"In our turn, we take leave to add, that this admirable work, the production of a man who obtained his geological knowledge while working day by day as a labourer in a quarry of the Old Red Sandstone in the north-east part of Scotland, evinces talent of the highest order, a deep and healthful moral feeling, a perfect command of the finest language, and a beautiful union of philosophy and poetry. No geologist can peruse this volume without instruction and delight. It affords an admirable synopsis of the formations between the granitic schists and the coal-measures, and indeed embraces an enlarged and highly philosophical view of the science, and of its relation to the Creator."

A remarkable pamphlet has been recently published, which bas a strong claim upon the attention of both geologists and scripture students; "A Catechetical Illustration of the First Chapter of Genesis;" by William Whyte, Latin Master in Watson's Ĥospital, 9 pages, Edinburgh, 1842. The object is to show that the creation and subsequent history of the earth's strata, and of the vegetable and animal tribes which have had their periods and have become extinct, through countless ages, is represented in the simple Hebrew style in Gen. i. 2-25 ;- that the operations themselves are the ordinary course of the works of God, from the beginning, and still constantly proceeding, (thus acquiescing in a chief principle of Mr. Lyell's works :)- and that "the only peculiarity in all the narrative," -is "the creation of a new species, MAN;"--and that the scenes of the operations are the various portions of the earth's surface, which are thus prepared and suited for the habitation of vegetable and animal tribes, either already in other regions enjoying life, or expressly called into life, that is created, in order to the occupation of a newly prepared region. To say the least of this little work, it is a striking example of the extent to which learned and pious men may depart from the commonly received interpretation of the beginning of Genesis.

Fourth ed. At the twelfth meeting of the British Association, (Manchester, 1842,) Prof. Agassiz presented a Report, comprehensive, yet exact and specific, of the Fossil Fishes of the Devonian system; in which he involves a just tribute to the originality, the scientific proceeding, and the remarkable success of Hugh Miller, and the late accomplished, liberal, and amiable Lady Gordon Cumming. Very few years have elapsed since it was believed that this formation (then usually called the Old Red) was nearly destitute of organic remains. Now, are determined, in Scotland alone, besides two or three in Wales, at least twenty genera, spreading out into about fifty species of Fish; whose configuration is of the most remarkable, and even astonishing kind. (See Lyell's "Elem.," sec. ed. vol. ii. ch. xxv.; Ansted's 66 'Geol.," 1844; vol. i. ch. x) Over an area of Russia more ex

tensive than the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, in beds identical with our Old Red, or equivalent to it, Sir Rod. Murchison and his associates have exhumed in abundance the Fishes of Scotland, and the shells of South Devon.

To the evidence on this subject, the following may be added: Mr. Lyell, with his lady, the participant in his scientific zeal, made a tour in the United States, and the British possessions of North America, in 1841-2; of which he has given a narrative in two volumes, rich in interest, picturesque, literary, and politicoeconomical, as well as geological. The investigations connected with the river-bed and the falls of the Niagara, were fully carried out. I cannot condense into a few paragraphs his luminous descriptions and reasonings, concise as his style is. Of even general readers, every person that can, should read the work. It must suffice to say that, calculated upon rigidly cautious grounds of evidence, the river cuts back the edge of the precipice over which it falls, at the mean rate of one foot annually. The distance which it has had thus to wear away, from the place of its very probably ascertained ancient precipitation, is seven miles. The process of erosion may and even must have varied, sometimes being retarded, and sometimes accelerated; but, as Mr. Lyell's estimate is but a third of Mr. Bakewell's, it is the less likely to exceed the truth. The result is, that this process has occupied 35,000 years. Yet this is one of the superficial, and, in comparison of innumerable others, recent operations on the face of the earth.

After enucleating, with his characteristic penetration and precision, the changes which, upon the soil of this geographical district, must have preceded the process, Mr. Lyell proceeds.

