4m Sciinttfic Reviews. 



first year of its existence is not yet completed ; and it speaks forcibly 

 of the prolific nature of its resources, and of the earnest spirits 

 which animate its meetings. To give an idea of the progress it 

 has made, we need say no more than that the first part of a volume 

 of Transactions is already in our hands, and that a second is pass- 

 ing through the press. Anxious to acquaint our readers with the 

 merit due to those gentlemen who have laboured so indefatigably, 

 and shown themselves so well able to appreciate the importance of 

 the district in which they live, we seize the earliest opportunity of 

 giving an analytical notice of their work. 



The investigation of the coal-fields was to be one of the most 

 prominent of the society's objects ; and, true to their intentions, 

 a very considerable portion of the volume before us, is occupied 

 by geognostical details of a local character. The phenomena ac- 

 companying the distribution of basaltic dykes, have long been con- 

 sidered as of peculiar interest : they have been followed in their 

 intricate details in the coal-field with astonishing perseverance, and 

 they have been studied both in relation to their mineralogical struc- 

 ture, to the contortions and dislocations which they may have pro- 

 duced in the adjacent strata, and to the oryctognostic changes to 

 which they have given birth. We have on this subject, A Notice of 

 a Whin Dyke lately discovered in the Fenham Division of Benrvell 

 Colliery, by John Buddie, Esq. ; A Notice on the Effects of a Ba- 

 saltic Dyke at Butterknorvle Colliery, by Mr. Michael Forster ; 

 A Notice of a Bed of Whin at Stanhope, in Weardale, by W. C. 

 Trevelyan, Esq. ; and Observations on the Geology of Ratchengh 

 Crag, near Alnwick, by Mr. Francis Forster. From the term dis- 

 covery made use of by Mr. Buddie, it will be immediately seen that 

 the strata of the Newcastle coal-field, from their extensive workings, 

 are so extremely well known, that the occurrence of even a whin 

 dyke — or at least of one that cannot be associated with others pre- 

 viously known — is a novelty. 



The whin dyke described by Mr. Buddie depresses the seam of 

 coal a few feet below its natural level, thinning it as if by pressure 

 into a mere leader, and deteriorating the quality of the coal. The 

 seam is in one case changed into shattered glance coal. The me- 

 moir is principally occupied by details appertaining to geognostic 

 geography. 



The " Cockfield Dyke," the object of Mr. Michael Forster's 

 observations, is from 18 to 20 yards in thickness, and its line of 

 bearing nearly from east to west. By the intersection of other 

 dykes of considerable magnitude, its original thickness is greatly 

 diminished, and its line of bearing altered several degrees to the 

 south of west. In driving a discovery drift, the seam of coal was 

 found displaced by a layer of basalt and charred coal, intimately 

 mixed together, and having the same thickness and inclination as 

 the seam itself. The drift was not continued through this bed, on 

 account of its great hardness, arising, the author supposes, from 



