Chase.] Ig2 [March. 



In the varied character of the resemblances that have been thus 

 briefly pointed out, extending, as they do, not only to all the customary 

 forms that are found in memorial inscriptions, but also to the modern 

 running hand, there seems to be a mass of circumstantial evidence, 

 which leads almost irresistibly to the conclusion that the whole his- 

 tory of the invention and gradual perfection of alphabetic writing, 

 must be still preserved in the literature and monuments of China. 

 Of the antiquity of the Chinese Tsaou Shoo, or cursive script, and 

 the recent introduction of similar forms into our own writing, there 

 can be little doubt. It seems to be established beyond any reasona- 

 ble cavil, that the former has been in use for at least two thousand 

 years. There is a noteworthy coincidence between the date of the 

 Saxon running hand (in the eighth or ninth century), and the Au- 

 gustan age of Saracen literature and empire, which renders it pro- 

 bable that the learned Mahometans may have communicated to the 

 scholars of Europe, a knowledge of the rapidly-formed Jetters that 

 had long been used in Asia, and that the advantages arising from 

 their use were so evident as to lead to their speedy general adoption. 



Extracts from a letter were read from Prof. J. D. Whitney, 

 geologist of California, relating to the survey of that State, 

 promising the publication soon of one or two valuable volumes 

 of reconnoissance, to be followed by special reports in due 

 time, at the order of the Legislature. " Our results," Mr. 

 Whitney writes, " are, I think, likely to interest the geologi- 

 cal world quite strongly. We have found the geology of 

 California to be very different from what it had been repre- 

 sented to be by the Pacific Railroad geologists." Mr. Whit- 

 ney expects to spend the spring months in additional field- 

 work in the Sierra Nevada, before publishing. 



