120 Meteoric Observations. 



more especially as M. Desnoyers admits his acquaintance with the articles 

 in question, when republishing their contents, without acknowledgment. — 

 The circumstance of connecting with these views, the deposits of the Loire, 

 and the numerical estimate of M. Dujardin, cannot be regarded as afford- 

 ing, in any way, the character of originality to M. Desnoyers' remarks, since 

 the source of error having once been pointed out, it may apply, to a great- 

 er or less extent, whenever a series of fossil species are submitted to the ex- 

 amination of any conchologist. 



After the publication in our last number, (p. 94), of Professor Owen's let- 

 ter, detailing the circumstances through which M. Coste was enabled to 

 communicate to the French Academy, the existence of an allantois in the 

 foetal kangaroo, it is with regret that we are thus compelled to notice 

 on the part of a continental naturalist, labouring in a different field of "sci- 

 entific research, a somewhat similar instance of undue appropriation. The 

 cases are, it is true, in some respects widely different; for though the points 

 at issue in both, are of extreme importance, still, in the present instance, the 

 facts were so obvious, and the inferences so palpable, that no great^share of 

 credit could ever arise to the original impugner of the per-centage test, 

 merely upon the ground of a non-agreement among conchologists, as to the 

 determination of species. The violation of principle, however, involved in 

 both, remains the same. 



M. Desnoyers in opposing the separation of the red and coralline crag 

 upon the ground of their intimate relation to each other, has exposed his 

 extremely superficial acquaintance with the facts which have been pub- 

 lished respecting the history of these two deposits; since it has been ex- 

 pressly shewn that the occurrence in both beds, of certain species presumed 

 to be identical, only establishes a relation similar to that connecting the 

 red crag, with the shelly strata now accumulating in the bed of the Ger- 

 man ocean; for the crag species now actually in existence, are estimated 

 by M. Deshayes at 40 or 50 per cent ; consequently this large proportion 

 is common to the crag, and the deposits now forming in our seas ; yet no 

 one denies the remote era to which the former belongs, when compared 

 with the formations in progress at the present day, although there may 

 be differences of opinion, as to its relative age, and its position in the ter- 

 tiary series. Ed.] 



Art. II. Meteoric Observations made in Germany, in November 



last* 



The observations made in Gratz on the nights of the 12th 

 and 13th of November, respecting the often-predicted meteo- 

 ric stars, have furnished some not uninteresting results, though 

 the sky was very much overcast, and brightened up only oc- 

 casionally. The night between the 12th and 13 th, set in with 

 a beautiful Aurora borealis, which appeared in the northern 

 quarter of the sky, towards six in the evening. It assumed 

 the form of an arch, and took a direction extending from N. 

 W. to N. N. E. at an elevation of about 20° above the hori- 

 zon. Its colour was rose, passing into violet. The highest 

 point of the arch was about 15° below the constellation Ur- 



* For this translation from the Allgemeine Zeitung of Dec. 15th, we are 

 indebted to a correspondent signing herself Georgina Roos. Ed. 



