spurs thus 
traversed by Stock creek in Scott county, and Cedar creek, in 
Rockbridge county, are nearly the same; but on account of the 
comparatively small extent of this natural bridge, which is, as 
it were, a cavity in the open air, the disintegration of the rock 
has been much more rapid. In process of time, if nothing is done 
to arrest annual waste, the whole mineral substance which now 
forms the arch, will fall to the bottom, leaving a chasm resem- 
bling that described by Ulloa, in Angaraez, of which Mr. Jefferson 
speaks in a note. It is in this slow but sure way, that the ap- 
pearances on the surface of the earth, are constantly undergoing 
a variety of changes; especially cavernous hills, exposed to the 
action of external circumstances. 

The comparative dimensions of the natural tunnel, and the 
natural bridge are as follows : 


Natural Bridge in Virginia. 415 


Natural Tunnel. Natural Bridge. 


From the stream to the arch, 80 feet. 240 feet. 
From the arch to the surface, solid, 160 “ 40 “ 
Extent of the tunnel, 450 « 60 “ 
Width at bottom, 50 to 100 *« 45 « 


We hope to do an agreeable thing in presenting our readers 
with a plate,* of the natural bridge, from a spirited original 
drawing, taken on the spot; and we conclude our paper with 
Mr. Jefferson’s account of it, from his notes. 

“The Natural Bridge, the most sublime of nature’s works, though 
not comprehended under the present head, must not be preter- 
mitted. It is on the ascent of a hill, which seems to have been 
cloven through its length by some great convulsion. The fissure, 
just at the bridge, is, by some admeasurements, 270 feet deep, 
by others only 205. It is about 45 feet wide at the bottom, and 
90 feet at the top; this of course determines the length of the 
bridge, and its height from the water. Its breadth in the mid- 
dle, is about 60 feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of 
the mass, at the summit of the arch, about 40 feet. A part of 
this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives 
growth to many large trees. The residue, with the hill on both 
sides, is one solid rock of lime-stone.—The arch approaches the 
semi-elliptical form; but the larger axis of the ellipsis, which 
would be the cord of the arch, is many times longer than the 
transverse. Though the sides of this bridge are provided in some 
parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few men have resolution 
to walk to them, and look over into the abyss. You involuntarily 
fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over 
it. Looking down from this height about a minute, gave me a 
violent head-ache. If the view from the top be painful and in- 
tolerable, that from below is delightful in an unequal extreme. 
It is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime, to be 
felt beyond what they are here: so beautiful an arch, so elevated, 
so light, and springing as it were up to heaven! the rapture of the 
spectator is really indescribable! The fissure continuing narrow, 
deep, and straight, for a considerable distance above and below 
the bridge, opens a short but very pleasing view of the North 
mountain on one side, and Blue ridge on the other, at the dis- 


* Vide Plate XII. 


16) Natural Bridge in Virginia. 


tance each of them about five miles. This bridge is in the 
county of Rockbridge, to which it has given name, and affords a 
public and commodious passage over a valley, which cannot be 
crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance. The stream pass- 
ing under it is called Cedar-creek. It is a water of James’ river, 
and sufficient, in the driest seasons, to turn a grist-mill, though its 
fountain is not more than two miles above.”* 


COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE LINN AN AND NATURAL 
SYSTEMS OF BOTANY. 


Tue republication in this country, of Lindley’s Introduction 
to the Natural System of Botany, with an Appendix by Dr. 


* Don Ulloa mentions a break, similar to this, in the province of Angaraez, in 
South America. It is from 16 to 22 feet wide, 111 feet deep, and of 13 miles con- 
tinuance, English measure. Its breadth at top is not sensibly greater than at 
bottom. But the following fact is remarkable, and will furnish some light for 
conjecturing the probable origin of our natural bridge. “Esta caxa, 6 cauce esta 
cortada en péna viva con tanta precision, que las defigualdades del un Jado entran- 
tes, corresponden 4 las del otro lado salientes, como si aquella altura se hubiese 
abierto expresamente, con sus bueltas y tortuosidades, para darle transito 4 los aguas 
por entre los dos murallones que la forman ; siendo tal su igualdad, que si Ilegasen 4 
juntarse se endentarian uno con otro sin dexar hueco.”* Not. Amer. II. § 10. Don 
Ulloa inclines to the opinion, that this channel has been effected by the wearing of 
the water which runs through it, rather than that the mountain should have been 
broken open by any convulsion of nature. But if it had been worn by the running 
of water, would not the rocks which form the sides, ‘have been worn plane? or if, 
meeting in some parts with veins of harder stone, the water had left prominences 
on the one side, would not the same cause have sometimes, or perhaps generally, 
occasioned prominences on the other side also? Yet Don Ulloa tells us, that on 
the other side there are always corresponding cavities, and that these tally with 
the prominences so perfectly, that, were the two sides to come together, they would 
fit in all their indentures, without leaving any void. I think that this does not 
resemble the effect of running water, but looks rather as if the two sides had parted 
asunder. The sides of the break, over which is the natural bridge of Virginia, 
consisting of a veiny rock which yields to time, the correspondence between the 
salient and re-entering inequalities, if it existed at all, has now disappeared. This 
break has the advantage of the one described by Don Ulloa in its finest cireum- 
stance ; no portion in that instance having held together, during the separation of 
the other parts, so as to form a bridge over the abyss. 

* This chasm is formed in the solid rock with so much precision, that the cavities on 
one side, correspond with the protuberances on the other, as if the cliff had opened asunder 
for the express purpose of permitting the water to pass between its walls: the correspond- 
ence being so exact, that if the walls could be brought together again, they would fit 
exactly. 


Systems of Botany. 417 


Torrey, is the most important step which has yet been taken 
here, towards investing the science of vegetable nature, with 
that dignity which belongs to all the branches of natural know- 
ledge, when considered in relation to their usefulness and har- 
mony with universal nature. 

No branch of natural history has been so much taught and 
studied in the United States as botany, through the Linnzan 
system. Holding, therefore, a very high opinion of the system 
to which Mr. Lindley’s work is introductory, and which, we be- 
lieve, will ere long supersede the Linnean system, with all 
those who investigate for truth’s sake, we feel it a duty to give 
some reasons for the opinion we entertain. We shall, therefore, 
in accordance with the general plan of our Journal, after some 
general observations upon natural arrangement, give a somewhat 
elementary account of the natural system of botany, that our 
readers may be divested of many of their prejudices against it, 
and be induced to give it an impartial consideration. We are 
satisfied that those of our botanical readers who are thus influ- 
enced, will be grateful to us for having opened a subject to 
them, entirely consistent with the true method of studying 
nature. 

There are but two methods of considering the classification 
of animals and plants, one of which is less appropriate to an ad 
vanced state of society, like the present, than the other. The 
immense number of individual animals and plants in existence, 
produced, in the earliest stage of society, of necessity, an imper- 
fect classification. The first rude method, was to call all the 
inhabitants of the waters, fishes; all the winged animals, birds. 
The distinct individuals of these elements, were recognized and 
named, generally, after some external mark which distinguished 
them. ~All classifications and arrangements depending upon 
generalizations ; and principles‘of this nature, are artificial and 
incomplete. They disclose nothing concerning the place and 
functions individuals occupy in the scheme of universal nature, 
and are only fitted for that indolent infancy of natural know- 
ledge, which precedes the conception of immutable and univer- 
sal principles of affinity. : 

The other method, which grows out of a more attentive study 
of nature, is the one appropriate to an advanced state of society ; 
when men have examined extensively into natural phenomena, 

Vor. [.—53 


418 Systems of Botany. 


when the spirit of analysis is in full action, and when they are 
pursuing the intimate knowledge of nature’s laws of organiza- 
tion, through those principles of affinity, by improved optics and 
improved reasoning. ‘To that natural system of considering or- 
ganized beings, which is founded upon observation of the agree- 
ment of a particular animal or plant, to all other animals and 
plants, man has made but slow advances, owing to the human 
mind, at its most active periods, having been principally engaged 
in speculative inquiries, and to the general ignorance of com- 
parative anatomy, both animal and vegetable. It is true, men, 
at an early period, might discover that there was a very wide 
difference among the animals they called fishes, since a whale, 
which dwells in the water, and has—the tail fin excepted—the 
external form of a fish, respires by lungs as we do, and not by 
gills; brings its young alive into the world, and suckles it. The 
bat also, although it flies in the air, and at a distance is an ap- 
parent bird, has no feathers, but is a true quadruped, with 
claws to its winged fore feet, as well as its hind feet, has ears, 
brings forth its young alive, and suckles it from teats at its breast. 
Hence, it being perceived that some animals belonging to the 
water and the air, had important functions in common with 
many living on the earth, it was a simple step to class them to- 
gether; and thus the class mammalia, to which man belongs, 
was established, and placed at the head of the animal kingdom, 
as that class of animals, whether living on the earth, in the wa- 
ters, or flying in the air, which suckles its young. A classification 
in zoology, which subtracts from the mass of animals all those 
which have an undoubted affinity of character, tending to the 
same functions, and then subdivides these classes again upon the 
same principles, promises an arrangement of all animals accord- 
ing to their affinities ; for those thus closely resembling each other, 
would come to be arranged under the same species ; species re- 
sembling each other under the same genus; genera resembling 
each other under the same order: and a catalogue of animals 
thus arranged, would be a true system of animal nature; for 
the classification, in disclosing the structure of each animal, 
would explain the purposes in creation, for which it received its 
distinctive properties. 

To effect so true an arrangement of organic nature,—for 
what is said here of animals, will be found equally true of vege- 


Systems of Botany. 419 


tables,—the greatest possible extent of investigation is neces- 
sary; not only a just account must be taken of the obvious parts 
and their constant properties, but refined optical contrivances 
must be resorted to, in order to discover the true structure and 
internal arrangement of those obvious parts. In this analysis, 
a knowledge of chemical and mechanical laws is frequently re- 
quired, and not unfrequently, when human art is at a stand, 
analogy, under the guidance of sound judgment, is the only light 
at hand; for although we may know much of organic structure, 
of the nature of organic life we know very little. 

Of life, we can assert little more, than that the motion con- 
tained within the organic structure depends upon it, as the con- 
tinuance of the form and arrangement of all the parts of the 
structure, depends upon the motion. The solid parts are for the 
preservation of the forms of bodies, but the whole of these solids 
are curiously constructed tissues of net-work, fibres, lamine, and 
other contrivances, whereby the fluids can have free passage 
through them, bringing accessions to their growth, repairing the 
waste, and carrying away what is superfluous. Whether the 
forms of bodies at maturity, are but extensions of what was la- 
tent in the germ before vitalization, or whether they are due to 
the vital power peculiar to each individual,—for some species 
reproduce lost parts,—still, each individual is what it is, in conse- 
quence of this complication which we call organization ; and it 
is clear that the properties and functions of species can only be 
understood by comparative anatomy, which is the study of the 
organic elements of individuals. 

Assuming, therefore, that this is the only true method of es- 
tablishing a classification of animals, it will not. be difficult to 
show, that the arrangement of vegetables must depend upon the 


same principles, being organic bodies, elaborated by a vital power. 


Of this we shall give proofs, first briefly noticing the Linnean 
scheme, which no doubt is familiar to most of our readers. 
About a century ago, when Linnzeus constructed his celebrated 
artificial system, founded upon the parts concerned in the fruc- 
tification of plants, the investigation which the structure of 
plants had received, was very limited. Cumbrous descriptions 
in the Latin tongue, derived from external characters, stood in 
the place of the precise trivial names which Linnaeus substituted. 
Rousseau ridiculed the pedantic practice of answering for the 


ves Din be 


420 Systems of Botany. 


name of a flower, with a long string of Latin words, as though it 
was the form of an incantation. An agreeable lady writer of 
the Linnzan school, has prettily said, “ It was as though Chris- 
tian names being unknown, we were to distinguish a family of 
sisters by personal description ; and instead of designating one as 
Miss Lucy Smith, and another as Miss Mary Smith, we should 
say, ‘ Yesterday I met Miss Smith, with black eyes and chestnut 
hair, who is rather tall, stoops a little in the shoulders, has a 
pretty little foot, and speaks with a lisp; and I asked her how 
the Miss Smith was, with blue eyes, auburn hair, pale cheeks, 
a majestic air, and a mole on her chin. ” 

The value of a natural system was well known to that great 
naturalist, Linnzus, who has even left the sketch of one; but 


‘the difficulty of defining the groupes was too great for his day. 


After unsuccessful attempts by others to found a popular ar- 
rangement upon the conformation of the corolla, the fruit, &c. 
&c., he produced his famous sexual system, founded upon the 
parts concerned in fructification. The calyx, or the outer part, 
which encloses and protects the bud: the corolla, the coloured 
leaves of the flower which protect the more delicate reproduc- 
tive parts. The pistil, the female organ, which occupies the 
centre of the flower, and is composed of three parts ; the germen 
at the base, the rudiment of the future fruit or seed: the style, 
a small tube proceeding from it, and the stigma, at the top of 
the style. In like manner the stamen, or male organ, is com- 
posed of three parts; the filament, or thread which rises from 
the base of the flower; the anther at its top, and the pollen, or 


fecundating matter lodged within the anther. The pericarp is 


the germen in a mature state, enclosing the seed, as the term 
denotes. The receptacle is the general connecting base of the 
fructification. 

His classes are formed from one or more of these parts, the 
order and genus from others. Having divided the vegetable 
kingdom into twenty-four classes, he established the ‘first ten 
upon the number of stamens in a flower ; and following up his 
sexual distinction, he called the stamens andria, a Greek term 
for husband, and the pistil gynia, another Greek term for wife. 
The orders of the classes are distinguished by the number of 
pistils; thus, the class monandria, containing flowers which have 
but one stamen, is subdivided into two orders, monogynia, Which 


Systems of Botany. 421 


has but one pistil, digynia, which has two. ‘The second class 
Diandria, has three orders, trigynia, having three pists or styles; 
for it is this latter part of the pistil which is often multiplied. 

The eleventh class, dodecandria, includes flowers with from 
eleven to twenty stamens. The twelfth, icosandria, has twenty 
or more stamens affixed to the calyx, and polyandria, the thir- 
teenth, has from that number to a thousand, affixed to the re- 
ceptacle. The remaining classes are established upon the 
unequal length of the stamens—the union of the filaments— 
filaments in double sets—anthers united into a tube—stamens 
proceeding from the germen—male and female organs on differ- 
ent flowers of the same plant, as monacia, (one house,) the 
twenty-first class: diecia, (two houses,) with each organ on se- 
parate plants. The twenty-third class, polygamia, embraces 
plants bearing perfect flowers, and flowers with the separate 
organs on the same, or on distinct plants. The twenty-fourth 
class, or cryptogamia, comprehends all plants destitute of organs 
of fructification, such as ferns, mosses, lichens, alge, and fungi. 

Such are the outlines of the celebrated artificial system of 
Linneus, so attractive by its apparent simplicity, yet so unin- 
structive, as far as the laws of nature are concerned; for it is by 
the aid of these alone, we are enabled to trace natural affinities 
between plants, both in structure and properties. Mr. Lindley, 
in his introduction, has well remarked, 

“From such principles no naturalists except botanists have deviated; no 
one has thought of first combining, under the name of animal kingdom, quad- 
rupeds and birds, insects and fishes, reptiles and mollusca, and then of sub- 
dividing them by the aid of a few arbitrary signs, in such a way that a por- 
tion of each should be found in every group—quadrupeds among birds and 
fishes, reptiles among insects and mammalia; but each great natural group 
has been confined within its own proper limits. Botany alone, of all the 
branches of natural history, has been treated otherwise ; and this in modern 
times.” 

When we speak of the inefficiency of this artificial system for 
the knowledge of nature, we desire to speak of Linnaeus with 
all honour, as a great benefactor to mankind, who lived before 
the true plan of studying nature could be comprehensively laid 
down; but when we have to draw a comparison between it, 
and the natural system which now claims to supersede it, we 
should not act honestly, did we not declare that it is possible to 
acquire a great knowledge ofthe Linnzan system of botany, 


422 Experiment with Phosphorus. 


without advancing much in the knowledge of nature. In one 
sense, indeed, we apprehend it comes as near to nature as may 
be profitable to some young persons, with whom botany is a 
popular study. Every young lady can count how many stamens 
there are on a plant, and refer it to its class; but does she learn 
by this, what qualities the plant may possess,—what other plants 
it is closely allied to, having similar qualities,—or what the struc- 
ture of the future fruit may be? No! she learns nothing of these ; 
she admires, and she talks Greek. When she takes in her hand 
the beautiful little forget-me-not, (myosotis palustris, L.) she says, 
“This dear little flower belongs to pentandria monogynia. 
What a romantic idea! Five husbands and one wife.” 


(To be continued.) 


EXPERIMENT WITH PHOSPHORUS ON A CAT. 


A paper read by Dr. Harlan, before the American Philosophical Society, 
February 17, 1832. 


No small degree of interest has recently been excited by the 
appearance among us of M. Chaubert, of Paris, who professes 
to have discovered antidotes for some of the most lethal poisons, 
and his powers of resisting their effects have been successfully 
demonstrated for several years past, throughout the greater part 
of Europe. Since his arrival in this country, Mr. C. has repeated 
most of his experiments, both in this city and in New York,— 
particularly those with prussic acid and phosphorus, the former 
of which he exhibits to animals; the effects of the latter he 
generally tests upon his own system, swallowing with perfect — 
indifference from twenty to forty grains. Mr. C. has favoured me 
with the following remarks relative to the operation of this poison 
on himself. It produces, in the first place, exhilarating effects, 
succeeded, sooner or later, by a transitory sense of depression or 
faintness. In the course of a few hours, however, the most 
powerful and painful aphrodisiacal effects are the consequence : 
if the dose has been very large, frequently repeated, and espe- 
cially if he has permitted three or four hours to elapse previous 
to taking the antidote, his bones become affected with pain and 
soreness throughout the skeleton, so as to render the usual pres- 
sure almost insupportable: his complexion also changes to a 


Experiment with Phosphorus. 423 


bilious hue, and his bowels become costive. All that Mr. C. 
has informed me of, concerning the nature of his antidote for 
phosphorus, is, that it is of an animal nature. 

Many conflicting opinions are entertained by medical men, in 
regard to the extent of the deleterious effects of this poison on 
the animal body; some have even pronounced the substance to 
be inert, when taken into the stomach in a solid state; and 
others are of opinion, that its mixture with oil renders it less 
noxious ; while Mr. C. positively aflirms, that oil renders it a 
hundred fold more virulent. Some writers affirm, that one 
quarter of a grain is sufficient, in some cases, to destroy the life 
of man; and by some German chemists it is stated, that the 
water in which he had washed phosphorus, being drank by 
chickens, proved fatal to them. I have heard lately of a patient 
in Paris, to whom one ‘grain was administered twice daily, for 
impotency, with fatal effects. 

Confused by these conflicting statements, I was desirous of 
obtaining some satisfactory results; for this purpose, I pro- 
cured a full grown female cat, and on Tuesday, F ebruary 15th, 
at 10 A. M. administered eleven grains of phosphorus, cut into 
small pieces, and mixed with a table spoonful of milk and water. 
The animal experienced no uneasiness for the first eighteen hours, 
nor could I observe any symptoms, referable to the poison ; she 
however passed urine during the evening which emitted the 
smell of phosphorus, and some irritation existed about the ex- 
ternal organs of generation. On Wednesday, she displayed con- 
siderable uneasiness ; drooped, cried, and during the morning 
experienced a fit of epilepsy ; these symptoms increased apace, 
and on Thursday night and F riday morning, she was, for the 
most part, senseless, and expired in spasms at 1 P..M. about 
three days after taking the poison. 

The following pathological symptoms were observed on dis- 
section :—The intestines, for the most part, empty, and much 
contracted ; the liver and kidneys gorged with blood; the former 
covered with small bright punctuations of blood; the uterus con- 
tained three embryons about two weeks old; (the term of ges- 
tation in these animals being fifty-six days.) On opening the 
stomach, the mucous tunic was observed generally inflamed ; 
particularly so about the great curvature, and pyloric portion, 
which also displayed numerous holes, or abrasions, some of them 


. Ci iat ah 
ae 


424 Experiment with Phosphorus. 


much larger than the pieces of phosphorus which she had swal- 
lowed ; two or three spots were sphacelated, near the pylorus ; 
the mucous coat was also softened in its structure ; this coat was 
highly inflamed, and preternaturally softened throughout the 
duodenum; the same appearances extending the whole length 
of the intestinal canal, which was nearly empty, with the ex- 
ception of the rectum, which was distended with hardened fieces, 
of which it does not appear that there had been any discharge 
after the administration of the poison : not the least appearance 
of phosphorus, in a solid state, could be detected in the stomach 
or intestines, nor even in the feces when exposed to a high tem- 
perature; the poison was most probably all dissolved in the 
stomach, as the animal was not observed to vomit until the end of 
the second day of the experiment, and then food only was ejected. 
The heart and lungs were collapsed; the brain and spinal mar- 
row more than usually dry and pale ; several lumbrici were ob- 
served in the stomach and intestines, all dead, though the animal 
was still warm. From this experiment it results, that phosphorus, 
though not an active poison, is fatal to these animals, when taken 
into the stomach; that it excites violent inflammation in the 
mucous membrane, and ulceration of such portions as the solid 
phosphorus comes in contact with, occasionally attended with 
sphacelus ; that the gastric liquor is capable of dissolving solid 
phosphorus ; and that when it passes in a state of solution into 
the intestines, it occasions inflammation and softening of the mu- 
cous coat generally, contracting the bowels, and inducing con- 
stipation ; and that the glandular, muscular, and osseous systems, 
among those parts not immediately in contact, are principally 
affected by the operation of this poison.* 


*The London Medical and Physical Journal, conducted by T. Brady, M. D. 
R. Batty, M. D. and A. A. Noehden, M. D. Vol. I. page 85, has the following 
passage :-— 

“From a letter from Citizen 8. lately published in the ‘ Annales de Chimie, it 
appears that no less than twenty-seven of his poultry, including a turkey hen, all 
died in the course of a few days, in the most dreadful convulsions. Curiosity in- 
duced him to open them, when every thing appeared in a sound state, without any 
indication of the slightest malady; he perceived, however, that the internal mem- 
brane of the gizzard was somewhat tough and shrivelled, like most animal sub- 
stances, when exposed to the action of heat. In all the different subjects, the sto- 
machs were luminous; the grains, not fully digested, glittered on falling down to 
the ground; and those which at first sight presented no light, almost instantly ex- 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 425 


It does not appear that phosphorus exerts any very powerful 
operation on the uterus, as in this instance no symptoms of abor- 
tion were the consequence of so large a dose, notwithstanding 
the spasms which formed part of the symptoms. 

R. Haruan. 


GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


Ar a meeting of the Society, held in the city of Philadelphia, 
on the 22d of Feb., 1832, the following officers were elected :— 


Joun R. Grieson, President. 

Nicuotas Bippxe, Vice President. 

Sreruen S. Lone, U.S. A., Vice President. 
Henry S. Tanner, Treasurer. 

Prrer A. Browne, Corresponding Secretary. 
Grorce Fox, Recording Secretary. 


The following Circular, prepared by the appointed committee, 
was submitted, and ordered to be printed. 


CIRCULAR, 
FROM THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


Sirn,—The Geological Society of Pennsylvania, do themselves 
the honour of transmitting you a copy of their Circular, and 
ask you to co-operate with them in promoting the objects they 
have in view. 

To have an exact knowledge of the mineral resources of this 
state, is considered the most important of these objects, and as 
it is the intention of this Society, to construct, as soon as the 
proper information is obtained, an accurate Geological, Map 
which shall indicate the mineral topography of the State, you 
are respectfully requested to return at your earliest leisure, an- 
swers to the following queries, and to assist in giving effect. to 


hibited both light and the smell of phosphorus, when heated. This convinced 
Citizen 8. that there could be only one cause for all these effects, and that they 
were all produced by the circumstance of his having, four or five days before, thrown 
out some water through a casement into the poultry yard; which water had served 
to wash and purify several substances, on which operations of phosphorus had 
been performed. ‘The phosphorus contained in these waters, in a state of nature, 
he considered as solely occasioning the death of suéh a number of domestic 
animals. 


Vou. L.—54 


. “4 =P © 


? iY 17 
426 Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 


the intentions of the Society, by procuring and furnishing them 
with the information and specimens now solicited, as far as your 
opportunities and boiivenieno fie admit of. As the proceedings 
of this Society will be occasionally published in the Monthly 
American Journal of Geology and Natural Science, of this city, the 
valuable information thus procured will be publicly acknow- 
ledged, and its authenticity be satisfactorily established. 


QUERIES. 


1. In what County of the State of Pennsylvania do you reside, 
and in what Township or Town ? 

2. Will you recommend to the Society, individuals in your 
county, able and well disposed to co-operate with the Society 
for the furtherance of their objects, noting their places of resi- 
dence ? 

3. Will you furnish the Society with, or can you enable it 
' to acquire, a correct geographical sketch of your County or 
Township, where the mountains and hills with their respective 
altitude, the vales, plains, and Arenas, are laid down from actual 
survey ? 

4. Who is considered the most accurate Surveyor in your 
County or Township, and where does he reside ? 

5. If you are not able to furnish a geographical sketch, as 
spoken of in query No. 3, will you procure for the Society, a 
plan of the mountains and hills in your County or Township, 
showing where the ridges are continuous, or where they are 
divided by water-gaps, or where they are divided from each 
other by vales or plains? 

6. Is there any coal, iron, lead, copper, marble, limestone, or 
other valuable metals, or simple minerals, in your County or 
Township—what are they, and in what quantities are they found? 

7. Will you distinguish and describe the locality of any or all 
such substances? Will you procure specimens of them ? 

8. Is the coal bituminous, or non-bituminous? If both kinds 
are found, specify the localities. 

9. Will you give a sketch of the coal field, showing its extent, 
with the number and position of the strata of coal observed, 
their inclination, thickness, and depth at which they are found 
from the surface ? 

10. Will you procure for the Society some of the most perfect 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 427 


fossil coal plants, a specimen of each variety, and will you note 
the localities from whence they have been taken? 

11. Upon what general bed does the coal-field lie 5 is it lime- 
stone, sandstone, clay, shale, or what other simple mineral ? 

12. Which of the foregoing substances do the strata of coal 
alternate with? 

13. Will.you procure for the Society geological specimens, 
not exceeding four inches square, of the general bed under the 
coal-field mentioned in query 11, as well as of the alternating 
beds spoken of in query 12, together: with good specimens of 
every species of fossil organic remains found in all such beds, 
noting their localities ? 

14. Are any salt springs, or mineral springs, or is any rock 
salt found in your County, and whereabouts ? 

15. What is the depth of the wells which have been dug for 
brine, and through what mineral beds were the borings made? 

16. Will you procure for the Society a perpendicular section 
of such borings, with the thickness of the various beds, and fos- 
sils found in them ? 

17. Will you procure for the Society, geological specimens, 
not exceeding four inches square, of the rocks of which the 
mountains and hills alluded to in query 5 are composed, together 
with specimens of organic remains, preferring such as have por- 
tions of the rock adhering to them’, 

18. Will you procure for the Society a perpendicular section 
of any cliffs, or the banks of any ravines, or streams, in your 
County or Township, giving an accurate description of the va- 
rious beds of which they may be composed, with the respective 
thickness of such beds? 

19. Will you furnish the Society with geological speci- 
mens of such beds, and their fossils, prepared as suggested in 
query 17? 

20. Are there any natural caves in your County or Township ? 
in what formation are they found, in limestone, sandstone, or 
what bed, and whereabouts are they ! 

21. Can you give the society information of any fossil skele- 
tons, bones, or teeth of ancient animals, found in them ? 

22. Were they found laid on the floor of such caves, or were 
they dug from beds of earth within the caves, and at what depth ? 

93, Were such beds of earth covered over with a crust of 


se i oa rs i 


Ay 
428 Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 


carbonate of lime, commonly called stalagmite, which had 
trickled from the roof of the cave? i 

24, Have any fossil skeletons, bones, or teeth of ancient ani- 
mals, been found in your County or Township, not within caves? 

25. Were they found on the surface of the ground, or buried 
in the superficial soil of the country ? 

26. At what depth were they found, and in what sort of soil 
were they laid, clay, marl, sand or gravel: were any shells, 
broken cane, or branches of trees found with them: will you 
particularize the manner in which they were found ? 

27. Can such skeletons, bones, teeth, shells, &&c. be procured 
for the Society ? 

28. If they cannot, will you procure for the Society a draw- 
ing of these various objects, and will you mention the respective 
size of each of them? 

Please wrap all specimens carefully up, and forward them, 
packed in a box, by the cheapest and earliest opportunity, ad- 
dressing the package to Peter A. Browne, Esq., Corresponding 
Secretary, and giving information by mail, of the time and man- 
ner in which the package was sent. 

By order of the Society. 
JOHN B. GIBSON, President. 
GEORGE FOX, Recording Secretary. 
Philadelphia, March 1st, 1832. 


The establishment of this Society has afforded a sincere grati- 
fication to the friends of geological knowledge, and cannot fail 
to have a beneficial effect upon the interests of the State of 
Pennsylvania, by uniting the efforts of those kindred minds, 
which are found in every part of its extensive territory. In 
every township of this State, there are, no doubt, individuals, 
who find their purest pleasures in interrogating nature, and with 
whom the rocks and minerals of their respective districts are 
familiar. It is to them this Circular is addressed. The curious 
information they are constantly acquiring, henceforwards be- 
comes intrinsically valuable. To such individuals it must be a 
source of lively satisfaction, that the isolated facts they are in 
possession of, can now be brought forward, as parts of a suc- 
cessful experiment to illustrate the geology and mineralogy of 
the State of Pennsylvania. We cannot too much commend the 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 429 


intention of the Society to construct a geological map of the 
State. When this shall be accomplished, it will be a monument 
worthy of the labours of the men who have established the first 
Geological Society in the United States of America, that holds 
out a most encouraging promise of not being “ Vox et preterea 
nihil.” We believe the day is rapidly passing away, when the 
value of an acre of land is to be estimated solely by its capacity 
for producing a certain number of bushels of wheat, or cords of 
wood. How many tons of coal, of lead, iron, copper, how 
many pounds of gold, may be extracted from it! are becoming 
important inquiries with American land owners. ‘The value of 
this kind of knowledge will soon become properly appreciated, 
and then the State Legislatures will furnish the means for the 
execution of surveys by competent persons, and for the construc- 
tion of geological maps, which alone give the proper indications 
of the mineral resources of a State. This will be well under- 
stood by and by: in the mean time, it is for zealous individuals 
to draw the public attention to so great a subject. 

The queries in the accompanying Circular, appear to embrace 
the most interesting objects connected with geology. It rarely 
occurs that any one district furnishes matter of observation re- 
specting all the objects especially mentioned in this circular, but 
it appears to us, that individuals will find the objects enumerated 
which are found in their respective parts of the country: it will 
not be found very troublesome for any particular individual to 
furnish the Society with information of what exists around him. 
We most sincerely hope this most commendable and extensive 
plan for bringing out the geological information of the State of 
Pennsylvania, will meet with perfect success. The Society 
having constituted this Journal the organ of its transactions, we 
shall do every thing in our power to aid in giving effect to its 
labours, as well as in rendering justice to individual exertions. 
To be instrumental in collecting and extending the knowledge 
of the geology of this State, will be very grateful to us; but, as 
our object is to make the geological information of any particu- 
lar part of the country subservient to a knowledge of the general 
geology of the United States, we beg to intimate to our sub- 
scribers who reside out of the State of Pennsylvania, that we 
should feel ourselves under a great obligation to them, or any 
of their friends, if they would communicate to us the informa- 


~ 


% 
430 Meteorological Observations. 


tion solicited in the queries of this Circular, respecting the dis- 
tricts in which they may reside, in any part of the United States, 
or of the Canadas. In doing this, we ask the favour of its being 
transmitted to us, upon all convenient occasions, by private con- 
veyance, especially specimens, on account of the very great 
expences to which the establishment of this Journal has sub- 
jected us. Epiror. 


Fie. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
Made at Wilmington, Delaware, by Henry Gibbons, M.D. 
SUMMARY FOR JANUARY, 1832. 


Therm. —_ Barom | Proportion of clear weather, ee 16 
Average at sun-rise, 24°.77 in.29.90| Proportion of cloudy, 
Average at mid day, 36°.52 29.88)Whole days clear, 2 
Average at 11 o’clock, Days on which rain fell, 5 
P. M. 27°.71 29.88 Days on which snow fell, 2 
Monthly average, 30°.64 29.89 Quantity of rain, in. 4.66 
Maximum, 19th, 57°. 27th,30.30 Quantity of snow, As 
am, 27th, 6°. 8th,29.04/Quantity of water, 5.50 
63°. 1.26|Northerly winds prevailed, days 14 
Mbtnest day, 19th 49°. 5 Easterly, 8 
Coldest day, 27th, 1°, Southerly, (S. to W.) 9 


An aurora on the 22d, followed immediately by easterly winds, and on the 
25th, by a snow storm from the north. No electrified clouds. Several 
moderate rains, and but little snow. Winds generally light and changeable. 
The early part of the month, a continuation of the winter of the preceding 
December; afterwards the weather gradually moderated, and two weeks 


of pleasant sunshine dissipated almost every trace of the previous cold. 
The Christiana creek, and the Delaware river, at Philadelphia, opened 


about the 18th, after having been closed six weeks. But just as the ice had 
disappeared sufficiently to admit of navigation, winter suddenly returned, 
with a severe snow storm on the 25th; on which day the thermometer fell 
from 36°, at sunrise, to 12°, at 11 o’clock, P. M. The next morning the 
mercury was at 4°; 9° at noon, and had fallen to 2° below zero at 11, P. M. 
On the 27th, it stood at 6° below zero at sunrise, 8° at noon, and 2° at night; 
and on the morning of the 28th, 2° below zero at 2 o’clock, and 2° above at 
sunrise. The range of the thermometer, for a continuous period of 60 hours, 
was between 6° below and 9° above zero. By this extreme effort, Winter 
seemed to have exhausted himself. Navigation was again open in little 
more than a week, and no very severe cold was afterwards experienced. 
There were three easterly storms during the month, all accompanied with 
rain or snow. 

Errarum.—tIn the summary-for December, published in the last number 
of the Journal, the quantity of rain is stated at two inches, instead of t1o- 
tenths of an inch. 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 431 


SCIENTIFIC AND GENERAL MEMORANDA. 


Audubon’s Birds of America.—We have very great pleasure in 
stating, that the merits of this great work are beginning to be 
understood in this, which is the native country of its author. 
Before his return here, in September last, there were only five 
copies subscribed for in the U. States; there are now eighteen. 
The Legislature of Louisiana has authorized a subscription for 
two copies, and the Legislature of South Carolina forone. We 
hope this example will be followed by the legislatures of the 
other States. One copy of this splendid national work adorns the 
National Library at Washington. 


The Bohan Upas and the Valley of Death—It has now become 
probable that the wonderful story of the poisonous tree, Bohan 
Upas, in Java, is a vulgar error; and that the story owes its 
existence to imperfect accounts of the Guwo Upas, or poisoned 
valley, in that island. This terrific valley was visited by Mr. A. 
Loudon, on the 4th of July, 1830. The bottom of the valley 
was “covered with the skeletons of human beings, tygers, pigs, 


deer, peacocks, and all sorts of birds.” From some experiments — 


which were tried upon dogs and fowls, it appears that this valley 
is what Avernus was supposed to be in ancient fables; and that 
the phenomenon of the Grotto del Cane exists there upon a great 
scale. In our next, we shall give Mr. Loudon’s account, as we 
find it in Jameson’s January number, for 1832. 


Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia—Messrs. Jackson and 
Alger, have published, from the Memoirs of the American Aca- 
demy, their remarks on the mineralogy and geology of Nova 
Scotia, in a monograph of 116 pages, with a geological map, 
and four coloured plates. This is the neatest and best executed 
work on geology, which, as far as we have seen, has been got up 
in the United States, and is printed at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
We shall endeavour to give an early account of its contents. 


Volcanic Island of Pantellaria.—This small island lies between 
Sicily and Africa: it is entirely volcanic. ‘The external border 
is formed of a succession of beds of trachytic lava, of a light 
greenish gray colour, resembling gneiss in its granular, slaty struc- 


4 


y* 


* 


432 Scientific and General Memoranda. — 


ture. Central to this border is a mountain mass 2,000 feet high, 
composed of pumice and streams of lava; aqueous vapour issues 
from its sides, and hot springs are found at its foot, which collect 
into a lake of warm salt water, 6,000 feet in circumference. 
Sciacca, on the Sicilian coast, lies about 70 miles N.E. from Pan- 
tellaria, and through one of the intermediate shoals, the new 
volcanic island of Hotham, arose in July last.* 


Origin of the Name of the Fish John Dory.—This fish, (Zeus 
Faber, Lin.) notwithstanding its deformity, appears to have been 
always a conspicuous member of the finny tribe. It has an in- 
dent upon each side, as a proof that it was the identical fish St. 
Peter took hold of with his finger and thumb, in order to take 
the tribute money out of its mouth. Others have affirmed, that 
these indents were made by St.Christopher, who, wading through 
an arm of the sea one day, amused himself with catching them. 
Hence, its name has been derived from adoree. With all reve- 
rence for so saintly an origin, we mention that its resplendent 
golden colour, as we have often witnessed in the Mediterranean, 
has induced some to suppose the name derived from Dorée, gilded. 
Both these origins, however, leave us to seek for its Christian © 
name John, or Johnny, as it is usually pronounced in the south of 
England, where it appears in May and June. The fishermen in 
the Adriatic, who believe in the legend of St. Peter’s taking the 
tribute money out of its mouth, call it by the Saint’s official 
name, Jl Janitore, or gate keeper, which comes as near to Johnny 
Dory as an Englishman could pronounce it. Quin, the actor, 
brought it into vogue; and Sir Joseph Banks said it was the most 
valuable of fish, because it required no sauce: this may be the 
hidden meaning of St. Peter’s taking the tribute money out of its 
mouth. He was a fisherman! 

* Vide page 314. 


‘ TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

The correspondent who forwarded to us a review of Dr. M’Murtrie’s translation of the 
Regne Animal, is informed, that, having found leisure to examine the work with more 
critical attention, we find his remarks substantially correct, and shall publish them in our 
next number. 


Gold Region.—We beg to inform various correspondents, who rather press us on the 
subject, that if our account of it is not commenced in our next number, it will be for 
reasons they will approve of. The subject is too interesting to the country to be treated 
of in the usual common place manner. 


——— 


ete 


{ Saas 


i ry ’ 


Beaver Dam B+) 


Coal Bank 


Nowrn 


uighs Gay 


ile 


7 the Moshan 


/ wl Nank 
above HL hilips: Coal B 


below 


below 


1. Goss 
Inshutes 


Old Coal Bank near De 


De 
De 


Dates Colliery 


Summit ef 


Mleghany Ridge 


40: 


‘eal 


non Creek 


— Coal Strata 


Aitwninous Coal & Irreqular deposites of Argillaccous Soon Ore 


the sury 


SHCIDN of th 


Gap 


Puddingstone or Grit 


Sandstone beds 
Me used for Hearth stones 


nearly horezental 


WP hilips: ¢ 


| 


a 
w 


ny 


Will Run 


© lane Blocks 


Tan 


Moshannon Crock 


sisting of Mlternating Bede of Sandstone, Fire Clay 


are seattered Nodules of Hamatitic Iron Ore 


Horizontal Scale 1320 Yards to One Inch 


on the 


White Quartz Conglomerate in 


surtac 
=s 


Beds dipping ~ 
tighten i 


arse Gray Sandstone 


and Grit 


Brown 


Slatey 


Sandstone 


r his house 


Lr tite 


Fork of Dry Valley 


ALLLMAHANY RIDGE, and ofa portion of he COAL STRATA wn the vey of the MOSHAN NON VALAAY, Centre Count, Peansvlrana 


Surveyed hy R.C.Taylor, £.G.S. 


Engraved tir he Monthly American Jounal ef Geology and Natural Science 


4, 
Mig fa 


Summit Level Feot 


hein 


| 300 


al Seale 


ice 


§ 3, || Boo 
5 g 
s 3 || 
§ ¥ {p00 
= g] 
; oon 


Indications of Limestone 
Souril 


THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 


oF 
GEOLOGY 


AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. I. Puivapetruts, Aprit, 1832. No. 10. . 


SECTION OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAIN, AND MOSHANNON 
VALLEY, IN CENTRE COUNTY, PENN. 


By Ricuarp C. Tarzor, F. G.S. and Associate Fellow of the Institution of 


Civil Engineers of London. 


Philipsburg, Centre Co. Penn. March 15, 1882. 
“Dear Sir—You ask for, some information relative to the 
geology of this neighbourhood, and I lose no time in complying 
With your request. I believe I cannot do better than furnish 
you with the accompanying section, which I feel some satisfac- 
tion in doing, because its details result from a series of careful 
observations, made during last summer, whilst pursuing an ex- 
ploring survey, to determine a rail-way route. I have preferred 
introducing a number of details into the section, rather than 
transfer them into a lengthened explanatory memoir. Until the 
investigation of the country bordering on the Alleghany chain 
be more extensively entered upon, I propose to occupy but a 
brief space in your Journal, with the requisite explanatory 
references. 
My section illustrates only a very small portion of the central 


bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania ; but it occurs in an inter- 


esting quarter, and it is well to make a beginning, where the 
area is so vast, and so little known to men of science. The di- 
rection of our course is north and south, exhibiting profiles of a 
part of the Moshannon valley, its creek, and some of its tribu- 
taries; and then crossing the Alleghany ridge or mountain, at 
the lowest depression we have been able to ascertain in this di- 
rection, we descend by Emigh’s gap, and by the ravine and run 
Vor. L—55 433 


ay " 


We 7" 


434 Section of the Alleghany Mountain, &c. 


or rivulet called Emigh’s, to Bald Eagle valley, and Little Bald 
Eagle creek. The levels have not been taken of this creek, and 
of the little Juniata, into which it falls, as far as the junction 
with the Pennsylvania canal, near Huntington; consequently, 
until those data be obtained, we cannot fix the precise elevation 
of the Alleghany ridge, with reference to that canal, and the 
sea. 

Returning to Bald Eagle valley, at the southern extremity of 
our section, we will retrace, more in detail, the route I have 
rapidly sketched. Here we are deep enough to touch the limits 
of the mountain limestone, although the intervening Bald Eagle 
ridge separates us from the main body of that formation. Its 
course is 8.W. parallel with the Alleghany chain, and its pre- 
vailing dip is E. or S. KE. This inclination is inconsiderable at 
the distance of ten or fifteen miles from the outcrop, and at 
twenty miles from the Alleghany, I have observed its beds to be 
nearly horizontal. At the foot of the Bald Eagle, or Muncy ridge, 
they curve up to an angle as high as 60° to 75°, and occasion- 
ally may be noticed almost vertical, resting upon their edges. 

Ascending the ravine, by Emigh’s run, from little Bald Eagle 
creek, we arrive, in succession, at a variety of. sandstone beds, 
upon which repose the coal measures, unless we view the entire 
series, as comprehended in the carboniferous formation. These 
lower beds may be estimated at about thirteen hundred feet, in 
their aggregate thickness. They are numerous, and as variable 
in structure, colour, and density, as rocks of this class generally 
are. Many of them contain casts of producta, spirifers, and 
unios; but the prevailing indication of fossils, is simply the hol- 
low cavities formerly occupied by these shells. One of the most 
prominent of the lower beds, is a red, laminated, slightly mica- 
ceous sandstone, with subordinate seams of red clay and shale, 
which, after rains, give a red tinge to the surface waters, like 
those in the red sandstone districts of England. ‘Their inclina- 
tion is toward the W. and S. W. On some of the subordinate 
ridges, parallel with the Alleghany chain, and on that side 
nearest the limestone, the angle or dip of the slaty beds is some- 
times as great as 60° to the west ; that is, at right angles to the 
main ridge, and exactly contrary to the prevailing dip of the 
limestone. 

Hereafter we hope to illustrate with greater precision, the posi- 


Section of the Alleghany Mountain, Sc. 435 


tion of those vast disturbed masses, which constitute the singularly 
uniform ridges, and long straight valleys of central Pennsylvania, 
east of the Alleghanies; a subject on which the attention of a 
geologist would be fitly employed; which heretofore has re- 
mained unnoticed, and which involves some extremely inter- 
esting and extensive examples of displacement. 

The progress of such an investigation is as slow as laborious, 
and the geologist contends with many natural difficulties. These 
will ever be found in a country like that under consideration, 
where the surface is obscured with a dense forest vegetation ; 
where the operations of man have scarcely commenced; where 
neither artificial excavations, nor natural sections, nor exposed 
escarpments, relieve the monotony of the mountain side, or the 
gloomy ravine; and where those elevated valleys, ramifying 
amidst the intricacies of the mountain chains, have continued 
from remote ages, and in all probability, for ages will remain, 
an impenetrable wilderness, and an impracticable labyrinth. 

On account, therefore, of these impediments to ordinary and 
individual examination, it is especially desirable, that geological 
observations, made under the advantageous circumstances at- 
tending public surveys, by engineers, and what is still better, of 
the completion of the works committed to their charge, and con- 
ducted at their leisure, should be faithfully recorded. This can 
be advantageously effected by communications with Geological 
Societies in the separate states, like that now coming into exis- 
tence in Pennsylvania: but better still, upon the principle sug- 
gested at page 130 of your Journal, if conducted under the 
auspices of the government, as a branch of duty strictly in con- 
nexion with the engineer department. In this respect, your 
remarks are well deserving attention from the parties to whom 
they have reference; from those whose professional operations 
place them in situations so particularly favourable to scientific 
research, and more especially from the department whose pro- 
vince it is to direct their movements. 

Reverting to our section, from which I have wandered, it 
will be obvious, that on approaching the summit of the Alle- 
ghany ridge, after intersecting the lower series to which | 
have referred, and estimated at upwards of 1300 feet in 
thickness, we arrive at a conglomerate rock or pudding-stone, 
composed of white quartz pebbles, set in a coarse grit. This bed 


436 Section of the Alleghany Mountain, &¢. 


is fifty to one hundred feet thick. Large displaced fragments 
cover the surface, and have even been transported several miles 
in abundance, to the bottom of Bald Eagle valley, many hun- 
dred feet below. We occasionally see this breccia disintegrated, 
its pebbles occurring loosely, in the form of gravel, in extensive 
beds. In its compact state, this rock is sought for the purpose 
of fire or hearth-stone, for the neighbouring iron works. The 
position occupied by the conglomerate, is sometimes conspicuous, 
in its lofty site, at the distance of sevéral miles; and in those 
cases, it appears as a bare and steep ledge, on the eastern slope 
of the Alleghany mountain; pursuing its course parallel with the 
summit, and commonly from one hundred to three hundred feet 
below the crest. In winter, when all other parts of the moun- 
tain are enveloped in snow, this dark ledge of gritstone is singu- 
larly discernible, forming the most striking exception to the 
general remark I have previously made. Its presence is no 
less distinguished by the change in vegetation, above the limits 
of this parallel. From the valleys, (which are occupied by 
hemlocks, white pines, and other dark evergreens,) white oaks, 
and some other deciduous trees, ascend upwards, to the base of 
the conglomerate, and are then succeeded by red, or pitch pines, 
whose dark foliage, and stunted forms, arise amidst a thick 
brushwood of chestnuts, forming those wild and worthless tracks, 
called barrens.* These upper strata consist of sand and beds 
of soft, white, porous, sandstone. The aggregate thickness of 
the beds above the limestone, up to this point, can scarcely be 
less than 1600 or 1800 feet. This estimate, of course, must be 
received as an approximation, the accuracy of which, is mate- 
rially influenced by the inclination of the lower members of the 
series. 

