New Publications. 209 



not aware of this circumstance, are perpetually asking what benefit can 

 , result to this country from such undertakings. The whale, however, still 

 <;ontinues to retire from the persecutions of man ; and the numbers of its 

 young, which are usually destroyed without reniorse by the avaricious 

 but imprudent fishermen, must soon exhaust the fishery, and search must 

 then be made far to the westward of Baffin's Bay, and to the eastward of 

 Spitzbergen, for their places of retreat." — Ross's Voyage, 



12. Passenger Pigeon. — A young male bird flew on board the Victory 

 during a storm, whilst crossing Baffin's Bay in latitude 734° north, on the 

 31st of July 1829. It has never before been seen beyond the sixty-second 

 degree of latitude ; and the circumstance of our having met with it so far 

 -to the northward, is a singular and interesting fact. — Boss's Voyage, 

 t' 13. Spontaneous Plants. — Few things are more extraordinary than the 

 '" tmusual appearance and development of certain plants in certain circuw- 

 ^ stances. Thus, after the great fire of London in 1666, the entire surfece 

 of the destroyed city was covered with such a vast profusion of a species 

 of a cruciferous plant, the Sisymbrium irio of Linneeus, that it was calcu- 

 lated that the whole of the rest of Europe could not contain so many 

 plants of it. It is also known that if a spring of salt water makes its ap- 

 pearance in a spot even a great distance from the sea, the neighbourhood 

 is soon covered with plants peculiar to a maritime locality, which plants 

 previous to this occurrence were entire strangers to the country. Again, 

 when a lake happens to dry up, the surface is immediately usurped by a 

 J vegetation which is entirely peculiar, and quite difierent from that which 

 • flourished on its former banks. When certain marshes of Zealand were 

 drained, the Carex cyperoides was observed in abundance, and it is known 

 this is not at all a Danish plant, but peculiar to the north of Germany. — 

 In a work upon the useful Mosses by M. de Brcbisson, which has been 

 announced for some time, this botanist states that a pond in the neigh- 

 , bourhood of Falain having been rendered dry during many weeks in the 

 ' height of summer, the mud in drying was immediately and entirely co- 

 vered to the extent of many square yards by a minute compact green 

 turf, formed of an imperceptible moss, the Phaseum axillarey the stalks of 

 which were so close to each other, that upon a square inch of this new 

 \ soil, might be counted more than five thousand individuals of this minute 

 plant, which had never previously been observed in the country. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS, '"^^ 



'V. A Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption and Scrofulous Disease*, By 

 James Clark, M. D., F.R.S., &c. &c. 8v0. pp. 399. Sherwood, 

 J , .Oilbert, and Piper, London. 1836. 



The perusal of this very interesting volume has afibrded us much in- 

 formation, conveyed too in a most agreeable manner. We recommend 



VOL. XX. NO. XXXIX. JANUAUY 1836. O 



