March 1, 18G8.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



57 



Ireland. The very names of some of the British 

 Cyclopean antiquities show the evidence of tradition 

 as to their origin, as, for linstance, " The Giant's 

 Bed," "The Giant's Grave," "The Giant's Load," 

 "The Old Wife's Lift," "The Giant's Quoit," 

 "The Hag's Bed," &c. In Brittany it is very 

 curious that the grandest relic of antiquity, a whole 

 valley full of huge stones, is called " Carnac "—a 

 name evidently identical with that temple in Egypt 

 upon which the exploits of the Bephaim are 

 recorded. 



A curious light has been lately thrown upon the 

 antiquities of Western Europe by the discovery in 

 the old region of the giants, now inhabited by the 

 Druzes, of the homes and cities of the Anakim. 

 The Bev. Mr. Porter and Mr. Cyril Graham have 

 found the whole of ancient Bashan covered with 

 ruins hitherto unknown to Europeans. In the 

 cities of Kerioth and Xiriathaim are houses strong 

 enough to resist the violence of man or of nature ; 

 the roofs are formed of beams of stone in juxta- 

 position, twenty-five feet long, supported by square 

 stone pillars, and huge doors, formed of a single 

 stone. "These ancient cities of Bashan contain 

 probably the very oldest specimens of domestic 

 architecture now existing in the world," says Mr. 

 Porter.* In conclusion, there is no doubt that the 

 cromlechs of Celtic countries irresistibly suggest the 

 idea of habitations; indeed no other use can be 

 assigned for them. Their height is too great for 

 use as altars. It is just possible that the vast 

 physical and mental powers which characterised the 

 giants may have caused their deification when ex- 

 tinct by inferior races, and thus their temples and 

 residences might even come to be regarded with 

 superstitious, respect or copied and reproduced as 

 objects of worship. At any rate, this cannot be 

 denied— giants once existed as races, not as indi- 

 vidual exceptions. That they were confined exclu- 

 sively to Palestine, I have shown to be, to say the 

 least of it,"improbable. 



That these remarks may interest some one in the 

 subject is my sincere wish ; and if they tend to 

 throw any light upon the origin of some of our most 

 curious antiquities, they will not have been made in 

 vam - P. Allen. 



A Tale of Two Cities.— The Cheyenne papers 

 having asserted that their city, boasting a population 

 of seven thousand inhabitants, was probably the 

 only city in the world free from rats, the Salt Lake 

 News replies that its city is a place twice as large as 

 Cheyenne, and twenty times as old, yet the presence 

 of one of these generally well-known rodents in 

 Salt Lake would prove as great a natural curiosity 

 as a chimpanzee in the streets of New York. 



* See Porter's " Giant Cities of Bashan." Nelson. 



EOSSIL INFUSORIA. 



T? VERY tyro in microscopic inquiry has, among 

 J -* his other curiosities, obtained at least one 

 slide with the label " Possil Infusoria." These are 

 Diatomaceae, and the deposits from which they are 

 derived may be found in all parts of our country, 

 cropping out on the borders of ponds, or underlying 

 layers of peat. It is, however, often a matter of 

 doubt, especially in the former case, where the forms 

 of the deposit and those still living in the water are 

 apparently identical, how far these may really be 

 entitled to the designation of "fossils." That they 

 are so in many cases, and almost always when 

 underlying beds of peat, is shown by the entire 

 absence in these latter of certain species (especially 

 Nitschia and Synedrd), while these species are grow- 

 ing in the waters of the same locality in the greatest 

 profusion. The period of the introduction of these 

 species, then, must constitute one epoch in the 

 geological history of the Diatoms, and more atten- 

 tive study will yet reveal the occurrence of similar 

 special epochs in the case of other species, even 

 though we may not be able to directly synchronize 

 these epochs with those determined from other data. 

 But, leaving the region of uncertainty, there are 

 numerous deposits, the great antiquity of which is 

 placed beyond a doubt. Among these we may first 

 enumerate a deposit in which were found imbedded, 

 in 1843, the bones of a Mastodon, in Orange county, 

 N.Y., and which, from its peculiar connection with 

 these bones, was undoubtedly of contemporaneous 

 origin. Being unaffected by severity of climate, it 

 is probable that the Diatoms continued to exist 

 through the whole Post-tertiary period, affording, 

 by the entire absence of marine species, another 

 confirmation of the much-disputed Glacier theory 

 of Professor Agassiz. Again receding, the next 

 deposits of which the age may be considered as 

 definitely fixed, are those of Virginia and Maryland, 

 the most celebrated of all diatomaceous earths, from 

 the extreme variety and beauty of their forms, and. 

 the extent of the beds containing them. These 

 beds, when they underlie the city of Richmond, are 

 not less than twenty feet in thickness, and consist 

 entirely of marine remains ; while deposits, similar 

 in character, and probably contemporaneous in 

 origin, are found at many localities as far as Pisca- 

 taway, in the State of Maryland. They are referred 

 by their discoverer, Professor W. B. Rogers, to the 

 Miocene Tertiary. One cubic inch of the earth has 

 been calculated to contain not less than several 

 millions of individual shells. Many similar deposits 

 have been observed both in America and Europe, 

 but little has as yet been done in determining their 

 precise age, or in accounting for the conditions 

 necessary for the local accumulation of such vast 

 quantities of material. Among the most remarkable 



