Bibliographical Notices. 433 



pian to 677 feet above their present level, before they would find a 

 vent over the lowest point of the Balcan range. An elevation of 

 water to this extent would inundate the whole lower basin of the 

 Danube, the South of Russia, Georgia, Bokhara, and a vast extent 

 of Tartary, and a removal of the barrier would cause the waters 

 speedily to subside. That such an event ever actually occurred it 

 would be rash to assert ; but it is certainly a remarkable fact, that 

 both shores of the Bosphorus, where it joins the Euxine, are occu- 

 pied by masses of volcanic rocks, and traditions of the damraing-up 

 of the Black Sea and the bursting of the barrier were current among 

 the ancients, and are recorded by Diodorus Siculus and Strabo*. 



We are conscious that justice is not done to Dr. Pye Smith's ar- 

 guments by this brief abstract of their results, and we therefore the 

 more strongly recommend his work to the profound attention of the 

 philosophic theologian no less than of the Christian geologist. It is 

 a work calculated to be eminently conducive to the best interests 

 both of religion and of science at the present moment. 



Mr. Sidney Gibson's work goes over the same ground as that of 

 Dr. Smith, and arrives at nearly the same conclusions. Although not 

 illustrated to the same extent with the treasures of learning, it is 

 marked throughout by candour and sincerity no less than by sound- 

 ness of reasoning. Like Dr. Pye Smith, he explains the antiquity of 

 the earth by supposing a vast lapse of time between the universal and 

 the Adamic creation, but to this assumption he superadds that of the 

 six " days of creation" having been six indefinite periods. Many 

 writers have had recourse to the same hypothesis ; but if it should be 

 thought right not to depart further from the strict letter of Scripture 

 than the facts of the case require, it may be observed that these are 

 already satisfied by the explanation given by Dr. Smith, as above 

 announced. 



Our space prevents us from noticing Mr. Gibson's work in greater 

 detail, but we cordially recommend it as an excellent coadjutor to 

 that of Dr. Smith in the laudable office of rendering science and reli- 

 gion mutually confirmatory of each other. And should there be any 

 who may still entertain doubts with regard to the hypotheses pro- 

 posed in them, we would again direct their attention to the opinion of 

 so able a reasoner and so eminent an expositor of the evidences of 

 Christianity as Dr. Paley. 



Linncea, ein Journal fur die Botanik, etc. 1840. 

 [Continued from vol. vi. p. 148.] 

 Paet I. 

 Scholium to Hampe's Prod. Florae Hercyn. — Schlechtendal on 

 Schiede's and Ehrenberg's Mexican plants. 



Part II. 

 On Tetradiclis, Stev. ; by Dr. A. Bunge. — On Conferva Lehman- 

 niana ; by Dr. Lindenberg. — On the structure of the stem of Jsoetes 



* Respecting the Greek traditions of the Deluge, see Mr. Kenrick's dis- 

 sertations in the * Philological Museum,' vol. ii., and in the * Philosophical 

 Magazine,' M.S. vol. v. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. vii. 2 F 