Descending from the sterile region above the conglomerate, 
we now perceive, in the sandstone which succeed, innumerable 
proofs that we have entered the limits of the great central coal- 
field. The first vein of bituminous coal is here discovered at an 
elevation, only one hundred and fifty feet below the crest of the 


* It may be observed, that, in these mountainous regions, the season of winter and snow 
is, in some respects, particularly favourable to the display of its broader and most charac- 
teristic geological features, which are commonly obscured, at other times, by a luxuriant 
forest vegetation. At no time or place have I seen geological changes more distinctly 
indicated, or more influential on the character of the scenery, when viewed from great 
distances. 


Section of the Alleghany Mountain, §c. 437 


ridge we have just crossed. At present no coal has been ex- 
tracted from this vein. Sixty feet lower, at Dale’s farm, is a 
second, and larger vein, consisting of three seams, and comprising 
nine feet altogether, having two partings, of three inches each. 
The upper seam only, four feet thick, has hitherto been worked. 
At thirty-nine feet lower, is another large vein: and at least 
six other veins of coal occur, in descending to the level of the Mo- 
shannon creek, at Hoffman’s dam. This is 324 feet furthef down, 
and at this point in our section, we have arrived at 575 feet be- 
low the Alleghany ridge, at its lowest part. ‘These coal seams, 
and the subjacent strata of sandstone and fire clay, so far as we 
have been able to extend our observations, appear, with tole- 
rable uniformity, to decline at a small angle towards the north, 
or rather the north-west. 

It would be irksome to proceed with the details. Our profile 
exhibits the intersection of several other coal veins; but how 
many of them are distinct from those we have previously noticed, 
cannot readily be determined, as they have not all been proved 
or worked; and moreover, there is an obvious change of incli- 
nation. Those near Philipsburg, at the Beaver dam and 
neighbouring collieries, or coal banks, as they are locally term- 
ed, dip to the S. and S. W., to meet the more elevated beds 
and strata we have before mentioned, which incline to the 
N. and N. W. Some other veins, more to the northward than 
our section exhibits, crop out with a similar inclination to 
the S. W. along the banks of the Moshannon, extending toward 
its junction with the west branch of the Susquchanna. This 
inclination seldom forms a greater angle than one or two 
degrees, and affords great facilities for obtaining the coal, 
Fifteen miles westward of Philipsburg, and further within 
the interior of the basin, the coal veins incline to the E. 
and N.E., that is, toward the Alleghany chain, its apparent 
boundary. 

Faults, if any occur, are rarely observable, within such a vast 
unexplored area. There is probably one of several feet, on or 
near the Beaver dams, as shown by the letters A and B on the 
section, the vein being the same at both points. 

In regard to quality, there are variations in these veins, as I 
believe occurs in all coal basins; but here all are bituminous. 
The coal which is chiefly raised near Philipsburg, is in conside- 


438 Brown Lead Ore of Zimapan. 


rable repute, and is conveyed, in some quantity, over the Alle- 
ghany mountain, to the iron works, eastward. 

Fossils are not very abundant in the coal measures. Impres- 
sions of flags and reeds may be noticed in all the sandstones, 
even almost up to the western summit of the ridge; and ferns 
occur in the shales near the coal veins. Hollow cavities, for- 
merly occupied with producta, and a few other species of co- 
temporary fossils, are occasionally to be seen in every part of 
the sandstone series, within the coal field. 


THE BROWN LEAD ORE OF ZIMAPAN. 


Communication from Professor Dex Rio, on his discovery of a New Metal 
in the brown Lead Ore of Zimapan. 


I should not again have brought forward my analysis of the 
brown lead ore of Zimapan, which now rather redolet antiquita- 
tem, if the interest excited about the metal, called by some che- 
mists in Europe, Vanadium,—after, as it is said, some Scandina- 


vian mythological personage,—had not induced one of my friends 
to ask me to translate the passage concerning my analysis, from 


my Spanish translation of the mineralogical tables of Kersten, 
printed at Mexico in 1804, and which passage I here subjoin. 


“ Having distilled half an ounce of the brown lead ore three or four times 
with diluted sulphuric acid, and washed the residuum every time, I got a 
green solution, which, being saturated with excess of ammonia, gave, in a 
few days, crystalline crusts formed by needles on the surface of the liquid, or 
stars, composed of very acute pyramids, on the sides of the cup. These 
white crystals being washed with some water and dried in the air, became a 
most beautiful scarlet red as soon as they were touched by a single drop of 
an acid somewhat concentrated. When diluted, they became at first yellow, 
and afterwards red. These acids* dissolved them without decomposition. 
I experienced the same with potash, soda, and lime, excepting that the 
rhombohedrons of potash only became yellow. The excess of ammonia be- 
ing saturated with nitric acid, and concentrating it somewhat by evaporation, 
I got square prisms, pointed, with four faces upon the edges, of a pretty aurora 
red, the taste of which was pungent and metallic. 'The same was done with 
soda, and I got squares of a red colour, and oblique sided ones with potash, 
and of a yellow colour. 

“ Having put in a porcelain test below the mufile, 17.75 grains of the 


* As far as I remember they were the sulphuric and nitric—. D. Rio. 


Brown Lead Ore of Zimapan. 439 


needles formed by ammonia, they became a most beautiful red without losing 
their form, and they melted afterwards into an opaque mass, between liver- 
brown and lead grey, with very fine stars on the surface, of a semi-metallic 
lustre, its weight 11.75 gr. I put it into the forge in a small crucible 
with charcoal, for an hour and a half; the mass became only black with 
charcoal, and the increase of weight was 1.25 gr. I put it into a small re- 
tort with nitric acid, red vapours were formed at last, and the matter was 
red. Irepeated the same twice, and I augmented the fire in the end, to 
disengage al] the nitric acid: on pouring some water on it, it became emul- 
sive or milky. The emulsion being cleared off at length, it did not redden 
the tincture of radish, though it precipitated, with a yellow colour, the solutions 
of nitrate of silver, mercury and lead : it precipitated also prussiate of lime 
of an emerald green, and tincture of gallsof a blackish green. The olive 
green sediment became immediately red with some nitric acid, and the 
yellow solution with zinc and iron gave a green oxide. 

“ By the blow pipe the glass became grass green. I could not amalga- 
mate with mercury its combination with ammonia. [Other experiments 
which I made at the time were not inserted in my translation. ] 

“The proportion then of ‘the constituent parts of the brown lead ore, are 
80.72 of yellow oxide of lead, and 14.80 of the new substance, the rest be- 
ing a little arsenic, oxide of iron, and muriatic acid. 

“ Presuming that it was a new substance, 1 called -it Pancrome, on ac- 
count of the universality of the colours of the oxides, solutions, salts, and 
precipitates: and afterwards Eritrone, on account of its singular property of 
forming with the alkalies and the earths, salts which became red at the 
fire, and with acids; but being informed that the chrome gives by evapora- 
tion red and yellow salts, I believe that the brown lead ore is a yellow oxide 
of chrome, combined with an excess of yellow oxide of lead.” 


Slight deviations sometimes occasion great inconveniences. 
If the justly celebrated Baron Humboldt, to- whom, when in 
Mexico in 1803, I gave a French copy of the preceding ex- 
periments, had thought them worthy of publication, they would 
have excited, doubtless, the curiosity of European chemists, and 
of Descotils himself, who had more knowledge than myself 
of the properties of chrome; so that thirty years would not 
have elapsed before the new metal was acknowledged. Hum- 
boldt, apparently, did not think so; because, as I have said 
somewhere else, European monopolists have not always ap- 
peared solicitous to sustain the merit of discoveries effected. in 
the Americas. 

I am quite astonished to hear that Kersten has analysed the 
brown lead ore of Poullaouen and found it to be phosphate of lead. 
I determined that of Zimapan to be brown lead ore, only by its 
external characters, which were entirely identical with those 


440 Brown Lead Ore of Zimapan. 


of the lead ore of Poullaouen in Brittany, and of Hodristsch in 

Hungary ; so that if this last is a phosphate also, we must con- 

clude that they are the opposite of the isomerous bodies. Who 

can rely now on crystals being the basis of a mineralogical sys- - 

Reto ts soe. A. Det Rio. 
REMARKS. 


We venture, for the third time, to call upon European che- 
mists to do justice to Professor Del Rio, whose just claims, up 
to the present moment, have been remarkably overlooked. That 
the nature of those claims may not be misapprehended, we shall 
briefly state them, confining our observations strictly to the facts 
which have occurred. We feel it necessary to do so, since we 
perceive that the merit of Professor Del Rio’s discovery of the 
new metal in question, is becoming more and more obscured, by 
the slight weight which has been attached to it by names of 
great eminence, and especially by the powerful name of Berze- 
lius. The evidence of this is very abundant, but we shall go no 
further on the present occasion than to the pages of Dr. Brewster, 
and to those of the Philosophical Magazine and Annals of Phi- 
losophy, on the new metal, called Vanadium, in Europe. 

In the July number for 1831, of the Edinburgh Journal of 
Science, Mr. James F. W. Johnson has the following passage : 

“Tt isa remarkable circumstance, and illustrative at once of the wide 
diffusion of chemical knowledge, and of the progress of scientific chemistry, 
that the new metal Vanadium has been discovered in three different coun- 
tries nearly at the same time, and without any communication between the 
several individuals by whom it has been observed and detected. First in 
order of time, Professor Del Rio, of the school of Mines of Mexico, detected 
a new metallic substance in the brown lead ore of Zimapan, to which, pro- 
bably from its forming red salts, he gave the name of Erythronium. is re- 
sults were not published however, M. Collet Descotils, to whom specimens 
Were transmitted, having pronounced it to be an impure chromium. Mean- 
time Professor Sefstrém, of the School of Mines at Fahlun in Sweden, de- 
tected in an ore of Iron, a simple metallic body, which he named Vanadium, 
and of which he announced some of the properties about the end of the past 
year. The metal of Del Rio, it now appears, is the same with that of 
Sefstrém.” ‘ 

We take the following passage from the Philosophical Maga- 
zine for November, 1831: 

“On Vanadium. By M. Berzelius. Vanadium was discovered in the 
year 1830 by Sefstrém, in a Swedish iron, remarkable for its ductility, ob- 
tained from the iron mine of Jaberg, not far from Jénképing in Sweden. 


Brown Lead Ore of Zimapan. 441 


The name of this metal is derived from that of Vanadis, a Scandinavian divin- 
ity. It is not yet known under what form, or in what state of combination, 
vanadium occurs in the ore of Jaberg. It is also found in Mexico, in a lead 
mine at Zimapan. Del Rio, who analysed it in 1801, announced the dis- 
covery of a new metal in it, which he called Erythronium ; but the same 
mineral having soon afterwards been analysed by Collet Descotils, he as- 
serted that Erythronium was merely impure chromium. Del Rio himself 
adopted the opinion of the French chemist, and considered the mineral as a 
subchromate of lead; thus the metal, so near being discovered, remained 
thirty years unknown to chemists. Since the discovery of Vanadium by 
Seftstrsm, Wohler has ascertained that the mineral of Zimapan contains 
vanadic and not chromic acid.” 


Our readers will observe, that in both these passages Del 
Rio’s prior discovery of the new metal is admitted. Yet Ber- 
zelius, who says expressly, “ Del Rio, who analysed this mineral in 
1801, announced the discovery of a new metal in it,’ most incon- 
sistently asserts that “ Vanadium was discovered, in the year 1830, 
by Sefstrom.” Mr. Johnston, who no doubt is disposed to be just, 
appears to have written without proper information respecting 
the history of this metal; for he says, that it “has been dis- 
covered in three different countries nearly at the same time ;”” 
and further on, speaking of Del Rio’s discovery, he says “ his 
results were not published.” Words have very absorbent powers, 
and time and space will have very little chance with them, if 
«nearly at the same time” can shut up, like an opera glass, all the 
interval between 1801 and 1830. As to the non-publication of 
Del Rio’s results, we refer Mr. Johnston to this eminent chemist’s 
translation of Kersten’s Mineralogical Tables, p. 61, printed 
at Mexico, 1804, where he will find the original of the passage 
of which Professor Del Rio has sent us an English translation, 
with the preceding communication. 

We proceed now to state why Del Rio was induced to assent 
to the opinion of Descotils, and apparently to abandon his dis- 
covery. 

He had, as Berzelius truly says, made the discovery of this 
new metal, previous to the arrival of Humboldt in Mexico, in 
1803. They had been fellow students together at Freyberg, 
in Saxony, at the great school of Werner, where some of the 
most celebrated analysts acquired the first rudiments of minera- 
logical knowledge. Humboldt’s arrival in Mexico was preceded 
by the brilliant reputation he had acquired. He was considered, 

Vo. 1.—56 


442 Brown Lead Ore of Zimapan. 


to use very plain words, to be up to every thing, and to be quite 
au fait, respecting the experiments of Vauquelin and Descotils, 
concerning the metallic nature and properties of chrome. He 
found Del Rio far removed from Europe, almost without any 
kindred minds to assist or encourage him, diffident as his charac- 
ter always has been, and disposed, by many prepossessions, to 
pay much deference to the opinions of Humboldt. To him Del Rio 
communicated his discovery, and gave him a copy in the French 
language, of his experiments, as they were subsequently pub- 
lished in his translation of Kersten. Humboldt, however, in- 
formed him that chrome gave by evaporation, red and yellow 
salts, and induced him to suppose that the phenomena he had 
observed, were due to the action of chromic acid. Confiding in 
the superior information of his friend, he accordingly, with 
great modesty, forbore to press his own opinions ; and in 1804, 
in his translation of Kersten, submitted that it should be thought 
a sub-chromate of lead. Descotils himself, sometime after, ex- 
pressed the same opinion ; a circumstance which took from Del 
Rio every inducement to revive the subject, which remained 
buried in error, until Sefstrém discovered the same substance, 
in 1830, in iron, in Sweden. Mr. Johnston discovered it in 
Scotland, in the winter of the same year. In the meantime, sub- 
sequent to Sefstrim’s discovery, Wohler re-examined the brown 
lead ore of Zimapan, and found that it was not a sub-chromate, 
but that it contained a new metal; that Del Rio had been per- 
fectly right from the first, and that Sefstr6m had merely repro- 
duced in 1830, what Del Rio had discovered in 1801. 

Now we would contend, that under these circumstances, any 
man who attempts to wrest this trophy from Del Rio, is alto- 
gether unjust, and that he alone is entitled to wear it. In mat- 
ters of this kind, the motto “ qui meruit, ferat,” is of universal 
application. It certainly cannot be asserted by European 
chemists, that Del Rio is not entitled to the honours of his own 
discovery, because he has not done all he might have done, to 
vindicate his own claim to them. The fair way of considering 
the matter, is, that his discovery would never have been dis- 
puted, if Baron Humboldt, coming to America as a sort of legate 
in partibus, on the part of European science, had not misled 
him, whose only fault has been a diflidence in his own superior 
attainments. Baron Humboldt, of whom we always wish to 


Brown Lead Ore of Zisvrapan. 443 


speak with the respect due to so distinguished a philosopher, has 
not, as the case now stands, been just to his friend Del Rio; and 
it is evident that more is felt on this subject, than has been ex- 
pressed. Why did not Baron Humboldt publish the analysis, 
of which he received a copy from Del Rio, in 1804? Certainly 
it was not given to him to suppress; and he must have known 
that the Spanish translation of Kersten was made for Mexico, 
and not for Europe, where, perhaps, there are very few copies. 
At any rate, it appears not to be common, since Mr. Johnston 
has not seen it. We think the chemists of the present day, must 
see that Del Rio was a very able analyst at that time, and had 
Humboldt published it, or transmitted it to Europe, it could not, 
as Del Rio states, have failed to excite the curiosity of those who 
have paid particular attention to the combinations of chrome: 
they would have examined it with attention, and the result 
would have been, long ago, a universal acknowledgment of the 
new metal, and of Del Rio, as the discoverer of it. We wish 
that Baron Humboldt, when he stated in Paris, in February 
1831, the principal facts in the history of this metal, as they 
have been stated in the passages we have given from Berzelius 
and Mr. Johnston,had also stated the reasons which had induced 
Del Rio to suppose it not a new substance, but an impure 
chrome. He had an excellent opportunity to do so, which, if he 
had availed himself of, we should probably not have felt our- 
selves called upon to dissuade European chemists from naming a 
new metal,—not discovered by themselves, but by a Mexican,— 
after a ridiculous Scandinavian deity that never had any real ex- 
istence. If the progress in knowledge is of the right kind, if there 
is nothing deceptive in the extraordinary and very active demon- 
strations in the pursuit of science in Europe, then those whom it 
concerns to give proofs that they have learnt how to stand up vo- 
luntarily for truth and justice, will be just, upon this occasion, to 
America; and will, as we hope, and have before suggested, restore 
Del Rio to his rights, by calling the metal discovered by him 
Rionium; a name which, we think, Mr. Johnston will agree with 
us, will be found quite as manageable as vanadium. j 
We have every disposition to defer to the learned chemists 
and mineralogists of Europe, and gratefully and eagerly receive 
the numerous contributions which science is constantly owing to 
them. We believe that the tree of knowledge flourishes most, 


444 Atomic Weight of Mercury. 


where the love of justice is strong: various as are the blossoms 
of that tree, they produce but one fruit, truth; which is to justice, 
what the pericarp of the cherimoyer among the anonacee, is to 
its seed. If we would have truth, we must plant justice. Had 
Del Rio been in Europe, this matter would have been properly 
arranged long ago. ‘The smallest innovation there, upon a pre- 
emption right in the metacarp of even a coleopteral, will set a 
whole Versammlung in arms, and produce a hundred pages of 
sur-rejoinders, at least. Let it be an additional motive to those 
to whom we now appeal for justice, that, as the face of nature 
seems to smile, when the setting sun breaks through a troubled 
sky, so it would cheer the declining days—which are not sunny 
ones—of the venerable Del Rio, to learn that men have done that 
justice to his name, which fortune has never done to his merits. 


ATOMIC WEIGHT OF MERCURY. 


Mr. Editor,—Your correspondent, A. B. H. will find a solu- 
tion of his inquiries, respecting the atomic weight of mercury, in 
a recent work of Dr. Thompson’s, viz. ‘ Chemistry of Inorganic 
Bodies.” As the book has but just come from the author’s hands, 
and probably will not be reprinted in this country, it may be 
worth while to extract such parts of it as relate to the matter 
in question. It ought to be premised, that as Dr. T. adopts oxy- 
gen for his unit, his atomic numbers must be multiplied by eight, 
to reduce them to a hydrogen basis. . 

“In many cases it is not easy to fix upon the true number 
denoting the atomic weight of a body. We can always 
infer, that the weight of one body that enters into combination 
with another, either denotes the atomic weight of the body, or 
at least a multiple, or sub-multiple of that weight ; but, in some 
cases, it may be very difficult to determine which of the three. 
Thus, for example, we have two compounds of mercury and 
oxygen, the constituents of which by weight are as follows :— 

Black oxide, Mere. 25 + 1 Oxy. 
Red oxide, “« 95 4+ 2 6 

“We might consider the atoms of mercury to be 25. On 
that supposition, the black oxide would be a compound of 1 
atom mercury plus 1 atom oxygen; and the red oxide of 1 atom 
mercury plus 2 atoms oxygen. 


Atomic Weight of Mercury. 445 


*« But we might also consider the atom of mercury as only 
12.5 or the half of 25. In that case, the red oxide would be a 
compound of one atom of mercury and one-atom of oxygen, and 
the black oxide of two atoms of mercury, and one atom of oxy- 
gen. ‘There is nothing in these compounds that can determine 
which of these views is the right one. Both oxides are capable 
of combining with acids, and of forming salts. The red oxide 
is the most permanent and intimate combination, but the black 
is always first formed when we attempt to combine mercury 
with oxygen. In such cases as this we are left to conjecture or 
analogy to assist us in deciding what number should be taken 
to denote the true atomic weight of the body. We see that 
the atom of mercury weighs either 25, or the half of 25, but 
which of the two, it might, in the present state of our knowledge, 
be impossible to determine. In such a case, we may be allowed 
to refer to analogy, to enable us to decide the point. It was 
first observed by Dulong and Petit, that when the atomic weight 
of a body is multiplied into its specific heat, the product is a 
constant quantity. And I have shown, in my treatise on Heat, 
that this product is always 0.376. Therefore, if we divide .876 
by the number denoting the specific heat of mercury, the quo- 
tient should be the atomic weight of that body. But the spe- 
cific heat of mercury is .03 and .3876 + .03 = 12.52. This 
circumstance furnishes a reason for considering the true atomic 
weight of mercury to be 12.5.”—Vol. 1, p. 9. 

“The specific gravity of the vapour of mercury, as deter- 
mined by Dumas, is 6.976. From this determination, which 
must be very near the truth, it follows as a consequence, that 
the atomic weight of mercury is 12.5. For the atomic weight 
of a gaseous body multiplied by .5555, is equal to the specific 
gravity in the gaseous state. Now 12.5 x .5555 = 6.9747 
a number which almost coincides with that found by Dumas.”— 
Vol. 1, p. 612. 

“T have shown (Ann. of Phil. 2d series, ii. 126,) by experi- 
ments which I consider as decisive, that the real atomic weight 
of mercury is 12.5.”—Vol. 1, p. 615. ; 

If the arguments* advanced by Mr. Allinson, are added to 


- Which are eer these: the protoxide of mercury is decomposed’ more readily 
than the deutoxide ; the protochloride ihan the deutochloride, &c : these facts contravene 
the universal law, that compounds (of elements) consisting of one atom of’ each con- 
stituent are less easily decomposed than those consisting of one and two. Hence, there 
is a strong probability that what is called the deutoxide is, in reality, the protoxide, &c 


446 Arvicola Nuttalli. 


those above given, there can be no reasonable doubt left but 
that the true atomic weight of mercury is 100; (hydrogen basis ;) 
and although these would not of themselves be sufficient to es- 
tablish this fact, yet Mr. A. is fairly entitled to the credit of 
having shown that to be highly probable, which Dr. Thompson’s 
investigations have rendered certain.—Very respectfully, yours, _ 


New York, February 38th, 1832. 


ARVICOLA NUTTALLI. 


Description of a new species of quadruped of the genus Arvicoxa, of 
' Lacepede, or Hypupaus, of Illiger.—By R. Haruan, M. D. 


Arvicota JVuttalli—Fawn-coloured above, whitish beneath; ears 
long and hairy; toes sparsely hairy; tail nearly the length of 
the body. 

Dimensions.—Length of the body three inches, of the tail, two 
and a half inches. 

Habitat—Southern States. 

Description.—Crowns of the molars similar in the arrangement 
of the enamel to those of the type of the genus, as represented 
by F. Cuvier—“ Dents des mammiferes;” but the roots are 
mostly cleft into four prongs: the inner surface of the inferior 
incisors, grooved longitudinally ; ears very large, hairy within 
and without; legs small and weak, sparsely hairy; fore feet 
with four toes, armed with hooked nails; thumb rudimentary, 
with a flat nail; hind feet with five toes, armed with hooked 
nails, all with sparse hairs extending to the roots of the nails; 
a callous tubercle at the inferior base of each finger, and two 
others on the wrist; tail long, cylindrical, and sparsely hairy ; 
eyes large, black, and prominent. General colour of the 
body above, plumbeous, each hair being tipped with brown- 
ish yellow, presenting a fawn-coloured surface; beneath 
white. Whiskers composed of very long, fine, black and white 
hairs. 


Like the musk-rat, (Onpatra, Lacep. or Fiver, Cuv.) this 
quadruped differs from the arvicola principally in the possession 
of roots to the molar teeth; but for the existence of these roots, 


M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 447 


in the former, M. F. Cuvier remarks, that he would consider 
the genus as merely forming a third division of arvicola: we 
doubt if the existence of a single character of this nature, should 
indicate even a specific distinction. 

The specimen under consideration is a young male, just 
full grown; in colour it displays a striking resemblance to the 
Gereitus canadensis; it was recently taken in Virginia, by 
Mr. Nuttall, (the eminent botanist,) in the vicinity of Norfolk, 
near the river shore, and was one of several he discovered 
under the bark of a hollow tree, where they had built a fine 
nest. 


M’MURTRIE’S TRANSLATION OF THE “ REGNE ANIMAL.” 


Sir,—That a translation should be undertaken and published 
in the United States, of so elaborate a work as Cwvier’s Regne 
Animal, at a time, too, when the English language, at its head 
quarters, is acquiring another, from the united labours of Mr. 
Griffith and his co-adjutors, argues a great deal for the apparent 
advances we are making in the study of natural history. It was 
a spirited undertaking on the part of the publishers, and deserves 
success. I confess, I had supposed the limited number of per- 
sons amongst us who might wish to possess an English transla- 
tion of the Regne Animal, was far short of the encouragement 
such a work requires: in this I find I was mistaken ; for whether 
the translation has been executed well or ill, the appearance of 
the work is sufficient evidence of the confidence of the publishers 
in the demand for it. ‘The remarks I am about to make, have 
not been suggested by the habit of critical severity, nor by hos- 
tile feelings to any one. I hope to show that it is the love of 
science which guides my pen, as well as a desire to vindicate 
the literary reputation of the country. It will be doing some- 
thing towards that, if one American corrects the errors into 
which another has fallen. 

I also wish to show the publishers of this country, how much 
it is their interest, when they are about to publish translations 
of foreign scientific works, to employ competent persons. It is 
a wretched economy, both for publishers and purchasers, to have 
any thing to do with translations, merely because they can be 
procured at a cheap rate; any man capable of giving a correct 


448 M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


version of a scientific work, extending to 2000 pages, deserves 
to be well paid for his labour ; for knowledge of that various 
kind, is procured by long application and much expense. 

The first duty of a translator is, to give the meaning of his author ; 
and to do this, he must thoroughly understand the subject of which his 
author treats. 

Let us see how Dr. M’Murtrie’s translation conforms to this 
rule.—Vol. I. page 18, of preface to the first edition, we have,— 
“In the mammalia I have brought back the solipedes to the 
Pachydermata, and have divided the latter into families upon a 
new plan; the ruminantia I have placed afler the quadrupeds, 
and the sea cow near the cetacea.” Here the camel, the deer, 
the goat, the sheep, the ox, all these important ruminating ani- 
mals being placed a‘ter the quadrupeds, of course are not in- 
cluded in them. What is then to become of them—are they to 
be considered as annihilated, by the readers of this translation ? 
Cuvier says, “Dans la classe des mammiféres, }’ ai ramené les soli- 
pedes aux pachydermes; j’ ai divise ceux-ci en familles d’ aprés 
de nouvelles vues ; j’ ai rejeté les ruminants a la fin des quadru- 
pedes, j’ ai place le lamantin prés des cetacés.” Now previous 
writers had placed the sea-cow, (manatus, or lamantin,) morse, 
&c. among the quadrupeds; but as the sea-cow, &c. although 
warm-blooded animals, and chewing the cud, possess but two 
extremities in the form of anterior fins, Cuvier very properly 
separated them from the ruminating quadrupeds, and placed 
them at the head of the whales, to form the first division, or the 
cetacea herbivora. Dr. M’Murtrie would have spared some 
confusion to the young student in zoology, if he had said, “I 
have rejected the ruminants, which were at the end of the quad- 
rupeds, and have approximated the sea-cow to the cetacea.” 

At page 12, line 28, we have, “ Vegetables derive their nou- 
rishment from the sw, and from the circumfluent atmosphere in 
the form of water, &c.”’ Cuvier says, “ Le sol et l atmosphére 
presentent aux vegetaux, pour leur nutrition, de I’ eau, &c.” It 
does not appear to have occurred to this naturalist, that the soil, 
which is the obvious meaning of the word sol, has any thing to 
do with the nourishment of plants. Griffith, in his translation 
of this passage, makes precisely the same mistake. If it will be 
any comfort to Dr. M’Murtrie, I can truly tell him, that my copy 
of Griffith is scored with worse blunders than this: I will instance 


M? Murttie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 449 


one of them. Cuvier, at page 15, of his introduction,* says, 
“ Tous les étres organisés produisent leur semblables; autrement 
la mort étant une suite necessairé de la vie, lewrs especes ne 
pourroient subsister ’__which he has rendered, “ All organized 
beings produce their like, otherwise death would be a necessary con- 
sequence of life, and the species must become extinct ;’—than which, 
nothing can be more absurd. The true version is, “All organized 
beings produce their like ; if it were not so, death, being a neces- 
sary consequence of life, their species would become extinct.” Dr. 
M’Murtrie’s translation consists but of four volumes, and is 
to be preferred, on this account; for there 1s no end to 
the production of the other, which has already reached the 
thirty-first number, and upwards of 6000 pages. This work 
will eventually be swelled out to forty numbers, containing 
at least 8000 pages, and will cost the subscribers, in this 
country, one hundred and thirty dollars. But this cannot 
be fairly called a translation of Cuvier ; the supplements and. 
notes of the translator and his coadjutors, have increased the bulk 
of the work beyond all expectation, and have turned Griffith’s 
version of the Regne Animal, into a job of an indecent length, 
and an exorbitant expense, for which the work by no means 
compensates in its intrinsic value; the translation being fre- 
quently very carelessly and blunderingly executed; the original 
matter often very erroneous; and the engravings, many of which 
are beautifully executed, especially those of the genus cervus 
and felis, being superfluously expensive; many genera not having 
a single species given, whilst in other instances, numerous figures 
are given of the same species. The errors in the supplementary 
matter are not only numerous, but often brought forward ex 
cathedra, as if they were the ne plus ultra of observation in the 
anatomy, physiology, and habits of animals. At page 32, Reptilia, 
part 1, he says “ poisonous snakes are harmless to their own 
kind,” which is inconsistent with observation ; for the poison of 
the rattle snake is not only fatal to its kind, but to itself, when 
accidentally self-wounded. At page 40, he says, the intestines of 
the tadpole are “ destined to digest vegetable nutriment ;” when 
we know the tadpole feeds on animal food ; for there is no better 
method of cleaning the skeletons of small animals, than by em- 
ploying tadpoles.t But it is useless further to multiply instances ; 


* Regne Animal, Vol. I. Paris 8vo. 1829. t Vide p. 239, Month. Am. Jour. of Geol. 
Vou, L—57 


450 M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


they are any thing but creditable to the persons engaged in the 
work. 

But to return to Dr. M’Murtrie, who, in the very next page 
to his blunder about the sun, has the following passage :— 
“The relations of vegetables and animals to the surrounding 
atmosphere, are therefore in an inverse ratio—the former reject 
water and carbonic acid, while the latter produce them.” As 
there is not a tyro in the elementary lessons of chemistry, who 
will not be puzzled at this singular statement, which may rea- 
sonably discourage any one from looking any further into this 
translation, I feel called upon, by a sense of what is due to Cu- 
vier, and to the reputation of this country for more correct 
knowledge, to expose what seems to have grown out of pure ig- 
norance, both of the language and the subject. Cuvier, in a 
beautiful passage, is treating of the mutual action of the vege- 
table and animal systems, for the preservation of each. He states, 
that the soil and the atmosphere, present to plants for their 
nourishment, water, and air; that the first is composed of oxygen 
and hydrogen, the second of oxygen, azote, and carbonic acid, 
which itself is a combination of oxygen and carbon: that plants 
select from all these, hydrogen and carbon, for their own com- 
position, and reject the superfluous oxygen, by the aid of light. 
That animals, besides these elements, devour organized bodies, 
of which hydrogen and carbon form the principal parts; thus, 
whilst animals retain azote, they reject the superfluous hydro- 
gen and carbon, by means of respiration ; and this is accomplished 
in the following manner. The oxygen of the atmosphere com- 
bines with the superfluous hydrogen and the carbon of their 
blood, becoming in the first instance water, in the second car- 
bonic acid.” He then proceeds to say, “that the relations of 
vegetables and animals with the atmosphere are inverse; the 
first decomposing (defont) water and carbonic acid, the second 
reproducing them.” Dr. M’Murtrie has ignorantly reversed the 
whole arrangement of nature, by stating that vegetables reject 
water. 

Cuvier had stated that medullary matter appeared to the eye 
like a soft boiled pulpy substance, (de bouillie molle) where 
nothing but globules infinitely small could be discovered. Dr. 
M’Murtrie, at page 14, says, “it appears like a sort of soft bowil- 
lie, consisting of excessively small globules.” This is not English. 


M Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 451 


The word bouillie, it is true, has made a sort of lodgment with 
us, as a representative of boiled beef; but we hardly think his 
readers will be much edified by learning that the molecules of 
the spinal marrow resemble excessively small pieces of boiled beef. 
To translate “infiniment petits,” by “excessively small,” is to 
throw away the whole philosophic force of the passage. 

At page 31, is another instance of unfaithful translation, and 
want of knowledge in the physiology of invertebrated animals. 
Of these he says, “the muscles are merely attached to the skin, 
which constitutes a soft contractile envelope, in which, in many 
species, are formed stony plates, called shells, whose position and 
production are analogous to those of the mucous body.” Cuvier 
says, “les muscles sont attachés seulement a la peau, qui forme 
une enveloppe molle, contractile en divers sens, dans laquelle s’ en- 
gendrent, en beaucoup d’ especes, des plaques pierreuses, ap- 
peleés coquilles, dont la position et la production sont analogues 
a celles du corps muqueux.” A competent translator would have 
translated the phrase “contractile en divers sens;” for these 
lights and shades of great masters, are sacred in the eyes of men 
of science; and a physiologist would have said, “ are analogous 
to those of the rete mucosum,” the position of which, between 
the epidermis and cutis vera, is clearly expressed by Cuvier. 

As a specimen of errors attributable to sheer carelessness, we 
have, at page 49, the following strange assertion, under the head 
of “ physical and moral developement of man,” and which has 
hitherto been supposed only applicable to that eccentric sect of 
the bimana, called Shaking Quakers. Speaking of the external 
marks of puberty in young persons, Dr. M’Murtrie says,—for 
Cuvier does not say so— and neither sex, (very rarely at least,) 
is productive, before, or after that manifestation.” 

At page 143, speaking of the rat, mus rattus of Linnzus, we 
have, “ of which no mention is made by the ancients, and which 
appears to have entered Europe in the middle century.” Cuvier 
says, “ dans le moyen age,” “in the middle ages.” In the name 
of old Chronos, what does the middle century mean ? 

Few persons in this country have seen the giraffe, and books 
must be relied upon, of course, for a general knowledge of the 
structure of this interesting animal. Dr. M’Murtrie, at page 186, 
Vol. I, in treating of the horny prominences on the heads of many 
of the ruminants, says, “‘In others, the prominences are only 


452 M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


covered with a hairy skin, continuous with that of the head; nor 
do the prominences fall, those of the giraffe excepted.” Cuvier says, 
“la seule giraffe en a de telles,” “ the giraffe alone has such pro- 
minences :” i. e. with a hairy skin, and which never fall. Here 
the translator has stated precisely the reverse of what his author 
says. 

Whatever opinion Dr. M’Murtrie may entertain of his own - 
qualifications as a translator for such a work as Cuvier’s Regne 
Animal, I will do him the justice to suppose, he would not deem 
any other individual capable of so important an undertaking, 
who could commit the errors I have animadverted upon. It 
would be deemed a bold thing of any man now living, in a trans- 
lation of Cuvier’s work, to make important changes in the no- 
menclature, to suppress it in some instances, and to frequently 
impute to this great naturalist, “ this is a mistake.” » Dr. M’Mur- 
trie has felt confidence enough in himself to do all these things. 
There are, it is true, a few blemishes in Cuvier’s work, as there 
are spots in the sun; but the important ones have, for some rea- 
son or other, escaped the vigilance of his translator. Speaking 
of the suricats, (ryzena Iliger,) Cuvier says, at page 158, 8vo. 
edition, 1829, Vol. I, “ they are distinguished from the mangousts 
and from all the carnivorous animals which have hitherto been 
spoken of, because they have only four toes to each foot,” forgetting 
that he had just before, at page 154, said, “the hyena may be 
placed after the dogs, as a fourth sub-genus, distinguished by 
the number of its toes, which is four to every foot.” This error 
we find translated, without remark from Dr. M’Murtrie. 

The third order of the mammalia, is called by Cuvier carnas- 
siers, from their being addicted to flesh. This order was formerly 
called carnivora; but as some animals are merely addicted to 
flesh, whilst others are voracious after flesh, Cuvier has trans- 
ferred the term carnivora to these last. Dr. M’Murtrie has sub- 
stituted carnaria for carnassiers, without giving his reasons, and 
without apparently considering, whether there is any essential 
difference between the meaning of the two words, carnaria and 
carnivora. It was the duty of such a translator to have left 
matters as he found them. In other instances this translator 
has totally omitted important terms, apparently because he could 
not make them bend to his classical powers; this is a source of 
serious inconvenience to his readers, who are thus obliged to re- 


M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 453 


fer to the original text, to know what species are under consi- 
deration : thus, at page 292, not knowing what to make of “les 
mesanges,” (titmouse or tom-tit,) he has omitted it altogether, 
although in the original it stands at the head of several of the 
species, whose descriptions follow ; and indeed, when he comes 
to translate those descriptions, we find the following references : 
“la M. a téte bleue. Le M. huppé. Le M. a longue queue ;” 
whilst it is impossible for. students to know what the letter M 
refers to, because the generic term mesanges is entirely omitted. 

At page 373, is another monstrous blunder: speaking of the 
family cultirostres, he says, “ we subdivide it into three tribes; 
the cranes, the true herons, and the swans.” And he then proceeds 
to describe the grus, or crane; the cancroma, or herons, and— 
the swans of course—no, he describes the ciconia, or storks; and 
without perceiving his previous error: this, too, from a Latinist, 
who draws distinctions between carnaria and carnivora. We 
must remark, here, that if the translator had understood the 
French or Latin languages, he never would have translated ci- 
cognes, (ciconia, storks,) into swans; and if he had had but a 
sprinkling of knowledge of the subject, he would have known 
that swans belong to the great duck genus, (anas L.) which his 
author has placed in the family lamellirostres, and not in that 
of cultirostres. 

At the end of the first volume, we find an “ Appendix, by the 
American Editor,” of which much cannot be said in favour: it 
is very imperfect, and fails, in numerous cases, to establish spe- 
cific distinctions. The worst feature of this appendix is the re- 
iteration of species previously described under different names, 
and by naturalists, whose labours have been, in other instances, 
overlooked or neglected. The vespertilio lucifugus, of Le Conte, 
is the v. subulatus of Say. See Long’s Expedition to the Rocky 
Mountains, Vol. II. p. 62. The v. noctivagans of the same natu- 
ralist, is not sufficiently characterized, and its habitat not men- 
tioned. The plecotus macrotis of L. C. is most probably the 
megalotis of Rafinesque. The nycteris noveboracensis, is quoted 
as figured in Wils. Orn. vi. pl. 4; and the translator adds, 
“whence it has been quoted by M. Cuvier as the taphizous.” 
I venture to assert that this may be classed among the nume- 
rous inconsiderate insinuations of this work, and that Cuvier is 
entirely correct in this reference of the taphizous from Wiison. 


454 M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


At paragraph vi., the two wolves described by Say, in Long’s 
Expedition, canis latrans, and c. nubilus, are stated to be probably 
varieties of c. lupus. A visit to the Philadelphia museum, where 
individuals of these two species are preserved, would have satis- 
fied him of Mr. Say’s correctness. Indeed, c. nubilus resembles 
c. lycaon, more than c. lupus. 

The catalogue of the “ mammalia and birds of the United 
States,” which closes the first volume, is exceedingly defective, 
and exhibits an almost entire ignorance of the labours of Ameri- 
can naturalists. The genus sorex is mentioned, with the fol- 
lowing note: “We have many species of this genus in the 
U. States, but not one that has yet been properly determined.” 
And at page 88, there is a note on this subject, signed Am. Ed. 
which has a very learned appearance. Who the friend behind 
the curtain is, I do not pretend to say; but it has occasionally 
been drawn up high enough to show, at least, the legs of 
a friend. Whether intentionally or not, Mr. Say is treated 
with great injustice. More complete descriptions of an animal 
have never been given, than those we owe to him of the sorex 
parvus, and sorex brevicaudus, for which I refer to Long’s Ex- 
pedition, Vol. I. pp. 163, 164. Traits of this kind deserve ani- 
madversion. It is not to be endured, that the labours of so 
distinguished a traveller as Col. Long, and of so able a naturalist 
as Mr. Say, should be obscured in this unjustifiable manner. Of 
the illiberal slights which other American naturalists have re- 
ceived upon this occasion, I forbear at present to speak. 

The translator has not thought proper, at the end of his first 
volume, to give a list of errata: this he ought to have done, 
since they are numerous enough, and occasionally affect the 
meaning of his author; the typographical errors, too, are suffi- 
ciently obvious to catch the eye of a rapid reader. At page 29, 
honogeneous for homogeneous,—p. 69, siamiri for saimiri,—p. 72, 
every for very,—p. 80, shaved for shaped,—p. 111, colour on the 
eye, for to the eye,—p. 113, black for back,—p. 126, black for 
back,—p. 139, watered for waved,—p. 142, poessig for poeppig,— 
p- 238, morhpnus for morphnus,—p. 258, tanaers for tangara,—p. 
277, meura for menura,—p. 297, maugeur for mangeur,—p. 331, 
birds passage for birds of passage,—p. 347, larger for longer,—p. 392, 
roges for rouges,—p. 402, beak for neck,—p. 405, when for where. 

I shall not pursue, at present, these remarks into the subse- 


M’ Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 455 


quent volumes. If the publishers are men of sense, they will be 
obliged to me for enabling them to render a future edition of 
their work more deserving the patronage of the public. It has 
had its share of puffing in the newspapers, and it is now the 
turn of purchasers of the work, of which I am one, to speak of 
it as they have found it. I have taken the trouble to do so, out 
of pure regard for the reputation of the country; nor should I 
have drawn up these observations, if I had not believed, from 
the independent and correct course you have hitherto pursued 
in your Journal, that I might reasonably expect them to be in- 
serted in it. I consider your Journal as a scientific periodical, 
not infected by the spirit of puffing and quackery, and indepen- 
dently and intelligently standing up for the true interests of 
science, and the scientific reputation of the country. I regret 
that I am not able to give this honest praise to Mr. Silliman’s 
American Journal of Science and Arts, which certainly, upon 
this occasion, has not deserved it ; having voluntarily lowered 
itself to the level of common puffers, by announcing Dr. M’Mur- 
trie’s translation in the most eulogistic terms, “as very faithful 
and able.” I perceive that the publishers of Dr. M’Murtrie’s 
work, have appended to their advertisements this recommenda- 
tory certificate of Professor Silliman. The principal effect of 
this wretched puff, will be to strengthen the increasing want of 
confidence in its author. In one sense, it may serve the pur- 
poses of the publisher ; for the public, puzzled by such different 
accounts of the work, may purchase, and in order to judge for 
itself, may read the work. I wish it may occur also to Professor 
Silliman, to look into the work; as I cannot but infer, he has 
never read a line in it. I give you his passage. " 

“Dr. M’Murtrie is entitled to the thanks of the cultivators of natural his- 
tory, for his very faithful and able translation of this most perfect system of 
zoology. ‘The publication of the present work, we are confident, will form 
an era in this country.”—Silliman’s Journal, Vol. XXI, p. 388. 

Taking it for granted that you will examine into the truth of 
my averments, I place it with cheerful confidence in your hands, 
reserving my remarks upon the subsequent volumes, which are 
by no means without merit, for a future occasion. 

A Supscriper. 


We have had the preceding communication sometime in our 
possession, and publish it with reluctance, although we have 


456 Audubon. 


verified, by personal examination, the accuracy of “ A Subscri- 
ber,” in relation to the errors and omissions it adverts to. 
Much praise is due to those through whose enterprise this trans- 
lation has been undertaken; and every naturalist is aware, that 
a translation of the Regne Animal is a very arduous undertaking ; 
one that could scarce be completed without some deficiencies. 
It appears to us, to have been sent to the press with too much 
haste, and that if the translator had required of some intelligent 
friend, to revise it before it was printed, he would have been 
spared these remarks, which will perhaps give him pain. The 
greater portion of the work is well done, and bears testimony 
both to the intelligence and industry of the translator. We feel 
exceedingly, that we cannot accord to it all the praise, we had 
hoped it would deserve at our hands; but justice must be done, 
and we shall never shrink at the performance of any act, by 
which the cause of science may be substantially advanced. We 
think that the remarks of “A Subscriber” will be permanently 
beneficial, both to the public, and to the parties themselves. 
Eprror. 


AUDUBON, 
Author of “ THE BIRDS OF AMERICA,” and “ORNITHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY.” 


Joun James Aupusnon, of French descent, was born in the State 
of Louisiaria :—but as no words can tell his early history so elo- 
quently as his own, we shall proceed to select such passages 
from the “ Introductory Address,” to his Ornithological Biogra- 
phy, as cannot fail to excite in our readers, a deep interest for 
the writer of this most interesting, but too short auto-biographical 
sketch. After calling himself an “ American woodsman,” he 
proceeds: 

“T received life and light in the New World. When I had hardly yet 
learned to walk, and to articulate those first words always so endearing to 
parents, the productions of Nature that lay spread all around, were constantly 
pointed out tome. They soon became my playmates ; and before my ideas 
were sufficiently formed to enable me to estimate the difference between the 
azure tints of the sky, and the emerald hue of the bright foliage, I felt that 
an intimacy with them, not consisting of friendship merely, but bordering on 
phrenzy, must accompany my steps through life ;—and now, more than ever, 
am I persuaded of the power of those early impressions. They laid such 


Audubon. 457 


hold upon me, that, when removed from the woods, the prairies, and the 
brooks, or shut up from the view of the wide Atlantic, I experienced none of 
those pleasures most congenial to my mind. None but aerial companions 
suited my fancy. No roof seemed so secure to me as that formed of the 
dense foilage under which the feathered tribes were seen to resort, or the 
caves and fissures of the massy rocks to which the dark winged Cormorant 
and the Curlew retired to rest, or to protect themselves from the fury of the 
tempest. My father generally accompanied my steps, procured birds and 
flowers for me with great eagerness,—pointed out the elegant movements of 
the former, the beauty and softness of their plumage, the manifestations of 
their pleasure or sense of danger,—and the always perfect forms and splendid 
attire of the latter. My valued preceptor would then speak of the departure 
and return of birds with the seasons, and would describe their haunts, and, 
more wonderful than all, their change of livery; thus exciting me to study 
them, and to raise my mind towards their great Creator. 

‘A vivid pleasure shone upon those days of my early youth, attended with 
a calmness of feeling, that seldom failed to riyet my attention for hours, 
whilst I gazed in ecstacy upon the pearly and shining eggs, as they lay im- 
bedded in the softest down, or among dried leaves and twigs, or were ex- 
posed upon the burning sand or weather-beaten rock of our Atlantic shores. 
I was taught to look upon them as flowers yet in the bud. I watched their 
opening, to see how Nature had provided each different species with eyes, 
either open at birth, or closed for some time after; to trace the slow progress 
of the young birds toward perfection, or admire the celerity with which some 
of them, while yet unfledged, removed themselves from danger to security. 

“T grew up, and my wishes grew with my form. ‘These wishes were for 
the entire possession of all that I saw. I was fervently. desirous of' becoming 
acquainted with nature. For many years, however, I was sadly disappoint- 
ed, and for ever, doubtless, must I have desires that cannot be gratified. 
The moment a bird was dead, however beautiful it had been when in life, the 
pleasure arising from the possession of it became blunted; and although the 
greatest care was bestowed on endeavours to preserve the appearance of 
nature, I looked upon its vesture as more than sullied, as requiring constant 
attention and repeated mendings, while, after all, it could no longer be said 
to be fresh from the hands of its Maker. I wished to possess all the produc- 
tions of nature, but I wished life with them. This was impossible. Then 
what was to be done? I turned to my father, and made known to him my 
disappointment and anxiety. He produced a book of Illustrations. A new 
life ran in my veins. I turned over the leaves with avidity; and although 
what I saw was not what I longed for, it gave me a desire to copy Nature. 
To Nature I went, and tried to imitate her, as in the days of my childhood I 
had tried to raise myself from the ground and stand erect, before Time had 
imparted the vigour necessary for the success of such an undertaking. 

