260 Natural History in London, 



an account of the stratification in his own neighbourhood, contains much 

 ingenious specuhition on the phenomena which seem to have attended the 

 elevation of the tract beneath the chalk, within the denudation of Sussex, 

 Hampshire, Surrey, and Kent." 



The researches of Mr. Lonsdale on that important tract between Calne 

 and Bath ; the work upon the coast of Yorkshire, by Mr. Phillips of the 

 York Institution ; the various important memoirs by Professor Sedgwick, 

 and by Mr. Murchison ; a variety of foreign publications ; the labours of 

 Dr. Macculloch, Professor Henslow, Professor Jameson, John Taylor, F.R.S., 

 and various other authors are next adverted to. 



" The labours of the Geological Society of Cornwall are continued : and 

 a work, of which the first volume has been published by Mr. John Taylor, 

 one of the principal miners in this country, promises considerable additions 

 to a department of knowledge comparatively new to our scientific litera- 

 ture, but intimately connected with our pursuits. This work is entitled 

 Records of Mining ; and it proposes to embrace * reports and statements 

 upon particular mines, and the produce of metals, in various districts ; no- 

 tices on geological facts relating to mining ; discoveries of ores and mine- 

 rals, and descriptions of existing processes connected with the treatment of 

 ores, and the operations of smelting, or other modes of reduction ; with 

 investigations of the methods of working now usually employed in different 

 countries, and of projected improvements; and descriptions of machinery 

 or implements destined to the service of the mines.' The editor justly adds, 

 that many facts relating to these subjects continually present themselves to 

 observation, all record of which is lost, for want of a proper depository ; 

 and that not only is a quantity of valuable matter constantly occurring in 

 the reports and statements upon our British mines, but that much more 

 may be expected to reach us from those foreign countries in which Englislv 

 capital is now employed. 



" In the foreign geology of Europe, we have the gratification of 

 knowing that the examination of France, with a view to a general map of 

 the strata, is steadily proceeding. 



" The proofs of the identity of the prevailing rocks, in the more distant 

 parts of the world, are continually multiplied by the reception of authentic 

 specimens; for which we have been of late indebted to the Admiralty, and 

 to British officers in the Navy, and in the service of the East India Com- 

 pany : and the donors of every such contribution, — even of the smallest 

 specimen, the locality of which in a distant quarter is correctly ascertained, 

 — will have the satisfaction of feeling that they bring us nearer to the 

 ultimate solution of the interesting problems which are before us. 



" The Memoir of Dr. Richardson, read at one of our Meetings, and pub- 

 lished in the Appendix to the account of Capt. Franklin's second journey, 

 contains a most valuable series of observations, made under great disadvan- 

 tages, during the advance and return of that memorable expedition to the 

 shores of the Polar Sea ; in the course of which a space of about 5000 miles 

 was for the first time surveyed and laid down, — the total distance travelled 

 over by the party in America being not less than 14000 miles. The great 

 similarity of the rocks, and of their structure and external features, to those 

 of Europe ; the uniformity in composition of vast tracts of the country ; 

 and the very large proportion of the surface occupied by water, espe- 

 cially within a broad calcareous band, that intervenes between the Rocky 

 Mountains and another primary tract which has nearly the same direction, 

 are some of the more obvious general results that may be collected from 

 the perusal of this important Memoir, a full abstract of which will be found 

 in our Proceedings, And the whole is rendered still more interesting to 

 us, by the liberality of the collectors, who have placed in the Museum of 

 the Society a complete series of the specimens described and referred to by 

 Dr. Richardson. 



