4 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



of economic geology. It is admirably arranged, and gives at one 

 view an idea of nearly all the sources of the mineral wealth of 

 the United States from the Atlantic border to the Pacific. 



The building of the ShefBeld School is better than that of 

 Columbia College, though it is an old medical school adapted to 

 its present use ; and the scope of the institution is wider, includ- 

 ing six distinct courses, any of which may be followed by the 

 student. These are: 1st, Chemistry and Mineralogy; 2nd, En- 

 gineering and Mechanics ; 3rd, Mining and Metallurgy ; 4th, 

 Agriculture ; 5th, Natural History and Greology ; 6th, A Select 

 Scientific and Literary Course. The class-rooms and laboratories 

 struck me as remarkably ingenious and neat in all their arrange- 

 ments, and combining in a great degree all possible contrivances 

 for the convenience of Professors and students. The bungling 

 and uncomfortable arrangements too often seen in Academic 

 rooms had evidently here been replaced by the exercise of some 

 engineering and mechanical skill and contrivance, and by a com- 

 bination of lecture room and cabinet the means of illustration 

 had been rendered extremely accessible. In token that the 

 Shefiield School is not altogether a school of mines looking down 

 into the bowels of the earth, its liberal founder has presented it 

 with an Equatorial Telescope, made by Clark, with an object 

 glass having an aperture of nine inches. It is placed in a tower 

 constructed for it ; and with a meridian circle and other instru- 

 ments, enables students to learn all the work of a regular 

 observatory, as well as the operations of astronomical geodesy. 

 Any one interested in the training of the young men of Canada 

 can scarcely avoid a feeling of envy in visiting such an institution 

 as this, furnished with so many facilities for enabling the active 

 mind of youth to grasp all that is of practical utility or pro- 

 vocative of high and noble thought in the heaven above and in 

 the earth beneath. At this moment a Canadian Sheflfield, 

 judiciously aiding any University having an adequate and per- 

 manent basis, would do more to promote the trade and manufac- 

 tures of this country, and its scientific reputation, than can be 

 done by any other agency. 



The faculty of the Sheffield School includes twenty-three 

 names, and its roll of students numbers one hundred and forty. 

 It is scarcely necessary to say that several of the Professors at 

 Yale are active and successful original workers, and that the 

 place is not only an effective scientific school, sending out each 