“How sorely disappointed did I feel, for many years, when I saw that my 
productions were worse than those which I ventured (perhaps in silence) to 
regard as bad, in the book given me by my father! My pencil gave birth to 
a family of cripples. So maimed were most of them, that they resembled 

Vor. I.—58 


458 Audubon. 


the mangled corpses on the field of battle, compared with the integrity of 
living men. These difficulties and disappointments irritated me, but never 
for a moment destroyed the desire of obtaining perfect representations of na- 
ture. The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did I see the origi- 
nals. To have been torn from the study would have been as death to me. 
My time was entirely occupied with it. I produced hundreds of these rude 
sketches annually; and for a long time, at my request, they made bonfires.on 
the anniversaries of my birth-day.” 

As the bent of such inclinations could not be mistaken, he was 
sent to France, when very young, and applied himself with great 
patience and industry to drawing. But at the age of seventeen, 
when he returned to his native country, although he was familiar 
with those rudiments of the higher branches of the art, heads 
and noses of giants and horses; and although the celebrated 
David had guided his hand, he cast them all aside at the sight 
of his native woods, and with great ardour commenced that un- 
rivalled collection of drawings, “ The Birds of America,” which 
Cuvier has pronounced “ the most magnificent monument which has 
hitherto been raised to ornithology.” 

“Tn Pennsylvania, a beautiful state, almost central on the line of our At- 
lantic shores, my father, in his desire of proving my friend through life, gave 
me what Americans call a beautiful ‘ plantation,’ refreshed during the summer 
heats by the waters of the Schuylkill river, and traversed by a creek called 
Perkioming. Its fine woodlands, its extensive fields, its hills crowned with 
evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil. It was there that I com- 
menced my simple and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the 
future as if the world had been made for me. My rambles invariably com- 
menced at break of day ; and to return wet with dew, and bearing a feathered 
prize, was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I have been 


fitted. 
“ Yet think not, reader, that the enthusiasm which I felt for my favourite 


pursuits was a barrier opposed to the admission of gentler sentiments. Na- 
ture, which had turned my young mind towards the bird and the flower, soon 
proved her influence upon my heart.” 

He married; passed twenty years of his life in vain commer- 
cial attempts to become rich, “ after the ways of men,” and after 
many unhappy struggles with the opinions of his friends, and ir- 
ritated at the restraint they sought to impose upon his inclinations, 
he broke away from them all, and gave himself up to his own 
favourite pursuits. Unknown, without fortune, and in opposition 
to the wishes of his friends, he abandoned every thing for nature ; 
led by that irresistible passion, which, at a ripened age, and in 
possession of those advantages which usually bind men to society, 


Audubon. } 459 


has again drawn him into the unfrequented wilds of ‘the remote 
shores of his native America. In April, 1824, he visited Phila- 
delphia, which gave him an opportunity of exhibiting his draw- 
ings, and forming a few valuable acquaintances. Dr. Mease pre- 
sented him to Charles Lucien Bonaparte, one of the most learned 
ornithologists of the present day, and to whom the world owes 
the splendid continuation of Wilson’s ornithology. By this gen- 
tleman he was greatly encouraged to persevere in his pursuits, 
with a view to future independence and eminence; and after 
exploring the State of New York, in “ the wildest solitudes of 
the pathless and gloomy forests,” he after an absence of eighteen 
months, returned to his family, then in Louisiana, and “ explored 
every portion of the vast woods around.” 

But his port folio, at length,—after having been destroyed, as 
he relates at page 13,—became full; and remembering the en- 
couragement he had received from his friend, Charles L. Bona- 
parte, his somewhat ambitious mind was turned to Europe, 
as the only country where his labours would be cherished. 

“ America being my country, and the principal pleasures of my life having 
been obtained there, I prepared to leave it, with deep sorrow, after in vain 
trying to publish my Illustrations in the United States. In Philadelphia, 
Wiuzson’s principal engraver, amongst others, gave it as his opinion to my 
friends, that my drawings could never be engraved. In New York, other 
difficulties presented themselves, which determined me to carry my collec- 
tions to Europe. 

“As I approached the coast of England, and for the first time beheld her 
fertile shores, the despondency of my spirits became very great. I knew not 
an individual in the country ; and although I was the bearer of letters from 
American friends, and statesmen of great eminence, my situation appeared 
precarious in the extreme. I imagined that every individual whom I was 
about to meet, might be possessed of talents superior to those of any on our 
side of the Atlantic! Indeed, as I for the first time walked in the streets of 
Liverpool, my heart nearly failed me, for not a glance of sympathy did I 
meet in my wanderings, for two days. To the woods I could not betake 
myself, for there were none near. 

“But how soon did all around me assume a different aspect! How fresh 
is the recollection of the change! ‘The very first letter which I tendered 
procured me a world of friends. The Rarxsonsgs, the Roscozs, the TrarLzs, 
the Cuorteys, the Mrurss, and others, took me by the hand; and so kind 
and beneficent, nay, so generously kind, have they all been towards me, that 
I can never cancel the obligation. My drawings were publicly exhibited, 
and publicly praised. Joy swelled my heart. The first difficulty was sur- 
mounted. Honours which, on application being made through my friends, 
Philadelphia had refused, Liverpool freely accorded. 


460 Audubon. 


We knew Audubon in London, being on.a visit there, as well 
as himself, and know how much his feelings were wounded, by 
the refusal alluded to, of the social honours of Philadelphia. 
This slight is by no means to be imputed to his countrymen at 
large, to whom he was comparatively unknown. ‘The transac- 
tion grew out of the spirit of jealousy, which is always illiberal, 
and the frequent parent of misrepresentation and calumny. Some 
of the friends of Wilson did not view, with the most cordial spirit, 
those evidences of transcendent merit, which others willingly 
accorded to Audubon’s drawings; then arose the spirit of party, 
and with it malevolence. A few small minds, who knew little 
or nothing of nature, and who had officiously intruded themselves 
into this matter, endeavoured to make up for their want of 
knowledge on the subject, by excess of bad zeal. Opinions were 
industriously circulated, that Audubon had, in many instances, 
attempted to impose upon_the credulity of the world, by invent- 
ing stories which had no foundation in truth, because they were 
contrary to the known habits of the animals they concerned ; as 
if the habits of the animals of this vast continent, could possibly 
be known to any other class of men, but that adventurous one, 
which, like Audubon, had passed their whole lives in observing 
them; and because he had executed a drawing of inimitable 
force and beauty, of “ mocking birds defending their nest from a 
rattlesnake,’—a picture which cannot be contemplated without 
the liveliest emotions, and of which one of the best judges in 
Europe, Mr. Swainson, in an elegant encomium, has said, “ every 
part of the story is told with exquisite feeling ;” they selected 
this to exercise their detraction upon; and concluding, because 
the books of systematic naturalists, had not mentioned this habit 
of the rattlesnake of climbing up bushes, that it was a fair pre- 
sumption the animal did not and could not climb; they indus- 
triously circulated a report, that he had imposed a deliberate 
lie upon the world, and that no doubt he had done so in many 
other instanees. Thus overwhelmed with calumny, and absent, 
his friends,—and he had a few, both true and steady,—had the 
mortification to witness the temporary success of this bad com- 
bination, and see the name of this great naturalist, that would 
do honour to any society, rejected, and in a scornful manner. 
It is painful to allude to this circumstance, which is somewhat 
notorious; but that the shame, which belongs to a very few, may 


Audubon. 461 


not be imputed to all, we have here given a true history of a 
conspiracy, got up to utterly break down and ruin the reputa- 
tion of one of the most remarkable men America ever produced: 
aman, whom the Royal Society of London, nearly all the dis- 
tinguished societies of Great Britain, and many others in France, 
have subsequently lavished their highest honours upon. We 
have the satisfaction to add, that previous to his return to his 
native country, in September last, atonement was made to him 
for this persecution. 'The American Philosophical Society, at a 
full meeting of its most respectable members, disregarding the 
calumnies yet assiduously circulated by a few, elected him an 
associate, and subscribed for a copy of his magnificent work ; 
and the society from whence he had formerly been rejected, paid 
him the same tribute of respect. 

This Journal has always been prompt to repel unfriendly im- 
putations directed against Audubon ; his claims to public confi- 
dence were vindicated in our September number.* There is a 
communication from Col. Abert, of the U. 8. Topographical en- 
gineers, where the most conclusive evidence is given from officers 
of high rank in the U. S. service, that the rattlesnake has those 
habits of climbing, and has been seen by others, in the situation 
depicted by Audubon.t These gentlemen have been able to 
offer their testimony of his fidelity to nature, because they too 
have had rare opportunities of observing the habits of animals, 
in the distant and unfrequented territories of our country. 

The remainder of the introductory address, from which we 
have made our quotations, is devoted to an account of the cor- 
dial manner with which he was received in Liverpool and Edin- 
burgh, of the grateful attentions paid to him by some of their 
most distinguished inhabitants, of which a list is given. No 
sooner was his great merit perceived, than he was spontaneously 
and gratuitously enrolled a member of their first societies. Au- 
dubon was now about to enter upon the fruition of those antici- 
pations which so long had borne him up; and encouraged from 
every quarter, he opened an exhibition of his drawings. We ex- 
tract the following from Blackwood,f{ a periodical which has 
been eloquent in the commendation of Audubon. 


“Soon after his arrival in Edinburgh, where he soon found many friends, 


*See Month. Am. Jour. of Geology, Sept. 1831, p. 138. + Do. Nov. 1831, p. 221. 
tSee Blackwood’s Edinburgh Mag. July 1831, p. 14. 


462 Audubon. : 


he opened his exhibition. Four hundred drawings,—paintings in water co- 
lours—of about two thousand birds, covered the walls of the institution hall, 
in the royal society buildings, and the effect was like magic. The spectator 
imagined himself in the forest. All were of the size of life, from the wren 
and the humming bird, to the wild turkey and the bird of Washington. But 
what signified the mere size? The colours were all of life too—bright as 
when borne in beaming beauty through the woods. There, too, were their 
attitudes and postures, infinite as they are assumed by the restless creatures, 
in motion or rest, in their glee and their gambols, their loves and their wars, 
singing, or caressing, or brooding, or preying, or tearing one another into 
pieces. The trees too, on which they sat or sported, all true to nature, in 
hole, branch, spray, and’leaf; the flowering shrubs, and the ground flowers, 
the weeds, and the very grass, all American—so too the atmosphere and the 
skies—all transatlantic. ”I'was a wild and poetical vision of the heartof the 
new world, inhabited as yet almost wholly by the lovely or noble creatures, 
‘that own not man’s dominion.’” 


We know not in what more expressive language, we could 
have sought to do justice to the magic drawings of Audubon, 
than that of the quotation we have just made. 

The complete success of this exhibition, decided Audubon 
upon the great undertaking he has, in part, most admirably ac- 
complished; that of engraving these magnificent drawings. We 
should not do justice to thent, if we were to omit the following 
passage in the introductory address :— 


“ Merely to say, that each object of my illustrations is of the size of nature, 
were too vague—for to many it might only convey the idea that they are so, 
more or less, according as the eye of the delineator may have been more or 
less correct in measurement simply obtained through that medium; and of 
ayoiding error in this respect I am particularly desirous. Not only is every 
object, as a whole, of the natural size, but also every portion of each object. 

The compass aided me in its delineation, regulated and corrected each part, 
" even to the very fore-shortening which now and then may be seen in the 
figures. The bill, the feet, the legs, the claws, the very feathers as they 
project one beyond another, have been accurately measured. The birds, 
almost all of them, were killed by myself, after I had examined their motions 
and habits, as much as the case admitted, and were regularly drawn on or 
near the spot where I procured them. The positions may, perhaps, in some 
instances, appear owtre ; but such supposed exaggerations can afford subject 
of criticism only to persons unacquainted with the feathered tribes; for, be- 
lieve me, nothing can be more transient or varied than the attitudes or posi- 
tions of birds. The Heron, when warming itself in the sun, will sometimes 
drop its wings several inches, as if they were dislocated ; the Swan may often 
be seen floating with one foot extended from the body ; and some Pigeons, 
you well know, turn quite over, when playing in the air. The flowers, 
plants, or portions of trees which are attached to the principal objects, have 


Audubon. 463 


been chosen from amongst those in the vicinity of which the birds were 
found, and are not, as some persons haye thought, the trees or plants upon 
which they always feed or perch.” 

Taking it for granted, that the patronage which this great 
work has begun to receive in this country, will soon be so much 
extended, as to enrich every considerable town in the United 
States with at least one copy,—for what town or neighbour- 
hood is there, which does not possess patriotic, wealthy, and 
liberal friends to the arts, who can unite in a subscription for 
this purpose !—we shall not repeat the encomiums it so well de- 
serves: we imagine there are few of our readers, who will not 
be able to have access to this unrivalled work; to those, how- 
ever, who hitherto have not had an opportunity of seeing it, we 
shall state,—what they may already have conceived, knowing 
the objects described to be as large as life—that the first volume, 
already published, containing one hundred plates, is truly a gi- 
gantic volume. We saw a copy of it, recently, bound in calf, 
brought by Mr. Audubon from England, which weighed forty- 
five pounds. The pages are three feet three inches long, and 
two feet two inches broad. Each number, the price of which 
is two guineas, or about ten dollars, contains five plates: one 
hundred and twenty-four plates have already been published, 
of which one hundred form the first volume: the others will ap- 
pear gradually ; so that the total amount of the cost of this un- 
rivalled work, is progressively paid, and in small sums. The. 
intention is, to publish at least five numbers annually. To each 
volume of plates, consisting of twenty numbers, is annexed a de- 
scriptive and narrative volume of “Ornithological Biography.’”* 

This book, which was first published in London, has been re- 
printed in Philadelphia, and is perhaps the handsomest octavo 
ever got up in America. But this is its slightest merit; it is in 
the contents we find what is truly inimitable. Every thing there 
is communicated in an earnest and simple manner, sometimes 
with a vivid eloquence and beauty that is touching. There is 
not one of the one hundred descriptions contained in this volume, 
where evidences of this may not be found. We open the book 
at random at page 96, at the head, “ Bewick’s Wren.” 


“The bird represented under the name of Bewick’s Wren, I shot on the 
19th October, 1821, about five miles from St. Francisville, in the state of 


t Ornithological Biography, Royal 8vo. p. 506. Philadelphia, Judah Dobson. 


464 Audubon. 


Louisiana. It was standing, as nearly as can be represented, in the position 
in which you now see it, and upon the prostrate trunk of a tree, not far from 
.afence. My drawing of it was made on the spot,” &c. 


And again, at page 91, “ The Carolina Turtle Dove.” 


“JT have tried, kind reader, to give you a faithful representation of two as 
gentle pairs of Turtles as ever cooed their loves in the green woods. I have 
placed them on a branch of Stuartia, which you see ornamented with a pro- 
fusion of white blossoms, emblematic of purity and chastity. 

“Took at the female, as she assiduously sits on her eggs, embosomed 
among the thick foliage, receiving food from the bill of her mate, and listen- 
ing with delight to his assurances of devoted affection. Nothing is wanting 
to render the moment as happy as could be desired by any couple on a similar 
occasion. 

“On the branch above, a love scene is just commencing. The female, 
still coy and undetermined, seems doubtful of the truth of her lover, and 
virgii-like resolves to put his sincerity to the test, by delaying the gratifica- 
tion of his wishes. She has reached the extremity of the branch, her wings 
and tail are already opening, and she will fly off to some more sequestered 
spot, where, if her lover should follow her with the same assiduous devotion, 
they will doubtless become as blessed as the pair beneath them. 

“The Dove announces the approach of spring. Nay, she does more :— 
she forces us to forget the chilling blasts of winter, by the soft and melan- 
choly sound of her cooing. Her heart is already so warmed and so swelled 
by the ardour of her passion, that it feels as ready to expand as the buds on 
the trees are, under the genial influence of returning heat.” 


But to do perfect justice to his genius, we must, at the same 
time, see the beautiful drawing where these turtle doves are 
represented; then, indeed, we perceive that nature has not spo- 
ken to him in vain, and that he can express the feelings she has 
inspired him with, with great force. 

Even the dear little house-wren, he has given us a most 
pleasing and minute account of. What can be more amusing, 
cheerful, and ridiculous, at the same time, than the family pic- 
ture of plate 83, where the nest is in an old hat, stuck on a 
twig, the male beginning his song on the edge of the hat, and 
the anxious mother arriving with a fine fat spider, which one 
of the pets is squeezing himself through a hole to get at: and 
then this family history is followed up, so as to give us a direct 
interest in all the wren family, wherever we may meet them. 


“When the young issue from the nest, it is interesting to see them follow 
the parents amongst the currant bushes in the gardens, like so many mice, 
hopping from twig to twig, throwing their tails upwards, and putting their 


Audubon. 465 


bodies into a hundred different positions, all studied from the parents, whilst 
the latter are heard scolding, even without cause, but as if to prevent the ap- 
proach of enemies, so anxious are they for the safety of their progeny.” See 
page 428. 

In some remarks on Audubon’s works, contained in the Edin- 
burgh New Philosophical Journal, for April 1831, it is said: 


“Tt is not enough to say, that our author has invented a new style in the 
representation of natural objects; for so true are his pictures, that he who 
has once seen and examined them, can never again look with pleasure on 
the finest productions of other artists. To paint like Audubon, will henceforth 
mean, to represent Nature as she is. The birds are represented such as Na- 
ture created them, of their full dimensions, glowing in all the beauty of their 
unsullied plumage, and presenting the forms, attitudes, and motions peculiar 
to the species. In no case do they appear before us in the stiff and formal 
attitudes in which we find them in other works, perched upon an unmeaning 
stump or stone. On the contrary, they are seen in all imaginable positions, 
pursuing their usual avocations. The fore-shortenings and varieties of atti- 
tude which induce painters generally to present side views only, seem to 
have been accounted as nothing out of the ordinary course of drawing ; with 
so much delicacy, grace, and vigour, have the most difficult positions been 
managed. A peculiar charm is given to these representations, by the cir- 
cumstances that the trees, plants, and flowers of the districts in which they 
occur, are all represented, generally with surprising accuracy, and always 
with great taste. The flowing festoons of climbing shrubs and creepers, 
hung with broad leaves, garlands of flowers, and clustered berries, the lichen- 
crusted branches of the forest trees, and the decayed stumps on which the 
woodpeckers seek their food, are in themselves objects of admiration.” 


This is just praise, and many are the British periodicals in 
which we find language of this kind. The same may be said 
with great truth, of his biographical descriptions: in them he 
does not appear as the dry, systematic naturalist, the manufac- 
turer of the barbarous Latin jargon, after the manner of the old 
school, but as the delightful historian of those birds, of which he 
is the unrivalled painter. In his descriptions, we find the per- 
suasive power of a mind, which has not been moulded in the 
conventional forms of society, but taught by its own unrestrained 
experience, acquired in nature’s most retired solitudes, where 
she was sought, and wooed, and won. For proofs of this, we 
refer our readers to page 372, where the wood-thrush is de- 
scribed with a train of eloquent thought, that does him honour 
as aman anda writer. But we think that it is in his account 
of the mocking-bird, at page 108, that the power and happy 
gracefulness of his language are most conspicuous. 

Vor. I.—59 


466 Audubon. 


“Tt is where the great magnolia shoots up its majestic trunk, crowned 
with evergreen leaves, and decorated with a thousand beautiful flowers, that 
perfume the air around; where the forests and fields are adorned with blos- 
soms of every hue; where the golden orange ornaments the gardens and 
groves; where bignonias of various kinds interlace their climbing stems 
around the white-flowered Stuartia, and mounting still higher, cover the 
summits of the lofty trees around, accompanied with innumerable vines, that 
here and there festoon the dense foliage of the magnificent woods, lending to 
the vernal breeze a slight portion of the perfume of their clustered flowers; 
where a genial warmth seldom forsakes the atmosphere; where berries and 
fruits of all descriptions are met with at every step.” 


This is the eloquent introduction to one of the most fascinating 
descriptions of the bird himself, his courtship, his song, and the 
thousand cares between the construction of the nest; and the 
fledging of their young. 

We trust we have said enough to inspire those of our readers 
who have not read this charming book, with a desire to acquire 
it: and to it we refer them for the noble descriptions of the lar- 
ger birds. The bird of Washington, the stately hawk, the black 
warrior, (falco Harlani,) called after his tried friend, Dr. Harlan, 
the wild turkey, and its other various contents. But besides these 
attractions, it contains the most interesting narratives of his ad- 
ventures, and local descriptions, judiciously interspersed through 
the work, to the number of twenty. They are as follows: the Ohio, 
the great pine swamp, the prairie, the regulators, improvements in the 
navigation of the Mississippi, a flood, Meadville, the cougar, the earth- 
quake, the hurricane, Kentucky sports, the traveller and the pole-cat, 
deer hunting, Niagara, hospitality in the woods, the original painter, 
Louisville in Kentucky, the eccentric naturalist, Scipio and the bear, 
and Col. Boon. 'These narratives are many of them so powerful, 
that we rise from the repeated reading of them, almost as fami- 
liar with the subject, as if we had been the companions of Mr. 
Audubon in his romantic adventures. 

Audubon is now in Florida, leading the woodman’s life he is 
so partial to; from thence he will either ascend the Mississippi, 
or strike into the unfrequented wilds of Texas. It is his inten- 
tion to penetrate, if possible, into California, to whose natural 
history we are almost entire strangers. He is furnished with 
all the protection the American and British governments could 
afford him, having the most powerful recommendations: to all 
the posts on the distant frontiers. We shall continue, whenever 


Audubon. 467 


‘ 

we are able to do so, to give information of his progress and ad- 
ventures. May our opportunities be frequent and fortunate, 
until we can greet him again on our Atlantic shore. We most 
sincerely hope, that the life of this adventurous and accomplished 
naturalist will be spared. He has already done enough to se- 
cure a lasting renown; but such is his unextinguishable spirit, 
that when his great work, the “ Birds of America,” is all en- 
graved, it is only to be the precursor of a still greater; a gallery 
executed in oil, as large as life, of all the subjects of his masterly 
drawings. This gallery is already in progress. What a splen- 
did acquisition for the congress of the United States of America ! 

Ere we leave, for a while, this attractive subject, we desire 
to say one word more on the encouragement this magnificent 
work has received in the native country of its gifted author. On 
the arrival of Audubon in the United States, in September last, 
we believe he had only six subscribers, including the national 
library at Washington. Since that period, the number, we un- 
derstand, has increased to twenty-four. Of these, we believe, 
five are received in literary and scientific societies. ‘Two copies 
have been ordered by the legislature of the State of Louisiana, 
and one by the legislature of 5. Carolina. Philadelphia possesses 
four copies, Baltimore three, Boston, we believe, one. New York, 
we think, at least we have heard so, one. There is one sub- 
scriber in Kentucky; Charleston in 8. Carolina, possesses three 
copies. Where Audubon is known, he is sure to make friends, 
and we have conceived a high idea of the intelligence and libe- 
rality to be found in the State of Georgia, from the fact, that in 
a town with so limited a population as Savannah, he has no 
less than seven subscribers. All these, which do not consti- 
tute one fifth of the patronage Audubon deserves from the 
United States, will greatly increase the opportunities which 
individuals will have, of seeing this magnificent work. There 
is but one obstacle to its perfect success, and that consists in 
the duties the work is subjected to, on arriving in this country. 
Those who have the spirit to appreciate and acquire it, de- 
serve every praise, knowing as they do, that foreigners have 
the privilege of possessing the works of their gifted countryman, 
at a much less expense than they do themselves. We intend no 
allusion to either tariff or anti-tariff opinions; under any 
jaws, exceptions should be made in favour of works of ac- 


468 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 


knowledged genius of the first order; and we think this duty 
wil! be a reflection upon every succeeding congress, as it is upon 
the present one, until the “ Birds of America” are permitted to 
come in without duty, and free as the animated beings of which 
they are the beauteous resemblances. We think, also, that 
every department of the government ought to subscribe for a 
copy of this truly national work ; and we hope, ere long, to learn 
that every legislature in the union will follow the examples set 
by Louisiana and S. Carolina. 


BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


In our December number, for 1831, we gave an account of 
the meeting at Hamburgh, in Germany, of the Cultivators of 
Natural Science and Medicine, and expressed our intention to lay 
before our readers an account of a proposed scientific meeting 
of a similar character, to be held at York, in England, in Sep- 
tember 1831. 

This we should have done before the present time, but for 
the temporary suspension of our journal, and the confusion at- 
tendant upon so unexpected a circumstance. 

We are indebted to one of our best friends, who was a con- 
spicuous member of that great scientific meeting, as it has been 
properly called, for a very interesting account of it, together 
with numerous papers relating to its proceedings. Added to 
these, we have Mr. Johnston’s excellent paper in the January 
number of Brewster, and the notice of its proceedings in the 
Philosophical Magazine. From all these sources we propose. to 
condense an account, that we are sure will be acceptable to our 
readers. 

This first attempt to establish what is, in fact, a scientific 
parliament, with locomotive powers, free to range where it may 
please, and authorized to convene annually in one of the cities 
of Great Britain, has eminently succeeded, although some pains 
had been taken to create doubts as to its usefulness. Many 
things, however, conspired in its favour. It had originally been 
proposed by Dr. Brewster, and many of the best names in Eng- 
land had cordially assented to the project. The place of meet- 
ing too, was well calculated to induce the members of the as- 


British Association for the Advancement of Science. 469 


sociation to pursue their object con amore. The ancient city of 
York was a Roman station of importance ; many interesting re- 
mains of the Roman period in England are extant there at this day. 
Upon the skirts of the city, and near to the mouldering remains 
of the ancient Roman walls, are the truly venerable ruins of a 
Christian temple, which, perhaps, yield the palm in extent more 
than in beauty, to that fine character, which 'Time, who puts the 
true finish to cathedral architecture, exhibits more beautifully 
and profusely in England than in any other country. On this 
interesting spot of ground, which slopes down to the river Ouse, 
and which is pregnant with such fine remembrances, the York- 
shire Philosophical Society have constructed an admirable and 
most convenient building, of classic and elegant proportions, and 
have placed it between the Roman and cathedral ruins of which 
we have spoken. 

That the most intellectual men in Great Britain could meet 
at such a place, and upon such an occasion, without being in- 
fluenced by these associations, could not be; and a week was 
passed there, consecrated to the interests of science, in the most 
harmonious and profitable manner. A few of the most dis- 
tinguished scientific men were not able to attend. The pre- 
sence of Buckland, Herschell, Sedgewick, Babbage, Airy, and a 
few other celebrated persons, would have completed an assem- 
blage strong in the names of Dalton, Brewster, Murchison, 
Witham, Scoresby, Smith, Daubeny, Vernon Harcourt, Green- 
ough, and a host of intellectual men, of established reputation. 
It added greatly to the interest of the meeting, that several men 
of rank assisted at the deliberations, and evinced a strong de- 
sire to forward the great object of the association. The Arch- 

bishop of York paid a marked attention to the members, at- 
tended the meetings, and enrolled his name on the list. Lords 
Milton, Morpeth, Dundas, Sir George Cayley, Sir Thomas 
Brisbane, Sir Philip Egerton, Sir C. Ibbetson, Mr. Justice 
Parke, Mr. Archdeacon Wrangham, all eminent patrons of sci- 
ence, became members of the association. 

The first assemblage was on the evening of the 26th Sep- 
tember, 1831. The ladies and gentlemen of the city and neigh- 
bourhood attended in great numbers, for the purpose of giving 
a cordial welcome to the scientific strangers. During that 
evening Mr. Phillips, the able secretary of the Yorkshire society, 


470 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
and nephew to Mr. Smith, the father of English geology, de- 


livered a lecture on some of the geological phenomena of York- 
shire. The next day the first regular meeting was held, to 
form the association ; about three hundred and fifty persons en- 
rolled their names. Lord Milton, who is the eldest son to Earl 
Fitzwilliam, was placed in the chair. The Rev. Vernon Har- 
court, Vice President of the Yorkshire society, delivered an 
able address, which was ordered to be printed. At 5 P. M. they 
dined together, and in the evening re-assembled, when Mr. Abra- 
hams, of Sheffield, delivered a lecture on magnetism, illustrated 
by curious experiments. On the 28th, a paper by Dr. Brewster 
was read, on the progress of mineralogy and on the crystallo- 
graphic system of Mohs. On account of the great number of 
mineral structures discovered by the agency of polarized light, 
he proposes a “ composite system,” where the crystalline forms 
which cannot be taken into any of the received systems, may be 
classed. To this succeeded the reading of a valuable paper on 
the philosophical character of Priestley, by Dr. Henry of Man- 
chester. In the evening Mr. Potter, of Manchester, exhibited 
his improvement on the reflecting microscope of Newton. Dr. 
Brewster also communicated an account of the theory and con- 
struction of a lithoscope, to characterize precious stones, by the 
colours reflected from their surfaces. 

On the 29th, the organization of the association was com- 
pleted. , Lord Milton was chosen the first president by acclama- 
tion. Oxford was fixed upon as the place of the next meeting, 
and Dr. Buckland was unanimously chosen President elect. Dr. 
Brewster, of the University of Cambridge, and Professor Whewell, 
were also unanimously chosen Vice Presidents elect; and Dr. 
Daubeny of Oxford, Secretary. Mr. Dalton read a paper “ on the 
quantity of food, and insensible perspiration.” He afterwards sta- 
ted, that it contained a series of experiments made upon himself 
forty years ago, relating to the weight of food taken, and the 
secretions, insensible perspiration, and other animal products. 
He pointed out the utility of such inquiries to physicians. This 
important paper is to be published in the transactions of the 
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Mr. Potter 
then read a paper, the object of which was to point out objec- 
tions to Fresnel’s Theory of Light, deduced from certain experi- 
ments on light reflected from metallic surfaces both simple and 


- 


British Association for the Advancement of Science. 471 


compound. Sir George Cayley remarked that the difficulties on 
this subject were connected with the speculations on the identity 
between heat and light. 

An interesting discussion now arose on the reading of a paper 
by Mr. William Hutton of Newcastle, on the great “ Whin Sill,” 
or trap dyke of the northern counties of England. This related 
to the geological age of the intrusive rocks connected with the 
whin, (a provincial name for trap.) Mr. Hutton had explored 
and examined this dyke through a line of one hundred miles be- 
tween the confines of Northumberland and Yorkshire: he ex- 
hibited a section where beds of limestone and shale were super- 
incumbent to it, inferring thence, that these last were posterior to 
the trap, which he considered to be the overflowing of ancient 
volcanic action. Mr. Murchison, the President of the Geological 
Society of London, entertained a different opinion as to the re- 
lative age of these rocks. He had personally examined the dis- 
trict. He considered Mr. Hutton’s paper to be a very able one; 
it was true that the basaltic matter was found in beds between 
the strata alluded to; but he had reason to believe there was 
a connection between the whin dykes of Durham, and those 
stratified beds, which he considered to be intrusive, and that 
they had been injected laterally not only into the carboniferous 
limestone, but into later rocks. He thought it important that 
further examinations should be made in relation to the general 
connection of all this basaltic matter. He was entirely of 
opinion that.all this matter had been laterally injected since 
the deposit of the rocks which enclosed it. [This is also the 
opinion of Professor Sedgewick, who has made a profound study of 
these phenomena. We propose in the plate to our newt number to give 
a figure from Mr. M ’Culloch’s Western Islands, of the manner in 
which the trap is found in Trotternish, laterally injected, between the 
strata of sandstone. | 

Mr. Johnston now read a paper upon the metal provisionally 
called vanadium, and exhibited some beautiful crystals formed 
by gradual cooling. We trust that this gentleman will be in- 
duced, by our present number, to do perfect justice to this sub- 
ject. 

Mr. Witham, of Lartington, next gave a very interesting 
sketch of the fossil flora. Nothing could happen more fortu- 
nately for the cause of fossil botany,—which is so much in- 


472 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 


debted to M. Adolphe Brogniart,—than the application of Mr. 
Witham’s ingenious method of detecting the structure of fossil 
vegetables ; we think it will, ere long, be generally applied to 
all doubtful fossil substances. 

Mr. Phillips concluded the morning with a paper from Dr. 
Henry, on the roasting of the copper ore of Anglesea. The ore, 
when roasted, gives lumps, which contain from thirty to fifty 
per cent. of copper; these are picked out and then smelted. 
The Archbishop of York was present during a part of these pro- 
ceedings. In the evening the Rev. Mr. Scoresby delivered to a 
very numerous assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, the result of 
his experiments on the law of magnetic induction : the magnetic 
force diminishes with the square of the distance ; and he has in- 
vented a method of applying the magnetic influence to the ad- 
measurement of rocks and solid substances in situations where 
these are not, by known methods, measureable. ‘The applica- 
tion of this curious branch will probably become of great value 
in mining operations. Many rocks occasion a sensible deviation 
of the needle, and it is probable that when we are better ac- 
quainted with the magnetic intensity of the various rocks, we 
shall be able to measure their thickness. Mr. Scoresby has 
found that he can, by his own magnets, cause an angular devia- 
tion of the needle, from a distance of sixty feet, through the 
most solid substances. 

On the morning of Friday the 30th, Dr. Brewster communi- 
cated an interesting paper on the structure of the crystalline lens in 
the eyes of fishes. The various arrangements of this structure, 
adapted to the wants of these animals, through their extensive 
distribution in the waters of the globe, are extremely instructive 
and curious. To this communication succeeded a very lively 
geological discussion, in relation to certain marine shells, of ex- 
isting shells of mollusca, found in gravel pits about Preston in 
Laneashire, and which, it appears, are elevated three hundred 
feet above the level of the sea. There is a communication on 
this subject at p. 170, Vol. IIL. of the Magazine of Natural His- 
tory, from the Rey. Mr. Gilbertson, who had collected these 
shells as early as 1829. Mr. R. C. Taylor also has two notes 
following the same communication. The country appears to be 
covered with a marl, and, according to the observation of Mr. 
Murchison, the sands, marls, and gravels, have no deposit super- 


British Association for the Advancement of Science. 473 


incumbent to them, save some blocks of Cumbrian origin, and 
which alone may be referred to what is called a diluvian origin. 
These shells are the Buccinum undatum, Purpura lapillus, Triton 
macula, Murex erinaceus, Fusus bamffius, and Turritella terebra, of 
Fleming. Turbo littorius, and terebra, Cardium echinatum, Mactra 
solida, Dentalium striatum, &c. &c. and Mr. R.C. Taylor has re- 
marked, that their appearance is fresher, and more like recent 
marine shells found on the beach, than even those of the Suffolk 
Crag, which has hitherto been considered the most recent de- 
posit. Many of them were embedded in, and filled with marl, 
as if it had always been their natural bed. 

Mr. Murchison having made York one of the points of a very 
extensive geological excursion, had just examined the north- 
western coast of Lancashire. His account of this interesting 
district was listened to with great interest. ‘The inference he 
drew, was, that the beds, containing these quasi recent shells, do 
not belong to the class called by some geologists diluvial, although 
the deposits have an analogous appearance, but that they have 
been raised from the bottom of the sea, to their present elevation, 
almost within historical times; at any rate, subsequent to the 
appearance of the same marine mollusca, which now inhabit the 
Irish channel. This is a branch of geology in which Mr. Mur- 
chison is pre-eminently skilled, and his opinions on the subject 
are entitled to great consideration. These conclusions will 
probably be found applicable to other parts of the coast, and 
perhaps to many parts of Yorkshire. We are of opinion that 
Mr. Phillips, when he publishes another edition of his excellent 
work, will find it expedient to modify his diluvial opinions. Facts 
of a like nature have been observed in Sicily by Mr. Lyell, and 
recently by Dr. Turnbull Christie. This gentleman has ob- 
served upon the flanks of Mount Grifone,—an elevated mountain: 
of dolomitic limestone,—the following subdivision of the deposit, 
which once would have been called diluvial. We use the de- 
scending order. 

Blocks of limestone. 

Bone breccia, with cave bones. 

Pebbles and sands, with existing shells. 

Upper sub-appenine, with many existing shells. 

The inference set up is, that the bone breccia has been washed 
down anciently into the sea, and that all the beds have subse- 

Vor. I.—60 


> 
474 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 


quently been raised. ‘To these facts we would add, that in 
many parts of this country, the same circumstances, no doubt, 
occur along the Atlantic border. In Alabama, gravel beds of a 
similar character, are found near fort Clairborne, now about 
seventy miles from the sea, and elevated, we suppose, about 
sixty feet from its level. We shall hereafter return to this 
branch of American geology. 

Dr. Daubeny next brought up the interesting subject of hot 
springs, their connexion with volcanic action, the occurrence of _ 
azote in them, and the method of detecting it. Some of Dr. 
Daubeny’s opinions were controverted: it was urged, that how- 
ever satisfactorily particular phenomena might seem to be con- 
structed from one cause, yet that different causes produce in 
our laboratories the same phenomena, which might be the case 
in the great laboratory of nature. This subject engaged both 
geologists and chemists in an animated conversation— The mem- 
bers of the association were entertained this day, by his Grace 
the Archbishop, in the most cordial and hospitable manner, at 
the ancient archiepiscopal palace of Bishopthorpe. In the even- 
ing, the party returned to the Institution, where Mr. Potter 
communicated an account of the analogy of electricity in the 
Torricellian vacuum, to the aurora borealis. Dr. Warwick ex- 
hibited the method of Professor Moll, for making a temporary 
magnet of soft iron, by magnetic action. Dr. Daubeny exhi- 
bited a sphere of wire gauze, which, when dipped in water, 
filled; and on being lifted out, retained the fluid. When shaken, 
the water flowed: from the pores. 'The phenomenon was ex- 
plained by the principle of capillary attraction. 

On Saturday, a valuable memoir was read by Mr. Dalton, on 
“ The Specific gravity of the Human Body.” 'This is to appear in 
the Manchester Transactions. Mr. Dalton supposes the pores 
of the body to be filled with air, which, together with the air in 
the lungs, sustains us against the pressure of the atmosphere, 
leaving the solid parts free to use their functions. Mr. Scoresby 
related some facts connected with oceanic pressure on wounded 
whales: they sometimes descend a mile, but return exhausted, 
and blowing out blood, the pressure forcing a portion of it out 
of the vessels into the lungs. Mr. Allan, of Edinburgh, described 
a large aquamarine, brought from Brazil by Don Pedro. Mr. 
Robison explained, aided by his drawings, a contrivance for ex- 


British Association for the Advancement of Sciences 475 


pelling elastic fluids from his fine linseed oil barometer. Dr. 
Brewster exhibited alum and rock salt prisms, excelling the 
finest glass prisms. This adaptation of cheap substances to such 
a purpose, produced some explanation as to Dr. Brewster’s views 
of the heating rays of Herschell, supposed to be most numerous 
in the dark part of the spectrum, where he found the tempera- 
ture highest. Dr. Brewster is of opinion, that there are no rays 
of heat unaccompanied by light——Colouring matters also were 
treated upon. It was argued, that where a mixture of bodies 
has changed the colour of both or either, it is not that the one 
has penetrated into the other, so as to impart its colour to it, 
but that the union of the two has taken place in such a manner, 
as to produce an arrangement of the particles, which causes the 
light to be reflected in a particular way.—Mr. Forbes then read 
an elaborate paper, on the horary oscillations of the barometer. 
The morning closed by a communication from Sir James South 
to Dr. Brewster; he had lately observed one of the satellites of 
Jupiter, which were generally supposed to disappear, when with- 
in the disc of the planet, to appear as a black spot on its surface. 
He was desirous of having this anomaly accounted for. 

In the evening, Dr. Daubeny explained some experiments of 
the Rev. Mr. Tayler, of York, with a view to increase the inten- 
sity of gas light, without increasing the consumption of gas. The 
Rev. Mr. V. Harcourt also explained the principle of a new 
lamp, invented by him, for the purpose of economising light, by 
the use of cheaper oils. An able memoir by Brewster, was then 
read, “ On a New Analysis of Solar Light.” 'The last paper read, 
was a translation of a memoir, by Professor Gazzeri, of Florence, 
«On a method of rendering visible the traces of erased writing.” 
This consisted mainly in the application of heat. Dr. Brewster 
mentioned, that the legends of worn out coins and medals, when 
placed on hot iron, would evolve in like manner. He had been 
much surprised, at first reading on such a medal, in letters in 
flame, the legend, “ Benedictum sit nomen Det.” 

Lord Morpeth now addressed the meeting, and moved thanks 
to Dr. Brewster; when the unbounded applause had subsided 
which his eloquent speech produced, 

Mr. Murchison, on the part of Dr. Brewster and his other scientific friends, 


begged leave to return thanks for the high honour done to the contributors 
of scientific memoirs, and for the kind assistance and valuable aid which had 


476 British Association for the Advancement of Sciente. 


been received from the residents of York and the neighbourhood, in the pro- 
motion of the objects of this meeting. He explained the motives which first 
induced the original promoters of the meeting to select the city of York for 
their first assembly. To this city, as the cradle of the association, they 
should ever look back with gratitude; and whether they met hereafter on 
the banks of the Isis, the Cam, or the Forth; to this spot, and to this beauti- 
ful building, they would still fondly revert, and haii with delight the period 
at which, in their gyration, they should return to this the point of their first 
attraction. Myr. Murchison concluded by warmly eulogizing the kind re- 
ception and hospitality which the strangers had experienced from the Arch- 
bishop, and from all classes of the inhabitants of the city and neighbourhood. 
He concluded, amidst loud applause, with a motion of thanks, as follows :— 
“ That the cultivators of science here assembled, do return their most grate- 
fal thanks to His Grace the Archbishop of York, the Patron, and to the 
officers and members of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, for the very 
liberal manner in which, by the use of their Halls and Museum, and by their 
obliging and unwearied efforts to provide every accommodation and comfort 
to the visitors, they have so essentially contributed to the success and pros- 
perity of this association.” 

The motion was seconded by Dr. Brewster. Mr. Dalton also rose to 
express his entire concurrence in Mr. Murchison’s observations. 

The Rey. W. V. Harcourt said, it was quite unnecessary, from the feelings 
which he knew to pervade the breasts of all, both scientific strangers and 
residents, to put to the vote of the meeting either of the proposals so elo- 
quently brought forward. In the long period of its existence, the ancient 
city of York had never greater reason to be proud than of the genius and 
talent it contained within its walls at this moment, and of the honour it had 
obtained of being the birth-place of an Assocrarion destined (he firmly be- 
lieved) greatly to enlarge the boundaries of science. After speaking with 
much depth of feeling of the grateful recollections which this meeting would 
furnish, of the valued friendships which it had been the occasion of forming, 
and of the pleasing anticipation of future meetings, when the infant asso- 
ciation should be more matured and adequate to its lofty aims, Mr. Harcourt 
concluded by declaring the meeting adjourned to Oxford. 

Tea and coffee were then served to the visitors, and the company separated, 
highly delighted with the intellectual and social treat which they had enjoyed 
throughout the week.— York Courant. 


The nature of this association will be more fully understood 
by reference to Dr. Brewster’s Number for Jan. 1832, to which 
we refer our readers; we shall, however, publish the preface to 
the first report of the association, which has subsequently ap- 
peared. We take it from the Philosophical Magazine, for March, 
1832, page 225. 


In giving to the public a Report of the Proceedings of the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, it has been considered an important 


British Association for the Advancement of Science: 477 


“object to add to the account of the past meeting a distinct view of what is to 
be expected from the next, and to announce the result of the applications 
which have been made to individuals, requesting them, in the name of the 
Association, to undertake the reports and researches recommended by its 
committees in different branches of science. 

The success of these applications will appear from the following state- 
ment. 

Reports.—1. The Rev. George Peacock has undertaken to present to the 
next meeting, a report on the recent progress of Mathematical Analysis, in 
reference particularly to the differential and integral calculus. 

2. Professor Airy has undertaken a report on the state and progress of 
Astronomical Science, in reference particularly to Physical Astronomy. 

3. J. W. Lubbock, Esq. has consented to furnish such information respect- 
ing the data and desiderata for calculating the time and height of high- 
water as he may be able to offer. 

4. James D, Forbes, Esq. has undertaken to present a report on the pre- 
sent state of Meteorological Science. 

5. Dr. Brewster has undertaken a report on the progress of Optical 
Science. 

6. The Rev. Robert Willis has undertaken a report on the state of our 
knowledge concerning the Phenomena of Sound, in reference especially to 
the additions recently made to it. 

7. The Rey. Professor Powell has undertaken a similar report respecting 
the Phenomena of Heat. 

8. The Rev. Professor Cumming has undertaken a report on the recent 
progress of Chemical Science, especially in foreign countries. 

10. The Rev. Professor Whewell has undertaken a report on the state 
and progress of Mineralogical Science. 

11. Robert Stevenson, Esq. has undertaken the report recommended by 
the Geological and Geographical Committee, on the waste and extension of 
the land on the east coast of Britain, and on the question of the permanence 
of the relative level of the sea and land. 

12. Professor Lindley has undertaken to give an account of the principal 
questions recently settled, or still agitated, in the Philosophy of Botany. 

Researches.—There is reason to hope that the earnest wish expressed by 
the Mathematical and Physical Committee, that a register of the thermome- 
ter, during every hour of the day and night, should be kept at some station 
in the south of England, will be realized at Plymouth under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. Harvey, with the enlightened concurrence of those who 
have the power of enabling him to render this public service to science. 

The law of the decrease of temperature with increasing elevations in the 
atmosphere, will be illustrated by a eentinuagion of experiments with bal- 
loons by the Earl of Minto. 

The secretaries of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society have commenced 
the observations recommended, on the comparative quantities of rain falling 
on the top of York Minster and near its base; and the society has formed a 
Meteorological Committee, by whose labours other researches, which have 


a 


478 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 


been recommended in that branch of science, may be expected to be ad- 
vanced. 

The observations on the intensity of Terrestrial Magnetism, proposed by 
the Mathematical and Physical committee, have been undertaken by Dr. 
Traill; and the Royal Society of Edinburgh have lent for his use their 
Standard Needle, constructed under the superintendence of Professor Han- 
steen. 

A summary of the observations which Mr. Henwood is making on the 
electro-magnetic condition of metalliferous veins will be presented to the 
meeting; and it is probable that the suggestion of the committee may be 
followed, in regard to the extension of these experiments to veins which 
traverse horizontal and dissimilar strata. 

There is reason to expect that the objects contemplated by the Chemical 

Committee, in recommending a revision of some of the primary data of 
chemistry, will derive light from the labours of Dr. Prout and Professor 
Turner, in addition to those of the eminent philosopher from whom the re- 
commendations originated. 
_ Professor Daubeny and Mr. Johnston have undertaken the analytical re- 
searches respectively entrusted to them; and specimens of iron in different 
stages of its manufacture have been transmitted to the latter gentleman 
from the principal iron works in Yorkshire. 

In Geology, the inquiry respecting parallelism in the lines of disturbance 
of the British strata will receive, it is hoped, the joint consideration of the 
Rev. Wm. Conybeare and the Rev. Professor Sedgwick. 

In Botany, the comprehensive inquiry proposed by the committee will be 
illustrated by contributions which Professor Henslow proposes to add to the 
Flora Cantabrigiensis, and by a systematic catalogue of the native plants of 
the county of York, which the sub-curator of the Yorkshire Philosophical 
Society is preparing for the press. 

Lastly, in Zoological research, for which no provision was made at the 
late meeting, the officers of the Association have received from Dr. Knox 
the promise of a memoir on the natural history of the Salmon. 


We cannot conclude this paper, without expressing our un- 
qualified admiration, not only of the motives which have induced 
so many eminent men to establish this truly scientific association, 
but of the manner in which they have proceeded to execute 
their intentions. There was, at first, some jealousy and some 
opposition, but we hear little of either at present. As far as we 
are informed, nearly all the leading men of science, at the uni- 
versities of Oxford and Cambridge, have enrolled their names 
in the list of members. We suppose that by this time, the most 
distinguished men in the metropolis, will have followed their ex- 
ample. We understand that several who did not assist at the 
York meeting, including that eminent chemist, Prout, have 


British Association for the Advancement of Science. 479 


already sent in their adhesion. In June next, the association 
convenes at Oxford. There never was such an assemblage of 
men convened in so magnificent a city before. We shall en- 
deavour to give our readers a faithful account of what it is our 
misfortune, not to be able to be a personal spectator Of. 