"The principal events enumerated in the above retrospect, comprising the submergence and re-emergence of the Canadian lake-district and valley of the St. Lawrence, the deposition of fresh-water strata, and the gradual erosion of a ravine seven miles long, are all so modern in the earth's history as to belong to a period when the marine, the fluviatile, and the terrestrial shells were the same or nearly the same as those now living. Yet if we fix our thoughts on any one portion of this period,-on the lapse of time, for example, required for the recession of the Niagara from the escarpment to the Falls,-how immeasurably great will its duration appear in comparison with the sum of years to which the annals of the human race are limited!

But, however much we may enlarge our ideas of the time which has elapsed since the Niagara first began to drain the waters of the upper lakes, we have seen that this period was one only of a series, all belonging to the present geological epoch.If such events can take place, while the zoology of the earth remains almost stationary and unaltered, what ages may not be

comprehended in those successive tertiary periods during which the flora and fauna of the globe have been almost entirely changed! Yet, how subordinate a place in the long calendar of geological chronology do the successive tertiary periods themselves occupy! How much more enormous a duration must we assign to many antecedent revolutions of the earth and its inhabitants! No analogy can be found in the natural world to the immense scale of these divisions of past time, unless we contemplate the celestial spaces which have been measured by the astronomer. Some of these within the limits of the solar system, as, for example, the orbits of the planets, are reckoned by hundreds of millions of miles, which the imagination in vain endeavours to grasp. Yet one of these spaces, such as the diameter of the earth's orbit, is regarded as a mere unit, a mere infinitesimal fraction of the distance which separates our sun from the nearest star. By pursuing still further the same investigations, we learn that there are luminous clouds, scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye, but resolvable by the telescope into clusters of stars which are so much more remote, that the interval between our sun and Sirius may be but a fraction of this larger distance. To regions of space of this higher order, in point of magnitude, we may probably compare such an interval of time as that which divides the human epoch from the origin of the coralline limestone over which the Niagara is precipitated at the Falls. Many have been the successive revolutions in organic life, and many the vicissitudes in the physical geography of the globe, and often has sea been converted into land, and land into sea, since that rock was formed. The Alps, the Fyrenees, the Himalaya, have not only begun to exist as lofty mountain chains, but the solid materials of which they are composed have been slowly elaborated beneath the sea, within the stupendous interval of ages here alluded to.

"The geologist may muse and speculate on these events, until, filled with awe and admiration, he forgets the presence of the mighty cataract itself, and no longer sees the rapid motion of its waters, nor hears their sound, as they fall into the deep abyss. But, whenever his thoughts are recalled to the present, the tone of his mind, the sensations awakened in his soul, will be found to be in perfect harmony with the gradeur and beauty of the glorious scene which surrounds him."—"Travels in North America," vol. i. p. 50-53; 1845.

At the meeting of the British Association at Southampton, in September, 1846, Mr. Lyell delivered a discourse, marked by his characteristic comprehensiveness and perspicuity, upon the Delta of the Mississippi, a narow promontory projecting into the Gulf of Mexico. This is known to have been, and still to be, increasing and advancing, from the constant action of the river in bearing down mud and other matter of deposit. Observation and com

parison, made during more than one hundred years, had directed attention to the progress of deposit, and the consequent gain of land advancing into the sea. But never before had the requisite talents, the result of science and experience, been employed for the resolution of the question. Mr. Lyell had the concurrent investigation, and assent to his conclusions, of several American men of science. The conclusion of the whole is, that the alluvial plain from which the portion of land projects, with that portion itself, after making great deductions to satisfy the most excessive caution, has required more than one hundred thousand years. Yet the operations effected in that period are insignificant, geologically considered, when viewed in connexion with the underlying deposits. Mr. Lyell concluded with the sentiment, that "the further we extend our researches into the wonders of creation in time and space, the more do we exalt, refine, and elevate our conceptions of the DIVINE ARTIFICER of the universe." See the "Athenæum," Sept. 26, 1846; p. 992.

