476 Nahu^al Hhtoi^ in the English Counties* 



be despised and trodden down in the tumultuous struegle for wealth, power, 

 and reputation, in which every individual is too eagerly conflicting."* 



Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, in explaining his connection with the museum, 

 adverted to the circumstance of Hull, Whitby, Leeds, and other secondary 

 towns of Yorkshire, having been long conspicuous for their museums, and 

 to the richness of the district in which they lived in botany and conchology 

 and other treasures suitable for a museum. He did not profess to be a 

 philosopher himself, but, says he, " As a landed proprietor, I assure you, 

 honestly, I intend to derive some advantage from this institution. An 

 accurate knowledge of the strata upon my estate, which will enable me at 

 once to lay my hand upon gravel, marl, lime, building and walling stone, 

 surely is not to be despised ; and as plants are peculiar to certain soils, a 

 delineation of the strata, whilst it assists the studies of the botanist, will also 

 afford to agriculture a surer basis for improvement. One certain result will 

 certainly follow the knowledge of geology : for the future, the chalk on 

 Sherburn Wold will not be vainly bored for coal, or the Hackness Moors 

 for lead ; both which operations have taken place, of course, with dead loss 

 to the proprietors and the community." 



Sir George Cayley, after several mirth-creating observations of a 

 local character, said, " You have the advantage of possessing two natu- 

 ralists in Scarborough, whose names are, perhaps, as well or better 

 known on the Continent than at home, for few men are esteemed pro- 

 phets in their own provinces. Many there are amongst you who have, 

 amidst other pursuits, given a fair share of attention to scientific objects, 

 and especially to natural history j but Mr. Bean and Mr. Williamson are 

 naturalists by profession, the have dedicated their lives to it, and have made 

 discoveries which have extended the bounds of human knowledge. Such 

 men shed a great lustre over your undertaking. Touching upon this subject, I 

 cannot but express my regret, that Mr. Bean's fair title to the original dis- 

 covery of certain new fossil vegetables has been superseded on the Continent 

 by Mr. Williamson, who, without any unfair intentions, having given them 

 publicity, as I find in M. Brongniart*s late invaluable work on fossil veget- 

 ables, they are named after him. With regard to most of these discoveries, 

 I conceive that Mr. Bean stands in the same relationship as Columbus with 

 respect to America, and, on a minor scale, with nearly a parallel result. I 

 do not wish to detract from Mr. Williamson's just merits ; he has been in- 

 defatigable in his researches on localities discovered by Mr. Bean. I wish 

 that some gentlemen, qualified by local information, would give to the 



fublic a proper line of demarcation between two most valuable men \ all 

 wish is, that each should have his due share of public applause ; a man's 

 fair fame ought to be as much his own as his estate. I have named the 

 circumstance to my friend, the Baron de Ferussac, who has some years ago 

 acknowledged Mr. Bean's communications in his"splendid work on concho- 

 logy, and I mak e no doubt some notice will be taken of it in the next 

 number of his Bulletin Universel. I must not quit the subject of fossil 

 plants without adverting to the lucid and satisfactory essay of M. Bron- 

 gniart, who has proved, I believe, to the satisfaction of the most eminent 

 naturalists, that we have five distinct epochs in the previous vegetation of 

 our planet : this will furnish us with such marked and distinct guides, when 

 examining the stratifications of the earth, that men will soon be talking of 

 these matters, as of what occurred at the first, second, or fifth milestones on 

 their journeys. By the classes of plants at these different epochs, we seem 

 to be acquiring a knowledge of the past temperatures of our climate ; and 

 in the discovery of certain inflammable and highly expansive fluids, enclosed 

 in crystals, by Dr. Brewster, which, probably, during a long series of aggre- 

 gation at the same temperature, have been imprisoned in cells which then 

 fitted their contents, but which fluids have, in our present temperature, 

 shrunk so as to leave a partial vacuum, though readily made to fill them 

 again, as may be seen under a microscope, by the application of a heat 