Thus will this great association be annually employed, visiting 
the principal cities of Great Britain, in, to use the eloquent lan- 
guage of Mr. Johnston,* 


Gathering into its stores the genius and information of every district, 
awakening men, wherever it bends its footsteps, to the dignity and import- 
ance of science, and scattering into every corner, as it passes through the 
land, some new seeds of valuable discovery, and which, duly fostered, may 
ripen into a harvest of resources hitherto not known, and therefore unde- 
veloped,—an institution, which, limited to no science, can comprehend, with- 
in its ample bounds, the votaries of every branch of knowledge, ready each, 
and willing to eliminate, by the conjoint researches of all, those complicated 
mysteries of nature which the most ardent philosophers are ever meeting 
within their single and isolated investigations, and which even the united 
efforts of all the cultivators of any one department could never have re- 
vealed. 

There has been a great deal said about the march of intellect, 
which has almost become a bye-word, because of the misdirec- 
tion which some have sought to give to those powers of reasoning 
which all men, more or less, possess. This will always be the 
case, where the knowledge of words, rather than that of things, 
receives an intellectual consideration, due only to that kind of 
knowledge, which is inseparable from a sound judgment. Amidst 
all the extravagances of this siecle de mouvement—we use the 
term on account of the appropriateness of the language, and not 
from an inclination to write French for English readers—we see 
an ultimate regenerating principle for society, in the increasing 
inclination for the study of nature. All her phenomena are 
produced by invariable laws, and such are the plastic powers of 
the human mind, that the habit of considering the relations of 
physical things, is gradually adopted by us, for the consideration 
of moral things; and as we find out that we cannot imitate na- 
ture, but by the application of her unchanging ways, so neither 
can we follow up the moral laws of the Author of nature, but 
by the aid of his immutable principles of truth and justice. We 
think that the love and study of nature, will eventually subdue 

* Brewster, Jan. 1832, p. 1. 


480 Meteorological Table. 


the disposition among men, to be estranged from her. If men 
are ever intended to be just to each other, the consummation of 
that great purpose will be produced in this way. Our gratitude 
then, is pre-eminently due to men who devote their highest 
powers to this lofty end. 

This sentiment appears to be growing up in Great Britain. 
The propriety of representing, in a reformed parliament, the 
intelligence, as well as the property and ignorance of the country, 
is a subject which has received some discussion there ; and it is 
said that the ministers have even admitted the necessity of it. 
We do not see why the presidents of a few learned societies, 
might not, ex officio, have seats in parliament, with the privi- 
lege of speaking, if not of voting. We feel quite sure that the 
president of the Geological See of London, would be more 
useful there, representing the saurians of the lias, than Mr. 
Hunt, representing the mammalia of Preston in Lancashire. 


ee 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION Ss. 
Made at Wilmington, Delaware, by Henry Gibbons, M. D. 
Summary ror Frsrvary, 1832. 


Therm. Barom.| Proportion of clear weather, days 9 
Average at sun-rise, 30°.14 in. 29.90] Proportion of cloudy, 20 
Average at mid- “day, 38°,.45 29.86| Whole days clear, 5 
Average at 11 o’clock, Days on which snow and hail fell, 5 
P.M. 32°.93 29.86| Days on which rain fell, 8 
Monthly average, 34°.295 29.885] Depth of snow, in. 4 
Maximum, 19th, 62°. 24th, 30.38) Depth of rain, 5.10 
Mimimum, 24th, 12°, 20th, 29.45] Quantity of water, 5.60 
Range, 50°. .93| Northerly winds prevailed, days 12 
Warmest day, 19th, 55°. Easterly, 8 
Coldest day, 24th, TS Southerly, (S. to W.) 9 


No Auroras.—Clouds electrified, once.—Rains, frequent, 
though light; and several small snows.—Winds moderate, and 
rather changeable-—Two easterly storms, both attended with 
hail, sleet, and rain; also a partial one, with some snow, the 
wind changing in a short time to south. The weather of this 
month was very disagreeable, being a succession of transitions 
from warm to cold, with frequent rain and snow. | The temper- 
ature was at no time cold enough to impede the navigation by 
forming ice. On three days only was the mercury so low as 20°, 
viz. on the 21st, 22d, and 24th. 


ee BOTANY, MINERALOGY, COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, Gurmeriy, 
~)- METEOROLOGY, PHYSIOAL NATURAL AGENTS, . ANDTHE | 
ey” ANTIQUITIES ASD LANGUAGES: OF THES = 

, INDIANS! OF THIS CONTINENT. 


yea. 
Ne 
7 
- 
is 
oe 
Ay 


conductEn BY: 
Pee W. SRA TH ERST ONE Ad OH aot 


. se ‘Nev enc oRacat no Realty ie 
; ot the New Yor “ut : 
of Philadelphia, c.@eeAee me if 


MAY, 1832) 20 <2 z 


—— — = wi las 


= ‘PUBLISHED 1 By aaa . 
: poset Sane ak chat, is ae sri 


CONTENT 8S: 


On Mineral and Metallic Veins, (with a Plate) tein eset a 
On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus on the Living System, - - 490 
Observations on the Anatomy of the Sloth, - - Sass oats 
Ancient Vitrified Beacon Stations, - - - = - = “= 506 
Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal, - ee aT Sa - 508 
Account of Operations to find Water in the Desert between Cairo and 
Suez, - - - - - - - - - - - 516 


Abstract of Proceedings of the Geological Society of Penneydeanta = $17 
Mr. Browne on the Rocks found in the vicinity of Philadelphia, - $517 
On the Geology of Bradford County, Pennsylyania, by a Committee of 


' the Cabinet of Science of that County, - - : Cif Caples 18 
On the Geology of Wayne County, Pa. by Jacob P. Davis, Esq. - 520 
Meteorological Observations at Wilmington, Delaware,  - ati = 14 S24 
Tyrian Purple Dye, - - - - - - - = +> $25 
Mode in which the Common Frog takes its Food, - “yi = Net OD 
.Bi-yalve Mouse Traps, 2 ins ehh ee, eh Ay Mim ally em tN lala ee a ot 
_ Second Edition of Delabeche’s Geological Manual, © - - = S27 
On the Means by which certain Animals ascend the Vertical Surfaces of aie 
highly polished Bodies, - - - - =} > - = 527 
Services rendered to Natural History by E. W. A, Drummond, Esq. 527 
Petrefacta Musei Bonensis, by Goldfuss, - - ahs - aJtoot 
Birds of Europe, by Mr. Gould, —- my RE SU 7 raat re VI See ea ce 
Dr. Turton’s Manual of the Land and Fr esh-water Shells of the Britislr 
Islands, with coloured Plates of every species, - ~- - «=. $28 
The Tail of the Caterpillar becomes the Head of the Butterfly, - _- 528 
Discovery of a Reef in the Pacific, itera SR ea ata 


Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand ei 
hundred and thirty-two, by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, in the Clerk’s O 
of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY AND NATURAL 
SCIENCE. 


The public has already been made acquainted with the circumstances which 
produced a temporary suspension of the publication of this Journal. The 
Editor felt that the most satisfactory atonement that could be made to his sub- 
sevibers in favour of this work, for the dishonourable conduct of his late pub- 
lisher H. H. Porter, was to finish the first volume, and present it to those who 
have paid in anticipation, without any further charge, and at his own expense. 
This has been partly done by the delivery of the numbers for March and 
April. Those for May and June, which will complete the first volume, are 

. how in progress. 

‘ For the pecuniary sacrificés he has conceived himself called upon to make, 
he has no prospect of indemnification but from an increased subscription, 
which he respectfully asks for from those who feel interested in the cultiva- 
tion of American Natural History. 

_ An examination into the affairs of his Journal, having been forced upon 
him by the failure alluded to, he has discovered the extent of the injury it 
has received from the culpable negligence of the late publisher. Having 
had no agency, hitherto, in the distribution of the Journal, he could offer 

< _ ho immediate satisfaction to the numerous complaints which have been ad- 

dressed to him from subscribers and agents, of various numbers not having 
been received by them: he has, however, endeavoured to comply with their 
wishes to have their sets completed: In future, all the numbers will be for- 
warded through the post office—until otherwise instructed—as the most 

certain channel. y 

The Editor has also discoyered that owing to misrepresentations from inter- 
ested and unfriendly persons,. the circulation of his Journal has been very 
much limited. A few copies of the work have been regularly forwarded to, 
sume principal bookseller in each of the large towns of the United States, 
and almost in every instance the work has found its way into the hands of one 
or more subscribers: Yet a respectuble publisher in New-Haven, Connecti- 
cut, in acknowledging the receipt of ten copies of every number of the 

Journal, adds that it is not owing to “any neglect or want of exertion”? on his 

cit part, that he has not a single subscriber in that town: the inference of course 

, that it is owing to something else, So that a work which has hitherto 

Been stamped with general approbation, and which is devoted to American 

- Geology and American Natural History, has not been permitted to have a sin- 

- gle subscriber in New-Haven, the pretended seat of an American Geological 

Society. This fact, which was unknown to the Editor until within a short 


<a0 
~ 


fair dealing for his Journal. : 
| Unfriendly insinuations too, of the Editor’s want of ability for his task, 
3 have been circulated in quarters where he is little known. Spargere 
ambiguas, is a base game, and is sure to re-act in the end, upon those who 
indulge in it. If the Journal could only find its way into the hands of those 
who haye thus been improperly prejudiced, the Editor would rely with satis- 
fuction upon the tesult. v4 
’ These yarious unfavorable circumstances, which have, more or less, been 
brought to bear against the circulation of this Journal in some parts of the 
United States, have made it imperative upon the Editor to endeavour to un- 
deceive the public, where it is necessary, and to plice the Journal upon a 
_ substantial foundation. it is for these reasons, se: not from the habit of in- 
foes guile! ngin boasting, that the Editor yields to the advice of some of his friends ; 


oa) 


d to favour the interests of his Journal, does a violence to his own taste, 


yeriod, has proved to him, that active exertions are necessary to secure eyen ~ 


x 


by publishing the following recommendations, which form only a part of 
a very numerous selection. He trusts that these unsolicited evidences of 
his competency for the task he has undertaken, will have a tendency to un- 
deceive those, who, not knowing him, hive been induced to listen to the per- 
sons who are interested in injuring the success,of his Journal. 

Until further notice, the publication and distribution of this Journal, will be 
superintended by the Editor, to whom correspondents will please, in future, 
address all their communications. 


The publication of the second volume will commence on the first of July 


next. Ithas been found necessary to enlarge it. It will contain at least 100 


more pages, with additional plates and illustrations. The price to subscribers — 


will be five dollars, payable in advance. 3 
: G. W. FEATHERSTONHAUGH. 


Philadelphia, May 20, 1832. 


COMMUNICATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE GEOLOGI- 
CAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AND OTHER NATURALISTS. 
London, June 18, 1831. 


My Dear Si1r,—We, your undersigned friends in England, are happy to 
learn that you propose to establish a new periodical work in the United 
States, which, in embracing all subjects connected with the natural history 
of America, is to be specially devoted to the accumulation of geological 
facts and phenomena. i ° 

Knowing your zeal and ability, we have great hopes that a work so directed, 


will meet with every encouragement in your country, and we are certain that 


it cannot but be of service to the cause of science in general. 
We shall at all times be desirous of aiding you with any communications 
in our power, and we subscribe ourselves, 
i A Yours very faithfully, 
Ropenicx Impex Muncuison, President of ihe Geological So- 
ciety of London. 
Davies Gitnert, Vice President Royal Society. 
W.D. Conypeanr, F.R.S. F. G. S. &e. 
A. Sepcrwick, F.R. S. F. G. S. &e. Fellow of Trinity Col- 
i lege, Cambridge. , : fp 
Wm. Bucxrayn, D. D.’F. R. S. &e. &c. Christ Chucrh Col- 
lege, Oxford. 


GeoncE Bettas Greenoucn, F, R. S. &e. &e. x > 


Cuartes Sroxss, F.R.S. &e. Ke. ee fi 


P. S.—I cannot refrain in particular on my own part, from expressing the 
desire which I feel for the appearance of the proposed publication, as likely 
to conduce, in the most important points, to the effective progress of geology ; 
to ascertain in detail the suite of formations, and the series of organic re- 
mains distinguishing them in a new continent, so widely separated from the 
old, and embracing such a range of various climate : so to compare the phe- 
nomena with those of Europe, has ever appeared to me the most, material 
desideratum in geology ; for we may be sure that any analogies which are 
common to localities geographically so distant, and placed under physical 
conditions so distinct, are, m truth, analogies belonging generally to the 
whole globe; and thus we shall obtain data adequate for the foundation of a 
general geological theory. 

Well acquainted with the attention you have paid to the formations on this 
side the Atlantic, I am convinced that the execution of this task, cannot fall 

“into more competent hands. W. D. Conysrare. 


To G. W. Fearaenstonuavaen, Esq. 
Philadelphia. a 


5 


3 y re Sar } fe 
am te dtp (3) G32 , 110 


" 
a b Moa ah £ eb are ns 4 


——— 


WEE 
a IN 


THE 


MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL © 
GEOLOGY 
AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vou. I. Puitapevruia, May, 1832. No. 11. 


ON MINERAL AND METALLIC VEINS. 


Iv fulfilment of the promise made in our March number, we 
proceed to the investigation of this very curious branch of ge- 
ology. Our readers will soon perceive the importance of a 
knowledge of it, in a country possessing such vast metallic re- 
sources as North America, where indications of them are ap- 
pearing in such various quarters, and at a period when the ideas 
entertained respecting their extent and origin are still undefined 
and obscure, except with those few persons who have made a 
particular study of the subject. i 

It is a very admirable proof of benevolent intentions on the 
part of the Creator, that iron, without the use of which man 
could scarcely have achieved his own civilization, is the most 
abundant of all the metals, and is found, more or less, in all the 
rocks. Copper and lead are sometimes abundantly found in the 
strata adjacent to the coal beds, [tabular view, page 388,] but 
the metals have their principal seat in the primary rocks. They 
are found disseminated either in extensive masses, or in veins 
which traverse mineral masses. 

In our paper on the Crust of the Earth, page 289, we spoke of 
the expansive power by which it was continually agitated, the 
disturbed state of the lower stratified rocks, and the numerous 
displacements which constitute so many ancient geological pe- 
riods. Such a power could not be in operation, without producing 
extensive fissures, of a character analogous to that we find pre- 
sented by the numerous veins which traverse the lower parts of 
the crust of the earth. This has been the probable origin of all 

Vor. 1—61 481 


482 On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 


important veins, and it can lead to no injurious consequences, if, 
with the exception of a few cases of contraction and consequent 
separation of masses, we admit this origin. It would not be 
equally safe, if, considering veins to be ancient fissures, we were 
to come, with some geologists, to the conclusion, that all those 
containing metallic matter, have been filled by injection from 
below, when the fissures were produced. This would be to im- 
pede the progress of knowledge, since we can suppose other 
modes by which metallic substances can be produced in veins. 
If all veins had their origin from below, miners might form cal- 
culations upon penetrating to depths, the which, if they could 
be reached, would perhaps be delusive, whilst the effort would 
be ruinous. That many metallic deposits have come from be- 
low, is perhaps demonstrable; whilst it is equally demonstrable, 
that metals are formed by other processes, analogous to those 
upon which the formation of saline crystals depends. Mines 
which have been closed, on account of inundation, for two cen- 
turies, have, on re-opening, exhibited the curious spectacle of 
native silver coating the wooden supports which had been left 
there. If metals, then, grow, as it were, under our own eyes, we . 
cannot limit the extent to which nature may be productive, when 
we reflect that the periods of time which preceded human know- 
ledge are immeasurable, and during which, her processes were 
always ip action. It is perhaps, then, more reasonable to sup- 
pose, that the mineral and metallic contents of veins and cavi- 
ties have been brought into their places by the agency of more 
than one cause. 

Veins may have either mineral or metallic matter, or both, in 
them. They are found vertical, inclined, horizontal ; often run- 
ning in parallel courses, as if they had a cotemporaneous origin, 
and intersecting each other in such various ways, as to leave no 
doubt, that many of the intersected ones have been formed prior 
to those by which they are intersected. It is upon this last fact 
an opinion has been founded, that metals are of different ages. 
The principal veins in the English mines run nearly east and 
west. This is especially the case with the tin veins, or lodes, 
in Cornwall, as well as the lodes containing copper. The veins 
which run nearly north and south, are not as metalliferous as 
the others, which are intersected by them. Many of these, 
called flucan in Cornwall, are filled with clay. Clay is some- 


On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 483 


times found in the copper veins, and as other metallic veins 
which deviate from the E. and W. course, contain increasing 
quantities of clay, and the flucan veins which run N. and §. are 
filled with clay, an opinion has obtained with many, that tin and 
_ copper are older metals than the rest, and that tin, for these 
reasons, and on account of its being found in granite, is the oldest 
of all the metals. If this priority of age in metals were true, it 
would be a fair subject for adventure in countries where tin has 
not yet been found—and that is the case in the U. 8S.—to work 
through a bad copper mine in order to convert it into a good tin 
one. With our present information, we do not see any positive 
proofs of priority of age in metals, especially from their presence 
in particular formations. When a vein is continuous through 
primary and secondary rocks, it is evident that these last had 
been deposited before the vein had penetrated the first. It is 
true, tin has not been found in secondary rocks; it is found, 
however, in slate, and therefore the circumstance of its being 
found in granite is not to be adduced as a proof of its priority 
of age; for the cases of its limitation to the granite may be ac- 
counted for, by supposing that the power which produced the 
fissure, only operated upon the granite. If metallic veins, in their 
origin, are analogous to trap dykes, or veins, then we see no limita- 
tion to the extent of tin veins, but in the nature of the sf Hihyf- 
cnet power which produced them, and in the absence of se- 
condary rocks, to be affected by it. In the case of the great Cleve- 
land dyke, we find the trap penetrating even through the coal 
beds ; but tin, we believe, has not yet been found in rocks actually 
subjacent to the secondary rocks. We think this a sufficient 
reason why tin is usually found limited to granite and slate. 
Pleased as we always are at seeing a new direction given 
to inquiries of this nature, yet we have thought that super- 
fluous pains have been taken by European writers, to turn 
opinions from the igneous origin of metallic veins. The ancient 
Wernerian notion, that minerals and metals settled into fis- 
sures, from aqueous solution, has no friends among enlightened 
geologists of the present day: how their contents got exclusively 
into fissures, at great distances from each other, haying a very 
irregular inclination, sometimes extremely dilated, then con- 
tracted into a very small space, and afterwards dilated again, 
resembling a number of blown bladders, connected by a long 


484 On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 


wire; how they became alternately barren and productive, and 
why their contents are always found in these fissures, and never 
on the general surface, where, under such an origin we might 
have expected to find them, no man has yet ventured to say. 

As to the theory of the igneous origin of the contents of many 
metallic veins, we see much to recommend in it, and we should 
have been surprised at the assertion of Mr. McCulloch, in his 
late work called a System of Geology,* that “ the argument from 
the analogy of trap and granite veins is one of those superficial 
resemblances, consisting in words, rather than ideas, which it is 
painful to find in the writings of those who have been philoso- 
phers in other things,” if we had not reason to suppose, from a 
rapid perusal we have now for the first time had an opportunity 
of giving that work, that the author was realiy and truly de- — 
mented, run a muck, we may say, and at war with good sense, 
decency, and honesty, when he wrote it. We shall take an early 
opportunity of making good what we say.—That the contents 
of veins have been brought into their places by the agency of 
more than one cause, is very probable; but we know of no 
agency that recommends itself so plausibly as that of the igneous 
theory, for the origin of all compact metallic masses. We refer 
for striking instances of this, to the compact iron ore of Danne- 
mora, in Sweden, which is one hundred and eighty feet thick, 
and to those extraordinary, and hitherto little known masses"of 
crystalline iron, found in immense fissures, in the primary rocks 
of Franklin county, New York, and in some parts of New 
Jersey, all of which clearly indicate a subterranean and igneous 
origin. If masses of pure metallic iron can be thus produced 
from below, we know not why metals should not be brought, in 
like manner, into smaller fissures, or veins. Gold and silver are 
occasionally found in porphyry and sienite, which are volcanic 
rocks. Native copper is found in trap and porphyry. Lead 
and zinc have also been found init. The elvan courses of Corn- 
wall are porphyritic felspar, in which tin is diffused. It is true 
that earthy minerals are sometimes found associated with me- 
tallic masses having this origin; but infiltration takes place in 
all rocks, and especially in vesicular traps and amygdaloids. 
Those botroidal chalcedonies found in the copper lodes of Corn- 
wall, are the produce of infiltration, from silicum in solution. 


Vol. I. p. 391. 


On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 485 


Quartz also, in many instances; and we can witness the growth 
of calcareous spar as it gradually accretes from the roofs of cal- 
careous caverns. We cannot imitate the forms, it is true, of 
many of the crystallized substances from mineral solutions ; but 
it is because we are unable to conduct experiments which, per- 
haps, require thousands of ages of uninterrupted process. 

It may be considered as giving weight to the igneous theory, 
that with few exceptions, the metals are found in the inferior 
rocks. In the immense deposits that lie above the coal beds 
we find, with the exception of ores of iron and a little copper 
slate, no segregation of metals into veins or masses resembling those 
in the inferior rocks. We find oxydes of iron in indurated masses, 
and in the state of bog ore, but these are clearly a rifaccimento 
from metals produced originally from the more ancient beds. 

Perhaps, also, it is not true that all the metallic substances 
which have been brought into fissures from below, have arrived 
there in a molten state. Many of the substances found in them 
are capable of solution in hydrogen gas. Silver will deposit it- 
self on substances suspended from the roofs of mines. Acicular 
crystals of lead are often found adhering to the walls of mines 
that have been closed a long time. The formation of saline 
matter on walls, and the spontaneous production of nitre on 
limestone, show that we are not yet acquainted with the princi- 
ples upon which this branch of crystallization depends. We had 
occasion personally to observe, whilst on a visit to Mount St. 
Michael’s in Cornwall, that on the sides of some masses of granite 
that had been separated from the rock for'a great period of time, 
but which had evidently never been the wall of a fissure or vein, 
that amidst a profusion of small crystals of quartz, several hun- 
dreds of small white topazes were apparently forming. We 
were struck with the circumstance, and Sir John St. Aubyn 
kindly permitted us to bring some specimens away, together with 
any mineral substances we thought worthy our attention. The 
rocks there contain very curious minerals, but they are all con- 
tained, as the fine blue crystals of apatite are, in small veins. 
The topazes, on the contrary, were spread indiscriminately over 
the surface of immense fragments of granite, anciently separated 
from the mountain mass. 

It would also appear as if some crystallized substances are the 
effect of a chemico-electric action between the wall, to which 


486 On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 


they are attached, and the atmosphere, which standing in the 
relation of galvanic plates, decompose and re-compound the 
gaseous bodies which surround them. When glass is interposed , 
between the wall and the atmosphere, the production of salt 
soon ceases. We cannot say that salt is suspended in the at- 
' mosphere, for dry frosty weather is favourable to the quick 
production of nitre. When a wall is coated with paint, crystalli- 
zation still forms upon the paint. 

Amidst the curious phenomena which metalliferous and other 
veins present, is the fact that their contents are modified on en~ 
tering a different rock. The walls of veins change also with 
the change of beds. At Welhope, the walls are sulphate of 
barytes in passing through the sandstone, but on entering the 
limestone, they change to carbonate of barytes in balls, with a 
radiated diverging structure. It has been observed also that 
when mineral beds of a different character are so shifted that 
their faces are opposed to each other, that part of the veins is 
impoverished. This could hardly be, under the Werne- 
rian theory, and may be more plausibly attributed to electric 
action. Veins usually have a sheath or case diffe:ing from the 
rocks they intersect. This mineral matter is sometimes mixed 
up with the metal contained in the vein; the sheath or case is 
called the walls of the vein, or gangue, or matrix. It is gener- 
ally of a slaty structure, and in cases of igneous origin, may 
have been produced by cooling; the metal concentrating by 
affinity, and the slaty mineral remaining at the sides. At Cas- 
tleton in Derbyshire, the vein of fluor spar, has a wall of cawk, 
‘ or sulphate of barytes; the vein dilates into cavities, and again 
contracts into a small space, containing nothing but the cawk, 
which serves as a clue to the miner to conduct him to another 
repository of the fluor spar.. Blende, a sulphuret of zinc, is oc- 
casionally abundant in Cornwall, in the upper part of veins that, 
lower down, become rich in copper. ‘Tin also is found near the 
surface, with rich copper lying below. But in the mine of 
Cook’s kitchen, after working first through tin, and then through 
copper to the depth of eleven hundred feet, tin is again found, 
and is still worked there to the depth of near thirteen hundred 
feet. The same vein at Dalcoath mine is sometimes contracted 
to six inches, and sometimes spread out to forty feet. . 

Trusting that we have said enough to draw the attention of 


On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 487 


our readers to this interesting branch of geology, we must refer 
them to scientific works for further details, having a great deal 
to suggest on the direction of veins, and their intersection and 
consequent shifting, as well as to illustrate them under these cir- 
cumstances, as they present themselves to miners, by some figures. 

As a system of veins maintaining a general parallelism, is of- 
ten intersected by another set apparently belonging to another 
system, it is to be inferred that the veins thus intersected and 
divided, preceded those which intersect them, as to time. It is 
also to be observed, that mineral veins are all either vertical or 
highly inclined, and that their lowest portions are generally 
the thickest; it is true that some appear to be horizontal, a 
fact which appears opposed to the inference that their source is 
from below, and which has induced many, who perceived the 
impossibility of their being produced by aqueous deposits, to sup- 
pose that they were all the results of crystallization. Hori- 
zontal veins, however, have, in such numerous cases, been dis- 
covered to be mere ramifications of larger ones that are either 
vertical or highly inclined, that those whose horizontal direction 
cannot be traced to them, may nevertheless be referred for their 
origin to an inferior source; and there can be no reasonable 
doubt that it would be found to be so, if their roots could be 
laid bare, which in many cases can only be by deep excavations ; 

and the deeper we go, the less we find of this horizontality. 

We shall stop to illustrate this subject by referring our rea- 
ders to fig. 1, of plate xiii. where there is a very instructive 
view of a system of trap veins intruding into sandstone, on the 
east coast of Trotternish in the Isle of Sky in Scotland. Trap, it 
is true, occurs in such vast masses, and forms occasionally rocky 
districts of such great extent, that it may be thought by some 
not to be a proper subject for the illustration of what are strictly 
mineral veins. The consideration of trap rocks, it is true, be- 
longs to a different branch of the subject, but we consider that 
no truth is more universally acknowledged in geology, than that 
volcanic lavas, ancient traps, with other intrusive rocks, and 
many of the veins of which we are now treating, are all the re- 
sult of the expansive power which is eternally striving in the 
central parts of the earth, and that the phenomena of mineral 
veins may be truly illustrated by trap veins. 

In this interesting section of Trotternish, which is taken from 


488 On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 


McCulloch’s Western Islands, it will be observed, that the hori- 
zontal trap veins répresent the handle and triple prongs of a 
fork; and that if all that part of the section to the left, from 
where the handle is joined to the prongs, had been disintegrated 
and worn away in the lapse of time, leaving the part to the 
right representing the prongs; or if the same part of the section 
had been so covered up with other mineral matter, as to defy. 
examination, the part exposed would have constituted a very 
puzzling case of horizontal trap veins; but we can here trace 
the prongs to the handle, and the handle to a huge vertical 
dyke of trap that has its undoubted origin from below: there 
is also a smaller vertical shaft rising in the handle, and three 
ramifications which the handle appears to have given out. 
Figure 2, plate xiii. is a section of Loch Eyshort, also in the 
Isle of Sky. Here the trap, for a great extent, like the palisa- 
does on the Hudson river, the rocks near New Haven, and those 
at the Passaic in New Jersey, spreads in extensive masses over 
the surface of the ground; and according to the old Wernerian 
opinions, was deposited from aqueous solutions. In this section, 
however, we haye a satisfactory view of the origin of this trap, 
which every locality does not give; for we see the roots of the 
trap, and have no room left for doubt that its origin is from be- 
low. Fig. 3, plate xiii. is another instructive section, represent- 
ing the intrusion of a vein. Here we perceive how the expan- 
sive force from below, has raised the strata on each side; and 
how the fissure or vein which divides the two masses, contains 
various fragments of them, embedded near its edges. ‘These 
jets of trap which have been thrown up from below, have ob- 
tained the name of dykes in England, and are, in some instances, 
remarkable for their great extent, and for the number of beds 
which they intersect. The celebrated Cleveland Dyke, of which 
we have spoken at page 343, (see April No.) extends about a hun- 
dred miles in the northern counties of England. At Preston 
quarry on the Tees, it comes up through the new red sandstone; 
. at a quarry at Langburgh it cuts through the Lias, and at Bo- 
lam quarry, it not only comes up through the coal measures, 
but overflows the surface, as is represented by fig. 4, plate xiii. 
‘We have shown, at page 311, the perfect agreement between 
the mineral constituents of modern lava, trap, and greenstone,. 
one of the primary rocks; with such a strong indication of their 


On Mineral and Metallic Veins. 489 


common origin, we need not be surprised at finding any of the 
primary rocks in the character of intrusive rocks, among those 
which lie above them in the geological series. Granite, fre- 
quently occurs intrusively. Masses of granite are often found 
intersected by veins of granite differing from them somewhat in 
their constituent parts. Gneiss and the slates lying above it are 
in like manner intersected by veins of granite. Figures 5 and 6, 
plate xiii. represent the granite traversing gneiss in the Vallée 
de Vallorsine in Switzerland. In various parts of the world 
streams of lava have been poured out from beneath the granite ; 
the ancient volcanoes of Central France rest upon a granite 
plain sixteen hundred feet above the level of the river Allier, 
and their lavas, which have flowed since the valleys were formed 
into which they have run, pass into the state of compact basalt. 
Among other proofs of a common origin for all these intrusive 
rocks, whether lavas or traps, is that shown by Mr. McCulloch 
of a trap vein traversing granite, in the Isle of Arran, as de- 
scribed in fig. 7, plate xiii. 

Where an evident displacement of rocks is observable, it 
generally occurs that some evidence of the cause is not very far 
off. In fig. 3, we see the strata displaced and raised, and infer 
that the displacement has been occasioned by an expansive 
subterranean force, of which the dividing trap vein is the evi- 
dence, the fissure in which it is contained being a sort of safety 
valve. At fig. 8, plate xiii: we have another instance of this 
subterranean force. ‘The striped laminz of the gneiss rock, and 
their continuation interrupted, that part lying to the left being 
raised above the part to the right. The fissure occasioned by 
this displacement, or shifting, is, in this instance, filled with a vein 
of granite. ‘This occurs in Coll, one of the western islands. Fig 
9, from Fudia, is still more instructive : the laminz of the gneiss 
are here shifted as in fig. 8. A vein of granite which had in- 
tersected the gneiss, appears to have been in its turn shifted, by 
the subsequent intersection of a vein of quartz. On the other 
side of this mass of gneiss, another vein of granite intersects it, 
and is in its turn intersected by a vein of trap. From all these 
appearances, we may suppose that the veins of granite, and 
perhaps the trap vein, had penetrated the gneiss, perhaps before 
it had taken its indurated state, and that, at some epoch after 
every thing had become hard, the shifting took place, and the 

Vor. I.—62 


490 On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, &c. 


vein of quartz filled the fissure occasioned by it. It is by apply- 
ing reasoning of this kind to veniferous rocks, that we come at 
length to apprehend clearly that there are many systems of 
veins, and that some are posterior to others. 

This branch of geology may become of the greatest importance 
in mining operations, and practical miners have always, more or 
less, been guided by the indications belonging to it. All the 
valuable metals with which we are acquainted, are connected 
with rocks having veniferous systems: gold and silver may be 
said to be uniformly contained within veins, or enlarged masses 
which derive their origin from below. It will probably become 
the general opinion ere long, that metalliferous masses have the 
same origin; and although bog ore of iron, and many other de- 
posits of iron ore, may be considered as oxides more or less in- 
durated, and brought into their present places by aqueous de- 
posit, yet they are oxides from masses which hada subterranean 
origin. There are many ancient ferruginous sand formations, 
which were once, no doubt, in the state of recent bog ore, just 
as many conglomerates were once in the state of gravel. 

We intend to resume this subject when we give an account 
of the gold region in the southern states. The phenomena we 
have been treating of will be applicable to the appearances 
which miners there are now becoming familiar with. 


ON THE MODUS OPERANDI OF PHOSPHORUS ON THE 
LIVING SYSTEM 


By J. R. Coxz, M. D. Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 


Dear Sir—The perusal of an interesting paper in your Journal 
for March, by Dr. Harlan, of “ Experiments with Phosphorus on 
a Cat,” has induced me to offer you some observations respecting 
the modus operandi of phosphorus, on the living system; and 
which, should you deem them deserving of notice, are altogether 
at your disposal. They are, to a certain extent, the outlines of 
my lectures on this subject, which I have, for the last three or 
four years, delivered to my class. I think the total insufficiency 
of the explanations hitherto given of the action of this extraor- 
dinary substance, both as a remedial and as a noxious agent, 
has been a principal cause of its depreciation, by rendering 


On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, &c. 491 


practitioners fearful of its employment; when, if that action be 
fully comprehended, it will probably be found to be one of the 
most powerful and most prompt of all our stimulating remedies. 

Without supposing the ideas I shall advance upon this subject 
are entirely correct, or even absolutely novel; I nevertheless 
consider them deserving of attention ; since, if properly matured 
by the experience of others, they will unquestionably present to 
the hand of the physician, one of the most energetic remedies 
that has ever been employed. 

1 commence my remarks, by denying in toto, the poisonous 
properties that have been ascribed to phosphorus, by every wri- 
ter on the subject, whether given on his own, or the authority 
of others. It is probably sufficiently known, that it has been 
chiefly administered as a powerful stimulant or tonic, by those 
physicians who have employed it, in certain chronic diseases ; 
epilepsy, palsy, chorea, &c. and in various adynamic and ataxic 
fevers. The danger of its administration has been properly 
dwelt upon; and various supposed improved formulz have been 
proposed, for its safer internal use ; and yet, none of these circum- 
stances appear to have led to a proper appreciation of its modus 
operandi, or of what is demanded, to render it safe and efficacious. 

Not intending this as a medical communication, in its strict 
and proper acceptation, I shall say nothing of the diseases in 
which it has been recommended and employed: nor shall I med- 
dle with its chemical history, further than is requisite to render 
intelligible and probable, that theory of its operation, which, to 
me, appears the only one capable of being sustained, both by ar- 
gument and fact. 

It is well known that phosphorus is considered as a simple 
body. ‘To us, it is so, since it has never been decomposed. If 
this is so far correct, we have the analogy of almost every other 
so called simple body, of its being, like them, inactive and inope- 
rative; until, by the chemical affinities existing between it and 
other agents, a change ensues in its character, which gives it a 
dangerous and destructive power, that it was not previously pos- 
sessed of. ' 

The co-operation of two other agents is essentially requisite 
to produce this change ; neither, singly, is sufficient; nor even 
both united, unless favoured by existing circumstances. These 
agents are caloric and oxygen. Caloric alone, will fuse or melt 

Vor. I.—63 


492 On the Modus Operandi of Phospherus, &c. 


the phosphorus, but effectuates no change of property: and oxy- 
gen, at a temperature less than 50°, scarcely evinces any dispo- 
sition to combine with it. Thus, phosphorus may be melted wader 
water, at about the 120th degree of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, 
and in that state and situation may be safely handled, because 
the accession of oxygen is prevented ; but should the hand that 
held it, be raised above the surface of the water, at that tem- 
perature, each one knows what would instantly ensue ; a rapid 
- and vivid combustion, together with the contemporaneous for- 
mation of phosphoric acid. 

Here, then, we perceive the train of events that gives to phos- 
phorus, both its remedial, and its noxious character. Chemical 
in its action altogether, it depends on the accession of com- 
bustion, to give it activity. This combustion is, however, of a 
twofold description ; one slow and feeble, with but slight disen- 
gagement of caloric and light, and productive of phosphorows acid; 
the other is rapid, as above mentioned, and phosphoric acid is the 
result therefrom. In the former case, a lambent, phosphorescent 
flame, may be presumed to stimulate the living fibres, without 
destroying them. In the latter, whether on the surface of the 
body, or in the cavity of the stomach, a burn of no trifling .cha- 
racter ensues; for it is augmented in its violence, by the affu- 
sion or infiltration of the acid formed. The extent of the lesion 
will depend, of course, on the amount of the respective agents 
in their combination; but it must, whether large or small, be 
greatly modified from its character of a common burn, by the 
presence of the powerful acid produced by the combustion; 
which cannot but give it a different character, from that pro- 
duced by caloric alone. As the extent of injury will therefore 
depend greatly on the amount of phosphorus inflamed, and of 
acid produced thereby, so that amount must also depend on the 
temperature, and on the quantum of oxygen present. The ani- 
mal temperature being that of 98°, may be presumed to be 
partially augmented, by the motion of the stomach; and if com- 
bustion once ensues, it must unavoidably continue until the 
oxygen is fully expended. But, however small the burn, can 
this exquisitely sensible organ be wounded in the slightest degree, 
without deeply feeling its influence, and extending that influence 
to every part, through the agency of its numerous nervous fibril- 
le? And wiil not that be greatly augmented by the irritation 


On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, &c. 493 


of the acid formed? No poison, however, exists: every symp- 
tom, and the circumstances of the death ensuing, together with 
the post mortem appearances, all more obviously indicate the re- 
sult of fire, than of any substance to which the appellation of 
poison can be strictly given. 

If, then, when given as a medicine, how does it act? Un- 
questionably in a similar manner, although inferior in degree. 
The amount is small; the division of the phosphorus itself so 
minute, that it may, by its diffusion over the whole interior of 
the stomach, instead of being concentrated in one spot, be con- 
ceived of, as acting the part of a mild but extensive rubifacient, 
and thereby promoting that beneficial influence, that we might 
reasonably anticipate, from an appropriate and judicious admin- 
istration. ‘That it has occasionally proved fatal, even in small 
doses, cannot be denied: but without a full knowledge of exist- 
ing circumstances, we must be unable to afford an explanation 
of the fact. If in a solid form, although small in amount, it 
might have ignited, and have produced all the effects resulting 
from a burn. Gastritis, and its results, increased by the acid 
formed, would probably be excited; whilst the more obvious 
effects of fire could only be appreciated, by a larger amount. 

Let us advert now, to the case recorded by Dr. Harlan. 
Eleven grains were given to a cat at 10 A. M. of Tuesday, 
which seem to have caused but trifling uneasiness for several 
hours: nor did death ensue until Friday at one o’clock, or more 
than three days after its administration. 'The mucous coat of 
the stomach was generally inflamed, particularly about the great 
curvature, and pyloric portion, which displayed nwmerous holes, 
or abrasions, some of them much larger than the pieces of phos- 
phorus swallowed. ‘'T'wo or three spots were sphacelated, the 
mucous coat near the pylorus softened in its structure, and this 
coat was also highly inflamed, and preternaturally softened 
throughout the duodenum ; the same appearances extended the 
whole length of the intestinal canal. No remains of the phos- 
phorus were found, the doctor supposing it to have been dissolved 
by the gastric juice ; but which, I think, can scarcely have been 
the case, since Orfila found it to be insoluble in albumen, gela- 
tine, milk, or bile, at the common ordinary temperature. 

The above results, are the primary effects of the phosphorus 
on the stomach and intestines ; the symptoms subsequently en- 


494 On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, §c. 


suing, were of a secondary character, arising out of the gastric 
and intestinal injury, and need not be pursued at present; since 
they are not to be anticipated from the prudent and judicious 
employment of the article, when administered as a remedy. 

The experiments of Orfila, related in the first volume of his 
Toxicology, very nearly agree in their results, with those of the 
experiments described by Dr. Harlan. I shall notice but one or 
two of them, previously remarking, that Orfila appears to ascribe 
the injury of the stomach, rather to the acid formed, than to the 
preceding combustion: for he says, that “it gives rise to these 
symptoms, by combining with the oxygen of the air contained in 
the alimentary canal, and gives birth to phosphorous, and _pro- 
bably to phosphoric acid, in such manner, that the corrosion depends 
upon the action of these acids ;” and that “ whenever it is introduced 
in cylinders, phosphorous acid is constantly formed, which cor- 
rodes the portions of the membranes with which it comes in contact ; 
and that hence, the inflammation ought to be greatest, where the 
greatest possible quantity of phosphorous acid is formed ;” that 
is, in the stomach and superior intestines, where the greatest 
amount of oxygen exists. 

That he should ascribe so much to the acid, surprises me; 
seeing, that when speaking of the action of phosphoric acid 
itself (p. 369) upon the animal economy, he tells us, that when 
a few grains of phosphoric acid, dissolved in a very small quantity 
of water, are injected into the veins, the blood becomes coagu- 
lated, and the animal dies in the course of one or two minutes ; 
but that if the acid be weakened, it does not produce any incon- 
venience: and that introduced into the stomach, it destroys life 
at the end of a variable space of time, according to its concentra- 
tion and dose. In the experiment connected with this, he accord- 
ingly gave to a small dog, thirty grains of phosphoric acid, in a 
drachm of water; which, after some considerable suffering, 
caused his death, but not until after twenty-three hours. On 
dissection, the mucous membrane of the stomach, and the inte- 
rior of the duodenum, were found of a deep red. It does not, how- 
ever, appear, that any evidence existed of the destruction of those 
coats, as he invariably found, on giving the phosphorus itself. 
Now, if thirty grains of acid produced results so slow, and com- 
paratively trifling, it is unreasonable to suppose, that the amount 
of acid from one or two grains of phosphorus taken, could be 


On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, &c. 495 


productive of the fatal issue, sometimes following its adminis- 
tration. : 

In one of his experiments, he gave a small dog, one hundred 
and forty grains of phosphorus, divided into fourteen small cylin- 
ders; the animal having eaten nothing for thirty hours. He 
seems not to have suffered very greatly, and did not die until 
after twenty-one hours. . 

On dissection, the mucous membrane of the stomach was 
strongly inflamed, and covered with a stringy and flaky matter, 
easily detached. The muscular coat was of a bright red through 
a part of its extent. ‘The mucous membrane of the duodenum, 
jejunum, and first half of the ileon, of a purple red colour, and 
covered by a thick fluid as black as ink. No phosphorus ap- 
peared in any of the parts above named; but the lower half of 
the ileon exhibited ten nodes at variable distances, containing ten 
cylinders of phosphorus of a reddish colour, and ninety-four grains 
in weight ;—diffusing a tolerably copious smoke on opening the 
intestine: the mucous membrane corresponding to the places 
where they were found, were much less red than the parts already 
passed through. Three other nodes were found at the inferior 
portion of the colon, containing three small cylinders weighing 
twenty-six grains, and the muscular membrane here was still 
less red than of the ileon; the fourteenth cylinder was found 
in the rectum, weighing seven grains, and the internal coats 
were in a natural state. Thirteen grains then, of phosphorus, of 
one hundred and forty grains, had been removed, or disappeared, 
which is about the eleventh part; in which we find a curious 
coincidence with the experiment of Dr. Harlan. Of eleven 
grains, employed by him, the whole had disappeared, and inflam- 
mation extended even further than in the experiments of Orfila ; 
we may reasonably suppose, therefore, that had more been 
given, at least two grains more might have disappeared; which 
being the amount that Orfila mentions as lost in his case, may 
possibly give us, pretty nearly, the quantum that, under common 
circumstances, might be converted into phosphorous, or phospho- 
ric acid, by the oxygen it might meet with. Now, if this be the 
case, it would require but a little calculation to enable any one 
to previously decompose or drive out the atmospheric oxygen 
from the stomach and intestines; and then, thirteen or one 
hundred and thirty grains might be swallowed with impunity. 


496 On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, §c. 


It is only the first step that is hazardous, ce n’est que le premier pas 
qui coute. 

In another experiment of Orfila, he gave a middling sized dog 
one drachm of phosphorus, cut into eight pieces. He suffered 
but little, and did not die until the third day. He had fed 
heartily two hours before the phosphorus was administered. In 
this case, the mucous membrane of the stomach was of a purple red 
throughout; that of the duodenum and jejunum likewise exceedingly 
red ; and but little alteration in the other intestines. The cylin- 
ders of phosphorus, reduced in bulk, were found in the colon and 
rectum. In this case we obviously perceive the influence of a 
full stomach in restraining the action of the phosphorus upon 
its coats, especially as administered in the massive state. This 
is confirmed by a subsequent observation of Orfila, who tells us, 
that frequently the phosphorus had not acted on the texture of 
the stomach several hours after its ingestion. I gave, says he, to an 
animal a very great quantity of food, and immediately after, two 
drachms of phosphorus, cut into twenty small cylinders. At the 
expiration of eight hours, he had suffered no inconvenience. I 
opened him, and found the phosphorus enveloped in the food, the 
texture of the stomach exhibiting not the smallest trace of injury. 

Now, when much divided, it is more likely to come in eontact 
with the stomach, and produce injury, if oxygen is present. Thus 
when he gave twenty-four grains dissolved (quere, if completely 
so) in three drachms of olive oil, to a small but strong dog, ex- 
cessive suffering followed, even in one minute, and he died in 
horrible tortures in four hours and a half. The stomach was 
empty, perforated with three holes in its cardiac extremity. ‘Two 
of them as broad as a shilling, the other ten lines in diameter: 
the mucous membrane that was not thus perforated, was re- 
duced to a stringy pulp; and the muscular coat presented large 
ulcerations. 

The tenor of all the observations, both of Dr. Harlan and of 
Orfila, is conclusive, | apprehend, in negativing the idea of 
phosphorus acting as a poison. And they equally prove its in- 
noxious character, when oxygen is wanting to maintain its 
combustion, even at the temperature of nearly 100°. The 
safety of phosphoric acid is established (in proper amount) by 
the experiments of Orfila, as well as by its administration, per se, 
by many persons, remedially—And hence, the disastrous, as 


On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, &c. 497 


well as beneficial influence of phosphorus, must, 1 imagine, be 
explained on principles very different from those that have been 
usually adopted. 

Although Orfila has not remarked the influence of phosphorus 
on the urinary organs, yet it has been noticed by Dr. Harlan, 
and by other writers. It is probable, that as the kidneys are 
the common emunctory of saline matter from the system, that 
the phosphoric acid formed, is absorbed by the lacteals, and be- 
ing conveyed into the blood, is immediately secreted and carried 
off with the urine, stimulating, by its presence, the kidneys 
to increased action, and thus giving rise to its greater dis- 
charge. 

That Mr. Chaubert has any antidote to the poisonous influence 
of phosphorus, I cannot believe; because, I think I have suf- 
ficiently proved that it possesses no such character. If then, no 
mountebank slight of hand should actually deceive the senses, it 
would follow, that any measure adopted by him must be one that 
precludes the co-existence of those agencies in the stomach, to 
which I have adverted; and without which co-existence, phos- 
phorus is altogether harmless. Let us then try to point out a 
few particulars, by which such co-operation may be prevented : 
perhaps others may suggest themselves to my readers. 

1. By copiously filing the stomach with food, previously to 
swallowing the phosphorus, which is thereby enveloped ; and, 
at the same time, but a very minute portion of any oxygen pre- 
sent can come in contact with it—the chances, therefore, of 
even the lowest degree of combustion taking place, are very 
trifling; the phosphorus passing on, and is discharged, without 
coming in contact with the parietes of the viscera. 

2. By previously swallowing some carbonat of magnesia, or of 
potash, or soda; and washing down the phosphorus with some 
weak acidulated drink, as of sulphuric acid, or even acetic acid; 
which, coming in contact with the carbonat, produces an evolu- 
tion of carbonic acid gas, in which phosphorus cannot burn. It 
may indeed happen, that in the slow or rapid combustion that 
might ensue, the evolution, or formation of the phosphorous, or 
phosphoric acid, would supply the place of the before-mentioned 
acids—and acting on the carbonat, equally evolve the carbo- 
nic acid gas, by which the combustion might be suspended, and 
further danger prevented :—the compound formed, subserving 

Vor. I.-—63 


498 On the Modus Operandi of Phosphorus, §-c. 


the purpose of expediting the phosphorus and other contents 
through the alimentary canal. 

