NATURAL HISTORY. 
“The Jewels in whose crisped hair, 
Were placed each others beams to share.” 
Comparative anatomy, and other branches of 
natural science, as applied to Fossil bones, and other 
organic remains that have been preserved in some 
of the more recent of the rock formations, and in 
the various diluvial deposits, furnishes us with very 
valuable data, as to the relative ages and history of 
those formations. The improvements and discoveries 
in Chemistry, supply us with simpler, and more 
perfect methods of analysis, and with more numer- 
ous, and surer tests or reagents. (For instance,— 
‘The decomposition of the Earths, by the powerful 
agency of the Voitaic battery, promises to lead us, 
even to the true theory, of the deep-seated causes 
of Earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, in 
“The central caverns of the hollow earth, 
That never heard the sea’s tempestucus call, 
Nox the dread summons of impatient thunder,” 
and to much of the internal structure of our globe 
and the causes of the changes, and convulsions, to 
which, at different periods, its surface has been 
subjected.) And the mathematics are brought to 
our aid, to explain the laws of crystallization—as 
well as those by which the various molecules of 
matter combine, in definite proportions, to form the 
various mineral substances. The external charac- 
ters of minerals tho’ the most obvious and easily 
determined, will, we fear, always remain to a con- 
siderable degree, vague aud uncertain ; but still, 