Among the delightful occurrences which indicate the wide diffusion and rapid progress of scientific observation, we may mention a monthly publication, the " Journal of the Indian Archipelago," which commenced at Singapore in July last. Its introductory article comprises a view of the geological phenomena, presented, in characters so plain that "he may run who readeth" them, by the formations and manifest succession of the tract from the loftiest mountain-ridge on the globe (yet, like the Alps, comparatively recent), the Himalaya, over the plain of Bengal, to the innumerable islands, isles, and islets all along till beyond the last east meridian. In this series of beauty and awful grandeur are displayed the movements of elevation and depression, whether gradual or sudden, eruption, denudation, dislocation, coral workings, and the wondrous variety of plutonic and volcanic forces, He who, with some intelligence of the matter, surveys the sketch. must be overwhelmed with the idea of incessant action, rising out of illimitable antiquity, and perpetuated to the present moment.

Addition to the Note at p. 374.-In Jameson's "Edinburgh Journal," Oct. 1847, is a memoir by the able geologist, Mr. David Milne, giving the results of long, laborious, and accurate explorings of these so-called Parallel Roads. The proof seems to be complete, that they are not sea-beaches, but beaches of ancient lakes, which remained at different levels, after the successive elevations of the district, the water having been pent up by the mountain sides, till drained off by subsequent geological changes; the processes of which, with their causes and concomitants, must have been extremely slow. This advance of discovery does not affect my reasoning, except as it gives augmented strength to the evidence of immense antiquity. A similar augmentation will

also accrue from another hypothesis, advanced by Sir George S. Mackenzie, in the same Journal, Jan. 1848.

[G.]

Referred to at pages 89 and 321.

ON THE FOSSIL ANIMALCULES.

Ir is not in my power to say whence I derived this estimate. Perhaps it was given from a general recollection of information in different scientific works. I therefore lay before my readers an extract from a paper of Dr. Ehrenberg himself, showing that, while the numbers in one description of fossil-masses fall short of my statement, those belonging to another are the double of what I have given.

"The Polirschiefer [Polishing Slate] of Bilin in Bohemia occupies a surface of great extent, probably the site of an ancient lake, and forms slaty strata of fourteen feet in thickness, consisting almost entirely of an aggregation of the siliceous shields of Gaillonella distans." (Dr. Buckland's Supplementary Notes to his "Bridgewater Treatise;" p. 17, or continuously 610-613.)

I have used, above, the general term shells; but shields is the more appropriate word, or cuirasses, as Dr. Buckland also calls them. They are most beautiful armature-coverings, sometimes of a single plate, sometimes double; formed of the purest quartz or rock-crystal, and therefore perfectly transparent.

The Raseneisen, which might be translated Iron-clod, is a mass of fine earthy matter, strongly tinged with ochre, the peroxide of iron; probably the same, or nearly so, as what we call Bog Iron Ore; or not unlike the mud of our common chalybeate springs, compressed and dried.

The Gaillonella distans is one of the species of the genus G. of which some idea may be formed by comparing it to a piece of candied Angelica:* but imagination is baffled in attempting to

* A figure is given of two species, in Mr. Lyell's "Elements," page 52; and in his "Principles," vol. iii. p. 271 (6th ed.) the G. ferruginea, whose shields, composed of silex and iron, constitute the substance of Bog Iron Ore. The Noble President of the Royal Society has made felicitous discoveries of many-chambered shells (Spirolinites,) of several species, in the chalk-flints: of which figures are given by Dr. Mantell, "Wond. Geol." vol. i. p. 322. Other naturalists have successfully pursued this line of microscopic inquiry. In particular, the Rev. J. B. Reade, F.R.S., who has devoted his powers of research to this empire of wonders; "an investigation which," he justly observes, nó right-minded man will prosecute without directing his thoughts to Him who, of old, 'turned the hard rock into a standing water, and the flint-stone into a springing well."" Some of these interesting communications from Mr. Reade may be consulted in the "Seventh Report of the British Assoc." (Liverpool, 1837;) in the "Annals of Nat. Hist." Nov. 1838; and with figures and a comprehensive summary in the "Wond. Geol." vol. i. and ii. and the Appendix. See also communications from Ehrenberg, Meyen, Kersten, and Mr. Richard Taylor; and extracts from Professors Whewell and Rymer Jones, on this subject, in "Ann. Nat. Hist." 1838 and 1839.