366 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



of Flisk, discovered a large dicotyledonous stem in the Grauwackd strata of Cork, 

 and Dr. Buckland received from the Northumberland coal field another specimen 

 of dicotyledonous wood, now in the Oxford Museum, he must contend that such 

 trees grew at this period. The singular crustaceous animals found imbedded in the 

 Grauwackd were next largely dwelt upon by the learned lecturer, and the species of 

 trilobites, orthoceiae, &c. described at length, with accompanying specimens and 

 drawings. Our limits restrain us from entering into the details of the lecturer on 

 the old red sandstone, so well developed in Herefordshire, but we cannot resist 

 detailing his account of its chemical formation. Though silex is so sparingly soluble 

 in water, yet if potass be present, it would operate as a re-agent, and a larger 

 quantity of silex be dissolved. If the water so impregnated, became heated, silex 

 would become soluble in a comparatively large proportion. This was sho;vn on a 

 large scale in nature, and the thermal waters of Hecla deposited beautiful 

 chrystals of silex, agates, chalcedony, &c. The ocean, then, washing as it once 

 did, the sides of our beautiful Malvern hills, the potass contained in those rocks 

 operating as a re-agent, or domestic enemy, would betray the parent rocks to the 

 action of the waters, and become the chief cause of their dissolution. Let volcanic 

 fire, to which those rocks very possibly owe their origin, be in active operation, and 

 give its aid by heating the waters, these rocks, the shadows probably of what they 

 once were, would quickly fall into the watery waste, and be dissolved. Then 

 suppose these agents, the potass and heat, to desert their new combinations with 

 silex, the heat to evaporate, and the soda or potass to be attracted by muriatic or 

 other acids, to form beds of rock salt, &c. the water would then be unable to hold 

 the silex in solution, which would thus regain its liberty ; but in a less imposing 

 form. An infinite number of distinct points of chrystallization would simultane- 

 ously commence, and each taking its peculiar form of a six-sided prism, would be preci- 

 pitated, and form so many grains of sand. The sea then retiring, rains from the 

 neighbouring heights would wash down their fine argillaceous matter, and carry it 

 through the interstices of the sand ; waters laden with carbonate of lime from the 

 adjacent rocks lend their aid by precipitating carbonate of lime from the water as the ^ 

 excess of fixed air escaped, which thus deposited with the sand and clay would cement 

 them together into a hard rock, similar to the old red sandstone. The lecturer 

 then accounted for the formation of clay, and the red colour of sandstone, remark- 

 ing in passing upon the general diffusion of iron throughout nature. We must 

 pass rapidly over the succeeding formations of encrinal or mountain limestone, mill- 

 stone grit, and the coal measures, though elaborately worked out by the ingenious 

 lecturer. He remarked, that at this period, the north of Europe formed an archi- 

 pelago, resembling the present aspect of the Pacific ocean. Submarine mountain? 

 in some places were capped by basin-shaped coral reefs ; in others, rocks of grau- 

 wack^ or granite protruded themselves above the ocean over a wide area. Islands, 

 and perhaps a continent, at no great distance, supported a gigantic and extraordi- 

 nary vegetation, from which masses of immense size were carried by inundations to 

 the sea, and wafted among the rocks by winds and currents, and here they were 

 deposited in successive accumulations in the lagoons of the coral isles, thus admi- 

 rably adapted to receive them as magazines, stored up for the future wants of a race 

 about to be called into existence. It was pleasing to trace the operations of nature, 

 and delightful to pereeive the different gradations by which the most amazing results 

 were accomplished, but, observed Mr. Morris, there is danger in limiting our 

 views to second causes, and making that a stumbling block which ought to illumine 

 our path. It was possible to meet with a man, who, taking his fuel in contented 

 ignorance from the depths of the earth, received it as a boon from the hands of his 

 Maker, acknowledging, with a grateful heart, his providence and goodness ; while 

 another made familiar with the works of nature by study and observation, yet 

 attributes them to a mere chapter of accidents, and sneers at the credulity of the 

 other. But it would be better that all our scientific researches were for ever aban- 

 doned, than that any of the former character should have their faith and piety 

 disturbed by the latter. But it need not be so. Let us not stop half way. Let 

 us trace to their great origin the multifarious operations in nature, and then the 

 hand of God will be abundantly conspicuous. 



The new red sandstone and its subordinate rocks were next reviewed ; imme- 

 diately previous to the deposition of this formation there were prodigious disturbing 

 forces at work in the earth, creating a subsidence of land in a south-easterly, or 