3. Even largely filling the stomach with simple water must 
be adequate to prevent combustion; for any oxygen present 
would seek the higher part of the cavity of this viscus, whilst 
the phosphorus would as certainly fall to the lower part. By 
this simple measure alone, of largely drinking, Mr. Le Roy pre- 
vented the injury he would have otherwise probably received 
from three grains of phosphorus, which he took at once. 

4. Phosphorus has the power of decomposing some metallic 
salts, as sulphat, or nitrat of copper, &c. and of causing a per- | 
fect precipitate of metallic copper to invest it, and hermetically 
seal it from the action of the air, if any should be present. If 
then, a weak solution of either of these salts, or perhaps 
of others, should be previously swallowed, and vomiting not 
produced thereby, the phosphorus would soon be invested with 
a sheathing of copper, altogether harmless to the stomach. 

Now, whether any of these, or similar measures be adopted, 
they will all be found to act by simply restraining, or preventing 
the agencies of chemical affinity ; but in no wise acting as an- 
tidotes, in the proper meaning of the word. It must be obvious 
to every one conversant with the laws of chemistry, that the 
danger of phosphorus on the animal economy, can alone be ob- 
viated by such measures as are capable of preventing those 
laws from taking place in the stomach. 

The best mode of administering phosphorus, as a remedial 
agent, must then, apparently, be that in which all hazard of a 
vivid combustion might be prevented, and yet the stimulating 
agency of caloric be extensively diffused in a small compass. 
This seems best accomplished by the ethereal solution of phos- 
phorus, of eight grains to the ounce, or one grain to the drachm. 
The dose of six to ten drops of this solution will thus convey into 
‘the stomach from the tenth to the sixth part of a grain of phos- 
phorus; to every part of which the ether evaporating, conveys 
an infinitely small proportion of this active substance, which, 
like a diffusible stimulant, or rvbefacient, is prompt in its effect, 
whilst it is free from danger. No actual combustion ensues; it 
rather resembles the genial warmth of a gentle flame; whilst 
the injurious effects of an absolute burn, accompanied necessarily 
with local destruction, is prevented; and the acid produced, 


Observations on the Anatomy of the Sloth. 499 


whether phosphorous or phosphoric, is probably, under such 
circumstances, itself a beneficial tonic to the system in all such 
cases as it may be judged proper to employ it. 

These views, if correct, may probably lead to the renewed 
employment of a remedy, which was at one time enthusiastically 
extolled, but soon fell into discredit. Its danger, under correct - 
views of its action, can scarcely be dreaded; and, at all events, 
it seems proper to establish the real character it ought to main- 
tain, which can only be effected by accurate and adequate ex- 
perience. And should these views even be found erroneous, 
they may possibly lead to others more correct, and which 
must necessarily subserve the interests of science and of hu- 
manity.—I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant 

Jouy Repman Coxr. 


OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANATOMY OF THE SLOTH ; 

; (Brapxrus tridactylus, Linn.) by R. Harzan, M. D. 
_ [ nave been indebted to the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, for the long desired opportunity of making a dis- 
section of this most curious animal. The specimen was preserved 
in spirits, and was sent along with many other interesting quad- 
rupeds, by Dr. Hering, from South America. The specimen is 
one of the common variety of the Bradypus tridactylus of Lin- 
neus, and proved to be pregnant with a foetus, nearly matured. 
For the knowledge which we already possess of the anatomy of 
this animal, we are principally indebted to the observations of 
Daubenton and Cuvier ;—my own dissection has resulted in the 
discovery of several additional facts, as well as the detection of 
some errors. 

As regards the habits of this animal, in a state of nature, the 
accounts of travellers are at variance with each other, and the 
subject still remains obscured in fable. The Sloth has generally 
been described as one of the most miserable, helpless, and de- 
jected of beings, the effect of a physical organization altogether 
extraordinary and imperfect. A recent English traveller, how- 
ever, Mr. Waterton, who has observed these animals in a state 
of nature, represents them as sufficiently active in their proper 

_element, on trees, and asserts that they pass from bough to bough, 
and from tree to tree, with a rapidity which soon enables them 


500 Observations on the Anatomy. of the Sloth. z 


to lose themselves in the depths of the forests. However this 
may be, there can exist little doubt but that most of the errors 
in the description of their habits, and the false inferences drawn 
from what appears at first view a vicious organization, are to 
be attributed to the erroneous notions which prevail, relative to 
the true position of this animal in the scheme of nature, and the 
part which it was intended to perform. 

Considered as a creature destined to pass nine tenths of its 
existence on the trees of the deep-foliaged and endless forests 
of the tropical climates, where it lives, breeds, moves, and has 
its being; we venture to assert, that no other animal is sq per- 
fectly adapted, by its peculiar organization, to such a mode of 
life. But, on the other hand, viewed as a quadruped, formed 
for progression on the ground, or on a flat surface, it must be 
confessed, that the construction of its osseous frame, presents us 
with an anomaly in nature unequalled ; an enigma insusceptible 
of solution; a machine, monstrous in all its proportions, without 
apparent form, utility or intention. But of such an anomaly, 
the whole creation does not furnish us with a single example to 
interrupt that series of animated beings, where so much beauty 
and order of arrangement are displayed, from the “ worm that 
revels in the dead man’s socket,” to the “ lord of the lion heart 
and eagle eye.” All are equally perfected, and wonderfully 
adapted to fulfil the purposes of their existence. 

To commence with the skeleton of the individual before us, it 
is necessary to premise, that though it was nearly full grown, all 
the parts are not completely ossified; hence it may be inferred, 
that such portions as are completely solid in this subject, will al- 
ways be found so in all adult individuals, and some other portions 
that are here cartilaginous, would have become ossified by age. 
Referring to Baron Cuvier’s description of the several skeletons 
of the Sloth which he has examined, it will be perceived that the 
same species differed among themselves in several important 
particulars. One of his specimens possessed 16 ribs, of which 7 
are false. Another, a younger subject, possessed 14 ribs, of 
which 5 are false: (vid. Ossem. Foss. vol. v. pt. I. p. 81.) Our 
specimen possesses 15 ribs, 6 of which are false. The Baron 
represents the Ai with 3 lumbar vertebra: ours possesses 4: the 
former has 11 caudal vertebra : the latter 10: the former 6 false 
vertebra of the sacrum: the latter 5 


t Observations on the Anatomy of the Sloth. 501 


These discrepancies will appear more evident, being placed 
in a tabular form. In the first column we have arranged Cu- 
vier’s adult specimen, in the second our own. 


Cuvier. 
Cervical vertebra 9 9 
Dorsal 15 16 
Lumbar 3 4 
Sacral 6 5 
Caudal 11 10 
45 43 


The transverse processes of the first caudal vertebra, are 
elongated, and flattened or depressed, and are united to the 
os ischium by cartilaginous suture, which tends very much to 
enlarge the capacity of the pelvis, the outlet of which is dispro- 
portionably large: the posterior, or sacral region, presents a 
very broad, nearly flat, and solid surface, for the pregnant ute- 
tus to rest upon, as well as to accommodate the enormous rec- 
tum, in the usual position of the animal ; that is, suspended from 
the lower surface of the limbs of trees, the back towards the 
earth: by this form of the pelvis, the cotyloid cavities, and con- 
sequently the thigh bones are widely separated, rendering an 
approximation of the knees difficult; an arrangement, which 
though exceedingly inconvenient to a quadruped walking on 
the ground, is, at the same time, an admirable structure for an 
animal always embracing a trunk, limb, or some foreign body, 
' between his thighs. The ossa pubis are separated more than an 
inch, by an intervening cartilage in the present instance, which 
was ossified in Cuvier’s specimen; whilst the sacro-ischiatic 
ligaments, uniting the sacrum to the ischium at the suture be- 
tween the tuber ischii and transverse processes of the first cau- 
dal vertebra, are already ossified. The sternum is composed 
of nine distinct pieces; its nine cartilages are all ossified, and 
united to the true ribs and sternum by cartilaginous suture: the 
ninth cervical vertebra supported at the extremity of the trans- 
verse process, an osseous rudiment of a rib, to which it is joined 
by cartilage: the unusually long neck of this animal, was ex- 
ceedingly flexible, particularly so in the anterior direction, form- 
ing very readily a complete circle, with the snout resting on the 
ninth vertebra. ‘This long and flexible neck, bending in every 


502 Observations on the Anatomy of the Sloth. 


direction, must’ offer considerable conveniences to an animal 
which feeds onthe leaves of trees in its immediate vicinity, and 
would also enable the animal to direct his visual organs to any 
position, without changing that of its body. 

But the most remarkable peculiarity in the skeleton of this 
species, and which alone distinguishes it from that of all others, 
and admirably adapts it for its characteristic mode of locomo- 
tion, is to be observed in the form, structure, and articulation 
of its posterior extremities. We have already alluded to the 
widely separated state of the thighs at the acetabulum, which 
enables it the more readily to embrace any foreign object; the 
knee-joint is large, strong, and flexible ; the femur is long, stout, 
and depressed, with a considerable concavity on its inner edge ; 
the bones of the legs are both convex externally, all admitting 
of the attachment of powerful muscles, and the joints, though 
supplied with firm ligaments, are unusually flexible. Baron 
Cuvier has already dwelt with great interest, on the very extra- 
ordinary and unique manner in which the foot is articulated 
with the tibia and fibula ; the astragalus, in addition to the pul- 
ley-like surface, by which it moves on the end of the tibia, pre- 
sents, on its exterior and upper surface, a deep conical pit, which 
receives a corresponding projecting bone of the inferior head of 
the fibula, admitting the greatest latitude of rotatory motion, 
together with the usual ginglymus motion of the ankle, at the 
same time rendering dislocation impossible; but the powerful 
lateral ligaments prevent lateral motion at this joint ; this, how- 
ever, is more than compensated, by the unusual degree of mo- 
tion existing between the calcis and astragalus, or rather of the 
latter on the former bone; producing a rocking motion from side 
to side, two distinct transverse pulley-like surfaces on the infe- 
rior aspect of the astragalus, being received into two correspond- 
ing cavities in the upper surface of the calcis, and to render the 
joint more secure, the anterior articulating surface of the astra- - 
galus, presents a deep conical pit which receives a pyramidal 
process, projecting from the usual articulating surface. of the 
cuboid bone: a complication of structure, attended with equally 
complicated motions, witnessed in no other quadruped, and ut- 
terly useless and inconvenient to an animal moving on a plane 
surface ; yet admirably adapted to the habits of the Sloth, as it 
enables the animal, in any position of the body, to apply the 


Observations on the Anatomy of the Stoth. - 503 


soles of its feet to the sides, or even opposite surface of the limb 
or trunk of the tree, on which it is climbing ; its long claws and 
powerful muscles harmonizing with this arrangement, enable 
this animal to remain thus suspended, for hours and days with- 
out fatigue, and even to sleep, in a position so awkward and 
painful to other animals. 

The organs of mastication, the peculiar construction of the 
shoulder, with many other interesting details, have been already 
fully commented upon by Cuvier, in his “ Ossemens fossiles :” in 
the present instance, the rudimentary clavicles and coraco- 
acromion pieces were cartilaginous. We have only further to 
remark, as entering into the composition of the knee joint, the 
existence of a large sesamoid bone at the exterior portion of the 
head of the fibula; and that, in two crania which we possess of 
this animal, all the canine teeth are worn on their posterior 
surfaces. 

The size of this species has been variously estimated, at from 
14 to 28 inches in length; the skeleton of our specimen is 22 
inches in a straight line from the tip of the snout to the ex- 
tremity of the tail. 

The following represent the measurements in detail :-— 

Inches. Tenths. — 


Length of the Head, = 2 6 
Neck, 4 6 

Body, 9 0 

Sacrum, 2 4 

Tail, 3 4 

22 00 


Length of the arm 7 inches 2 tenths: length of the fore arm 6 
inches: length of the hand, including the wrist, 5 inches: great- 
est circumference of the body 13 inches. 

The crowns of the molars appear peculiarly adapted to the 
mastication of leaves. The fetus in utero possessed the same 
number of teeth, similarly arranged, and with the exception of 
being more conical towards the crown, presented perfect 
miniatures of those of the adult animal; and from the state of 
their developement, no doubt can exist of the capacity of these 
animals to masticate from the period of their birth. The foetus 
was clothed with a profusion of hair, marked in every respect 


504 Observations on the Anatomy of the Sloth. 


like that of the adult; the eyes appeared to be perfectly deve- 
loped: compared with other animals, the foetus was unusually 
large; yet its protrusion is easily effected by means of the ex- 
tremely large outlet of the pelvis, and the peculiar structure of 
the generative organs. The uterus is musculo-membranous, and 
contains two distinct lobulated placenta, one on either side of 
the fundus, receiving an equal number of branches from the 
umbilical vessels. 

The reproductive organs of this animal are singularly anoma- 
lous. Vagina ab recto sejuncta est, ambo tamen uno ore aperi- 
ad untur, sphinctere communi circumdato; in ipso cujus introitu, 
inferiorem spiraculi partem apparent nymphe bene patefacte, 
et clitoris triangularis foliaceaque. Circiter mensuram uncie 
intra vaginam, meatus urinarius se aperit. Inter vaginam et 
os sacrum latum, rectum ingens positum est, impletum induratis 
feecibus, similibus excrementis ovis. 

The Sloths, then, have been erroneously represented as pos- 
sessing a cloaca like that of birds, inasmuch as there does not 
occur any mixture of the contents of the bladder and rectum, 
as is the case in true cloace. The vagina and rectum, or 
cloaca, are distinct from each other; there being no large in- 
testines, properly so called, the rectum performs the functions 
of the coecum. Although the animal is strictly phytivorous, the 
bowels resemble those of the carnivora, being small and short ; 
the inferior portions are somewhat succulated, like the colon ; 
but the faeces do not assume their characteristic form, until they 
have reached the rectum. The stomach consists of a large 
paunch, in no way furnished with compartments like that of the 
ruminantia, as is asserted by Buffon, who also errs in attributing 
ruminating faculties to these animals; but this organ presents a 
structure differing from that of any other animal with which we 
are familiar, being furnished with numerous long, conical cul- 
de-sacs, some of which are divided longitudinally into two com- 
partments; these, in the present instance, were filled with mas- 
ticated leaves, of a pulpy consistence. The liver is small, with- 
out a gall bladder, or any unusual enlargements of the ductus 
communis. ‘The kidneys are rather small and conglobate: the 
urinary bladder is very large. The heart was very small, and 
contracted by the spirits, as were all the blood vessels. The 
account given by Mr. Carlisle, of the peculiar distribution of the 


Observations on the Anatomy of the Sloth. 505 


humeral and femoral arteries in these animals, (vid. Philos. 
Trans. Lond. 1800,) had excited our curiosity, and prepared us 
for disappointment; for after the most careful examination of 
the arteries, we were unable to detect any resemblance to this 
rete mirabile structure, which was thought to explain the cause 
of the tardigrade movements of the Sloths; after considerable 
difficulty in distinguishing the nerves from the arteries, (the ac- 
tion of the spirits had rendered them similar in appearance,) we 
only succeeded in detecting and passing probes into the cavities 
of the humeral profundal, and the radial, ulnar, and interosseal 
branches at the elbow; but as the present specimen had been 
preserved in spirits, and Mr. Carlisle injected the arteries of his 
Specimen, we are not authorized to question the observations 
of so accurate an observer, from the results of a single dissection. 
We wish, however, to direct the attention of comparative anato- 
mists who may possess an opportunity, to a re-examination of 
this arterial arrangement. 

It will be apparent, from what we have said, that the term 
Tardigrade, derived from the extreme slowness of this animal, 
does not express its principal character; that the peculiar or- 
ganization of the Bradypus, and its prodigiously compressed and 
crooked nails, cause its locomotion upon the surface of the 
ground, to be very slow, is true; but if one animal existing un- 
der this negative condition, is to be called Tardigrade, we con- 
ceive that all animals under like restraint, and not belonging to 
the Edentata, may, with equal propriety, be put among the 
Tardigrades. 

The mud-fish of the genus Hydrargira of Lacepede, are often, 
by the retreat of the tide, left on the shore. These animals have 
the faculty of springing up'and changing their place; they will 
thus advance over a considerable space, until they gain the 
water, which is their proper element. In like manner, the 
Bradypus, by an imperfect motion when on the surface, gains 
the trees where it lives, feeds, and sleeps. It rarely leaves the 


tree it is on until it has stripped it of every leaf, so painful is 
the effort to change its situation, by dragging itself on its elbows 


from one tree to another when they stand far apart. The nails of 
this animal, when at rest, are always bent towards the palm of 
the hand; and it is thus it sleeps, grasping the branches, and 


suspended with its back towards the ground.. We think the 
‘Vou. 1.—64 


506 - Ancient Vitrified Beacon Stations. 


term Pendentia would be even more appropriate than Tardi- 
grade, for these mammalia. 


ANCIENT VITRIFIED BEACON STATIONS. 
To the Editor of the Monthly American Journal of Geology. 


Sir,—Your readers, perhaps, are aware that there are in 
Scotland certain stations of an irregularly round or elliptical 
form, in somewhat elevated situations, surrounded by one or 
more stone walls, or ramparts, rudely put together, and without 
any regular masonry. These walls are constructed of fragments 
of primary rocks, granite, gneiss, mica-slate, and other felt- 
spathic rocks. About half a century ago, these stations attracted 
a great deal of attention, from its being observed that the 
greater number of them had these walls partially, or altogether 
vitrified, or slagged together into a coherent mass, evidently 
by the action of fire. Many theories were brought forward 
to account for this unusual appearance. By some, the vitrifica- 
tion of these walls was attributed to volcanic agency, and the 
area which they surrounded was considered as a crater. Mr. 
Pennant, the naturalist, and other eminent persons, maintained 
this opinion. This, however, gave way to another, brought for- 
ward by Mr. Williams, a mineral surveyor, in 1777, who sup- 
posed them to have been ancient forts, or defences, and that the 
vitrification of the walls had been artificially produced, by lay- 
ing the mineral materials upon beds of fuel, and firing it. Dr. 
Maculloch defended this theory in the Transactions of the Geo- 
logical Society of London. In 1787, lord Woodhouselee proposed 
a new theory, in the Transactions of the Royal Soiciety of Edin- 
burgh. He supposed these stations to have had a superstructure 
of wood built upon these walls, and that the vitrification was 
produced by the destruction of the timber by fire. 

A more reasonable supposition than any of these was subse- 
quently brought forward in that valuable work, the Statistical 
account of Scotland, a work of which too much cannot be said 
in praise, or of its public spirited and venerable projector, Sir 
John Sinclair, Bart. This was the opinion, that the vitrification 
of these walls was owing to the action of beacon fires, and that 
these stations were not ancient forts, but beacon sites, “ gene- 


Ancient Vitrified Beacon Stations. 507 


rally situated on lofty insulated hills, in such a chain of mutual 
‘connection as to allow telegraphic communications to be con- 
veyed from one station to another, at a considerable distance.” 
The fused state of some of these walls had brought them within 
the province of geology at one time ; but it is now perfectly clear 
that the consideration of these stations belongs purely to arche- 
ology, and any person who still entertains doubts on that sub- 
ject, has only to read Dr. Hibbert’s papers, contained in the 
October number for 1831, of Dr. Brewster’s Journal ; especially 
the letter to Dr. Brewster, entitled, ‘‘ Notice of the discovery of 
very extensive vitrified remains at Elsness, in the Island of San-. 
day, Orkney,” to be entirely convinced of this fact. This notice 
of a very interesting subject will be concluded by citing the fol- 
lowing passages from the letter alluded to. 


“ Such is the general history of the vitrified cairns of Orkney, which may serve 
to set at rest, I trust for ever, two questions which have been agitated for more 
than halfacentury. The first is—To what uses or observances is the effect of 
vitrification attributable? While the second is——T’o what people is the effect at- 
tributable ? In a tone of confidence, therefore, we are now entitled to reply,—That 
vitrification was merely incidental to the fires which were kindled upon beacon 
stations; and that the people who, in every country which they occupied or colo- 
nized, organized systems of beacon stations, were of Scandinavian origin.” 


The letter concludes with the following summary. 


“ First: That the vitrified sites of Orkney not being characterized, as in Scotland, 
by the presence of stone ramparts, but simply by small cairns, upon which the 
fuel for beacon fires had been placed, incontestibly show, that a beacon station was 
not of necessity a place of strength or defence. 

“ Secondly: That such of the ancient Duns, or strengths of Scotland proper, 
in which vitrification is found to be an occasional occurrence, belong to the oldest 
fortified sites in the country, and are referable to some of its oldest inhabitants, 
probably to the Picts, who are supposed to be of German origin. 

“ Thirdly: That these ancient Duns, not originally vitrified, indicate, by their 
construction and extent, that they were used by a people who had already passed 
from the hunting to the pastoral state; as they evidently comprehend in their de- 
sign, the protection of cattle, with that of human defence. 

“ Fourthly: That from the tenth to the fourteenth century, a considerable part 
of Scotland was overrun by the Scandinavians, under the various names of North- 
men and Danes, who reciprocally became themselves liable to invasions from other 
piratical tribes of the same northern origin as themselves, and were therefore in- 
duced to institute systems of beacon fires, in imitation of those with which they 
had been familiar in Norway, ; 

“ Fifthly: That as in most instances the ancient fortresses or duns of the oldest 
historical period of Scotland, were continued to be used as the gathering places 
of clans or tribes, the same were most conveniently selected as the sites of beacon 


508 Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 


fires; the ramparts of loose stones, which characterize such fortified sites, serving 
the additional purpose of cairns on which such fuel was placed. 

“ And sixthly: That the intensity of fusion exhibited on the vitrified sites, is 
no less referable to the forest trees which, on such occurrences, extravagantly 
blazed, than to the incessant hostile invasions which caused beacon fires to be 
lighted. But while I state these, my present conclusions, (for it is possible I may 
yet make some little modification in them,) I would not renounce the idea, that 
other public occasions, as, for instance, the annual lighting up of the fire of the 
belting, might have assisted, though in a subordinate degree, towards producing 
the vitrified effects, which continue to be the astonishment of all who are con- 
versant with their extent. 

“But I must now conclude, as I have already exceeded the limits which I had 
at first assigned to it. The interest which continental geologists have begun to 
take in the varied effects of ignition which these vitrified sites display, has natu- 
rally made them curious regarding their mysterious history; which circumstance 
is the only apology I can offer for making your Journal, on this occasion, a me- 
dium of pure antiquarian inquiry. In some future number, I hope to render you 
acquainted with the mineralogical observations of M. Von Leonhard, on the speci- 
mens examined by him from the vitrified sites of Scotland.” 5. 


RAFINESQUE’S ATLANTIC JOURNAL. 

Enumeration and Account of some remarkable natural objects of the 
Cabinet of Professor Rafinesque, in Philadelphia ; being Animals, 
Shells, Plants, and Fossils, collected by him in North America, 
between 1816 and 1831. Philadelphia, No vember, 1831. 


Atlantic Journal, or Friend of Knowledge; a wyeluea Journal 
and Review of Universal Science and Knowledge; Historical, 
Natural, and Medical Arts and Sciences : Industry, Agriculture, 
Education, and every kind of useful Knowledge. VW = numerous 
figures. Editor, C. 8. Rarinesque. 


We had occasion, in our February number, to animadyert 
upon the injustice Professor Rafinesque had received, in relation 
to the bivalve shells of the river Ohio : we were led to this purely 
from a desire to strengthen the interests of natural science, by 
vindicating the claims of its votaries to fair dealing, and without 
any reference whatever to personal sympathies and antipathies. 
We again take up the pen in behalf of the interests of natural 
science, though we do not believe that upon the present occasion 
our remarks will divert Mr. Rafinesque as much as they will 
our general readers. In some branches of natural history, the 
active labours of this natural, historical, medical, and universal 


Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 509 


person, have been usefully applied, and have been praised; and if 
he had not been so paradoxical, and so off from the perpendicular 
in his writings, his authority, in matters of natural history, would 
have had some weight. We have observed with regret, fora 
long time past, that the European naturalists have not given that 
credit to the professor, which, from the necessity of the case, and 
from courtesy, they always extend to those of their brethren 
whose respectability and veracity is undoubted. We have ob- 
served that nobis out of the professor’s mint was not current ; but 
we never thought the magical letters Raf. would find their par 
value so soon. 

The two productions, whose titles we have placed at the 
head of our remarks, satisfactorily explain why this is so. The 
most malignant enemy could not have injured the professor as 
much as they inevitably must do; nothing but a rash pre- 
sumption of a general ignorance, that would dishonour us all, 
and of the public inability to discover the worthlessness of such 
a farrago as he has now let loose upon us, could have encouraged 
him to produce, what is entirely beneath the dignity of criticism. 
Nevertheless, the reputation of the country abroad, and the 
satisfaction of the lovers of sound learning at home, require our 
mterference, and we think this a fit occasion to enter upon 
that part of the duties alluded to in our paespeabie * to aes 
down impostures and puerilities as they arise.’ 

Let us first examine the “ Enumeration,’ &c. where, in his 
‘Article 1, Fossil Remains of Quadrupeds,” he has brought 
such strange names, strange things, and strange language 
together, that we are quite sure he has every thing to learn 
concerning geology and fossil remains. 

And first, we have No. 1, Mazama Salinaria, of Rafinesque. 
A new genus, upon the authority of nothing but a piece of horn, 
five inches long, found in an old saline of the Indians, in Ken- 
tucky. The description concludes, “it belongs to the latest geo- 
logical age of fossil animals.” 'The professor says it approximates 
to his genus Mazama, which yet exists in South America. What 
he means by the “latest geological age of fossil animals,” we 
are utterly at a loss to comprehend under all these circum. . 
stances. 

Next comes Panallodon Tumularium of Raf. which owes its 
existence to a jaw bone, six inches long, found in a Solar tem- 


510 Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 


ple [!!!] in Kentucky. He thinks this akin to mazama, which 
was somewhat similar to the antelopes, but having teeth, “ more 
like some carnivorous animals, but no canine tooth,” “ latest geo- 
logical age, later than No. 1, period of the Mastodcns.” We were 
just told that Mazama Salinaria belonged to the “latest geolo- 
logical age,” but panallodon it seems belongs to an age later 
than the latest. Whether the words “ period of the mastodons” 
refer to the mazamaic or panallodontic period, we are left to 
guess. Hitherto we have been exceedingly puzzled to assign a 
geological period for the existence of the mastodon ; but it is now 
settled, that the mastodontic period was contemporaneous with that 
of a bit of horn five inches long, or with carnivorous antelopes. Here 
is a stride in the history of extinct fossil animals ! 

After this we have No. 3, Taurus gigas, of Rafinesque, a 
“ beautiful and perfect tooth of a bull,” which, a few lines af- 
terwards, is stated, “ must have belonged to a very large ox.” 
This animal, we are told, was of the “age of the mastodons.” 
Here is a bull genus, established upon the strength of what no 
doubt is a recent buffalo’s tooth, with which the western country 
abounds. There is something worse than puerility in this. Ra- 
finesque knew that the genus bos was established for the receipt 
of all kinds of bovine remains, and that Dr. Harlan’s species of 
bos latifrons was universally received, and to which his bovine 
tooth, if properly fossil, should have been referred. Rafinesque, 
who has bitterly complained of others for trespassing upon his 
grounds, shows here the budding forth of the same talent in him- 
self, to more exquisite proofs of which we shall by and by come. 

Among the fishes we have No. 6, JVephrosteon; but we shall 
cite the description, as a specimen of the Professor’s style. 

“No. 6; Nephrosteon, Raf. Very singular fossil bone of a fish from the dilwvial 
regions of Louisiana. Jt must have been the head-plate of a huge fish twenty 
feet long or more, but I know of none with similar shields. It is a fine perfect 
flat bone, yelowish white, solid, hard and heavy, rounded, with a reniform base, 
eight inches broad and six and a half long ; half an inch thick ; edge entire, thick ; 
surface above nearly smooth, with an areolar depression round the centre, which 
has several unequal chinks, Lower surface entirely covered with vermicular an- 
astomosed elevations, forming irregular pits and prominences. Js it the bony shield 
of the head of megasaurus ? or some other fossil reptile ?” 

Before we give Mr. Rafinesque an answer to his question, we: 
must tell him that it is inexcusable in one, who pretends to write 
on geological matters, to commit so great a blunder as to calh 


Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 51l 


the alluvial soil of Louisiana “ diluvial;” and that he has been un- 
lucky in not sticking to his first guess, that the bone belonged to 
a huge fish; if he had had the slightest knowledge of compara- 
tive anatomy, he would have seen, at first inspection, that this 
bone formed no part of the head of any animal, but was simply, 
what we venture to assure him it is, the Ephyphysis of the 
vertebra of the existing spermaceti whale, and which is of very 
common occurrence in the great whales’ burying ground, of 
Louisiana. : 

This nephrosteontic affair is a pretty good specimen of what 
the Professor can do in the way of geology and comparative 
anatomy. One of the most insignificant osseous parts of a whale, 
and which only belongs to it whilst very young, is hocussed into 
the representative of a new genus of extinct animals, which, in 
one line, “must have been the head plate of a huge fish,” and 
in the next produces the interrogation, “is it the bony shield of 
the head of megasaurus, or some other huge fossil reptile?” A 
buffaloe’s tooth sits in his scientific parliament for Tuwrus gigas ; 
and as to Mazama Salinaria, and Panallodon Tumularium, their 
most conspicuous character is, that one of them belongs to a 
geological period “ later than the latest,” though by the context 
it is impossible to find out which of the two enjoys that imestima- 
ble advantage. 

As to the Atlantic Journal, we despair of doing justice to its 
various merits ; it is a perfect museum of curiosities, and those 
who desire cheap amusement—for it only costs twenty-five 
cents—cannot do better than purchase it. Lest, however, it’ 
should prove too great a mystification to those who may feel 
disposed to purchase it upon our recommendation, we must tell 
the truth—for we have read it—and fairly state, that it belongs 
to the days of Dr. Katterfelto of famous memory, rather than to 
the present times, as a few extracts we are about to give will 
show. These we take from the cover of the book, where there 
are no fewer than twenty advertisements. Having never 
heard of this Atlantic Journal, we were not a little surprised to 
see, that the first number had already acquired so valuable an 
advertising custom. Upon examining them, we found them all, 
without a single exception, drawn up by the Professor himself, 
and trumpeting forth his own praises and opinions, with as expe- 
rienced and firm a blast as ever was in the service of the best pa- 


512 Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 


tent blacking. Of this work the professor says in his introduction, 
“It will be of a strikingly novel character, and must be left to 
speak for itself; to deserve, by its own intrinsic value and merit, 
the patronage which it claims from all the friends of knowledge, 
education, and learning.” We shall now treat the friends of 
knowledge, education, and learning, with the promised extracts. 

“This Journal will be sent to several distinguished individuals.”’—* All those 
who shall keep it, will be put on the subscription list, and they are requested to 
pay the account to our agents, of which a list shall be given in our second num- 
ber: unless they subscribe for the whole first volume, and remit us direct two 
dollars.” 

Hence we infer that the “ distinguished individuals” who have 
been thus favoured, will be made to pay one dollar, unless they 
prefer the accommodating alternative of paying two. 

One of his advertisements on the cover is addressed to “ Euro- 
pean readers,” and announces that he has appointed three 
agents in London, and fowr in Paris: then comes an advertise- 
ment for a paper-maker, one for a printer, and another for a pub- 
lisher. 'The following is a fine specimen of the encouragement he 
has to offer to them:— 


“ Wantep.—Two travelling agents to procure subscriptions, sell books, and 
collect money. None need apply but such as can give undoubted security. Ap- 
ply at the office of the Atlantic Journal.” 


But the following advertisement settles for ever the genus to 
which Professor Rafinesque belongs : 


“ Mepican Sreciric ror Tar Consumprion.—A safe and efficient remedy for 
this fatal disease, has been discovered by an eminent Botanist and Pulmist of 
» Philadelphia, Professor of Medical Botany, &c. It has effected several wonderful 
cures, and already cured or relieved seven hundred persons from Boston to New 
Orleans. It is a mild, fragrant and palatable remedy, purely vegetable, which 
some patients become quite fond of; it is calculated for this disease only, but sus- 
ceptible of many preparations and modifications to suit (and apply to) all the va- 
rious cases. It is called the PULMEL; with it are prepared a Syrup for common 
use, and a Balsam for inhalation. A Pamphlet on the Pulmel is given gratis. A 
work called the Pulmist, or Art to Cure the, Consumption, has been published as a 
guide. Dr. RAFINESQUE, the proprietor, practices exclusively as a Pulmist in 
diseases of the lungs, and is very successful. He sends ample consultations on 
specific cases to any part of the United States, and has thus cured many at a dis- 
tance. Consultation alone $10, with the work and all the Pulmel needful for a 
complete cure $25, will be sent any where on demand, and a remittance.” 


Of the contents of this work, and of the pity they will excite 
in all, and indignation in many—pity, for himself, and indigna- 
tion at this wanton attempt to disgrace the cause of knowledge, 


Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal 513 


we shall merely say, that of zoology there is nothing which has 
not been published before. The geological portion shows an en- 
tire ignorance of even the outlines of the science. The tabular 
view of the American generic languages, and original nations, is 
drawn from that insane mass called The Annals of Kentucky. 
The article entitled The Atlantic JVations of America, is upon a 
par with it. He gives tables of words of different languages, to 
show their affinity, where not the slightest analogy between the 
words can be traced by any effort of philological refinement. It 
is enough to unsettle a weak mind to examine the crazy asser- 
tions he is constantly making, and which he puts forth with the 
greatest confidence. 

The professor’s “ History of China before the Flood,” is a mor- 
ceau every way worthy of himself. His facts and reasonings 
are in perfect harmony with the figures and perspective on the 
old porcelain of the celestial empire, these last standing in the 
same relation to nature that the first do to history. We give 
the following inimitable extract from page 25 of the Atlantic 
Journal. From the four concluding words, we suspect it forms 
part of an edict which the Son of Heaven has addressed to the 
professor. 


“The state of mankind before the flood of Ynti (or Noah, which agrees in time 
with the seventy computation) is represented as happy. China, called Tien-hia 
or Celestial Region, (universe) was ruled by benevolent monarchs, who took no- 
thing and gave much ; allthe world submitted to their virtues and good laws. They 
wore no crown, but long hair; never made war and put no one to death. Har- 
mony even reigned between men and animals; men lived on roots, fruits and cattle; 
they did not follow hunting, property was in common, and universal concord pre- 
vailed. They did not therefore deserve the punishment of total destruction by a 
flood. 

“This interesting and important part of the early history of mankind, is not yet 
inserted in the would-be universal histories of the western Barbarians, as fhe Chi- 
nese call us. Our compilers for ages appear intent on destroying the little 
remnant of ancient historical knowledge as yet extant. Let it be revived !” 


We think we can now perceive the reason why Mr. Rafines- 
que’s authority as a naturalist has been hitherto considered so 
unsatisfactory. Those who accuse others of encroaching upon 
their rights, are especially bound to act with uprightness them- 
selves. Mr. Rafinesque will admit, that if, upon a previous oc- 
casion, we were not slow to vindicate his claims to justice, we 
ought to be equally prompt in asserting the rights of men of 

Vox. 1.—65 


——— ——— ee 


514 Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 


known intelligence, and who are eminent for their disinterested 
labours in the cause of natural science. 

At page 20 of the Atlantic Journal, is the following passage, 
in a letter which he states to have written to Baron Cuvier. 

“TIsend you, as you request, the figure, description, and a specimen of my 
Trinectes Scabra, a new genusof fish near to Achirus found in the river Schuyl- 
kill; it has only three fins, dorsal, anal and caudal. Also the description and 
figure of a large and beautiful new cat-fish from the river Tennessee, discovered in 
1823, Pimelodus lutescens: it was threc feet long, excellent to eat, of an olivaceous 
yellow colour, belly white, jaws equal, eyes round, tail forked, first dorsal falciform, 
second dorsal nearly as large as the anal.” 

By what means Mr. Rafinesque was enabled to send the figite, 
description, and specimen of this fish to France, may be learnt 
from the communication to us, which appears below as a note.* 
It will be observed that he has not even mentioned the name of 
Dr. Harlan, to whom alone he was indebted for the knowledge 
of the existence of this fish. His conduct is of a piece with what 
we find at page 28, speaking of the caves in Kentucky :— 


* PHILADELPHtA, March 28, 1832. 

Dear Sir,—In that strange production, the Atlantic Journal, edited by Mr. Rafinesque, 
he states that the Megalonyax laqueatus, described by me in March 1831, in the Journal 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, was previously named by him Aularodon speleum. 
It is difficult to make such a man responsible for any thing he does. I feel it necessary, 
however, to explain what his conduct has been towards me in this, and in another 
instance, that the public may understand what is due to him. 

When I was engaged in the examination of the fossil bones alluded to, and had al- 
ready placed the species in Mr. Jefferson’s genus megalonyx, Mr. Rafinesque called upon 
me, and asked a great many questions concerning their nature and locality: he ac- 
knowledged himself utterly ignorant of them, and was evidently unapprized of the 
characteristic difference between the genus megatherium and megalonyx. 'These bones 
were personally collected by the late Mr. Clifford; and when they were purchased from 
his collection, the labels, stating that fact, were attached to them. Yet Mr. R., without 
giving any authority for it, states they were found in another place. 

During the summer of 1830, I obtained from Mr. Carr, proprietor of Bartram’s botanic 
garden, several species of fresh water fishes, among which was a specimen of Flounder 
[Pleuronectes] never before noticed as an inhabitant of the Schuylkill. Mr. R. called 
upon me one day, and as he was generally supposed to have some knowledge of ichthy- 
ology, I showed it to him. He asked permission to take it home that he might examine 
it at leisure. Since that time I have never seen the specimen, nor been able to get any 
account of it from him, that I could rely on. It appears, however, at page 20 of the 
Atlantic Journal, that he sent it to Baron Cuvier previous to March, 1831, as a new 
genus T'rinecles Scabra, without mentioning the fact to me, or mentioning my name in 
the communication. I was, as I yet am, disposed to think this fish a new species of the 
genus Achirus of Lacep. or of Soles, totally deprived of pectorals, but a new genus it 
certainly is not. Mr. Ranfinesque appears determined to gratify his appetite for notoriety 
by unusual means, and altogether inconsistent with the respect due to the property of 
others. It is a course that will bring its own punishment with it. I remain, dear sir, 
yours very sincerely, RICHARD HARLAN. 


Rajfinesque’s Atlantic Journal. 515 


“ The principal fossil bones found in them, and come to my 
knowledge, belonged to— | 

“1. The Megatherium, or an animal very near it. 

« 2. My Aulaxodon speleum, since called Megalonyx laqueatus, 
by Harlan.” 

Now, in relation to this, we state, that there never was any 
bone resembling that of a Megatherium found in those caves; 
and as to the Megalonyx, the genus was so named by that emi- 
nent lover of natural history, Thomas Jefferson. The new spe- 
cies, M. Laqueatus, was first published by Dr. Harlan in March, 
1831;* the bones of this animal were shown by him to this Doc- 
tor Rafinesque, who had never seen them before; yet he who 
complains of being wronged by others, not only attempts to sup- 
plant the species of Harlan and the genus of Jefferson, but in- 
sinuates that the first-named of these two gentlemen had endea- 
voured to supplant him. We wish Mr. Rafinesque to under- 
stand, that when any pseudo scientific publication is published 
here, calculated to mislead at home, and to discredit the 
country abroad, we shall proceed to unbombast it as soon as 
our leisure permits. He may cry mercy, and plead past ser- 
vices; but it won’t do. One of our objects in relation to the geo- 
logy and natural history of this country, is to endeavour to 
clear up all the old crudities that have brought natural science 
into a fog here; and if it were only to spare ourselves future 
trouble, we must cut up by the roots all the new-born nonsense 
that threatens to darken the subject still further. 

Henceforward, we trust, Mr., or Doctor, or Professor Rafines- 
que—who it seems must be doing—when he finds queer things, 
such as Mazamas, Panallodons, and Nephrosteons, which he does 
not know what to make of, will do what men of sense do, show 
them to those who do; and not publish them—without figures 
too, in language that no naturalist can understand, and which 
was only endured in the bygone days, when all were ignorant 
alike, and when it was the custom to hold omne ignotum pro 
magnifi. 


* See Month. Am. Journal of Geology, Vol. 1, p. 45. 


516 Operations to Find Water in the Desert. 


ACCOUNT OF OPERATIONS TO FIND WATER IN THE DESERT 
BETWEEN CAIRO AND SUEZ, 


From the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 


We have been favoured with an interesting account of some 
successful attempts, made with great energy and perseverance, 
by Mr. Samuel Briggs, of Alexandria, to find water in the Desert, 
between Suez and Cairo. This is not only an important discoy- 
ery for the natives of the country, but will also prodigiously fa- 
cilitate the intercourse with India by steam. 

The first experiments were made in the valley of Kesche, 
where the workmen bored, in one instance, to the depth of one 
hundred and sixty feet, through a fine sandstone, mixed with 
clay, without finding any humidity ; and in another place to the 
depth of fifty feet, principally through a rock composed of frag- 
ments of silex and jasper, where they met with a hard rock 
which broke the instruments, and the attempt was consequently 
relinquished on that spot. The operations were transferred to 
the valley of Candelli. Here water has been found in a clayey 
stratum, at the depth of only thirteen feet, where a well is al- 
ready established, to which the Arabs come for their daily sup- 
ply. Above the clay is a bed of calcareous sandstone, five feet 
thick, through which the water filters; and in the stratum of 
clay three lateral galleries have been ingeniously struck to the 
extent of twelve or fourteen feet, which not only serve to collect 
the water, but, together with a further continuation of the well, 
to the total depth of twenty-one feet, form a reservoir of one 
thousand two hundred cubic feet of water. ‘The whole is to be 
lined with stone and mortar, which will render it a work of per- 
fect art; and what is most important is, that the water be- 
ing found so near the surface, neither the labour of camels nor 
of machinery will be required to draw it. 

Two other wells have been commenced in the same valley, 
with the same prospect of success. It is believed that, as the 
spot is only an hour, or an hour and a half’s journey from the 
great chain of mountains which stretches across the Desert from 
the Nile to the Red Sea, the waters have there their source. 

This enterprise has been projected by, and carried into exe- 
cution at, the sole expense of Mr. Briggs. He has in his employ 
an able mineralogist, Mr. Albert Gensberg (a Swiss, we believe,) 


/ 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 517 


who is still continuing his researches, and is confident of finding 
water, and establishing wells, at other parts of the route. The 
practical artificers are two Englishmen, named Hancock and 
Wood. The villages, where men and animals will not only be 
supplied with water, but with all other necessaries in their, pain- 
ful journeyings; and the names of the projector and executor, 
of this work will be remembered with gratitude by all future 
travellers in this hitherto sterile desert. 

Above all, it is hoped that the enlightened ruler of Egypt will 
appreciate the merits of Mr. Briggs, whose success will facili- 
tate the commerce and promote the prosperity of that country. 

To the above may be also subjoined the following extract of 
a letter, dated, Alexandria, June 13, 1831, from Mr. Briggs 
himself, to the Earl of Munster, who has communicated it to the 
Royal Geographical Society :— 

“My attempts to discover water in the Desert between Cairo 
and Suez have been crowned with success; and I hope all fu- 
ture travellers to and from India will feel the benefit of it, as 
well as the pilgrims to Mecca. 

“TI have had two English borers at work during a year and a 
half, at my expense; and J mean to persevere till [have found water 
also on the other line of communication, known to you, between 
Cosseir and Thebes, or Kenne. 

“Ibrahim Pasha gives me every ‘assistance in guards, tools, 
masons, &c., whenever sweet water is found; but the Hadgi 
know it is to the English they are indebted for this boon.” 


GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
Abstract of their proceedings, April 14th, 1832, Lizur. Cot, 


Lone in the chair — 


A paper on the geology of the Alleghany Mountains, by R. C. 
Taylor, Esq. was read by Mr. Featherstonhaugh.* 


Peter A. Browne, Esq. read a paper on the rocks found in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia——These rocks are primary ; no granite 


* This paper, together with a section of the Moshannon Valley, were published 


. in the last number of this Journal. 


518 Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 


has been found, except in boulders and veins of other rocks. 
This rock is the general but not continuous Atlantic boundary 
of the United States. When Ashton street, in Philadelphia, 
was regulated, a boulder of granite, weighing several tons, was 
found in the gravel. The felspar was flesh-coloured, sp. gr. 2.727. 
Where it is found in veins, the felspar is white, and the sp. gr. 
2.701. The river boulders vary in their constituents more than 
the inland ones. Mr. B. has found Porphyry with helyotrope 
among the first. The gneiss at Fairmount water-works con- 
tains white beryls, and schorl in granite veins, sp. gr. 2.620. 
The gneiss re-appears at the falls of Schuylkill, five miles from 
Philadelphia. The State Penitentiary, in Coates street, is built 
of this rock: it contains, in granite veins, green beryls, phos- 
phate of lime, scapolite, &c. In some places the gneiss is en- 
tirely disintegrated, lying in extensive loose sandy beds. Mica 
slate is quarried near Lemon hill, and in Broad street; it is 
well displayed at the mill-dam upon old Fourth street, sp. gr. 
2.038 to 2.712. This rock contains granite veins with white 
beryls, and hexagonal crystals of mica. The beryls, when first 
detached, are soft and friable, but become gradually harder. 
Near Bartram’s garden, the mica slate is found in disintegrated 
and sandy beds. At Chesnut hill, the mica slate is nearly verti- 
cal. From Manayunk to the Plymouth dam, it becomes com- 
pact, and contains beryls, zeolite, cyanite, schorl, phosphate of 
lime, &c. The first hornblende rocks which appear near Phila- 
delphia, are near Fairmount water-works; but further north, 
they may be traced from the Delaware to the west bank of the 
Schuylkill. They appear on the Delaware about a mile beyond 
the village of Frankford, at the forks of the Bristol and Bustleton 
turnpikes, and near Second street road. At Manayunk they 
pass into hornblende slate. Actinolite is found subordinate to 
this formation. Mr. B. succeeded in detaching a specimen of a 
very tough compact hornblende, on Second street road, near 
Frankford creek, and on examining it a few days afterwards, 
found the fractured surface spangled over with crystals of acty- 
nolite, similar to others he had observed on the exterior of the 
rock, At Streaper’s hill, on the Ridge turnpike road, the horn- 
blende rocks again appear. Ina ravine at the side of the road, 
about 11 miles from Philadelphia, large boulders of hornblende 
are lying on clay slate; others are found on the surface further 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 519 


to the north-east. Proceeding up the Schuylkill from Mana- 
yunk, the mica slate, near the soap-stone quarries, gradually 
passes into talcose rocks, confusedly piled upon each other. Ser- 
pentine, steatite, talc, chlorite, and other mineral substances, 
are here subordinate to this formation. The steatite (soap- 
stone) contains oxide of iron and tremolite. The chlorite slate 
contains octahedral iron. 


A communication was read from a Committee of the Cabinet of 
Science of Bradford County, consisting of Messrs. Henry Wells, El- 
lis Lewis, Isaac Cooley, Bissel Chubbuk, and William Russell. 


