PREFACE. Vll 



It is with much pleasure the Author acknowledges his 

 obligations to gentlemen in different and remote parts of the 

 United Kingdom, and even beyond them, for the assistance 

 they have rendered him in the course of the work now 

 introduced to the British public; and to several of these his 

 thanks are the more especially due as then* communications, 

 whether of examples or information, have been altogether 

 unsolicited. From the remotest parts of the Shetland Islands, 

 and from Scilly, with the north and middle portions of 

 Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, contributions have been received; 

 a large proportion of which at least can only be ascribed to a 

 love of science, but of which the particulars are not now 

 given, as it was thought more satisfactory to refer to each in 

 those parts of our work where the particular subject has been 

 under consideration. 



Of his readers then, for the present, the Author takes his 

 leave in the words of the ancient Roman dramatists — ^'Vos 

 valete;" and if their approbation has been obtained — "at 

 plaudite!" 



