4i66 Geology, 



account of the fossil reptiles), could have committed such a blunder is really 

 inexplicable. The researches of Mr. Mantell have proved that the strata 

 formerly called the iron sand abound with organic remains ; all of which, 

 or with but very few exceptions, are fresh-water or terrestrial : and the me- 

 moirs of Dr. Fitton and Mr. Webster, on the strata below the chalk, have 

 long since established the true relations and characters of that interesting 

 group of beds, now universally termed the Hastings' deposits. Surely so 

 important a discovery ought not to have been unnoticed in a Neiv System 

 of Geology. But, Sir, were I only to point out the incorrect quotations, 

 and the extracts from other works, put together without due consideration, 

 and therefore leading to inferences which the writers never could have 

 contemplated, I should occupy too great a portion of your valuable pages. 

 I must content myself with merely noticing, in conclusion, that the plates 

 of organic remains are shamefully incorrect. The Scaphites aequalis (pi. 2.), 

 a fossil peculiar to the lower beds of the chalk, is figured as a shell of the 

 LIAS ! Mjdi intermedia, of the London clay (pi. 5.), is called a character- 

 istic fossil of the under oolite! and, in plate 4., the shells figured as peculiar 

 to the cornbrash and upper oolites are a medley of chalk and tertiary shells, 

 with a few from the oolite : for instance, there are figured Turrilites cos- 

 tatus and Vermicularia umbonata, found in the grey chalk marl j Hamites 

 gibbosus, from the gait; Protellaria macroptera and Turritella conoidea, 

 from the tertiary beds, &c. ! These errors must have arisen from sheer 

 inattention ; but when a man like Dr. Ure, distinguished in the scientific 

 world by his talents and admirable works, announces a " new system " of 

 any science, have we not a right to expect that he will condescend to avoid 

 such egregious errors? errors, too, which must so entirely mislead the 

 uninitiated. No one can entertain a higher respect for Dr. Ure's talents as 

 a chemist than myself, and I deeply regret he should have placed his so 

 respectable name to the publication which has occasioned these remarks. 

 I beg to repeat. Sir, that if any of my observations appear to you incorrect 

 or too severe, you will suppress or alter them as you may think proper. 

 If my strictures are correct, how. Sir, can we understand the unqualified 

 praise bestowed on this work in Brande's Journal and other periodicals? 

 We know what Lord Byron said of my " grandmother's review ; ^' but the 

 ones I allude to are above the reach of suspicion. — H. August, 1829. 



Form and Aspect of Mountains. — Most of the principal mountains have 

 one of their sides very steep, and the other gradually sloping. The Alps 

 may be instanced as an example, having a much more abrupt descent on 

 the side of Italy than on that of Switzerland; the Pyrenees again, are 

 steeper towards the south than the north ; while the chain of Asturias, 

 which branches westward from the Pyrenees, is just the reverse. Mount 

 Taurus, in the part where it approaches the Mediterranean and the Dar- 

 danelles, is abrupt on the south, but in Armenia it has a rapid descent 

 northward. The mountains of Scandinavia are steeper towards the west 

 and north-west than the east and south-east ; and the Ghauts in Hindostan 

 are, in like manner, precipitous on the west, and sloping in the opposite 

 direction. In all these chains the steepest side is found to be that which 

 is nearest the sea, and consequently their inclination is most gradual towards 

 the interior of the country in which they are situated. — J. R. 



Fossil Charcoal accounted for. — I was particularly struck with a pheno- 

 menon recorded by Dr. Richardson, the naturalist in Captain Franklin's 

 expedition of discovery, respecting the shale on the coasts of the Arctic 

 Sea. This shale composed precipitous banks, which, in many places, were 

 on fire. " The shale," adds Dr. Richardson, " takes fire in consequence 

 of its containing a considerable quantity of sulphur in a state of such minute 

 division, that it very readily attracts oxygen from the atmosphere, and 

 inflames." Nothing, I think, could explain in a more satisfactory manner 