There is in Bradford county inexhaustible quantities of bitu- 
minous coal and iron. Indications of copper have also been dis- 
covered. Major Long, of that county, has detected gold and sil- 
ver in particular rocks. The gold is found disseminated in a 
bed of hornstone. Limestone with marine shells is also found in 
this county: when prepared in the kiln, it is of a grey ash co- 
lour. A coarse-grained silicious sandstone is found on the wa- 
ters of the Towanda creek, well adapted for mill-stones. The 
only coal-mines now open and worked in this county, are on the 
waters of the Towanda creek, a few miles south-west of the 
borough of Towanda. The coal is excellent, and is extensively 
used by the inhabitants in preference to wood. In the winter 
season, it is sent in sleds to Ithaca, Newtown, &c. The veins 
of coal are from three to seven feet thick, and are found a few 
feet from the surface. The coal-field is extensive, rests upon a 
general bed of sandstone, and the strata alternate with slate. 
The coal on the waters of Towanda is supposed to be part of a 
continuous deposit extending to the coal-mines of Blossburg in 
Tioga, and those of Lycoming in Lycoming county. The To- 
wanda creek is navigable for the descent of rafts a considera- 
ble distance above the coal-mines, which are situated about 
twelve miles from the north branch of the Susquehanna river. 
Coal is also found in abundance about six miles from the borough 
of Towanda. [Iron is found in the neighbourhood of the coal- 
mines, and in other parts of the county. No fossil coal plants 
have yet been found: it is supposed they are not so abundant 
in the bituminous coal-fields as they have hitherto been found to 
be in the non-bituminous ones. There are several salt springs 


520 Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 


in the county, and a salt manufacturing company is established 
in Susquehanna county, at a salt spring on the dividing line 
with Bradford county. No rock salt has been found, neither 
have any wells been yet dug in this last county for brine. At 
Rome, eight miles north-east of Towanda, is a fine mineral 
spring, impregnated with sulphur, iron, &c. Inflammable gas 
rises in large bubbles from the bottom. 'The medicinal proper- 
ties of this spring have been found very efficacious in cutaneous 
diseases. No natural caves have as yet been discovered in this 
county, nor any osteological remains, except an elephant’s tooth. 
An exploring expedition, for the purpose of making geological 
examinations of the most interesting parts of the county of Brad- 
ford, is now preparing; it is intended to communicate -the re- 
sults to the Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 


A communication on the geology of Wayne county, Pennsylva- 
nia, accompanied with a map and section, from Jacob P. Davis, 
Esq. and dated Bethany, Pennsylvania, was read. The follow- 
ing is an extract from it :— 


“ The principal features of the county of Wayne are, a contin- 
uous upland, occupying by far the largest portion of surface, the 
long narrow valleys by which this upland is indented, and a few 
incidental eminences to which the distinction of mountains is ap- 
plied. The general average elevation of the upland is estimated 
at about thirteen hundred feet above tide water. 

“ Moosic mountain, near the western line of the country, rises 
above the upland about six hundred feet; having a total eleva- 
tion at Rix’s Gap, on the route of the Rail road, of nineteen hun- 
dred and ten feet above tide water. The term “gap,” as ap- 
plied to the passes of this mountain, does not signify a cleft or 
opening; the top of the mountain being continuous: it merely 
signifies a convenient slope. Beyond the northern extremity of 
the Moosic rises Mount Arrarat, which is about the same height 
as the Moosic. Besides these there are a few eminences of but 
minor note. 

“ The upland, with its appurtenant valleys, appears to afford 
the most interesting variety, the features of which are particu- 
larly defined by the course of the waters. All the larger 
streams have their sources at or near the summit of the upland, 
increasing in their passage by the confluent springs and rivulets ; 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 521 


the upland affords a hollow for the waters which enlarges 
as the waters advance, until at length the acclivities gradu- 
ally assume a mountain aspect. The greater part of these 
inequalities, however, present no serious obstacle to agricultural 
operations. The slopes are generally gradual, and with some 
exceptions near the larger streams, every part is susceptible of 
cultivation. 

“Delaware river bounds the north-eastern side of the county. 
It receives from Wayne county, besides the Lackawaxen river, 
the waters of the northern end of the county, and much of the 
eastern waters. There is much alluvial bottom land along the 
margin of the river; the upland acclivity is lofty, bold, and some- 
times precipitous. ‘The greater part of the river shore in Man- 
chester township, from the mouth of Great Equinunk creek, 
downwards, is bound by lofty perpendicular rock, from the 
water’s edge, which effectually interrupts a direct land commu- 
nication along the river for that distance. 

“ Lackawaxen river flows through the middle of the county, 
in a deep valley, which no where exceeds half a mile in breadth. 
It unites the waters of the greater part of the county, which it 
discharges into the Delaware river. The bottom of this valley 
is, for the most part, an alluvial flat of fertile quality. The 
principal branches of this river are, the Dyberry, which it re- 
ceives from the north, flowing through a valley similar to the 
Lackawaxen valley; the west Branch, which is considered the 
principal branch of this river, flows through a similar valley, and 
unites its waters with the Dyberry, near Honesdale, forming to- 
gether the true Lackawaxen river. The Middle creek enters 
the Lackawaxen near the south-eastern line of the county. It 
is a stream of considerable magnitude, but its channel is rocky 
and its course very rapid. The Wallenpaupac creek, on the 
county line, is a considerable branch of the Lackawaxen, and 
has much alluvial flat extending almost its whole length. It 
has a high cataract near its mouth. For the last fifteen miles 
the creek, after a previous rapid course, flows in a sinuous chan- 
nel, with scarcely any sensible motion. Arrived at the head of 
the falls, the bed of the creek appears suddenly depressed, and 
forms a chasm, into which the water pours down a depth of near 
seventy feet, and then rushing along in a deep rocky channel, is 
precipitated over three successive cataracts within a distance of 

Vor. 1.—66 


Ce ee ee eae a ne 


522 Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 


a mile and a half to the mouth of the creek ; producing a total 
fall in that distance of a hundred and fifty-six feet. The width 
of the creek above the falls is eighty-three feet: the scite of the 
upper fall is improved by two saw mills and a grist mill, a short 
distance above which a wooden bridge connects the route of the 
Milford and Owego turnpike. 

“ Geological inquiries, in this county are restricted soiiinies a 
small space. The far greater part of the county is covered by 
its native forest, and has been but very little, if at all, regarded 
by geological science. ‘The productions of the soil, where cul- 
tivated, yielding an ample remuneration to industry, no excava- 
tion has been made in search of minerals, and few for any other 
purposes. Our inquiries are therefore directed to the occasional 
uncovered rock, and the remains detached by their decomposi- 
tion, and these, for the most part, only enable us to generalize a 
few facts. “ 

“ The geological formation of Wayne county is transition. Its 
stratified rocks consist of brown argillaceous slate, graywacke, 
graywacke slate, and an impure limestone. ‘The Moosic moun- 
tain is composed of conglomerate or pudding stone, resting on 
graywacke, and containing beds of amygdaloid. An outlayer of 
conglomerate is also seen in Mount Pleasant, near Centreville, 
the upper surface of which just projects above the soil. A bed 
of clay slate occurs near the mouth of Cawley brook, in Dyberry 
township, interposed between strata of graywacke slate. This 
rock also occurs in beds on the western side of Moosic mountain, 
above Belmont coal mine. 

The brown slate appears to be the transition clay slate, or 
argillite of geologists. It readily splits into thin plates, which 
exhibit glimmering scales, probably mica. Its colour is usually 
brown, by oxide of iron; it is, however, sometimes of a grayish 
colour. The clay slate is a variety of argillite. It is of a fine 
texture: its fracture is rather splintery than slaty, and exhibits 
a glossy lustre. Its colour isa smoke gray, or clay colour. It 
is used for whet-stones, for which it is very well adapted. 

“'The conglomerate is composed of silicious pebbles of various 
forms, but generally rounded, united by a cement. It is fre- 
quently employed for mill stones, and is said to be nearly equal 
in quality to the burr. It contains veins of sulphuret of iron, 
feldspar and quartz. 


Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 523 


“The limestone is of a coarse texture, and uneven fracture, 
and sometimes slaty. It is fusible at a white heat into a black 
glass, which denotes the presence of much silicious matter. 

“The strata of brown slate and graywacke slate most fre- 
quently alternate, and are of considerable thickness and extent, 
declining from the horizon at an angle of thirty degrees or 
more, and dipping generally towards the north-west. It is fre- 
quently the case that the several strata form. successive ridges, 
facing the south-east, which seem to rise behind each other like 
steps to the summit of the upland. In such cases the strata are 
from ten to a hundred feet in thickness; principally of gray- 
wacke slate and brown slate, alternating with Secasiongl small 
strata of graywacke and limestone. 

“In the vicinity of the Belmont coal mine, on the western side 
of Moosic mountain, is found, an argillaceous oxide of iron, some- 
times called clay iron stone, in nodules and masses of various 
forms, imbedded in shale. Some of the nodules exhibit only a shell 
filled with a dark bluish liquid, of the consistence of paint; or 
with a compact substance of the same colour, but always capa- 
ble of being cut with a knife. A specimen of this ore yielded 
33 per cent of metallic iron. This mine isnot worked. The dis- 
trict is yet covered by its native forest. Sulphuret of iron is also 
found in the shale at this place. 

“ T am not acquainted with the existence of any other minerals 
in this county than such as I have noted. There can be no 
doubt, however, that many will be discovered when the country 
becomes more improved, and its forests cleared off. To sucha 
conjecture the properties of the soil and the nature of the forma- 
tion afford many indications. The anthracite region approaches 
the western side of the county, but does not extend into it. There 
are neither salt nor salt springs known in this county ; the only 
mineral springs known are chalybeate, on the western slope of 
Moosic mountain, near Belmont mine, and near Big Beech pond, 

-in the southern part of Damascus township.” 


Mr. Featherstonhaugh presented, on the part of Lieut.Col. Long, 
an original coloured sketch, showing the blue ridge, and the ad- 
jacent country, from the Susquehanna river to the Mississippi 
river. 


a? ee hr. ee A ee er | 
“Se 


524 Meteorological Observations. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 


Made ai Wilmington, Delaware, by Henry Gibbons, M. D. 


Summary ror Marcu, 1832. 


Therm.  Barom.) Proportion of clear weather, days 21 

Average at sun-rise, 34°.81 iz. 29.87/ Proportion of cloudy, 10 
Average at mid-day, 49°.42 29.83| Whole days clear, 14 
Average at 11 o’clock, Days on which snow fell, 1 
P. M. 38°.23 29.84] Days on which rain fell, 7 
Monthly average, 42°.115 29.85] Depth of snow, in. 2 
Maximum, 12th, 67°. 1st, 30.30] Depth of rain, 2.55 
Minimum, 18th, 12°, 12th, 29.37| Quantity of water, 2.80 
Range, 55°. .93| Northerly winds prevailed, days 11 
Warmest day, 12th, 60°.55 Easterly, 5 
Coldest day, 18th, 18° Southerly, (S. to W.) 15 


An aurora, on the evening of the 27th, followed by easterly 
winds. Clouds electrified twice; a heavy thundergust on the 
12th. Winds not very variable; but blustering and frequently 
high, supporting the character of March. Two transient, in- 
complete, easterly storms. 'The weather of this month was re- 
markable for its sudden transitions from warm to cold. The 
temperature of the thirteen first days was pleasant and uniform, 
averaging about 53° at noon. A severe thunderstorm took place 
on the 12th, which was not followed immediately by much de- 
crease of temperature. But a N. W. wind set in the next day, 
and the thermometer fell from 57° (at 2 p.m.) to 35° (at 11 p. m.). 
The next morning it stood at 20°. During this and the eight suc- 
cessive days, the mean temperature at noon was 894°. A change 
still more remarkable took place on the 17th, when the mercury 
fell from 47°, to 17°, between the hours of 2 and 11 p.m., during 
a violent snow-storm from N. West. On the morning of the 
18th, it was at 12°, a degree of cold extremely unusual at this 
late period. ‘The weeping willow had put forth its leaves, and 
the blossoms of the Lombardy and Athenian poplar were out. 
The leaves of the one, and the blossoms of the other, were com- 
pletely destroyed, and the buds of the willow were so effectually 
killed, that the tree continued without any trace of vegetation 
till after the middle of April, when it put forth a new set of buds. 
The fruit of the peach-tree was killed by the same frost, in the 
unexpanded bud, so that few, comparatively, of the blossoms, 
subsequently opened. 


Scientific and General Memoranda. 525 


SCIENTIFIC AND GENERAL MEMORANDA. 


Tyrian Purple Dye—The shells from which the celebrated 
purple dye of the ancients was extracted, named by Pliny, the 
Murex and Buccinum, have given occasion to disputes among 
modern naturalists as to the species meant. M. Lesson, upon 
comparing the mollusca now found in the Mediterranean, with 
Pliny’s description, is of opinion the Buccinum is the lanthina. 
It is a pelagian shell, and extremely numerous. It sustains itself 
on the surface of the sea by air vesicles, which Pliny calls a glu- 
tinous wax; and as soon as it is taken out of the water, there 
escapes from it a very pure and very brilliant violet rose colour. 
Each shell contains an ounce of this in the dorsal vessel. By 
means of alkalies this colour is changed to green. The Janthina 
abounds equally in the Atlantic as in the Mediterranean; and 
at certain seasons the beaches of St. Helena and Ascension are 
entirely covered with them. From experiments made with this 
colouring matter, it appears to be a valuable reactive, turning 
red when treated with acids, and blue with alkalies. Oxalate 
of ammonia gives a deep blue precipitate, and nitrate of silver a 
prttey ash blue for painting in water colours. 


Mode in which the common Frog takes its food.—The Rev. Mr. 
Bree in a communication to the conductor of the Magazine of 
Natural History, states,—*“ The friend to whom I am indebted 
for having first called my attention to this amusing exhibition, 
was himself introduced to it by mere accident. He happened 
to be re-potting some green house plants, and meeting with a 
moderate sized worm among the roots of one them, he carelessly 
threw it aside into a damp corner near the green house. Almost 
immediately a frog issued from his lurking place hard by, com- 
menced his attack upon the worm, and soon dispatched it. An- 
other worm was thrown to him, which he treated in the same 


manner. But the amusing part of the business is to watch the 


manner in which the frog first notices his prey; and this I can 
compare to nothing so aptly as to what, indeed, it very much 
resembles, a pointer dog setting his game: he makes, in short, 
a dead set at it; oftentimes, too (if the relative position of the 
two animals so require it,) with a slight bend or inclination, more 
or less, of the forepart of the body to one side, just as we often 


526 Scientific and General Memoranda. 


see a pointer turn suddenly, when the game is one side of him, 
and has approached very near before he has perceived it. After 
a pause of some seconds -or more, the frog makes a dart at the 
worm, endeavouring to seize it with his mouth; in this attempt 
he frequently fails more than once; and generally waits fora 
short interval, acting the pointer, as it were, between each at- 
tack. Having succeeded at last in getting the worm into his 
mouth, if it be a large one, he is unable to swallow it immediate- 
ly and all at once; and the portion of the worm which yet re- 
mains unswallowed, and extends out of the mouth of its destroy- 
er, of course wreaths about, and struggles with a tortuous mo- 
tion. With much, but somewhat grotesque dexterity, the frog 
then employs his two fore feet, shoving, and bandying the worm, 
first with one, and then with the other, in order to keep it as 
nearly as may be in the centre of his mouth, till the whole is 
swallowed. Any of your readers who are fond of marking the 
actions and habits of animals are strongly recommended to try 
the experiment. They have only to find a frog, taking care not to 
alarm him more than need be, and throw down a worm near him, 
and they will be pretty sure to be gratified by the sight of what I 
have endeavoured, however imperfectly, to describe. I ought to 
add that, to be successful, the experiment should be made in the 
summer, say June or July; as | am informed, (but do not vouch 
for the fact,) that, except for a few months in the summer, the 
frog is wholly abstemious.” 


Bi-valve Mouse Traps.—A person at Plymouth, having placed 
some oysters in a cupboard, was surprised at finding, in the 
morning, a mouse caught by the tail, by the sudden collapsing of 
the shell. About forty years since, at Ashburton, at the house 
of Mrs. Allridge, known by the name of the New Inn, a dish of 
oysters was laid in the cellar; a large one soon expanded its 
Valves, and two mice bounced upon the “ living luxury,” and 
were at once crushed between the valves. The oyster, with 
the two mice dangling from its shell, was for a long time ex- 
hibited as a curiosity. Carew, in his history of Cornwall, tells 
of an oyster that closed on three mice. An appropriate instance 


is also epigrammatically recorded in the Greek anthology. 


® . 
- 
Scientific and General Memoranda. 527 
A Geological Manual, by Henry T. De la Beche, F.R. 8. F. 6.5. 
&c. &c.—We have received the second edition, corrected and 
enlarged, of this very instructive work. The lists of organic 
remains have been corrected, and additions made to them, as 
well as to the body of the work. 


On the Means by which certain Animals ascend the Vertical Sur- 
faces of highly polished Bodies——Mr. Blackwall has read a paper 
before the Linnean Society of London, showing that insects ef- 
fect their progress upon the vertical sides of smooth objects, by 
the agency of an adhesive secretion, emitted by the instruments 
they employ in climbing, and which proceeds from the fimbri- 
cated under surface of the dilated extremities of the toes. 


Services rendered to Natural History, by E. W. A. Drummond 
Hay, Esq—This gentleman, who is British resident consul at 
Tangier in Morocco, has set a bright example to all official per- 
- sons resident in foreign countries, and deserves to be honourably 
noticed by naturalists. He has lately sent to the Zoological So- 
ciety of London, two Ichneumons (Herpestes Pharaonis. Desm.), 
and a pair of striped Barbary mice (mus barbarus. Linn.) With 
them came also four young ostriches, as a present to the king of 
England, from the sultan of Morocco. They were taken in a re- 
gion of the Desert called Hamadah. Although they have not 
yet acquired their adult plumage, yet the precocity of the sexes 
was indicated by unequivocal actions, whilst at Tangier. The 
king has presented the ostriches to the Zoological Society. 


Petrefacta Musei Bonensis, by Professor Goldfuss—The third 
part of this beautiful work has just appeared, and is fully equal 
~ to the preceding ones. It contains the stellerides, encrinites, and 
serpulites, with some additional species of corals. It contains 
twenty-five splendid lithographs, and eighty pages of letter-press. 
The learned author has paid much attention to synonymes, and 
has done a great deal towards clearing up the confusion they 
have created. 

Birds of Europe-——Mr. Gould, author of “ Illustrations in Orni- 
thology, from the Himalay mountains, is about to publish a new 
work on the birds of Europe, the first part to appear on the 


. a " 
528 ntific and Gener al Memoranda. 


Ist ofFine, 1832 ; it is)to be published quarterly until com- 
pleted. Each quarterly number is to contain twenty plates, im- 
perial folio; fifteen of which are to be descriptive of British 
birds, and five of birds of the European continent. Price to 
subscribers of each part, paid on delivery, three pounds sterling. 


A Manual of the Land and Fresh-water Shells of the British 
Islands, with coloured Plates of every Species.—This is the title of © 
a work lately published by Dr. Turton, author of the Concho- 
logical Dictionary. Collectors of land and fresh-water shells 
will receive great assistance from this beautiful and accurate 
volume, in the arrangement of their shells. It is to be regret- 
ted, however, that it tends to continue the delusion about these 
testaceous coverings, as if their beauty and scarcity were the 
main objects of the study; and not the structure, faculties, and 
habits of the animals that lived in them. 


The Tail of the Caterpillar becomes the Head of the Butterfly.— 
A writer in a late number of the Magazine of Natural History, 
observes, “ I have lately observed a curious fact, which I have 
never seen noticed in any book, that it is the tail of the caterpil- 
lar which becomes the head of the butterfly. I found it hard 
to believe, until I had convinced myself of it, in a number of in- 
stances. The caterpillar weaves its web from its mouth, finishes 
with the head downwards, and the head, with the six front legs, 
are thrown off from the chrysalis, and may be found dried up, 
but quite distinguishable, at the bottom of the web. The but- 
terfly comes out at the top. Is this fact generally known ?” 


Discovery of a Reef in the Pacific—A dangerous reef has been 
discovered in the Pacific ocean, among the Caroline Islands, the 
N. E. extremity of which is in latitude 7° 36’ N. and longi- 
tude 155° 18’ E. It was found to lie in a N. E. and 8. W. di- 
rection, and is so extensive, that the whole of it could not be 
seen from the N. E. extremity. It is about fourteen miles in a 
W. S. W. direction from Island Bordelaise, discovered in 1826. 
The discovery is due to the ship Larkins, W. Campbell, master ; 
and, as here given, is extracted from her log, bearing date 23d 
February, 1830.—Jour. Royal Geo. Soc. of London, 1830-31. 


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Extracts, from English and American notices of the Monthly American Journal 
of Geology and Natural Science. 


**Of the design, as expressed in the prospectus, which contains some can- 
did remarks on the state of the cultivation of natural history in the United 
States, we highly approve. Of the execution also, we are happy to express 
our approbation. Desirous of seeing our transatlantic brethren the emulous 
yet generous rivals of the cultivators of science in Britain, in every depart- 
ment of human knowledge, Mr. Featherstonhaugh’s Journal has our most 
cordial wishes for its success. 

Again we express our cordial wishes for the prosperity of this work, which 
we are convinced will perform very important services to science.”—Philo- 
sophical Magazine and Annals of Philosophy, London, October, 1831, 

* 


“‘It affords us the greatest satisfaction to find, that it is precisely in this 
laudable spirit of christianized philosophy, that the Monthly American Journal ° 
of Geology and Natural Science, has been undertaken by its able conductor. 
The first number of that work now lies before us, and if the promises which 
it announces be fulfilled even toa limited extent, it cannot fail to collect very 
valuable materials towards a complete theory of the earth. It is the avowed - 
intention of the editor to ascertain, as far as it is possible, a common ground 
for the theologian and geologist to stand comfortably upon, one which brings 
prejudice neither to religion nor science ; and to inculcate that one of the 
great objects of existence is ‘the study of the Creator through his works.’ 
We need hardly add, that such a publication as this has our most cordial wishes 
for its success.” —London Monthly Review, November, 1832, 


We congratulate the lovers and cultivators of science on the commence. 
ment of a Journal devoted exclusively to natural history, and more particu- 
larly to that important branch of it, geology, and heartily wish for it a liberal . 
patronage. The couductor is a gentleman, who, it is understocd, has given 
much attention to natural history, and is advantageously known by his lectures 
on geology, so numerously attended and favorably received a few months 
ago.—Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser. 


The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science, is conducted 
by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Esq. of Philadelphia. There is no individual 
more capable of conducting such a work with credit to himself, and to the 
literary reputation of the country, than Mr. F.: the unquestionable talent 
and judgment he displays through the pages of this new Journal, give it a 
claim to the patronage of the public which must ensure its entire success.— _ 


_ Baltimore Gazetie. 


The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science is conducted 
by Mr. Featherstonhaugh, whose lectures on geology last winter won him 


_- golden épinions from a large and highly respectable class. This publication 


forms ah important accession to our periodical literature. — Philadelphia Satur- 
~ day Courier. 
ig 


The Monthly American Journal uf Geology and Natural Science is under the 
editorial conduct of G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Esq. a gentleman of acknow- 
ledged talent, and untiring industry. We earnestly recommend it to the no- 
tice and patronage of the public.— Boston American ‘Traveller. ’ 


The Monthly American Journal of Geology is conducted by Mr. Featherston- 
haugh. We have read all the articles contained in the number before us, and 
are satisfied with them. ‘The contributions of the editor are well written, as 
are also, those of his correspondents.—Boston Evening Transcript. 


e234 af fo ee 5 eC ee ee = po a > a en 


Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science. Mr. Feather- 
stonhaugh, well known for his devotion to the study ef natural science, and 
whose lectures during the past ‘winter, were exceedingly popular, has com- 
menced a publication under this title. ‘he first number is rich in the variety 
of its contents. A periodical peculiarly dedicated to such subjects was- 
wanted, and could not be in better hands.—New York Commercial Advertiser. 


The Monthly American Journal’ of Geology and Nutural Science. We wish 
Mr. Featherstonhaugh, whois favourably known to the public as a writer and 
man of science, success in his bold but useful undertaking, and we take plea- 
sure in recommending it to the patronage of the public.—Jrning Courter. 


We sh»'l to-morrow publish the prospectus of ‘* The Monthly American 
Journal of Geology und Nuturel Science. in the place of commendation, we 
shall only state Uiat it will he conducted by Mr. Featherstonhaugh.—United 
Stales Gazette. : i 


Journal of Geology. The supervision of a gentleman so favourably known 
to the public as Mr. Featherstonhaugh will doubtless secure for the work an. 
ample patronage.—Cunnecticut Mirror. f 


/ 


The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science is conducted 
by Mr. Featherstonhaugh. The well established reputation of the editor 
will doubtless secure aa exteasive and permanent support.—Bosion Traveller. 


Monthly American Journal of Geology. A highly valuable and interesting 
periodical bearing this title, has beea commenced in Philadelphia by Mr. 
Featherstonhaugh. He has deservedly acquired a high reputation for scien- 
tific attainments, and his style of communication is strikingly pure and ap- 
propriate.—Jiner’s Found: 

We have received the first numbers of the Monthly American Journal of 
Geology and Natural Science. Mr. Featherstonhaugh has a wide notoriety, 
and the amount and value of his scientific attainments are as well known to 
the public as tous. We feel willing to trust to the reputation of the editor 
for the merit of the publication.— Connecticut Journal. Mia 


American Genliey: The geology of the United States has been so imper- 
fectly explored and determined, that we confess it would have given us the 
most sincere pleasure, had the late Mr. Girard, of Philadelphia, left among 
his princely legacies the interest of $200,060 forever to be expended in geo- 
logical explorations and surveys. This sum of money would haye enabled 
two or three scientific gentlemen to enter upon a systematic and efficient 
course of Jabor that might develope the geological treasures of our gigantic 
continent, and add incaiculably to the perfection and beauty of this noble 
science. The intimate connexion between geology and mineralogy and agri- 
culture would have justified a bequest of this magnitude, sufficiently guarded - 
by trustees or some scientiiic institution. The geology cf America, like the 
features of the continent, is rich and grand and diversified, almost beyond 
comparison—and yet we have but one journal devoted principally to this 
science in the country. We refer to **the Monthly American Journal of Ge- 
ology,” published in Philadelphia, and edited by the accomplished and per- 
severing G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Esq. This periodical is in the first year 
of its existence, yet we hope it has made a beginning that shall lead to results 
as auspicious as its field of labor is rich and productive.—Badger’s Messenger. 


Journal of Geology. We lave, at different times, lent our humble efforts 
to bring into notice in this quarter, the yery excellent Geological Monthly, un- 


4 


. 


der the conduct of Mr. Featherstonhaugh. It is sach a work as should find 

favour with our young lovers of science, and if proper means were taken, 

fully to develope its design and character, it must receive from New England 
- 4 large accession to its list of patrons.—Boston American. Traveller. 


The March number, (being the 9th) of the Monthly American Journal of 
Geology and Natural Science, has been issued. The editor, Mr. Featherston- 
haugh, although not responsible to the subscribers, has undertaken at his 
own risk to complete the volume, and furnish it without furffier charge to 
those who have paid for it in advance. The liberality and public spirit of © 
the editor at this juncture, give him a peculiar claim to the encouragement of 
the public, in addition to that derived from the sustained excellence of the 
work.—Ballimore Times. 


- 


Mr. Featherstonhaugh’s Journal of Geology, after the severe shock it has 
_ received, has revived, as we are truly happy to see in the March number now 
before us. The powerful recommendations from so many quarters in favour 
of this interesting Journal, were not wanting to us individually ; few persons 
have the inspection of more periodicals than ourselves, and we must say, 
that we have often been struck with the general approbation it has received : 
indeed, without an exception, as faras we know. 5 

All men do not perform their promises after the manner of the edi- 
tor of this Journal; rather than that his subscribers should be wronged, 
he promised that justice should be done to them, even if it were at his own 
expense ; and this he has done, and generously too, for the March number 
is one of the best we have seen, and has a very beautiful plate, from an origi- 
ginal drawing, of the Natural Bridge in Virginia.—U. S.. Gazette, Philad. 


We have slightly examined five nambers of this work. The title, above 
recited, is so full as to need nothing in addition, descriptive of the editor’s 
plan. It appears to us that he will lose nothing of his scientific and literary 
reputation by the execution of this periodical, which, as far as practicable, in 
the limits of an octavo pamphlet, fulfils the promises of the prospectus. An 
exceedingly well written paper, entitled ‘* An Epitome of the progress of 
Natural Science,” has been continued through several numbers, which we 
presume to have come from the pen of the editor himself. When such works 
as this periodical, find support, and are extensively circulated, it may be in- 
ferred that the spirit of inquiry is abroad, and the number of scientific stu~ 
dents increasing.—New England Megazine. f 


~ 


We are glad to find that our fears as to the success of this valuable Jour- 
- nal are dispelled by the appearance of the ninth number. The delay in the 
__ publication of this number is accounted for by the failure of the former pub- 
' jisher. We trust that the able and accomplished editor will have no cause 
_ to regret that he has determined to finish the volume at his own expense. 

Of the ultimate success of the work there can be little doubt, if it continues 
to exhibit the science and independence which now distinguishes it. The 
reputation of Mr. Featherstonhaugh, as a man of science and letters has been 

_ long established both in this country and in Europe. The articles from the 
pen of the editor are written with purity and force, and it may be confidently 
anticipated that unimportant and incorrect communications will not be admit- 

_ ted, nor the pages of the Journal be disfigured by speculations discreditable 

_ to American science. 

**The leading character of this work is geological, and it may be consider- 
ed as devoted to the exposition of the geology and natural history of this 
continent ; and to elementary instruction, concerning the principles and de- 
tails of these important branches of knowledge.” In this it differs from the 
“American Monthly Journal of Science and Arts,” which is ‘a repository 
for papers of every description,”’—Cambridge Amer. Monthly Review, 


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GEOLOGY 
AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 


Vor. I. PuiwapEevpuis, JuNE, 1832. No. 12. 


Bulowville, Jan. 12th, 18382. 

My Dear F.—In my letter from this place of the 31st De- 
cember,* I gave you by way of Episode, an account of my ad- 
ventures on the Halifax river, but I never told you when I got 
here, or how I got here from St. Augustine, both of which mat- 
ters I know you are so desirous of being acquainted with, that I 
expect a good scolding in the very next letter I receive from 
you for my omission. In future, the understanding between us 
must be, that when I choose to write Episodes, you must let me 
write Episodes, confiding always in my intention to give you as 
regular an account of my movements as circumstances will ad- 
mit of. I amaware that very few travellers have been in this 
part of the world with the views that have brought me here, 

_and in the hope that the details Iam about to give you will be 
acceptable, I shall now take my start from St. Augustine, from 
whence I wrote you Dec. 7+. 

After remaining in this place about three weeks, we proceeded 
through the inlet that divides St. Anastasia’s Island from the 
main, to the plantation of General Hernandez, about thirty-five 
miles from St. Augustine. On our way, we passed at Matanza 
Inlet, an old fort built by the Spaniards, now a ruin; here we 
turned into a creek, fed by the salt water tides, until we reached 
the landing place at the General’s. Our hands took the baggage 
to the house, and when we dismissed them, they determined to 
return, although the night was dark, and the wind quite ad- 
verse. 


* See March Number, 1832, 7 See February Number, 1832. , 
Vou. I-—67. 529 


ra. 


530 Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 


General Hernandez was from home on our arrival, but his 
Lady received us very politely. I had soon the pleasure of 
shaking hands with my worthy host, and became established in — 
his family for ten days. On Christmas day we left this delight- 
ful abode, and proceeded on foot fifteen miles to J. T. Bulow’s, 
Esq. of Bulowsville, by invitation. A wagon was sent for our 
baggage, and horses for ourselves were offered at the same 
time, but it was not my desire to give unnecessary trouble, and 
above all upon an occasion when I was glad to see the country 
in as much detail as possible, and anxious to avail myself of 
every occasion to get new birds. 

Mr. Bulow’s house is large and good, and nothing could be 
more amiable than his reception of me. He placed every facili- 
ty and convenience at my disposal that I could have occasion 
for. During my whole long stay with him, there was no abate- 
ment of his kindness, of his unremitted efforts to make me com- 
fortable, aud to promote my researches. I shall ever feel grate- 
ful to one of the most deserving and generous of men. I have 
already narrated to you the excursion down the Halifax river, 
and shall now give you an account of an interesting trip I made 
into the interior, to a place of some celebrity in this country, 
called Spring Garden. 

I left my friend Bulow’s plantation, with the intention of go- 
ing westwardly towards the river St. John’s; Mr. B. gave me a 
seat in his gig. Mr. M’Murtrie, a Scotchman in his employment 
as an Engineer was with us, and was in fact to be my guide to 
Spring Garden. We passed several plantations, but at none of 
these did we remain a longer time than just to quench our 
thirst. 

A horse was lent me at Mr. M’Dermot’s, a sugar planter, and 
I leapt on the saddle as freely as if the world was all my own. 
We arrived at a Mr. M’Craigh’s, of course a Scotchman, whom 
I had seen at St. Augustines, and who received us with all ima- 


‘ginable kindness. He lives about 15 miles from Bulowville. I 


saw the whole of his new born plantation, the landing on his 
creek, his boats, &c. &c. We slept here, and at daylight on 
the 7th we left this plantation, to proceed westwardly through 
the wilderness towards the Spring and Garden, here so renowned, 
and of which I intend giving you a favourable description. 
Nothing could be finer than the weather, not so the roads; 


Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 5381 


for no sooner had we left the King’s Road,* than we entered 
first a thick scrub, succeeded by a still thicker mass of low pal- 
mettoes, extending about three miles, where we came in full 
view of what in this very interesting peninsula, goes by the ex- 
pressive name of a Pine Barren. 

I wish I had the talent to paint what a Pine Barren in the 
Floridas is. May God continue his blessings to me, and may he 
ever preserve you from having any thing to do with a Pine Bar- 
ren in the southern part of the Floridas ! 

The sky was pure, the pine trees far apart, beneath our feet 
nothing but sand and tall grass. The general growth low pal- 
mettoes tangled together, and the mere Indian path we were 
following, was so narrow, and of so doubtful a character, that at 
every step which our Floridian poneys took, we felt as if we 
certainly had at length got into the vicinity of the far famed end 
of the world, and our expectations were of course screwed up” 
accordingly. 

These Pine Barrens differ from all those I had seen before. 
The sand is thinly covered with a very poor kind of yellow pine, 
growing from amongst tall rank grass as far as the eye can reach 
on all sides. The country is perfectly flat, and subject to general 
inundations after the constant rains that fall in this latitude, in 
early spring. At such times it is impossible to cross these bar- , 
rens, and even now, after a period of extremely dry weather, 
we were frequently in mud and water up to the girths of the 
horses. Large patches of grass presented themselves here and 
there, like so many worn out meadows or prairies, then again 
came the pine barrens. Whenever the surface became hol- 
lower, it was covered with cypress trees hung with Spanish 
moss, growing out of the deep black mud, and overgrown with 
all sorts of scrubby bushes of the magnolia family. 

We crossed in succession the heads of three branches of Haw 
Creek, from a quarter to half a mile in width: we got through 
them with some difficulty. After traveling about twenty miles, 
at the rate of two and a half miles an hour, a great change 
took place; the country became suddenly more elevated and un- 
dulating. The timber also changed to red oaks, magnolias, a 
few live oaks and pines, millions of molehills, called here sala- 


* This road, which runs parallel with the coast, was opened when East Florida 
belonged to the Crown of Spain. 


532 Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 


mander and gopher (geomys bursarius) burrows, offered them- 
selves to our eyes. Our horses occasionally trod in them, and 
stumbled at the risk of our necks. We now saw beautiful lakes 
of the most transparent water, and passed through a series of 
them on each side of us. As we proceeded, these lakes increased 
in number and in dimensions. Some of them are several miles 
in length and breadth, and have from seven to twenty feet in 
depth of the purest water, and abound with excellent fish. JVo 
birds about them, at this season at least, their banks being entirely 
destitute of grasses bearing food. 

Many tortoises were seen basking in the sunshine, all of which 
plunged into the water at our approach. Nota sign of man did 
we see during our whole day’s journey ; searcely a bird, and not 
a quadruped—nay, not even a rat (geomys bursarius). A 
more destitute and poor country is scarcely to be conceived of, 
than the section we crossed this day between the Halifax 
river and the sources of the St. John. The distance about thirty 
miles, and from Mr. Bulow’s about forty. 

We at last perceived the track of living beings, and soon after 
saw the negro huts of the plantation now owned by Col. Rees. 
Never did traveller approach Timbuctoo in Africa, with greater 
satisfaction and more curiosity, than I did the plantation of Col. 
Rees. Even our Indian horses seemed to haye the same feel- 
ings, for they trotted on towards the principal dwelling with 
great alacrity. 

We found the Colonel at home, and were kindly received, re- 
freshments were presented to us, and our horses taken to the 
stable. The proprietor purchased this estate a few years ago, 
and is now only beginning to plant sugar cane upon it. The soil 
is much the same as that on Mr. Bulow’s plantation, and is that 
which substantially constitutes the swamp land in Florida. The 
plantation is spread on the margin of a lake, now called Rees’s 
Lake; of which I shall speak hereafter, and the whole appears 
under the best of treatment. 

Dinner over, the Col. took us to the spring, and when I reach- 
ed it, | was certainly surprised, but I must try to describe it, and 
to give you my own ideas of the nature of this curious outlet of 
subterranean waters. 

The spring itself forms a circular cove of about sixty feet in 
diameter, from the centre of which it throws its water with so 


Letter from Audubon to the Editor, 533 


much force, as to prevent any swimming object from approach- 
ing it, except fish. The head of the jet rises about an inch and 
a half above the common surface, forcing the water away all 
around, after the mamner of a whirlpool, yielding meantime mil- 
lions of dead periwinkle (Lymnea,) shells, pieces of stone, of 
wood, gravel, &c. &c.; all of which are forced on the surround- 
ing shore, where they have accumulated perhaps for many cen- 
turies, and where they are concreted into curious solid masses. 
The water is beautifully transparent, of a sea green colour, but 
strongly impregnated with sulphur, which gives it a nauseous 
smell, particularly disagreeable to myself. 

The same shells which are thrown up at the spring, are found 
in each of the lakes of which I have spoken. These lakes seem 
to be formed from atmospheric waters, which in the rainy sea- 
seasons flow into these reservoirs or basins, which ultimately 
communicate with St. John’s river. I procured a bottle full of 
the water of this curious spring for analysis. The waters of 
the spring, after running about two hundred yards through the 
woods, flow into Rees’s Lake; the stream thus formed is called 
Spring Garden Creek. The depth of the water at the spring, 
when low, is near seventeen feet; the channel of the creck im- 
mediately below it is said to be sixty feet deep, but becomes 
shallower as you advance towards the entrance of Rees’s Lake, 
and so very rapidly, that on reaching this lake the bed becomes 
suddenly an extensive mud flat over the whole floor of the lake, 
with, at this moment, not more than fifteen inches of water ; be- 
neath which are deposits from the discharges of the spring, and 
a soft silt or thin mud to the depth of four and a half feet, lying 
upon hard white sand. When this silt is stirred up by the oars 
or otherwise, it is of a dark green colour, smells powerfully of 
wet gunpowder, and effervesces constantly, even when untouch- 
ed. Our boat was hauled across this mud flat lake into the con- 
tinuation of the creek.” ie 

Before we proceed farther, I would observe that the inspec- 
tion of the ground around the spring brought me acquainted 
with a very curious set of phenomena, from which it would ap- 
pear that the present spring is comparatively recent, and only 
one of a long succession of jets that have once been in activity, 
but which are now filled up with the fragments of shells, wood, 
gravel, &c, they have ejected. During the rainy season, when 


534 Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 


the ground is saturated with water, it issues from various vents, 
distant from one to three hundred yards from each other ; the in- 
tervening distances appear to be filled up with the fragments I 
have before alluded to, and with silt. ‘The fragments now accu- 
mulated by the jet in activity, are evidently approaching it, in 
time it will be choked up, and then, I suppose, the pressure ope- 
rating upon the general filtration from all these lakes and 
the surface, will force a new jet up in some weak place. The ori- 
fice of the present one is about two and a half feet square ; its 
velocity in the rainy season is about three feet per second, which 
gives near 500,000 gallons per hour. ‘The cove, from which this 
jet rises, is, as I have before stated, about sixty feet in diameter. 

We found the creek covered with the common nymphea, in a 
depth varying from fifteen inches to five feet of water. On the 
north east side is a great cypress swamp, and on the opposite 
side marshes, and islands covered with pines, live oaks, and sour 
orange trees. Alligators in abundance, many water fowls, such 
as ibis, hanningas or snake birds, galinules, coots, ducks, cormo- 
rants, fish-hawks, &c. &c. We proceeded down this Spring Gar- 
den Creek, with much difficulty, for about two miles and a quar- 
ter, and reached Dexter’s lake, but passed a mud flat at its en- 
trance so very shallow, that I doubted. at one time, if we should 
be able to effect a passage. Here the mud was literally filled 
with muscles (Unio,) resembling those of the Ohio river. Our 
negroes brought up from eight to ten each time they put their 
hands into the mud, so that I collected a great many, out of 
which I selected about sixty. Two other kind of shells were 
found here, and of these also I preserved a sufficient quantity ; 
but mark! the water was now of a different colour ; from a trans- 
parent sea green, it had become a dark chestnut, although still 
limpid. The lake had an uniform depth of about five feet, and 
we proceeded across its north east corner without difficulty; it 
is about eight miles long, and about three miles broad, without 
islands, and bordered like the rest with ample marshes. The 
continuation of the creek which we now entered leads to the 
opening of Woodruff’s Lake, which itself empties its own dark 
waters into the St. John’s. We could not reach the bottom of 
the mud of this creek; we pushed our oars into it, up to the 
very ends with great ease. This was a cause of great sorrow 
and disappointment to me, for I shot the male and female of a 


Letter from Audubon to the Editor. 535 


new species of ibis; they fell not far from us upon the tangled 
nymphz, but such was the state of the mud, that it was impossi- 
ble to recover them. Being only a few yards distant from us, 
and quite near enough to ascertain the extent of my loss—I 
submitted to lose a fine pair of a new species, the which if I 
ever fall in with it again, I shall call Tantalus fuscus. 

The chain of creeks and lakes I am now describing empties 
itself into the St. John’s, about sixteen miles south of and above 
Lake George. We reached the borders of Woodruff’s Lake 
about oné P. M., and being fatigued and hungry, we landed on a 
small island of a few acres, covered with a grove of sour orange 
trees, intermixed with a few live oaks. The oranges were in 
great profusion on the trees—every thing about us was calm 
and beautiful and motionless, as if it had just come from the 
hand of the Creator. It would have been a perfect Paradise 
for a poet, but I was not fit to be in Paradise; the loss of my ibis 
made me as sour as the oranges that hung about me.. I felt un- 
quiet, too, in this singular scene, as if I was almost upon the 
verge of creation, where realities were tapering off into nothing. 
The general wildness, the eternal labyrinths of waters and 
marshes, interlocked and apparently never ending; the whole 
surrounded by interminable swamps—all these things had a ten- 
dency to oppress my spirits, notwithstanding some beautiful 
flowers, rich looking fruits, a pure sky, and the ample sheets of 
water at my feet. Here lam then in the Floridas, thought I, a 
country that received its romantic name from the fragrant odours 
wafted from the orange groves, to the boats of the first discove- 
rers, and which from my childhood I have consecrated in my 
imagination as the garden of the United States. A garden 
where all that is not mud, mud, mud, is sand, sand, sand; where 
the fruit is so sour that it is not eatable, and where in place of 
singing birds and golden fishes, you have a species of ibis that 
you cannot get when you have shot it, and alligators, snakes and 
scorpions. 

Mr. Bartram was the first to call this a garden, but he is to 
be forgiven, he was an enthusiastic botanist, and rare plants, in 
the eyes of such a man, convert a wilderness at once into a gar- 
den. Another traveller, however, who was in the government 
employ, has written in a manner that cannot fail to mislead those 
who have never visited the country. He says that the Pine Bar- 


536 Letter from Audubon.to the Editor. 


rens of which I have spoken, would make superb sugar planta- 
tions, and has given a list of fruits and plants that grow in the ~ 
Floridas; but he has not stated at how great a sacrifice of la- 
bour, property, and comfort, any cultivation of this kind can be 
carried on, except in a few well selected situations. On the 
" great scale, this kind of cultivation cannot be applied, for the 
pine barrens are so very flat, that the only drainage to which 
they can be submitted—at least for the twenty-five miles I ob- 
served them,—is natural evaporation. 

Of the climate, too, it may be remarked, that, nobuiihiaed: 
ing its average mildness during winter, it is far from being as 
pleasant as the winter climate of the northern States. The 
steady, dry, bracing frosts of the north, are congenial to health 
and good spirits, and all that is required, is to keep the body 
warm by exercise and clothing. Here, in the winter season, we 
have the blossoms open at mid-day, butterflies on the wing, al- 
ligators out of their holes, birds singing and disporting, snakes 
sliding through the woods, tortoises basking in the sun, the ther- 
mometer at summer heat, and yet when night comes, frost sets in, 
and frequently before morning almost every thing is enclosed in 
an icy garment. During the summer,—I am told,—that in the 
interior, from whence I am now returned, the heat is excessive, 
and the pestilential miasma of the stagnant marshes, lakes, and 
torpid pools with which the country abounds, renders a resi- 
dence here dangerous to the most hardy constitutions. I am 
afraid that those who had the good luck to sell the country to 
our government for hard money, have made more by it, than will 
ever be made again. I wish it were otherwise for the sake of 
the excellent and most hospitable men I had the good fortune to 
become acquainted with here, and the parting with whom was 
the only cause for regret which I had on leaving East Florida. 

I was greatly surprised to hear the accounts of those gales 
that desolate the peninsula during spring, summer and autumn. 
I have been assured that at times the plantations have been al- 
most destroyed, together with the greatest part of the crops. I 
have seen on Mr. Bulow’s plantation, the remains of twenty of 
his houses thrown down last June, and his own mansion was so 
much endangered, that he found it expedient to leave it, and re- 
move to his kitchen, which is a low building contiguous to it. 
During the summer, the country bordering the ocean, is refresh- 


Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 537 


ed by the sea breezes usually called the trade winds, from ten 
A. M. until sunset; this is a great blessing ina flat country, when 
the thermometer stands at 88° Fahr.: but it does not penetrate 
the interior of the peninsula; the heat there is as intolerable as 
the Miasma. 

When we had eaten our humble repast at the swect little 
Orange Grove Island, we left it. “alone with its glory,” but 
not without a name. It was determined, nolens volens, that it 
should be called Audubon’s Island, on the St. John’s river. 
Lat. 29° 42'. 

On going and returning from Spring Garden, I observed many 
plants new to me, especially a parasite, of which I collected 
some fine specimens, somewhat resembling the pineapple plant, 
growing in some instances forty feet high on the east side of 
cypress trees, of which the roots were in the water. I saw 
many daisies resembling the common European daisies, and large 
patches of heath, the first I have observed in the United States. 
The excursion out and home, occupied four days. 

I am now going to prepare for my return to St. Augustine: 
the schooner Spark is there, bound for the heads of St. John’s 
river, and as I am furnished with an excellent letter to the Com- 
mander from the Secretary of the Treasury, I shall hope to be 
permitted to embark on board of her. Adieu, my dear F. until 
I give you an account of this new expedition. | 


J. J. AUDUBON. 


REMARKS ON THE ARTICLE CONTAINED IN SILLIMAN’S JOUR- 
NAL FOR APRIL 1832, ENTITLED “MR. LEA ON THE NAIADES.” 


Sir—I venture to offer to you some observations on the very 
encomiastic review of “ Mr. Lea on the Naiades,” in the Ameri- 
can Journal of Science and Arts for April 1832. Mr. Isaac 
Lea’s papers were published in the transactions of the American 
Philosophical Society. That institution had been at a great 
expense to get up these papers, which, on account of their nu-. 
merous showy plates, have attracted much attention. The libe- 
rality which the society thus exercised, imposed upon the author 
the duty of making his papers as perfect as possible, and at any 
rate free from all reproach. It was .alike due from him to do 

Vou. I.—68. 


538 Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 


so, to all those naturalists whose papers might hereafter be pre- 
sented to that society with the same expectations. 

