272 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



serves to convince us of its wide bearings. Thus, Sir Emerson Ten- 

 nent some time since brought forward a conjecture to the effect that 

 the common theory of the island being a fragment broken off from 

 the adjacent continent of India is unfounded and fallacious. His con- 

 jecture, was based on the fact that there are various plants and ani- 

 mals in Ceylon for which we look in vain in the Dekkan. Xor is 

 this all. These characteristic plants and animals, though not found 

 in the Dekkan, are to be met with in the Malayan countries, and in 

 some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. Again, the Singha- 

 lese, who people Ceylon, possess dim but numerous traditions and 

 legends that at a period of infinite remoteness their island was part 

 of a continent so vast that its southern extremity fell below the equa- 

 tor, while in breadth it extended to the shores of Africa on the one 

 hand and China on the other. 



Modern geological speculations tend in the same direction ; and 

 Professor AnstedT holds that at the commencement of the Tertiary 

 formation, while Northern Asia and a large portion of India were 

 covered by sea, there was a continent south of India extending south 

 and west, and connecting Malacca with Arabia, There are thus 

 three sources from which Sir Emerson Tennent's conjecture may be 

 confirmed : ancient traditions, geological observation, and, most re- 

 liable of all, " geographical distribution," or physical affinity. 



Additional proofs coming under the third head have also recently 

 accumulated. Thus, we find that Ceylon possesses deer, two new 

 species of monkeys, a number of curious shrews, an orange-colored 

 ichneumon, and various other curious quadrupeds, which are not found 

 in the Indian fauna ; then, on the other hand, the tiger and the wolf 

 of Hindustan happily never infest the forests of the adjacent island. 

 Of birds, again, Sir Emerson Tennent particularizes some thirty- 

 eight species unknown at present in the continent. But the most 

 conclusive argument is found in the discovery, to which we have al- 

 luded, that the once current notion as to there being only two species 

 of elephants, the Indian and the African, is erroneous ; and that to 

 these must be added a third, found in Sumatra and Ceylon. 



NOTES ON AMERICAN GEOLOGY. 



From an article contributed to Silliman's Journal (May, 1861), by 

 T. Sterry Hunt, F.R. S., of the Canadian Geological Survey, enti- 

 tled, " On some Points in American Geology," we derive the follow- 

 ing interesting summary of comparatively recent facts and theories 

 relative to the geology of the United States and Canada : 



The oldest series of rocks, says Mr. Hunt, known in America, is 

 that which has been investigated by the officers of the Geological 

 Survey of Canada, and by them designated the Laurentian System. 

 The recent investigations of Sir R. I. Murchison seem to prove the 

 identity of these rocks with the oldest crystalline strata of western 

 Scotland and Scandinavia, and Mr. Murchison proposes that the 

 name Laurentian be adopted as a common appellation. These rocks 

 are undoubtedly the oldest known strata of the earth's crust, and 

 therefore offer peculiar interest to the geologist. As displayed in the 

 Laureutide and Adirondack Mountains, they exhibit a volume which 



