192 MISCEM.ANEOU!! ITEMS. 



lie, when its claims are presented to it, is to be expected. There are 

 nine persons, seven Professors and two Tutors, engaged in the depart- 

 ment of instruction, each of whom is earnestly desirous of seeing his 

 pupils advancing in mental and moral improvement. 



Perhaps no institution in the land has a more correct and orderly- 

 company of students, and who feel a deeper interest in its prosperity, 

 than this. As an evidence of the former, it may be said that the acts of 

 discipline required by the Faculty are comparatively rare, and of the 

 latter, that the Association, of which this Journal is the organ, has la- 

 bored faithfully not only to beautify and ornament with walks, flowers, 

 shrubs and trees the College grounds, which at this moment present a 

 feast to the eye ; but also collect a cabinet of curiosities and specimens 

 in Natural History, and, with the aid of the Trustees, to erect a Mall 

 suitable for the reception of that cabinet. 



Corner-stone of the Linnaean Hall. We would inform our readers, 

 that at a meeting of the Linnaean Association, held on Saturday last, 

 Thursday the 23d prox. was designated as the day for the ceremonies 

 connected with the laying of the corner stone of the Hall. 



The petrified forest near Cairo, in Egypt. — From within several 

 miles of Cairo to Suez, a distance of eighty-six miles, the desert is 

 strewed loosely and at intervals with the fragments of an ancient forest, 

 consisting of trunks, roots and branches, some of considerable length 

 and size, and lying in all directions and positions. Their first appear- 

 ance is that of rotten wood dug out from a peat-bog, which easily crum- 

 bles to pieces ; but farther examination proves that they are petrified 

 wood, in Avhich the carlon has been replaced by silica (basis of flint,) 

 and so hard as to strike fire with steel. So quietly and perlectly has 

 the one been replaced by the other that the vegetable structure remains 

 perfect, "the sap vessels and medullary rays, the bark and marks of 

 worms and insects, and even the spiral vessels remain entire." Won- 

 derful as is this forest in its extent and the perfection of its preservation, 

 it is remarkable that it has excited but little attention, and that when, a 

 few years ago, its discovery was announced to the French Academy, the 

 account was not credited. 



Delay of the present numler. — We are sorry that unavoidable cir- 

 cumstances prevented the appearance of the present number of the 

 Journal at the usual time of publication. 