There are in the city of Philadelphia several experienced 
Conchologists, and numerous fine collections of shells. I would 
name here Mr. Hyde, Mr. C. A. Poulson, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Ma- 
son, Mr. Nicklin, Dr. Green, Mr. Hembell, Mr.. Pierpont, Dr. 
Griffith, Mr. Wardle, Mr. Wistar, Mr. Philips, and many others. 
To such persons, every thing that is done in Conchology is a 
matter of great interest, and as the unios of our country have 
been brought into notice but of late years, most of our Concholo- 
gists have had something to do, more or less, with the establish- 
ment of the species, and all of us—for I have studied Conchology 
likewise—are, at any rate, well acquainted with the. history of 
the classification of those shells. 

From the language used in Professor Silliman’s Journal, he 
has, as it would appear, purposely placed himself before the 
public, as the writer of the review in question. He refers to 
the labours of other Conchologists as being “ contained in the pages 
of this Journal.” Expressions of this kind often repeated, justify 
his being held as the responsible person, even if he is not the 
writer; for no prudent editor permits—at least 1 must think so 
—his contributors to personify him, without reasons that are 
approved by his judgment, of whatever calibre that may be. 
Editors who have every opportunity of rejecting what is incon- 
sistent with that extensive and sound information, that spirit of 
candour, which every man who assumes to pass judgment in 
matters of science, is supposed to possess, to some extent at least, 
by his readers, can set up no defence for misleading the public, 
by saying that important papers, affecting the interests of sci- 
ence, and the reputation of individuals, were admitted because 
they were not read, were not understood, or because it was not 
convenient to reject them. 

I shall apply the remarks I am about to make, indifferently 
to the writer and to Mr. Isaac Lea. 

The review commences with stating, that “the mollusca of 
our seaboard have hitherto attracted little attention, except for 
purposes of food. We never see their dwellings employed as 
articles of fancy or decoration, with the exception of the com- 
mon scallop, whose unpolished exterior must first be concealed 
by a coating of varnish and a border of gilding, before it is 


Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 539 


thought fit to enter into the construction of a card rack. Even 
the conchologist is forced to summon both his philosophy and 
patriotism, ere he can admit the pale purpura, the homely VENUS, 
and the uncoloured pecten, to take their respective places in his 
cabinet, by the side of their gaudy congeners from foreign seas.” 

Now this is not only altogether untrue, but is so prodigiously 
silly as to expose altogether the writer’s want of conchological 
knowledge. The mollusca of our seaboard have attracted a 
great deal of attention, and numerous collections of them are to 
be seen in various parts of the United States. Between Cape 
May and Rhode Island alone, our marine shells, far from being 
limited, as the writer observes, “ to a comparatively small num- 
ber of species,” amount already to 72 species; further south to 
Florida we may safely add 130 additional species, making up- 
wards of 200 species. Where is the collection that does not 
possess the fine Pecten magellanicus, and P. nodosus ; the beautiful 
Fasciolaria distans, and F. tulipa; the Tellina alternata of Say, 
the Oliva literata of the same naturalist, and the delicate and 
finished little O. mutica? Is the Venus grata, so homely? Did 
the writer ever see the Astarie castanea, the Lutraria lineata, the 
Nucula lamatula of Say, the solecurtis Costatus, the Scalaria 3 
species, the Lima glacialis, the Solen ensis, the Solen caribeus, 
&c. &c.? Did he ever see any of those fine marine shells so ad- 
mirable for their beauty, and the vividness of their colours ? 
Or rather when he has glanced over our collections, has he not 
taken them for what he calls “gaudy congeners from foreign 
seas,” believing that the pale purpura of the Nantucket beach, 
and the few weather-beaten dead valves he has occasionally 
picked up on other strands, were all the tribute ocean could 
pay to the representative of so many American naturalists. 
What becomes of the assertion of this writer, that our mollusca 
have attracted little attention, “ except for purposes of food?” In 
what cellar is his extensive cabinet of oysters and clams to be 
found? 

At page 170, Sil. Jour. Ap. 1832, it is stated, “ The first per- 
sons who occupied themselves with the scientific examination of 
this family, were Messrs. Barnes and Say.” Dr. Hildreth is 
next mentioned, “ but the papers of Mr. Isaac Lea, in the trans- 
actions of the American Philosophical Society, stand pre-eminent 


540 Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 


among all the labours of this kind, both for extent and nicety of 
discrimination.” ; 

The decision thus made ex-cathedra, will probably, as I shall 
take occasion to show, not be acceded to by practical concholo- 
gists. ‘The kind of pre-eminence due to Mr, Lea, will perhaps 
more clearly appear when it has been shown with what sort of 
a spirit Mr. Lea and his eulogist have displayed their concholo- 
gical information. But first I must go a little back. 

In the early part of this year, Mr. C. A. Poulson published the 
translation of “a Monograph of the fluviatile bivalve Shells of 
the River Ohio,” which has been already noticed in your Jour- 
nal (Feb. 1832.) In the dedication to William Hembel, Esq. Mr. 
Poulson says, 

“Tn publicly addressing to your notice a translation of Prof. Rafinesque’s 
Monograph of the bivalve Shells of the river Ohio and its tributaries, it 
seems proper to remark, that this paper was originally published at Brussels, 
in September, 1820, in ‘les Annales Generales des Sciences Physiques.’ 
Extra copies were transmitted to the author in this country, who distributed 
them among individuals, and the libraries belonging to scientific institutions 
in this city and elsewhere. It is therefore @ curious circumstance in the 
history of American Conchology, that this singular evidence of the author’s 
acumen, zeal and industry, should thus have existed for more than eleven 
years, while but four of the numerous species (above sixty) discovered and 
described by him, are known by his names, either in the works of American 
authors, or in our collections.” 

It is to be remembered, that Mr. Lea’s papers were all pub- 
lished some time previous to the publication of Mr. Poulson’s 
translation. We have seen that this gentleman considered Mr. 
Lea’s silence respecting Rafinesque’s discoveries made in 1820, as 
a curious circumstance, and now in April, 1832, some months sub- 
sequent to the appearance of Mr. Poulson’s translation, we find 
Mr. Isaac Lea’s eulogist stating—* The first persons who occupied 
themselves with the scientific examination of this family (Unio) 
were Messrs. Barnes and Say.” The name of Rafinesque, even all 
notice of his Monograph and Mr. Poulson’s translation of it, are 
here carefully excluded. I ask, quo animo, Mr. Isaac Lea and 
his eulogist have done this? Is this intelligent, is this honest, is 
this what is due to science and the public? Is this a dubious 
way to obscure the reputation of another, or a sure way to pile 
loads of darkness upon your own? 

The true order, as to time, of the labours of our conchologists 


Ose ie is “ r , eee ee a ee ee 


Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 541 


in the Unios, is Say, in 1818, who described a few species in the 
American edition of Nicholson’s Encyclopedia. Rafinesque, who 
in 1820 described more than sixty species; Barnes, who followed 
in 1823, and as to Mr. Isaac Lea, who has had every opportuni- 
ty of profiting by the labours of his predecessors, and of doing 
justice to them, he first dates in 1827. Nevertheless, in Silli- 
man’s Journal, it is now stated, that Lea “ is pre-eminent among 
all the labours of this kind,” whilst all notice of Rafinesque and 
and his sixty species is entirely excluded. 

At page 170, it is said, “the number of species put forth by 
Mr. Lea, as new, is so great, as at first to excite the suspicion, 
that many of them must eventually prove mere varieties of one 
another.” At page 10, of Mr. Poulson’s translation, we have 
the following passage :—“ A number of species, so great as to 
quadruple this genus, presenting infinite anomalies in form and 
structure, is a very remarkable fact, and occasioned doubts re- 
specting the annunciation of its characters.” Considering that 
Mr. Lea’s eulogist had never heard of Mr. Rafinesque’s mono- 
graph, there is a surprising accordance in the passages, which 
are founded in truth. It is the general opinion of conchologists 
that a very large proportion of these species are mere varieties, 
and that any list of species brought forward at this early period 
of the study of our Unios, will bear a reduction of at least one 
half. 

Mr. Lea, himself, page 2 of his paper, read before the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, Nov. 2, 1827, says—“'The constant 
and perplexing changes which the species of this genus assumes, 
have led even the accurate Lamarck into the error of de- 
scribing several varieties as different species, and it is not 
without due hesitation and caution that I am induced to add the 
present (six species.) It has been doubtful with some concholo- 
gists, whether the species of the genus Unio are not the mere va- 
rieties of one species.” 

“The gradations are so interesting, and at the same time so 

‘ perplexing, that he (the naturalist) is lost in the maze of their 
changes, and he seeks almost in vain to draw a distinctive line 
between them; for even the tuberculated shells sometimes pass 
by almost insensible gradations into smooth ones. Although this 
line may not always be satisfactorily drawn, I think their divi- 


542 Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 


sion into species should be retained, if it were only for the sake 
of system.” ai 

If they are not species but varieties, and are to be called so 
only for system’s sake, why say that Lamarck is in error for 
haying done the same thing? But where are the proofs of La- 
marck’s errors? That eminent conchologist has described forty- 
eight species of Unio; twenty-two of these are American, and 
five are without habitats. He is constantly receiving shells from 
the four quarters of the globe, and how can Mr. Lea, who has 
not the examples before him, assert that he is in error? Since, 
however, Mr. Lea does not scruple to criticise one whom he calls 
accurate, he may well consent to have the number of his disco- 
veries among these mazes and insensible gradations, reduced at 
least one half. I shall venture to apply this restriction to an 
enumeration of fifty-one species by name, which at page 172 of 
the review, Mr. Lea is stated to have added. Giving him the 
advantage of the odd number, and calling the number twenty- 
six, I shall state without hesitation that twenty-five of that num- 
ber have been previously described by other conchologists ; these 
are the Unio occidens, U. oriens, U. trapezoides, U. multiplicatus, U. 
ellipsis, U. irroratus, U. planulatus, U. pustulosus, U. pustulatus, U. 
soleniformis, U. perplecus, U. parvus, U. pileus, U. ‘Esopus, U. sulca- 
tus, U. pyramidatus, U. lacrymosus, U. asperrimus, U. brevidens, U. 
varicosus, U. circulus, U. patulus, U. rubiginosus, U. donaciformis, 
U. securis. 

It would be too tedious a task to give all the details which be- 
long to this extensive piece of “ nice discrimination ;” the inspec- 
tion of numerous collections, including his. own, would be neces- 
sary to the complete establishment of the fact. My own opinion 
is grounded upon actual comparison, and I here express it as my 
belief, ina deliberate manner. Ishall nevertheless give some 
of the grounds for it, which will perhaps gain me credit for what 
at present I can only assert. Before these details are entered 
upon, it may be as well to examine what Mr. Lea’s claims are 
to that character for “ extent and nicety of discrimination” which 
his eulogist claims for him. In doing this, perhaps, we shall find 
the measure of discrimination possessed also by his eulogist, At 
page 173 it is said, “with respect to Mr. Lea’s distribution of the 
naiades into the two genera Unio and Symphynota,—the distinc- 
tive character for the former being valves free, and for the latter, 


Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 548 


valves connate,—it appears to us a real improvement, and one for 
which he deserves the thanks of all conchologists. In the same 
page it is said, “ he (Lea) proposes also, the fusus fluviatilis of 
Say, as a new genus; for the reason that the canalifera are 
universally pelagian shells, while this is a fluviatile species, and 
therefore falls within the melaniana. He calls it the 10 rusi- 
rormis.” Let us examine what this real improvement is. The 
family of the watapzs consists of fluviatile shells. Lea divides 
it into two genera, unio and symphynota. The distinctive cha- 
racter of the first is valves free, of the last valves connate, or not 
free; the testaceous covering of the shell being extended over 
the ligament, and uniting the valves, so that they cannot be 
separated without a fracture of the testaceous covering. Lea 
then substitutes for Say’s fusus fluviatilis, a new generic term, io, 
and converts Say’s generic term intoa specific one, changing 
the fusus fluviatilis of an old discoverer into io fusiformis, “ sa- 
tisfied that no genus should contain pelagian and fluviatile shells 
im common.” [Vide page 138, paper read before A. P. S. 1831.] 

In the meantime, Mr. Lea and his eulogist, wrapped up in 
their real improvement, could not see that all this machinery was 
held together with a rope of sand, and that at the least touch 
the genus Symphynota must all fall to pieces, since several pela- 
gian genera, such as Pinna, Mytilus, Modiola, Hyalea,* &c. &c. 
are connate, as well as the unios, upon which the genus Sym- 
phynota is founded. This is double suicide on the part of Mr. Lea, 
both of his real amprovement, and of his claims to nice discrimi- 
nation; he revolutionizes Mr. Say’s labours, upon the express 
ground that “no genera should contain both pelagian and fluvi- 
atile shells,” whilst he himself creates a genus Symphynota for 
connate shells, which are both marine and fluviatile. His eulo- 
gist calls this real improvement. Those who understand concho- 
logy, find in Rafinesque’s genus Metaptera, all the sufficient cha- 
racters for the genus Lea would create, and much more distinc- 
tive than those implied by the term Symphynota, which is proper 
only to a family. I shall now proceed to specify, in a more de- 
tailed manner, the causes for striking from Mr. Lea’s new species, 
twenty-five out of twenty-six. 

Unio occidens—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8S. vol. 3, plate x. fig. 16, is 


* «The valves of the Hyalea are connate.” —Demont/fort, 1808. 


544 Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 


U. ventricosus of Barnes, in Silliman’s Journal for May, 1823. 
This is confirmed by Mr. Say, in Am. Conch. No. 4, for March, 
1832. Mr. Say’s is a finer example, and the figure much better 
executed. There can be no mistake here. Lea says the occidens 
differs from the ventricosus in not being globose over the um- 
bones. This may be in some shells. mint 
U. oriens.—Lea. Tr. A. P.S. 4. P. vi. fig. 5, is the U. dehiscens of 
Say, in N. H. Disseminator, Oct. '7, 1829, and since in Am. Conch. 
No. 3, P. 24. It is amusing to see how ingeniously Lea has manag- 
ed this plagiarism in the description. Say, in his description, says, 
“’Transversely much elongated.” Lea, has, “Shell longovate 
transverse.” Say, “Thin.” Lea, “Substance of the shell very 
thin.” Say, “pale yellowish brown, radiate, with abbreviated 
lines of green.” Lea, “yellowish, with oblique interrupted green 
rays.” : , 
U. trapezoides—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 4. P. 3. fig. 1, is the U. 
_interruptus of Say in Transyl. Jour. 4. p. 525, and since in Am. 
Conch. No. 4. 

U. Multiplicatus—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8. 4. P. 4. fig. 2, is the U- 
heros of Say in Am. Conch, No. 2. Mr. Say appears disposed 
to abandon his name of heros, in favour of Barnes’s undulatus, 
which he thinks identical. 'The shells are, however, distinct ; 
and Mr. Say’s candour is not to operate to his prejudice. Lea 
does not even mention Say’s heros, but avails himself of Mr. 
Say’s hesitation, to occupy his place, by substituting multipl- 
catus. We have here another travesty. Say. Unia heros. Sept. 
23, 1829. “'Transversely oval, with large distinct undulations 
three or four in number, directed towards the anterior margin, 
and not proceeding directly from the umbo: hinge margin com- 
pressed.” Zea. U. Multiplicatus, 1831. ‘“Obliquely transverse, 
undulated, except near the anterior margin—undulations diverge 
from the umbonial slope. Compressed towards basal and poste- 
rior margins.” 

U. Ellipsis—Lea.. Tr. A. P. S. 2. P. 4. fig. 4, is U. olivaria 
of Rafinesque. (Translation of the monograph.) We have here 
another instructive specimen of the art of appropriating other 
men’s thoughts. Rafinesque. U. olivaria, September, 1820. 
“Shell thick, somewhat ventricose, oval, elliptical, epidermis 
wrinkled, olive coloured, nacre white, iridiscent.” Zea. U. EI- 
lipsis, Nov. 1827. “Shell very thick, ventricose, margin ellip- 


Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 545 


tical, epidermis reddish brown, surface somewhat wrinkled.— 
Nacre pearly white, silvery, and iridiscent,” &c. 

U. trroratus—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8. 2. P. 5. fig. 5, is U. stegaria. 
var of Rafinesque. Trans. Mon. p. 51. 

U. planulatus—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 3. P. 9. fig. 13, is U. ‘faselp: 
laris of Rafinesque. Monog. p. 36. Dr. Hildreth, in Silliman’s 
Journal, vol. xiv. No. 2, Jan. 1828, has overlooked Rafinesque’s 
prior right to this species, and has described it under the name 
of U. phaseolus, which Mr. Say, erroneously, has recognised in 

_his Am. Conch, No. 3. Pl. 22. Barnes also, in Silliman, vol. vi. 
for May, 1823, seems to have indicated this shell in his U. mu- 
eronatus. Mr. Lea who is a man of “ nice discrimination,” and 
who has severely criticised Dr. Hildreth’s labours, thought that 
as this last gentleman had overlooked Rafinesque’s fasciolaris, it 
would not be very criminal in him to overlook the phascolus, and 
substitutes planulatus for the name of the original discoverer ! 

U. circulus—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8. 3. P. 9. fig. 14, is U. striata, 
var rosea of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 50. Dr. Hildreth named 
this shell in Silliman’s Jour. Jan. 14, 1828, U. orbiculatus, which 
Lea reproaches him with, saying it is another name for U. torsus 
of Rafinesque. Having thus settled the matter, he proceeds to 
describe the shell, which he declares to be a new species, U. 
circulus, nobis! In Wood’s conchology, this shell is called U. ro- 
tunda, whereupon the eulogist, thinking to do wonders, says, “ U. 
rotundata, Lamarck, the circulus of Lea,” not dreaming that 
if Lamarck had named it, Lea had no right to name it over 
again. Such is the way in which some people are served by 
their friends. In describing this shell, Lea has done nothing 
more than amplify what Rafinesque had said in 1820. Rafi- 
nesque. Unio striata, var rosea, Monog. 1820. ‘Shell thick, 
ventricose, rounded inferiorly, with striated wrinkles, epidermis 
brown anteriorly. Nacre white, the variety roseate.” Lea. U. 
circulus, 1827. “Shell round, very ventricose, transversely, 
wrinkled, epidermis anterior to the umbonial slope, dark brown, 
posterior, light yellow brown. Nacre white, pearly, rarely tinted 
with rose in the centre.” 

U. patulus—Lea. .Tr. A. P. S. 3. P. 12. fig. 20, is the U. 
cuneata of Raf. Monog. p. 53. 

U. rubiginosus.—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8. 3. P. 8. fig 10, is U. flava 
of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 38. 

Vou. 1.--69 


546 Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 


U. donaciformis.—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 2. P. 4. fig. 3, is U. trun- 
cata of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 31; the following abstracts of the 
respective descriptions, will convince every one of this, without 
comparing the shells. U. truncata. Raf. 1820. “ Shell slightly 
thick, apices prominent, the posterior face truncated, epidermis 
olive. Nacre bluish white. “ U. donaciformis, Lea, 1827.” Shell 
not very thick, beaks slightly elevated, angulated by an oblique 
carina passing to the beaks to the posterior margin. Epidermis 
olive—nacre pearly white.” It will be remembered that these 
claims of Mr. Lea, to these species, were asserted at a time when 
Mr. Rafinesque’s Monograph, which was published in 1820, at 
Bruxelles, was lost sight of, and that it was only revived by a 
translation, in 1832. 

U. securis—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 3. P. 11. fig. 17, is U. depressa 
of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 34. 

U. pustulosus—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8. 4. P. 7. fig. 7, is U. bullata 
of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 43. 

U. pustulatus—Lea. Tr. A. P.S. 4. P. 7. fig. 9, is U. nodulata 
of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 42. 


U. soleniformis—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 4. P. 10. fig. 17, is U. 
monodonta of Say, Am. Conch. No. 1. pl. 6. 
U. perplecus—Lea. Tr. A. P.S. 4. P. 17. fig. 42, is U. gib- 


bosa. Rafin. Monog. p. 56. 

U. pileus—Lea. Tr. A. P.S. 4. P. 18. fig. 47, is U. flenuosus 
of Rafinesque, Monog. p. 41. 

U. sulcatus—Lea. Tr. A. P. 8. 3. P. 8. fig. 12, is U. obli- 
quata of Rafin. Monog. p. 46. 

U. pyranidatus—Lea. Sup. to Tr. A. P. S. 4, P. 16. fig. 39, 
is U. rubra of Rafin. Monog. p. 55. 

U. lacrymosus.—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 2. P. 6. fig. 8, has been . 
by some thought the U. metanevra of Rafin. Monog. p. 39. Lea 
has mistaken the metanevra of Raf. for his U. quadrula. Monog. 
p- 42. 

U. asperrimus—Lea. Tr. A. P. S. 4. P. 5. fig. 3, is the U. 
rugosus of Barnes, in Sil. Jour. vol. vi. Jan. 1823. 

U. brevidens—Lea. Tr. A. P.S. 4. P. 6, is evidently an acci- 
dental variety of the U. depressa of Rafinesque. 

U. varicosus.—Lea. In the same paper is a variety of the U. 
esopus of Green in Conts. to Mac. Lyc. July, 1827. Professor 
Green’s paper is very judicious and instructive. This is the only 


Mr. Lea on the Naiades. 547 


species (U. esopus) he has ventured to name, yet the eulogist of 
Mr. Lea puts U. esopus, of professor Green, among the species 
added by Mr. Lea. 

I could multiply instances of this kind, but it is unnecessary. 
Mr. Lea seems to think that to possess a shell which has been 
before described, and to invent a synonyme for it, is fair game 
if it can pass undiscovered. He seems also to overlook the con- 
sideration that molluscous animals of the same species, are some- 
times large, sometimes small; there are giants and dwarfs, 
probably, in all the natural species. Thus his U. parvus, also 
previously described by Barnes, may belong to a species which 
another person with equal propriety may call U. magnus; be- 
cause it is the largest shell of the kind he has met with; and at 
any rate U. parvus becomes without distinction the moment a 
smaller race of unios is found. 

When Mr. Lea’s papers first appeared, it was perceived at 
once that they had been drawn up without a proper regard to 
the rights of others. They were permitted, however, to pass 
over in silence; it was not thought advisable to draw the ani- 
madversions of the public upon the transactions of a respectable 
society, that had given such evidence of its desire to enlarge the 
boundaries of our conchological knowledge. When, however, 
these objectionable papers are again obtruded upon the public, 
and studiously paraded in a scientific journal, it becomes a duty 
to speak out, and to point out to the American Philosophical 
Society, which has acted with so much liberality, the very seri- 
ous demerits of these papers. I regret that the task has fallen 
upon myself; it would have been more agreeable to me to have 
had as many occasions to commend, as I now find to censure. 
I speak for the sake of truth alone, my own claims to distinction 
in this branch of natural history, being in no way whatever, 
compromised by what Mr. Lea has written. That he has been 
unjust to those who preceded him, and to whose labours he is 
indebted in the greatest degree for the information he possesses, 
is unquestionably true; and he will haye reason to regret that 
he has not taken a more secure method of raising himself a repu- 
tation. No man deserves to succeed, whose first object is to ob- 
scure the labours of those who have preceded him. Neither has 
he sufficient originality in what is his own, to sustain him against 
the resentment many will bear towards him, and the general 


548 Mr. Lea on the Navades. 
a 


feeling that will soon exist against him as a naturalist. Mr. Say 
deserved to be treated, for many reasons, with the greatest re- 
spect, and to have received from him the ample acknowledgments 
which other naturalists are happy to make to his great merits. 
Rafinesque has been a perfect mine to Mr. Lea. Barnes can 
be so no more. The labour which he has bestowed on his papers 
has been thrown away ; they will soon be of no more value than 
picture books. z 

As to the eulogist of Mr. Lea, he, it is evident, knows nothing 
of conchology. It is easy, from a few notes, to draw up an eulo- 
gium, and quite as easy to fall into continual errors. No man 
can long write intelligently on a subject he does not understand. 
In this instance the habit of eulogy has constantly led the writer 
too far, even where, without scientific information, he ought not 
to have erred. When he says, speaking of Mr. Lea’s plates, 
that “ they certainly surpass every thing of the kind yet done in 
the United States,” it is due to truth to say it is not so; that 
many of Mr. Say’s figures are better drawn, better coloured, and 
are truer to nature. I would also mention Mr. Conrad’s beau- 
tiful figures, if I were not satisfied that the eulogist is beyond the 
reach of any arguments I can offer to him. I regret, sincerely, 
that it is so, and that I should be compelled to express my dis- 
satisfaction with the loose and very injurious manner, in which 
the branches of natural history are treated in the New Haven 
Journal. 

I am, it appears, not alone in this. The review of a late 
translation in your Journal, of the regne animal, has excited a 
great deal of attention. The Journal of Professor Silliman has 
been, for a long time, the only scientifical periodical to which 
we have been accustomed to look for correct information ; there 
is a feeling abroad that will cause this to be done with less con- 
fidence. Editors who reside in unfavourable situations, far from 
the busy current of human affairs, and whose time is too often 
filled to repletion with the discharge of those more serious and 
exacting duties belonging to the instruction of collegiate youth, 
cannot devote much of their time to practical investigations in 
the branches of natural science. Institutions, situated as Yale 
college is, are capable of nourishing profound and contemplative 
minds, of producing learned theologians, and acute metaphysi- 
cians, but naturalists cannot be produced there. ‘To become a 


M‘Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 549 


naturalist, a man must be where multitudes congregate, where 
things that are new and rare in nature, are constantly tending. 
He must have the most imaginable free access to all these things, 
whether in public or in private; and he must be a free man, so 
far as to be able to command his own time for occasional perso- 
nal investigations at a distance. Then comes the very general 
correspondence he must establish with the uninitiated, and with 
those who know more than himself. Men of this kind, gradually 
become the repositofies of an immense number of facts; and if 
they have the talent of arranging them naturally and lucidly, 
so as to show the progress men are making, or ought to make, 
in the knowledge of nature, their opinions are respected, and 
they give them with a becoming confidence. 

We have many very clever men in our colleges, who in addi- 
tion to their other attainments, are, according to the degree of 
their opportunities, accurate naturalists. Most of these men are 
silent—restrained by a strong sense of that deficiency, which 
want of intercourse with men and things always generates in 
ingenuous minds. It is the misfortune of those who are in a false 
position, that conceiving themselves obliged to play that part 
which belongs to men of greater discipline, they render their 
own deficiencies the more conspicuous, giving the same degree 
of confidence to the wise and the ignorant, hoping their good 
intentions will atone for their want of intellectual power. It is 
in this way that a Journal, once respectable in the eyes of men 
of science, has become a receptacle for things stale and without 
flavour, where fossil coal! plants are turned into petrified rattle- 
snakes ; a translation warmly recommended to the public as very 
faithful and able, which has been exposed in a very distressing 
manner ; and where pretensions that will not endure a ray of in- 
_ vestigation, are eulogized as the perfection of knowledge. 
INVESTIGATOR. 


MMURTRIE'S TRANSLATION OF THE REGNE ANIMAL. 


Sir,—The remarks which you have appended to my review 
of Dr. M’Murtrie’s first volume of his translation, will, I hope, 
produce the effect you good naturedly intended they should. 
As to the pain which my strictures may give him, it will be but 


= 


550 M‘Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


temporary, whilst the errors and omissions of his work—leaving 
out of sight the injustice he has done to naturalists who have 
not deserved it at his hands—would be permanently injurious to 
the progress of knowledge, if they were permitted to pass un- 
observed. It would be superfluous in me to enter into an expla- 
nation of the motives which have induced me tu expose the de- 
fects I have found in the work.’ If it had been worthy of the 
original, I should have commended it with all sincerity to many 
who are desirous of acquiring instructive books on natural his- 
tory: to know how far I might commend it, I purchased it, and 
having given it a faithful examination, I proceed to give’a true 
account of it, not after the illiberal manner of some reviewers, 
who for the sake of showing how much they can wound the 
feelings of others, insinuate imperfections they are not prepared 
to prove, but by laying the facts before my readers that they may 
judge for themselves. I have been the less scrupulous at doing 
this, having had many occasions to perceive that the translator 
has not hesitated to be unjust to others, even to his author; and 
if any motive to whet me on to the task was wanted, I should 
have found it in the unblushing and egregious puffing the work 
has got in Silliman’s Journal. I dare say it is a pleasant thing 
to be paid for praising works you are not required to read, and 
which it is waste time to read when you do not understand them. 
I am not one of those who make a traflic of commendations of 
this kind. I have read the original of this work, have studied 
it, and have compared this translation with it, and having some 
feeling for those students in natural history, into whose hands it 
was likely to fall, |communicate that information to them, which 
I know would be invaluable to myself under similar circumstances. 
As long as you are disposed to give my remarks a place in your 
independent journal, I shall from time to time communicate them 
to you, leaving to the public to give their intrinsic value to my 
criticisms, from the facts contained in them, and from the appa- 
rent spirit with which they are brought forward. 

The remarks I am now about to make have been suggested 
by the second volume. 

Cuvier, at page 16, [8vo. Paris 1829,] states that the Saurians 
“ont le coeur composé, comme celui des Cheloniens, de deux 
oreillettes, et d’un ventricule quelquefois divis¢ par de scloisons 
imparfaites.” Farther on, at page 24, he refers, in a note to a 


M‘Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Anima. 551 


memoir on the Circulation of Reptiles, by an American Natural- 
ist: had the translator taken the trouble to consult the memoir, 
‘he would have seen that Cuvier had there found reasons for 
modifying his opinion on the structure of their organs of circu- 
lation. If he has consulted it why has he suppressed all notice 
of the discoveries of one of his countrymen? 
Cuvier, at page 24, speaking of the Genus Monitor, says, “ ils 
ont des dents aux deux manchoires, et en manquent au palais.” 
They have teeth in the two jaws, but want them in the palate. The 
translator says, at page 18, “they have two teeth in both jaws, 
but none in the palate.” Now, to whatever this blunder may 
be owing, we must remember that this translation was not made 
for men already learned in natural history ; such persons would 
undoubtedly prefer to acquire the original to any translation 
whatever. The only claim to notice which this book has with 
the public, is that it is a “very faithful and able translation,”—as 
Professor Silliman has thought proper to call it—by the aid of 
which American students could acquire exact notions of the 
Zoological branch, and compare the descriptions in the transla- 
tion with the specimens to be found in the collections. How 
can Dr. M’Murtrie excuse himself then for putting our young 
naturalists to the expense and trouble of rummaging all the un- 
labelled specimens of our museums, (few of which have any 
pretensions to scientific arrangement,) for monitors “with two 
teeth in both jaws,” when no such animal exists in nature. Every 
student who has been well grounded in comparative anatomy, 
is aware that the teeth are the principal characters to be relied 
on in dried specimens of this genus: thus baffled, he has recourse 
to other characters, by the aid of which he at last finds out his 
animal, with a mouth full of strong conical teeth in both jaws. 
These small verbal mistakes, as some persons indulgently call 
them, are pregnant with important consequences to others. 
At page 23, 20th line, we have, speaking of the Tachydromous, 
“ Square and carinated scales on the back, under the belly, and 
on the tail; no collar nor femoral pores, but on each side of the 
anus is a small vesicle opening by one of the latter.” — Cuvier 
says, “le collier leur manque ainsi que les pores aux cuisses ; 
mais de chaque coté de leur anus est une petitie vesicule ouverte 
d'un pore.” They have neither collar nor femoral pores, but on 
each side of the anus is a small vesicle opened by a pore: Dr. 


552 MMurtries Translation of the Regne Animal. 


MM. having already stated they were without femoral pores, 
the words one of the latter must refer to anus. ‘These little 
vesicles then are opened by an anus. This is a precious dis- 
covery in physiology ! 

At page 26, 24th line, we have, “in some species are found 
femoral pores.” Then follows in the original—L’agame ocellé 
de la nouvelle hollande,” which is omitted in the translation. 

Cuvier, at. page 39, speaking of the Agama, quotes the Agama 
vultuosa of Harlan. A. N. Sc. Ph. iv. xix. The translator, in 
a note at the foot of page 29, says, “ from the observations of 
Major L’Conte, it would seem that what is here called the 
agama vultuosa, is the young of another species.” He has here 
shown his total unfitness to judge of this matter. The specimen 
upon which this species is founded, is preserved in the Cabinet 
of the A. N. S. of Philadelphia, is not a young animal, and 
cannot be confounded with another species. But what plan of 
criticism is this that the translator would foist upon his readers 
—where are Major L’Conte’s observations to be found—when 
did he make them—where—what are they founded upon? Did 
he ever make any! 

After this specimen of intuitive judgment, Dr. M’Murtrie must 
needs take liberties with Cuvier himself. This great naturalist, 
who is of course often dependent on the information he receives 
from persons at a distance, had been induced to suppose from 
the circumstance of the Heteredon tachete, and the Cenchris Mocke- 
son of Daudin, being both hognosed snakes, that they were the 
same animals: he probably had not been made acquainted with 
the fact, that this last is venomous. Here the translator, with 
a reckless want of veneration for his author, cannot resist the 
temptation of elevating a trophy at his expense, and says, “ the 
author, (Cuvier) in this note seems to have confounded three 
species of serpents, which are indubitably distinct—the Heteredon, 
the Trigonocephalus tisiphone, or Mockason Snake, and the Colu- 
ber Constrictor, or black snake; but he fails altogether, for the 
Trigonocephalus tisiphone, and the Mockason Snake are two dis- 
tinct animals.” It is dangerous to play with snakes unless you 
know one species from another. The translator has got bit 
when he least expected it. 

He is not more fortunate in rendering the meaning of his 
author, when he is translating physiological passages. Defi- 


M‘Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal, 553 


ciencies of this kind are glaringly conspicuous, when they come 
from medical translators. In stating the circulation in Batra- 
chian animals, at page 76, he states that the branchial blood 
is brought back into an arterial trunk, from whence “arise 
most of the arteries which nourish the body, and even those 
which conduct the blood to be oxygenated in the lungs.” Dr. 
M‘Murtrie, it seems, has to learn that when branchial blood 
is transmitted, it has already been oxygenated, and need not be 
carried to the lungs to be oxygenated over again. If he had 
known any thing of the subject he was translating, it would not 
be necessary to inform him, that batrachians, when young, have 
both branchia and lungs, and that the blood, when it has become 
branchial, wants no further oxygenation. When the branchia 
are obliterated, the lungs alone perform this function. Why he 
has so mistated his author, it is impossible to conceive. Cuvier 
is very clear; he Says, speaking of the arterial trunk, “ c’est de ce 
tronc, ou immediatement des veines qui le forment, que naissent 
la plus grande partie des arteres qui nourrissent le corps, et 
méme celles qui conduisent le Sang pour respirer daus le poumon.” 

The first remark which the translator indulges in, as American 
editor, upon the Batrachians, is equally unfortunate. At page 
79, he appends to one of Cuvier’s notes the following remark.” 
[* N. B. This last species (Rana clamitans. Daud.) is the young 
of the bull frog, Am. Ed.”] They are totally distinct, differing, 
not only in size and markings, but in their tympani and palatine 
teeth. One so well acquainted with the little ones among the frogs, 
must be supposed very familiar with the big ones among the 
toads, and therefore, at page 83, our translator appends to one 
of Cuvier’s notes, the following gratuitous remark. (Add. Bufo 
Americanus. L. C. Am. Ed.) We never heard of this B. Ameri- 
canus before, and should be glad to know when or where Le 
Conte has described it. We imagine Dr. M‘Murtrie has no in- 
formation to give us on that head, and that it is a generous con- 
tribution from his own stock of information, intended to compen- 
sate to the great toad family for his strange suppression of an 
American toad, very accurately described by Mr. Say, the Bufo 
cognatus. (Long’s Expedition to Rocky Mountains, vol. ii, page 
190.) The habits, locality, and characters of this animal are 
there fully detailed. We had thought that Dr. M‘Murtrie, in 
assuming the character of annotator upon the labours of natu- 

Vor. I-—70 


554  M:Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


ralists, would have embraced so favourable an occasion of doing 
justice to his own countrymen. The greatest favour they receive 
from him is in mentioning them very seldom, and it svninaines- is 
a favour to be misrepresented as little as possible. 

It would extend this communication to an inconvenient length, 
were I to note all the errors and omissions of this second volume, 
which contains evidences of great carelessness and unbecoming 
forwardness, in pronouncing judgment upon matters the trans- 
lator, evidently, does not understand. At page 119, speaking of 
the Cortus, after the words, “The salt water species are more 
spinous, and when irritated their head becomes still more infla- 
ted,” there is an omission of this passage “nos cdtes en ont 
deux nommées chaboisseaux, scorpions de mer, &c.” Having 
excluded these trivial names upon the only occasion when it was 
useful to introduce them, he proceeds, “ Such are C. scorpius L; 
Bl. 40. (The Father Lasher, &c.”) This vulgar name, father- 
lasher, is an interpolation of his own. Cuvier having described 
these two species Cottus Scorpius, and C. bubalis, says, “La mer 
baltique en a une troisieme espece distingueé par quatre tubé- 
rosités osseuses et cariées sur le crane. (C. quadricoonis, BI. 
108.” Which passage the translator proceeds to mangle and 
mistate in the following paraphrase. ‘“C. quadricornis, Bl. 108, 
(the four horned bull-head,) distinguished by four quadrate and 
bony tubercles. These three species are found in the European 
seas, the latter, more particularly, in the Baltic.” This is a great 
specimen of what want of knowledge is capable, when backed 
by presumption. In attempting to recast the whole of Cuvier’s 
very lucid statement, and to supply the passage before omitted, 
he translates one word erroneously, turning “ cariees” (carious) 
into quadrate, and entirely misleading the ichthyologist as to 
habits, for he says the three species are found in the European seas, 
the latter, more particularly, in the Baltic, when his author had 
expressly said, that the two first were found on the French coast, 
and the last in the Baltic sea. 

Another instance, of like nature, occurs at page 138. Cuvier, 
speaking of the Gerres, says, at page 188, “ Les Gmrrgs, nob. 
vulgairement Mocnarra chez les Espagnols d’Amerique.” It is 
the custom of this naturalist, when he notices one of his own 
genera or species, to add nob. as an abbreviation for nobis: this no 
translator has a right to alter; Dr. M‘Murtrie, however, trans- 


M‘Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 555 


lates the passage “ Gerres, cuv. Mocharra, in South America,” 
diregarding his author, who expressly says, “ chez les Espagnols 
d’Amerique,” and. forgetting that country is also colonized by 
Portuguese, and does not entirely consist of South America. 

Cuvier, at page 213, speaking of the Stromateus of Linnzus, 
says, “ leur zsophage est arme en dedans d’ une quantité d’epines 
qui tiennent a la velowtee par des racines disposées en rayons,” 
which is translated, at page 157, “ attached to the velvet by ra- 
diating roots.” The term /a veloutee is applied to masses of deli- 
cate and extremely slender teeth, having a velvetty appearance, 
which are peculiar to some fishes. 

At page 160, is another omission of a whole line on the article 
Pteraclis. ‘Ce qui leur donne la forme d’ une haute voile.” 

At page 200, speaking of the cyprinus barbus, which Cuvier 
observes is sometimes ten feet long—“ dans les eaux claires et 
vives”—he renders this last phrase, “in clear streams and fish- 
ponds.” ‘These must be famous fishponds! 

At page 214, nineteenth line, it is said, “ The flesh, (of the 
Silurus) which is fat, is employed in some places for the same 
purposes as lard,” which is not a translation of the passage in 
Cuvier. “Sa chair est grasse, et on emploi en quelques endroits 
son lard comme celui du pore.” Its flesh is fat, and in some places 
its lard is used like that of the hog.” Dr. M‘Murtrie would find 
it difficult to persuade his housekeeper that hog’s flesh and lard 
are one and the same thing. 

At page 242, describing the Lepisosteus, he says, “'The snout, 
formed by the union of the intermaxillaries, maxillaries and 
palatines with the vomer and ethmoid; the lower jaw equal in 
length, and the edges of both of them, their whole interior sur- 
face being covered with rasp-like teeth, provided with a series 
of long pointed teeth.” This incomprehensible passage stands 
thus in a literal translation. (Regne animal page 328.) The 
Lepisosteus has a snout formed by the union of the intermazillaries, 
the maxillaries and the palatines, with the vomer and the ethmoid ; 
the lower jaw is equal to it in length ; and both of them, their entire 
inner surface being bristled over with rasp-like teeth, have, on the 
whole length of their borders, a series of long pointed teeth. 

The whole Chapter at page 324, on Gasteropodus Mollusca, 
is full of errors. ‘Za spire in the original, is rendered indiffer- 
ently the spine or the Spire: at page 325, 11th line, the word 


556 M‘Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 


‘always’ is omitted, which destroys the description. At the 

32nd line of the same page, we have, “ it is observed that the 

head is always on the side opposite to that to which the spire is 
directed.” Cuvier says (Vol. 3. p. 33.) ‘On remarque que le 

Ceur est toujours,’ &c. at page 326 we have “ the mantel is pro- 

longed im a Canal” for into a Canal. At the 12th line of the 

same page, we have “ position” for “ direction.” At the 14th 

“ spine,” for “ spire.” . Cuvier vol. 3. p. 64. speaking of the Bul- 

la Carnosa, says “son estomac n’est pas plus armé que son man- 

teau.” Its stomach is not more armed than its mantle, i. e. they 
are both smooth; which the translator renders thus, “‘ The only 
armature of the stomach is the mantle.” At page 392, speaking of 
the Ostracea, it is said, “ In the first subdivision there is nothing 
but a muscular mass reaching from one valve to the other.” Cu- 
vier says, vol. 3 p. “ Leur premiére subdivision n’ a qu’ une masse 
musculeuse allant d’une valve 4 l’autre,” has only one muscular 
mass, &c. Every one who has seen oysters knows there is some- 
thing in them besides the muscular part. 

As the second vol. of the translation contains no list of errata, 

I add one to these remarks. It may be useful for a second edition, 

and even to purchasers of the first. 

Page 40, line 17, for ‘ Lizard Pandang,’ read, ‘ Pandang Lizard. 
Cuvier calls it Pandang lizard, because it is 
found at Amboyna on the bushes called 
Pandang. 

40, 21, for ‘ Pandang,’ read ‘ shore pandang.’ 

AT, 30, for (‘ or the Scorpian Lizard. Penn. Am. Ed.’) 
read ‘red headed Scorpion of Maryland.’ 

54, 24, for ‘ the tympanum,’ read ‘the tympanal bone.’ 


55, 4, for ‘ bunches,’ read ‘ branches.’ 
56, 8, for ‘ uniform appearance,’ read ‘ equal thick- 
ness. 
_ 63, note, for ‘Laurentini,’ read ‘ Laurenti. 

wis 6, for ‘ piece,’ read ‘size.’ 
72, note, for ‘ Am. Mus.’ read ‘ An. Mus.’ 
83, 11, for ‘in the tuft ofa palm’ read ‘in palm groves.’ 
89, 9, for ‘ Typhus,’ read ‘ typhlus.’ 

11, 14, for ‘the branchia have seven rays,’ read ‘ they 


have seven rays to the branchia,’ 
138, 9, for ‘ tabular,’ read ‘ tubular,’ 


M:Murtrie’s Translation of the Regne Animal. 557 


Page 140, note, for ‘ uncoloured’ read ‘ discoloured.’ 

161, line 26, for ‘ panache’ read ‘ plume.’ 

189, 17, for ¢ tursica’ read ‘ turcica.’ 

195, 11, for ‘latter’ read ‘lateral.’ 

SOT, 28, for ‘S’ read ‘C.’ 

204, 23, for ‘ inhaling’ read ‘ swallowing.’ 

207, 30, for ‘ two’ read ‘ both.’ 

217, penul. for ‘ under’ read ‘ on the inner side of.’ 

217, line 12, for ‘they are not eaten,’ read ‘ their flesh is 
despised.’ 

252, note 3, for ‘ BI. plaguisa,’ read ‘pl. &c.’ 

262, line 8, for ‘not,’ read ‘ no.’ 

264, 15, for ‘aguilla, read ‘ anguilla.’ 

274, note 3, for ‘ bad,’ read ¢ bal.’ 

275, line 18, for ‘ is,’ read ‘in.’ 

279, 8, for ‘spinal valve,’ read ‘ spiral valve.’ 

9, for ‘ united pancreas,’ read ‘ united conglome- 
rate pancreas.’ 

280, 23, for ‘ squatus,’ read ‘ squalus.’ 

282, 27, for ‘but neither of the three pieces compose 
the operculum,’ read ‘ but there is not one of 
the three pieces which compose the opercu- 


y Jum.’ . 
284, 7, for ‘ truncated,’ read ‘ truncated at the end.’ 
idem. for ‘ under,’ read ‘above.’ 


303, line 19, for ‘acalepha, read ‘ acephala.’ 
oat, 16, for ‘ Elios,’ read ¢ Clio.’ 
325, 16, for « spine,’ read ‘spire.’ 
331, 5, for do. read do. 

16,for do. read do. 
342, note. for ‘ macrée,’ read ‘ nacrée.’ 
408, line 1, for ‘ codiform,’ read ‘ cordiform.’ 


417, 3, for ‘ lanula,’ read ‘ lunula.’ 
430, 7, for ‘ arms,’ read ¢ anus.’ 
456, 24, for ‘azygous,’ read ‘ odd.’ 


this piece of affectation is repeated at the 27th 
line. Cuvier, in both instances, says, nombreimpatr. 

466, line 23, for ‘ valve,’ read ‘ vulva.’ 
Having waded through this unpleasant task, I close my re- 
marks upon the second volume. I have taken the trouble to 


. 


558 Synopsis of the Trilobites of North America. 


refer to all the pages, your readers can examine for themselves, 
and judge of the value that ought to be attached to Professor 
Silliman’s remarks on matters of science, who has proclaimed 
magna voce, in his Journal, that 

“ Dr. M‘Murtrie is entitled to the thanks of the cultivators of 
natural history, for his very faithful and able translation of this 
most perfect system of Zoology. The publication of the present 
work, we are confident will form an era in this country.”—Silli- 


man’s Journal, V. 21, p. 388. 
A SUBSCRIBER. 


SYNOPSIS OF THE TRILOBITES OF NORTH AMERICA, 


In which some new Genera and Species are proposed. By 

Jacob Green, M. D. Professor of Chemistry, &c. 

Tue following synopsis is only the precursor of a more ex- 
tended work on this subject,and which is now nearly ready for 
the press. All the species will be illustrated, by exact models, 
in plaster of paris, instead of the usual drawings or representa- 
tions on paper; so that every copy of the book will be accom- 
panied by a set of the casts. Naturalists being thus furnished 
with fac similies of the objects described, will be enabled to cor- 
rect, for themselves, any errors committed by the Author. 

Genus Calymene—Brongniart. 
C. Blumenbachii—Brong. 

Clypeo rotundato, tuberculis sex distinctis in fronte; oculis in 
genis eminentissimis; corpore tuberculato. 
C. Callicephala—Green. 

Clypeo antice attenuato, figura illiformi in fronte depicta ; 
oculis minimis; abdomine quatuordecim articulis; corpore 
plano. 

C. Selenecephala—Green. 

Clypeo antice rotundato; margine omni valde incrassato ; 
prominentia frontali utrinque trituberosa ; corpore tuberculato. 
C. Platys—Green. 

Clypeo antice rotundato—prominentia frontali utrinque qua- 
tuor tuberculis ; articulis viginti duobus ; corpore expanso. 

C. Microps—Green. 

Clypeo antice subattenuato ; oculis minimis in lateribus ca- 

pitis ; abdominis articulis a 14 ad 18; corpore depresso. 


a ye Gen Won a Tulse | 
Views yond to 


ee re ol et We ERD YGIOTOL OM ey Pe ae oe eS ee ee 


man’s Journal, V. 21, Pp. sdo. 


A SUBSCRIBER. 


SYNOPSIS OF THE TRILOBITES OF NORTH AMERICA, 


In which some new Genera and Species are proposed. By 

Jacob Green, M. D. Professor of Chemistry, &c. 

Tue following synopsis is only the precursor of a more ex- 
tended work on this subject, and which is now nearly ready for 
the press. All the species will be illustrated, by exact models, 
in plaster of paris, instead of the usual drawings or representa- 
tions on paper; so that every copy of the book will be accom- 
panied by a set of the casts. Naturalists being thus furnished 
with fac similies of the objects described, will be enabled to cor- 
rect, for themselves, any errors committed by the Author. 

Genus Calymene—Brongniart. 
C. Blumenbachii—Brong. 

Clypeo rotundato, tuberculis sex distinctis in fronte; oculis in 
genis eminentissimis; corpore tuberculato. 
C. Callicephala—Green. 

Clypeo antice attenuato, figura illiformi in fronte depicta ; 
oculis minimis; abdomine quatuordecim articulis; corpore 
plano. 

C. Selenecephala— Green. 

Clypeo antice rotundato; margine omni valde incrassato ; 
prominentia frontali utrinque trituberosa ; corpore tuberculato. 
C. Platys—Green. 

Clypeo antice rotundato—prominentia frontali utrinque qua- 
tuor tuberculis ; articulis viginti duobus; corpore expanso. 

C. Microps—Green. 

Clypeo antice subattenuato ; oculis minimis in lateribus ca- 

pitis ; abdominis articulis a 14 ad 18; corpore depresso. 


Synopsis of the Trilobites of North America. 559 


C. Anchiops—Green. 

Clypeo antice caudaque postice rotundatis; oculis proximis, 
magnis, exsertis ; articulis viginti duobus ; corpore plano. 
C. Diops—Green. Fig. 2. 

Clypeo lobato, plano: rugis tribus in lateribus frontis; tuber- 
culis oculi formibus eminentissimis et duplicibus ; articulis octo- 
decim; cauda rotumdata. 

C. Macropthalma—Brong. 
Clypeo antice caudaque postice attenuatis; oculis magnis, 
exsertis. 
C. Bufo—Green. 
Clypeo rotundato, convexo, punctato; abdominis articulis sex- 
decim; cauda attenuata ; corpore plano. 
Genus Asaphus— Brongniart. 
A. Caudatus—Brunnich—Brong. 

Clypeo antice subrotundato, postice valde emarginato, angulo 
externo in mucronem producto; oculis exsertis, conicis, trunca- 
tis, distincte reticulatis; post abdomine in candam membrana- 
ceam acutam extenso. 

A. Selenurus—Eaton. 

- Cauda semilunari costis angustis, valde distinctis ; abdominis 
articulis duodecim; copore convexo. 

A. Pleuroptyx— Green. 

Corpore depresso; cute coriacea, tuberculis minimis ; costis 
striatis ; cauda acuta, brevique. 
A. Wetherilli— Green. 

Clypeo portice arcuato, sulcato; abdominis articulis duode- 
cim; cauda vix membranacea; cute coriacea vix punctata. 
A. Hausmanni.—Brong. 

Cauda rotundata ; cute coriaoea, tuberculis minimis spinulo- 
sis tecta. 

A. Micrurus—Green. Fig. 3. 

Cauda attenuata, acuta; corpore valde convexo; costis stri- 
atis; parte marginali vix membranacea. 
A. Limulurus— Green. 

Cauda longa, spina munita sicut in limulo; costis abdominis 
in spinis, retrorsum flexis, desinentibus. 
A. Laticostatus— Green. 

Cauda prelonga, pars ad marginem vix membranacea; tu- 
berculis minimis; costis latis, convexis, et valde distinctis. 


560 Synopsis of the Trilobites of North America. 


Genus Trimerus—Green. 
T. Delphinocephalus—Green. Fig. 1. 

Clypeo semilunari, antice compresso; oculis minimis, eminen 
tissimis; articulis duplicibus vix lobatis; canda attenuata ; cor- 
pore tuberculato. 

Genus Cryptolithus—Green. 
C. Tessellatus—Green. Fig. 4. 

Clypeo rotundato, fronte valde convexo, capite antice semi- 
circulari, margine tessellato, ornato. 

Genus Dipleura—Green. 
D. Dekayi—Green. Fig. 9. fig. 8. caput. 

Clypeo lunato punctato; abdomine quatuordecim articulis 
duplicibus vix lobatis ; cauda suborbiculari, limbo lato convexo 
integerimo; oculis oblique deflexis. 

Genus Isotelus—Dekay. 
I. Gigas—Dekay. 

Clypeo antice ovato, acuminato, punctato; cauda orbiculari ; 
limbo lato; articulis abdominis octo. 
I. Planus—Dekay. 

Clypeo antice caudaque postice rotundatis ; articulis octo ; 
corpore depresso. 

I. Cyclops—Green. Fig. 7. 

Clypeo antice attenuato, plano; oculis rotundis, proximis ; 
cauda oyvita, acuminata. 

Genus Triarthrus—Green. 
T. Beckii—Green. Fig. 6. 

Cauda subrotunda, bipunctata; articulis abdominis tribus, 
absque lobis lateralibus consuetis, sed lobo arcuato utrinque 
apposito. 

Genus Paradoxus—Brongniart. 
P. Boltini— Bigsby. Fig. 5. 

For a description of this species see the fourth volume of the 

Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 
Genus Ceraurus—Green. 
C. Pleurexanthemas—Green. Fig. 10. 

Clypeo postice arcuato, angulo externo in mucronem valde 
producto; oculis minimis remotis; postabdomine in spinam ar- 
cuatam acutam utrinque extenso. 


Convertibility of Wheat into Cheat or Chess. 561 


_ 


CONVERTIBILITY OF WHEAT INTO CHEAT OR CHESS. 


THE opinion continues to be very much encouraged amongst 
agriculturists, that the heads of cheat or chess, which are 
often found in wheat fields, take their origin from seeds like 
those which they bear, and not from the seeds of wheat, which 
many insist are immutable and undegenerate in their nature. 
This opinion is a very natural and, perhaps, a very useful one 
to entertain, as it induces great vigilance on the part of the 
farmer in the selection of his wheat seed. Having practised 
farming upon a tolerably extensive scale during the most active 
part of my life, my opinions as to the immutability of wheat 
were long ago shaken. After attending to the selection of seed 
with the most scrupulous care, and with experimental views, I 
was tvo often disappointed when I had the greatest reason to 
entertain sanguine expectations in favour of the immutable sys- 
tem. Upon more than one occasion, too, when I had taken 
every possible precaution, and had seen the spring open upon a 
fine field, as I thought, of wheat in the grass, I had the mortifi- 
cation to find it shoot up almost entirely into chess. ‘The friends 
of immutability told me the chess had eaten the wheat out, but 
they never told me how the chess got into the field, or why the 
wheat had not eaten it out, which I should much have preferred. 
However, I sometimes had a great crop of wheat, and perhaps 
the chess was eaten out upon these occasions. 

Having had a liberal share of agricultural controversy, 1 am 
content to let others enjoy their opinions, however distant they 
may be from my own on such subjects, and do not wish to be 
thought desirous of encroaching upon a province, which now 
engages the attention of many able agricultural editors. 

I have a fact, however, to communicate to my botanical and 
agricultural readers, which ought to have weight in a contro- 
verted matter of very great interest. 

Whilst on a geological excursion this summer in Virginia, as 
the close of the wheat harvest ; Mr. Conway, of Rapid Ann, Ma- 
dison county, presented me with a plant of cheat or chess, which 
he had plucked up by the roots from one of his wheat fields. 
Mr. Conway is a gentleman farmer, well known for his intelli- 
gence and opulence, and his attention having been long drawn 
* Vou. L—71 


562 —Convertibility of Wheat into Cheat or Chess. 


to the appearance of cheat in his wheat fields, was in the habit 
of examining plants of this kind from time to time. The plant 
he exhibited, and which was but recently taken from the field, 
consisted of four stalks, not in the least broken, and as perfect 
as when they were growing in the fields. Each of these stalks 
bore a profusion of the heads of cheat, and nothing whatever 
that approached, in the least degree, to an ear of wheat. As 
far as the heads went it was a perfect specimen of cheat or 
chess. The plant, having been carefully drawn from the field, 
had all its roots attached to it, without any visible fracture, and 
in the most natural manner. Mr. Conway, however, drew my 
attention to the skin of the kernel of the seed from which this 
plant had proceeded, and which was attached to the radicle, in 
a situation quite distinct from the lateral roots. The skin was 
that of a kernel of wheat, and upon applying a microscope to it 
I found that it had been a kernel of wheat, and nothing else; 
not differing in the least from the skins of wheat seed as they 
are often found adhering to the radicle of wheat plants, bearing 
regular ears of wheat when the heads are well formed. This 
was the opinion of Mr. Conway, who declared himself satisfied, 
from the inspection of this plant, that, in this particular instance 
at least, a kernel of wheat had produced a plant bearing four 
stalks with ears of cheat or chess.. Mr. Conway informed me 
that one or two of his neighbours had found similar plants this 
Summer, and had come to the same conclusion, that cheat could 
be produced from wheat seeds. ; 

The evening before my interview with Mr. Conway, the ap- 
parent convertibility of wheat into cheat was the subject of a 
long conversation between Mr. Madison (under whose hospit- 
able roof [ found a most welcome head-quarters during my tour 
in Virginia) and myself. We had been old correspondents on 
agricultural subjects, and we entered into it con amore. . That 
venerable man, who at the age of eighty-two preserves all the 
vigour of a highly polished and unrivalled mind, related to me the 
many experiments he had personally conducted in his garden at 
Montpelier, by sowing cheat to produce wheat, but all in vain, he 
had never succeeded in prevailing upon it to retract its perverse 
deviation from its type; and Mr. Madison had paid too much at- 
tention to the production of cheat in wheat fields, not to be im- 
pressed with the many strong reasons there were to suppose that 


The Editor to his Subscribers. 563 


wheat, which belongs to the Graminez, could degenerate into a 
plant which approaches the grasses. He examined, on my return 
to his house, the plant which I brought from Mr. Conway’s, and 
expressed himself satisfied that, in this particular instance, a 
kernel of wheat had produced a plant bearing heads of cheat. 

I still possess this curious plant, and it will give me great 
pleasure to show it to any agricultural or botanical gentlemen 
who desire to be convinced that I have related the state of this 
plant faithfully. It appears to me, however, that if farmers 
would carefully remove plants of cheat at the proper season, 
after the heads are out, but whilst the stalks are yet green, that 
the controversy on this subject would soon cease. The single 
fact I have brought forward ought to have great weight, and I 
have no doubt that another season will give it all the support it 
may now appear to want. 

I shall rely upon this fact at present, and shall not attempt 
to support it by any arguments drawn from the physiology of 
plants, or theories of vegetation. There are, however, some 
very important views, which bear upon the economy of Agricul- 
ture, and are within the scope of this work, which will probably 
be brought forward in the second volume of this Journal. 

G. W. FraTuersTonHAveH. 


THE EDITOR TO HIS SUBSCRIBERS. 


I now present my readers with the closing number of the 
first volume. In returning my most sincere thanks to the patrons 
of this work, I must express a wish that it had been conducted 
in a manner more agreeable to them, but the various delays 
which have occurred in its distribution, have been more painful 
to myself than to any other person. They were occasioned by 
circumstances altogether beyond my control. The publisher 
with whom it was my misfortune to be connected, was highly 
recommended to me, but he abused the confidence that was re- 
posed in him, and deceived every one. Under these circum- 
stances, and seeing with pleasure that the work was rising in 
the public estimation, I determined to finish the first volume at 
my own expense, and distribute it gratuitously to the sub- 
scribers, rather than that they should be wronged by the sudden 


- 


564 The Editor to his Subscribers. 


discontinuance of a work for which they had paid. 1 have now 
redeemed the pledge given to that effect. 

Apart from the pecuniary losses sustained by the conduct ot 
the publisher alluded to,—who in numerous instances after he had 
received the subscription money, ceased to forward the work—I 
have been reproached from numerous quarters and subjected to 
repeated postages, for the irregular manner in which the work 
was forwarded previous to the bankruptcy of the publisher. 
It was thought that sufficient steps had been taken to inform 
the subscribers how little any reproaches were deserved on this 
score: now that the volume is completed I trust they will do 
me justice. 

There have been several subscribers since this journal became 
the sole property of the editor, he will be greatly obliged to them 
to remit him the amount due to him. He requests the favour 
also of ali those who have acted as agents for the distribution 
of the journal, to remit him whatever may be due. He hopes 
that none of the persons indebted for this journal will put him 
to the trouble of reminding them again, of what ultimately they 
must do. As to that foreign agent who was originally employed 
by the publisher at the establishment of the journal, and who 
by flattering letters has since decoyed the editor into forwarding 
so many packages of this work, he is informed that a silence of 
six months on his part, after repeated letters written to him, has 
left the editor a very bad opinion of him, which he may be 
tempted to express in a manner that may be very injurious to 
him, if time should prove him to deserve it, and a very little 
time now remains to bring his conduct to the test. 

The editor returns his most sincere thanks to his correspon- 
dents: it would be superfluous to name them here. The names of 
the most distinguished of them are found in the body of the work. 
When the heats of summer shall have past over, and when we 
shall be able, under the favour of divine Providence, to return, 
in a healthy atmosphere, to our wonted occupations, the editor 
proposes to resume the publication of his journal, upon a more 
enlarged plan. He proposes to have a geological section, and a 
plate of American fossils in each number, with appropriate des- 
criptions of them. He has been for some time considering how 
to introduce the information which has been collected concern- 
ing the various mining districts of the United States, and the 


Fossil remains of a Mastodon found in Tennessee. 565 


most economical mode of working them, in the most advantage- 
ous manner: with this view, he has established corresponden 
cies with practical miners and metallurgists, and intends pub- 
lishing in his journal memoirs and illustrations connected with 
practical mining. 

In relation to the gold mines of the United States, he has ac- 
quired a great mass of information by his correspondents and by 
personal investigation, and it is his intention to add greatly to 
it, by an excursion to the gold districts during the approaching 
autumn. 

In all those cases where his subscribers shall not have signified 
their intention to withdraw their names, the work will be again 
forwarded to them when it is resumed. 

G. W. FratuerstonHauen. 


FOSSIL REMAINS OF A MASTODON, FOUND IN TENNESSEE. 
Extract of a letter from Lr. Cor. Lone, U.S. E., to the Editor. 


Blountsville, Tennessee, Mug. 3, 1832. 

I visirep a locality yesterday, on my road from Knoxville 
to this place, in company with J. S. Gaines, Esq., where portions 
of the skeletons of a Mastodon have lately been found. Itis a 
marshy tract of a few acres, at the base, and on the south side 
of Chestnut or Eden’s ridge, (Walker’s mountain,) surrounded 
by hills of a considerable height. The rocks in the vicinity, 
as well as in the marsh, are limestone, in stratified beds, highly 
inclined and dipping to the 8. S. E. The proprietor of the 
ground, a Mr. Bridewell, informed me that the beds below the 
marsh are horizontal limestone. The skeleton was found by him 
in digging for tan-vats, of the depth of about three feet below 
the surface. The bones soon crumbled and fell to pieces on 
exposure to the atmosphere, which was also the case with a 
very large tusk. The diameter of the tusk at the largest end 
was ten inches: the circumference, at the distance of four feet 
from the butt end, was twenty-three inches: the length of the 
cavity occupied by the tusk, or that portion of it which was 
dug out, was by measure eight feet. A piece of the smaller 
end of the tusk was left in the ground, and was not included in 
the measurement just mentioned. 


566 Scientific Memoranda. 


Parts of three teeth were sound, one of which was taken out 
connected with a large fragment af the lower jaw. A portion 
of one of these teeth was presented to me by my friend Mr. 
Gaines, but like the other parts, it is, except the enamel, in a 
state of complete disintegration ; they all crumbled on exposure 
to the air. Mr. Gaines has promised to exert himself to procure 
as many parts of the skeleton as he can, and to forward them 
to me. I shall present them, together with the tooth now in 
my possession, to our Geological Society for the state of Penn- 
sylvania. 


SCIENTIFIC MEMORANDA. 


Tne delay in the distribution of this Number has enabled us 
to add the following Notices.—Eb. 


Death of Cuvier—We have to record the death, by paraly- 
sis, on the 15th May, 1832, of a man pre-eminent as a natural- 
ist, and as a reformer in natural science, whose fame is beyond 
the reach of detraction, and whose memory will be revered by 
all who cultivate nature and cherish sound philosophy, whilst 
civilization shall endure. He was to his eventful times, what 
Aristotle was to his own: yet in this he surpassed him—that 
his works maintain the first place in the literature of every 
country. It is somewhat to be admired that each of these illus- 
trious naturalists lived under the two monarchs, whose names 
must ever be found in the most conspicuous page of history, as 
military leaders, and ardent protectors of scientific men. We 
mean Alexander and Napoleon. 


Expedition of Capt. Ross to the Arctic Regions.—In his Annual 
Address to the Linnzean Society, lord Stanley observed, that the 
name of Capt. Ross was included in the list of deceased fellows ; 
but he expressed a hope that he might still be alive, although 
no accounts had been received of him for two years. From in- 
telligence lately brought to this country, an English vessel had 
been discovered on the Esquimaux coast embedded in the ice, 
which is supposed to be the same in which Capt. Ross and his 
intrepid companions went out. 


Scientific Memoranda. 567 


Royal Geographical Society of London—A communication was 
made and received with great satisfaction, that Dr. Richardson, 
the able and intrepid companion of Sir John Franklin in his 
polar expeditions, had volunteered his services to his Majesty’s 
government to conduct an expedition from the Hudson’s Bay 
Company’s settlements to the Northern Ocean, in search of 
Capt. Ross; and that sanguine hopes were entertained that this 
offer would be accepted, and a small expedition fitted out ac- 
cordingly . 


Royal Institution of London—Professor Ritchie exhibited the. 
arrangement he had made for obtaining the spark from the 
magnet, and exploding* gases by its means. The experiment 
was very successfully performed several times. Mr. Farraday 
showed the arrangement he had adopted for obtaining the spark, 
which he rendered beautifully visible. The magnet he used 
was the natural loadstone belonging to Professor Daniell. 


On the Crispations of Fluids lying on vibrating surfaces— 
Since the reading of his paper, in 1831, before the Royal Soci- 
ety, on certain forms assumed by particles on vibrating surfaces, 
Mr. Farraday pursued the investigation, and extended the prin- 
ciples in explanation of the curious configurations observed by 
Orsted and Wheatstone, on the surfaces of fluids on vibrating 
plates. By gradual experiment he connected these minute ap- 
pearances with one form of stationary undulations, and showed 
that the direct motion of the plate to and fro was with respect 
to the fluid converted into a reciprocating lateral motion; the 
fluid dividing, as it were, into quantities, which, on rising, formed 
heaps, and on falling gave origin to a similar set of interposed 
heaps, which again passed back into the first set, and so on con- 
tinually. Various forms of vibrations were shown; thus, if a 
cylinder just touching the surface of the water be made to vibrate 
up and down rapidly, radii form all around it to a great extent, 
as if elevation and depressed lines were passing directly out- 
wards. Mr. Farraday then considered the possibility of similar 
_ effects taking place in elastic media surrounding the vibrating 
plate, in which case the elasticity allowed of what could only 
take place in dense inelastic media by a suddenly terminated 


568 Scientific Memoranda. 


surface; and on the supposition that the undulatory theory of 
light was the true view of its phenomena, he remarked that the 
present effect pointed out how the direct vibrations of the lu- 
minous body might be supposed to become converted into lateral 
vibrations, and so produce that particular condition of the lu- 
minous ether which Young and Freswell have shown would 
account for all the phenomena of palarised light. 


Birmingham and London Railway.—This great undertaking 
will be a monument of the enterprise of the age. Not so much 
on account of the distance between the two cities, which is one 
hundred and twelve miles and a half, but on account of the 
skill with which the line has been established. The engineers 
appear to have availed themselves fully of the experience which 
previous undertakings have produced in every branch of railway 
motion. There are to be two lines of tracks, one leading to 
London, the other to Birmingham, and the general line has been 
so planned as to avoid encroachments upon private property, 
that were of an unwelcome nature. The tunnels amount to 
ten in number, one of which will be a mile and a quarter long, 
others will be less than a quarter of a mile. In consequence of 
this judicious plan of forcing an approximation to the most prac- 
ticable system of slopes, the inclination never exceeds one in 
330, or 16 feet in a mile of 5280 feet. Upon such a level it is 
probable that steam locomotion may be permanent and econo- 
mical. The rise of one foot in 96 feet, or 55 feet in a mile of 
5280 feet, on the Whiston and Sutton inclined planes, has been 
very trying, and has put the Liverpool Company to great ex- 
pense. It is now said that this last company proposes to aban- 
don steam locomotive power, and to substitute stationary or 
animal power, or both. It is very clear that the system which 
requires the least repair, although involving additional capital, 
is the true one to pursue. Things must be made that they may 
last, and not that they may eternally be tinkered. Of the 
twenty-four locomotives belonging to the Liverpool and Man- 
chester Company, seldom more than six are in operation, the 
rest are mending. It is stated, too, that the annual repairs on 
each of their locomotives amounts to £1500 sterling. These are 
important lessons for all railways to be constructed in the United 


Scientific Memoranda. 569 


States. The London and Birmingham railroad is estimated to 
cost about £22,000 sterling a mile, or £2,500,000 for the whole 
distance. 

The duke of Sussex.—The evening parties of his royal high- 
ness, at Kensington palace, are attended by distinguished assem- 
blages of rank and talent. The lord Chief Justice of the court 
of King’s Bench, the judges, the bishops, the duke of Devonshire, 
the earl of Munster, &c. &c. But the noblemen are not more 
conspicuous than the scientific and literary men and artists, all 
eminent in their professions, and in the higher pursuits of intel- 
lectual life. Objects of great interest are placed in various 
rooms, mechanical inventions, demonstrations in natural history, 
&c. An apparatus showing distinctly the circulation of sap in 
plants, has attracted much attention there. 

The cause of refinement and general improvement must gain 
by such meetings, and far beyond what appears on the mere 
surface. Where so much knowledge, and genius, and liberality 
come into contact, it is impossible that the result should be bar- 
renness. 


Tapir, or Danta.—Sir Robert Ker Porter has forwarded to 
the Zoological Society of London, a fine specimen of this animal. 
It was brought when young and wild, under an escort, from 
over the lofty mountains that lie between its native plains near 
Calaboda, and the city of Caraccas. He has now had it three 
years in a tamed state. It is difficult to take it alive in its wild 
state when at a mature age, from its great strength and saga- 
city. The present one is very docile. 


Sub-aquatics——An individual was to be seen the other day in 
the river, near Battersea, and literally in the river, for he was 
trying an experiment of submerging himself by means of an ap- 
paratus, and walking about at the bottom of the water. We 
were not near enough to ascertain the exact nature of his means, 
but they appeared to be simple and efficacious. A helmet 
covered his head, with a zone of glass round the eyes, so that 
every thing below is distinctly visible. Connected with this was 
a garb which enveloped his body down to the waist, where it 

Vor. I.—72 


570 Scientific Memoranda. 


was fastened, and all above it kept dry. A pipe rises to the 
surface for the air, how managed we cannot say ; but we were 
told that the design had been found to answer both in the river 
(of which we had evidence) and in the sea——London Literary 
Gazette, May, 1832. 

Geological Society of London, and Megatherium from Buenos 
Ayres——This Society held their last meeting for the season, on 
Wednesday the 13th June, at their rooms, Somerset House. 
The earl of Munster, and capt. Robe, R. E. were admitted as 
fellows, and took their seats. Several other gentlemen were 
elected. 

Some observations on the London clay of the Highgate arch- 
way having been read, the remainder of the evening was occu- 
pied by the description of certain splendid remains of a “ Me- 
gatherium,” collected and brought home by Woodbine Parish, 
Esq-, his majesty’s late Chargé d’affaires at Buenos Ayres, and 
found in the Rio Solado, about eighty miles distant from that 
place. 

A memoir, explanatory of the remains of this huge edentatous 
animal, by Wm. Clift, Esq. F. G.S., &c. was then read, in which 
the author pointed out many parts, particularly the tail, as oc- 
curring among these remains, which are wanting in the well 
known skeleton at Madrid. In the discussion which followed, 
the rev. Dr. Buckland gave a most instructive and spirited ex- 
position of the supposed habits of this giant of the “ edentata ;” 
showing, that while the bulk of many of its limbs far exceeds 
that of the corresponding parts of the elephant, the animal, 
judging from its Osteology, was closely related to the sloth and 
to the ant eater. 

Numerous specimens of other fossil remains were exhibited ; 
the most remarkable donation was a cast of the “ Plesio- 
saurus dolichodeirus,” presented by Edward Hawkins, F. G. S., 
being the most perfect specimen of this species of Saurian which 
has ever been discovered. 

In allusion to the Zoological subjects which were brought be- 
fore the society, all of which had been so ably expounded by 
Cuvier, the president took occasion to express the deep sense 
entertained by all geologists, of the irreparable loss they had 
sustained in the death of that illustrious naturalist. 

The first Wollaston gold medal was exhibited; and it was 


Screntific Memoranda. 571 


felt that the execution of the bust of that great philosopher and 
benefactor to the Geological Society, réflected much credit on 
the artist, Mr. Wyon. 

The apartments were extremely crowded; many persons 
could not obtain entrance into the meeting room. 

Among those present were, the marquis of Northampton, lords 
Munster, Milton, Cole, &c. &c. sir Philip Grey Egerton, sir 
Rufane Donkin, sir Astley Cooper, sir Thomas Phillips, sir 
Charles Clarke, the dean of Carlisle, general Straton, Messrs. 
Greenough, Tatton Egerton, Francis Bailey, Brunel, Lyell, 
major Shadwell Clarke, Mr. Copeland, col. Sykes, rev. .W. Ver- 
non Harcourt, Mr. Woodbine Parish, &c. &c. 

The society adjourned to Wednesday, November 1 1832. 


British Association for the Advancement of Science.—Great 
Meeting at Oxford, June 18, 1832.—About four hundred mem-. 
bers of the Association met, the 19th June, in the morning, in 
the theatre of the university. Lord Milton resigned the chair, 
and the rev. Dr. Buckland, Professor of Geology at the Univer- 
sity, was installed as president for the ensuing year. 

Professor Airy, of Cambridge, read a Report on the State of 
Astronomical Science; and.a paper, by J. W. Lubbock, on the 
Theory of the Tides, was, in his absence, read by professor 
Whewell. 


ERRATA. 
Page Line 
45, 1, for Crolalus, read Crotalus 
61, 14, lies read lie 
248, 36, one read onc 
349, 33, excavation read excavations 
252, 5, ardusino read arduino 


252, 18, Fuschel read Fuchsel 
255, 24, their read these 


257, 14, natura read nature 

277; 25, places the read places. The + 

483, 23, the superincumbent power read the power 
504, 10, aperi-ad-untur read aperiuntur 


515, 35, magnificio, read magnifico 


INDEX TO VOL. L 


Page 
Professor Rafinesques visit to Big 


bone lick in 1821.-.. 2... 24 ees eres 
221/Birds of Europe, 
By Mr. Gould... .... +++. +e0+ see 


Page 
Abert, Col. 
On the habit of climbing of the 
Rattlesnake... ...--+s+eeee eee tees 
Academy of Natural Sciences of fis 
Philadelphia, Birmingham and London railway, 
Election of Officers for 1832")... SBL Remarks upon.......s.seeeee eee 
Alleghany Mountain, and Moshannon |Bivalve mouse traps---- +++ ++++ +++ 596 
Valley, ‘ Blackwall, Mr. 
Section of, by R. C. Taylor—with a On the means by which certain 
-. 433] animals ascend the vertical surfaces 
of highly polished bodies........... 527 


§ 


eee 


gees ns eee ee 
American Philosophical Society, 


Election of Officers for 1832 ee 381 Bog in Ireland, 
Ancient vitrified beacon stations... .. .. 506 Account of an ancient body found 
Arvicola Nuttali, there. wore ess eee orem ceoaneneets 
A new species, by Dr. Harlan..... 446}Bohan Upas, and the Valley of 
Armadilloes, ; ; Death, 
Circumstances attending the birth | Account of......-20+-++0sreeeee+ 431 
of two young OneS.... +++ +++ +++ +s 329! Bradford County, P 
Arrangement, Geological notices of......-....-- 519 
N. K. System of. .... +--+ +++ +++ 92) Brazil, 
Atlantic Journal, : Notices of the gold region of, by the 
Professor Rafinesque, review of 508] Rey. Mr. Walsh.......----+++++++» 182 


B 

Anadingcht between Animals, Bridgewater, Earl of, 
Anecdotes of.... 2... see eee ee His bequest to the President of the 

Audubon, John James, Royal Society, for particular purposes 33 
Ornithological Biography.....---- 136]British Association for the advance- 
Se ie expedition to California, ment of Science, 

and the Rocky Mountains......-.--- ‘ : 

Se ere ka t|t Seam neat aeea 


tine, East Florida...... «+++ -+++ +++ 358 i 
Do. do, from Bulowville, East Flo- Brown lead ore of Zimapan, 


Communicated by Professor Del Rio 438 
Browne, Peter A. 

On the geological character of 
the beds upon which the city of Phi- 
ladelphia stands...... 


. 383 


Fido Ne eiiee ss Selteieetes ae + eee neis's 
Subscriptions to his great work, 
“'The Birds of America.”....--. +--+ 
Review of “ The Birds of America,” 
and “ Ornithological Biography”... -. 456 sees seeseeee 
2nd Letter from Bulowville....... 529 = Godbe noua found in the vicinity of 
Barbary Ape, iladelphia .... 2... esse ee eee tees 
. its want of forethought........--. 236|Buckland, Rev. Dr. 
Barbary, Letter to the Editor, on Cave bones 278 
Geological notices of, by Rozet .... 273 Elected President of the British as- 
Do. ey do... 234), sociation at the Oxford meeting ...... 571 
Barlow, Peter, F. R. 8. 


Carr, John B. 
On the errors of the course of ves- 


517 


Diary of a naturalist.........s0.. 2 


sels, from local attraction........... 326 Caterpillar, 

Bee, Its tail becomes the head of the but- 
Self-decapitated—anecdote of .... 94 terfly ..... ..ceee ce sees ceeetere tees 5 
Mexican domestic, do........ +++» 237 Charts, 4 

Bell, Dr. John, A new = of drawing them...... 333 
On baths and mineral waters...... 48|Cheat, or hess, 

Bender, Major George, derived from wheat... -- +++ +++ 561 
On the specific gravity of rocksused [Chloride of lime, 

in the construction of the Delaware A preventative against small pox 
break-water....... sees seer cere sees 312 and measles .... s+ .sseseeee tere seee 

Big bone lick, Kentucky, Christie, Dr. Turnbull, 

Report of a committee of the Lyce- Appointed to examine the geology 
um of natural history of New York, of the presidency of Madras... «.-- 192 
on fossil bones found there......---- 43 Climate, 

Notices of by Wm. Cooper......-. 158 Influence of, om the fruitfulness of 

Do GomAMMIOd.. cs ces sac ance 900) SURUM.... cerce00 tees orev cegnawe . 


572 


573 


a INDEX. 
’ Page Page 
Coal, Anthracite, Oolitic terms, such as Lias, for the 4 
Applied to generate steam power.. 72] Ttocks of a country, where no member 
Coal, Bituminous, of the Oolitic System has hitherto 
Extensive field in ior county, been found.. 87 
Pennsylvania aanowy > hy eee His great. discovery ‘of the period 
Collin, Nicholas, b D. Dd. eg penmiee rattlesnakes were fi 
_ made 
Obituary notice of: .. vote en ses 228 The escape. “of his. “Antediluvial 
Collins, Zaccheus, Mastodon, twelve feet high, from the 
Do, do.. seeeeeee 227] Tnouth of the Cave of ee) two 
Conrad, Solomon Ww. feet wide.. ies cers ata oe 
Do, do.. se deena aoe 
Conybeare and Philips, Hagle and Weasel, 332 
A continuation of their ‘outlines, [my p.-4. Phinacarne Ra” 
proposed by Messrs. eer Lael and lbp, i ee = hp 191 
GBR senor sp rcesanes once sae pe contenu, A We dole 
ooper 
His denial of an assertion in Silli- Letter to the Rev. mt Buckland, on 
manvailouroal: . 5 - can ctate Alleghaniensis— ‘a 
His pale plate 
potas of big bone lick —pl. V V. al On the ee drainage of North 
Coxe, Dr. J. R. star Mang “plate eee Ae 
On the modus operandi of opeenae Epitome of the nea ress of ‘Natural 
Tus on the living system.. «eee 490 cet ce ee spies |) 
Crab, common, Do do “continued,. 7 
On the metamorphosis of its young 179 On the value of geological inform! 


Croghan, Col. 
Journal of his adventures on the 
Weta L708... /.s scseisisiqcinee gas canis, 201 
Dahlias, 
New method of multiplying them.. 236 
Davis, Jacob P. 
On the geology ¢ of A Waxae, eanRyy, 
Pennsylvania . . . 520 
De la Beche, 
Second edition of his srological 
manual. . “A ~ 527 
Delaware breakwater, _ 
_ Specific gravities of the rocks used 
in its construction............+.+++ 
Del Rio, Professor, 
Discovery in 1802 of a new metal, 
subsequently found in Sweden, and 


312 


called there ent waned Vana- in Europe and North America....... 391 
dium.. ae 69 Remarks on the Natural Bridge in 
His communication on the brown Rockbridge county, Virginia—pl. XIV. 414 _ 
lead ore of Zimapan. . . 438 Comparative view of the Linnean 
Delta, and Natural Systems of Botany..... 416 
Of Oroonoko and Maragnon....... 384] Remarks upon the claims of Profes- 
Desert between Cairo and Suez, Mg a Me pe pp of Bae 
he a arom of oo ecient to peeks i Pager cba Per oetagdse abit 1 440 
water in it.. Bicsaidiactcnt aes 
Reviewof Audubon’s Birds of Ame- 
Deserts, rica, and logr 
_ Exemption of the U. States from... 76 aa is he nos a Han ae tig 
Dickson, James, British Association for the advance- 
hee: the Silver, Gold and Platina nd ment of Science... . 46 
ussia. . -On Mineral and Metallic Veins— 
Discharge ‘of a bullet from a gun Plate XIII.. 481 
How to prevent it by the finger... 238 Review of Rafinesque’ 3s Atlantic 
Eaton, Amos, Journal... 508 
His extravagant self-degradation.. 83 Convertibility ‘of wheat into cheat 
The confusion he has introduced OF CHOBS' Po T.. oes sole RLU. ie nae 1 
into American geology. . awh 86|Kiremen, 
His singular mistake in supposing How to protect them............. 235 
that all the British rocks existed in the Fishes, 
State of New York, and adopting TOG chy s<davenae de vapee LOD 


tion to Engineers, and on the inequal- 
ities of the earth’s surface, and their 


true level above tide water—plate IV. 128 
Epitome of the he ti of Natural 

Science continued.............. 145 
Do continued. . 153 
Do éontinued 2). 2). 241 
On the crust of the earth............ 289 


General remarks on the constituents 
of the primary rocks.. 
On the order of succession of rocks 
composing the crust of the earth.... 337 
Remarks on the origin of the natural 
tunnel in Scott county, Va—plate X. 352 
On the constituent minerals and 
structure of the primury rocks....... 385 
On the comparative encouragement 
given to the study of Natural Hiatory 


574 INDEX. -— 
Page Page 
Flies, Goldfuss, Professor, : 
Remedy against..........+++2-+-+ 236 ai be apa § Crassirostris,’ a ‘ig, 
Flowers, The third part of his ‘ ‘ Petrefacta 
Experiment on their colours....... 71] _Musei Bonensis,’......++-.++++++++- 
Fluids, _ Green, Jacob, M. D. 
Penetrativeness of . sees ewe a8 Synopsis 0 of the Ral sien of North 
Formicological Waterloo, America......-. siaeisasesge GOR 
Recountof 2... ce, ee oe eee80| Hall, Wi 
Fossils, On a new mode of propelling vessels 325 
Mr. Taylor’s Cabinet forsale ..... 239 Harlan, Dr. Richard, 
Fossil remains, Tour to the caves of Virginia...... 58 
Found in Anne Arundle county, Visit to Mr. Madison at Montpelier 60 
Marylead, aA CAR . 114 Neglected sepulchre of Mr. Jefler- 3 
ound in rance, .... 331} son. 
‘3 Of ere. found in ‘Tennessee, 565 5 Trilobites ‘and amnmonites “found in ee: 
‘oster, Capt the Massonetto ridge....-.--.--s++. 69 
Tevenod® at Paina! .. cevclds..046], Deseription*of tis, * Megalonyx ‘la- 74 
Frogs, queatus’. 
Experiments ‘With the rattle snake. 94 
bg inewhich they ps ed 332 On the effects of various pay on 
food... Yay " 595 living vegetables........+.+s+-+++: 124 
: 3 Description of a new species of bat, 
Fucoides Brong niartii, ‘ Vespertilio Auduboni’—plate VI.... 217 
A new extinct fossil species,.. 307 On anew species of extinct foecil 
Goalie ‘ ait weaeipiiies of the tainly Puccides 307 
r eye xperiment. wit! osphorus on a 
On the ee of the ‘earth. . 289] cat.. ‘ s o 422 
On the order of succession “of rocks Description. of a new ‘species. ‘of 
composing the crust of the earth..... 337| quadruped of the genus arvicola, ‘ ar- 
Of the site of Philadelphia. . 363} vicola nuttali’... . 446 
On the constituent minerals ‘and Observations on the anatomy of th the 
structure of the anaty TOCKS:.... «aja 385] _sloth.. sche etet 
Of Nova Scotia... gels ep Sod Hay, Drummond, “Esq. 
Of the Alleghany mountain. 3 eae 433 Services rendered to Natural His- 
On mineral and metallic veins...... 481) tory by him......-. +++ ++eeee essere 527 
Of the vicinity of Philadelphia... Pinar 517 Hays Dr Tsaac 
Of Bradford county, Pa.. RPT) de, . 
Exposure of his conduct. . wees 140 
Of Wayne county, Pa.. 520 
Heat and Electricity, 
Geological knowledge, _ 
Thoughts upon their nature. . 367 
On the causes which retard it...... 296 Herschell, Sir John Fred vs 
Geological Society of London, Willi ir John Frederic 
Biennial election of their President 45 UAL, 
Communication of their President, P = oman on the seid! 
and other naturalists, to the Editor... 175 of Natural P loegphiy ‘ 48 
Reading of Mr. Clift’s memoir on DO’ har. y BOs tecine Benne nite a 
the megatherium of Buenos Ayres... 570 Horse, 
Geological Society of Pennsylvania, Remarkable conduct of.......+++- 235 
“Election of Officers for 1832, their Icebergs, 
Circular and Queries.... ...------ In Jow latitudes. . . 323 
Abstract of their proceedings... -. 517|Ichthyosaurus, 
Genesis, New species of. . oe Goreenatnei GOO 
Observations upon its true construc- Illinois, 
tion.. Sakata 7 Notes on. 63%. 500. scste Joes sane 
Gibbons, Dr. Henry, Insects, 
His meteorological oheeagratiane Combat between a spider aft a 
made at ene. | Del,.«s00% «= A) lightning bug... 
Do eumaneds: y - BT Easy method of destroying them... 19] 
De B.--: +++ 825 Introduction........+..++ + ocean 
(s) 4d 


General review of the weather for 
the year 1831.. 

General summary ‘for each month 
of 1831, and for the whole yet, and 
also for 1830. 

Meteorological Observat ions contin- 
re . 


‘continued. : 


John Dory, 
380 


Jackson and Alger, 
Their mineralogy = eology of 
Nova Scotia... ‘ Leet 31 
Origin of the name of this fish. .. .. 
Karsten, 
Translation of his ip instal ta- 
bles, by Del Rio.. woes we 70 


432 


Lea, Isaac, _ 
Review of his paper on the Naiades 
His caution in bringing forward new 


INDEX. 


575 


Page 


Page| Murchison, Rod. Impe 


Elected president of the wr sine 
Society of London . 
His address at the York meeting. +. 476 


537 


species of the Genus Unio.. Re ei! 


Censures Lamarck without cause 

Comes out with fifty-one new spe- 
cies, of which it is doubtful whether 
one is new. 

‘Twenty-five of these | prev “iously de- 
scribed .. 

His blunder about Connate Shells, 
and the sudden death of the genus 
Symphynota.. 

His plagiarisms ‘from other concho- 
logists . . 

His attempt to obscure the labours 
of those who preceded him.. 

The figures of Say and Conrad bet- 
ter than those of Lea.. 4 a. 


Limestone Caves in Bohan: N. Y. 
_ Explored by Mr. Gebhard pnd 
others... . ; 

Long, Lt. Col. 

Description of a natural tunnel in 
Scott county, Virginia goal X. ts ex- 
tract of a letter from him........... 

Megatherium, 

Skeleton of, discovered in B. Ayres 
Megalonyx laqueatus, 

A new species........+- 
Men of War, 

On round sterns for ... 
Mercury, 

On _ atomic weg. of... 

oO 

eddeccloxiccl Observations, 

At Wilmington, Del., for June and 
July, 1831 . 

Do. for Aug. Sept. and Oct. 1831.. 

Do. for Noy. 1831.. a 

Do. for Dec. 1831................ 

Lil ing (ge 7a 0S 3 eae 

Do: for’ Web: 1832) 3.62 +45. 4026s 

Do. for Mar. 1832.. 

Mexican Indians, 
Antiquities and languages of... 
Do. do. 
‘Pyramids of Teotihuacan. . 


Mineral and Metallic Veins, 
Plate XIV.. 

Mineralogy of "Nova Scotia... 

_ Mitchell, rs ysis 

netrativeness of fluids. . 

~ Mitel , Sam. Latham Das 
Obituary notice of .. 

M‘Murtrie, Dr. 

His i ag of Cuvier’s Animal 
Kingdom. Re aiaals tak 
Review of it... 

Do.—continued . 
Morea, 
BEOMIIONE OL. 7s)... «+ oveny celdn ce 
Moss, 
A golden green reflected from it... 


. 381 


ae 1G 
- 234! beds on which it stands.. 


-. 238 
. 228 


... 549 


542/N aiades, 
Review of Lea on the Naiades.. 
g\Natural Science, 


-. 537 


Epitome of the progress of........ 49 
542 Do. Gos. ciiasiteee COT 
Do. do. eee. 145 
Do. do. tel, Ld 
543 Do. do. . 241 
Natural Bridge, 
In Bede. jePey Vireo 
Plate XII.. 4 Apiod 
547/Natural Tunnel, 
In Scott county, Virginia. Plate X. 347 
548/Naturalist, Paes of, 
Passage from. . ne 95 


Natural History, 
Collection of objects of, from India 288 
New Holland, 


Bone Caves i I falesontisls cle’aslaalsieiecte i ao 
Niagara, 
Origin of the cataractof. PlateII. 13 
Nomenclature, 
192 On the abuses of .......... 0.0008 28 
North American Lakes, 
14 i Les serpy ee eves eeedcace Sad 
Ohio Shells... Feeble cat OsTO 
- 22 Owen, Dr. J. S.. 
_ 320 On certain fossil remains found in 
er Maryland. Ssecsevecswescasases, LAD 
Pacific Ocean, _ 
Discovery of a reef in........... 528 
~ 994|Paganini, 
” 9847 Physiological notice of,.......... 333. 
395|Paint, 
377 How to remove its smell.......... 236 
430|Painting, 
480 A new practice of.. Ree mt!) 


- 524)Petrified Forest, 


Account of.. F Se icidld « stea OD 
104|Philadelphia, 
On the geological Sate of the 


teen wees 


Plants, 
. 481 On the acclimating principle of.... 108 
. 431/Platina, 
Mass of, weighing 27 Ibs.......... 121 
Magnetic reaction of.. sees 331 


Poisons, 

Effects of, on living vegetables.. .. 
Poulson, C. A. 

His translation of a monograph of 


124 


... 47|_. the bivalve shells of the river Ohio.. 370 
. 447|Presentiment in a Sai 
Anecdote of... eapis 5, cinaidayalte 
Primary Rocks, — 
192 General remarks on their consti- 
TUOMIB's 6. Jas’ s.c/lelalnitee wien Ake SOS 
SO5P POSPECHUE, . o'5.3, dakdics aman & 


: 4 : td a % e 7 
ee = Oi - 
| : Page}. “ a ms 
Pterodactylus Crassirostris, Sloth, ‘% Pag 
_ Observations’ the anatomy of.. -. 499 


Rabenstein, Castle of, Smith, William, 
Strange preparations to receive a Receives the Wollaston medal.... 29 
PUGHMAIMIPOMISE fics ce ccc cee ck cece 92 Snakes, 
ir Stamford, | x2 In the water, anecdotes of........ 237 
ecdote in the memoirs of....... 92 Sparrow, 
Rafinesque, Professor, Maternal tenderness of........... 237 
332 


A new species of... ..........-- “s 


His Geomys bursarius............ 190/Teleo Saurus, 
His continuation of a monograph of Account Of: @hs.s 0 do0ececnchonie 
the bivalve shells of the river Ohio,&c. 328 Tables 
em Sivan Big a lick, Me ik 355 For converting French toises and 
is monograph of the bivalve shells : 7 
of the Ohio, translated by C. A. Poul- poten emerges 3 te ar is 


SON... .. hehe SE Sesh 370! abu ar view, 


Review of his Atlantic Journal... 508 
i Of the kn t 
He Soak petiiod, WP ~~ | gt tn Moen at ie a 


When first created!.............. 89'Tadpole, 


Dr. Harlan’ expec wit...) “ai] Retain the character ofthe ad 
Taylor, R. C. 


Reviews, ° 
oy ei ea ES ee a Offers a valuable cabinet of tertiary 
Audubon’s Birds of America, and and other. fossils for sale.... .. 239 
Ornithological rea a NierSca ic 
Rafinesque’s Atlantic Journal..... 508 
Tsaac Lea on the Naiades......... 537 
M‘Murtrie’s translation of the 2d ¢ re t x 
Vol. of Cuvier's Regne Animal...... 549 His edition of Lindley’s new work, 
Rhinoceroides Alleghaniensis. on the natural orders .8) plants. Sewlo aes 
Blato Dy anaisene.<chondss dvecus sa 16/1 TUobites, 


tain, and Moshannon valley, in Cen- 
tre County, Penn................... 433 
Torrey, Professor, 


Rionium, Synopsis of the North American.. 558 
Proposed name for professor Del Turton, Dr. 
Rigs new) metal... io) c.ckconcccc, 69 Manual of the land, and fresh wa- 
Discovery of in Scotland......... 232} ter shells of the British Islands..... 528 
Scientific meetings, Tyran purple dye,............ 525 


In Hamburgh and other partsofGer- _/Vapour, 


oe Oa se re On the-force of.......0 00 ss038. 181 
t York in England.............. 68!Vespertilio Auduboni 

_ At Oxford, do.............. 22... 571 A new species of bat.—plate 6.... 217 
Scientific publications, -_|Virginia, 


Summary of, in civilized Countries 403 
Sedgewick, Rey. Adam, 
Delivers the Wollaston medal, to 
William Smith.................... 29 
Short, Dr. C. W. and H. H. Eaton, 


Tour to the caves of...........--. 58 

‘Volcano, 
In the Mediterranean............ 229 
Do. GO: c=, ong ealiecka Daun 


Do. C0. <6 dims aaminnsaee: ee 
Their notices of western botany and Wayne County, Pennsylvania, 
MIMMOEG COSC. ne coke ae Las so. STO the pealea ee wa viene 520 
Silliman, Professor, Weeds, 


His opinions and statements on the How to destroy them in garden walks 235 
a bi vapour, challenged......... 182 Wetherill, J. P 
akes up the gauntlet for Amos Simpl oo = 4 lad 
: 4 ar ple means adopted hy. him’ to 
oe 4 ee vs. = Spr — generate steam by Anthracite.Coal... 
His puffing of M‘Murtrie’s trans- Wheat, oy dot - 
lation, severely remarked upon...... 455 Convertibility into Cheat or Chess 561 
Do. do. do........... 550/Wollaston Medal, « 
Do. do. OO ss cans yee DOS Adjudication of, to Wm. Smith..... 29 
Skeletons of small animals, Zoological Knowledge, 
How to obtain them.............. 239 On the causes which retard it..... 301 


91 


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10 AUG 1987 


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