218 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



very unscientifically treated ; we mean, the transition which so 

 often occurs in rocks, not only between the several varieties of each 

 family, but even between the families themselves, in consequence 

 either of their gradual variation of character, or of the loss of 

 one or more of the ingredients. which constitute the distinction. 

 Upon these subjects, our author has some excellent remarks ; 

 they have generally been slurred over by modern geologists, in 

 consequence of the difficulties in which they involve the theorist ; 

 but Dr. Mac CuUoch, who is purely practical, and, strange to 

 say, neither Vulcanist nor Neptunist, gives them their due im- 

 portance and appropriate description. 



The 13th chapter contains a synoptic view of the general 

 characters of the families of rocks included in the arrangement 

 before us. To describe the characters of rocks so as to enable 

 the student to recognise them in mass, as well as in hand speci- . 

 mens, is a task of no small difficulty, and one which we do not 

 hesitate to say, Dr. Mac Culloch has performed in a very 

 superior manner ; unlike some modern geological writers, who 

 have aimed rather at obstructing the progress of the student, 

 by throwing an accumulation of difficulties into his path, 

 without giving any clue to their solution, he has succinctly, but 

 clearly announced the obstacles, and, in the greater number of 

 instances, has succeeded in their removal. 



On the whole, the science of geology,.if so it may be called, is 

 much indebted to Dr. Mac Culloch, In his various papers in the 

 Geological Transactions, and in his book on the Western Isles, 

 he has shewn himself an indefatigable collector of facts, and a 

 most observant traveller; in tlie work before us he appears 

 equally successful as an elementary and systematic writer. We 

 are indebted to him for the following notice of two new 

 minerals, which ought to have appeared in our Number. 



2. A new mineral, to which I gave the name of Conite, 

 was described in my work on the Western Islands, as found 

 in Mull and in Glen Farg. It was subsequently mentioned 

 to have been found in the Kilpatrick-hills, and I must now 

 add, to increase the list of its localities, that I have since 

 found it in Sky, in similar situations, namely, investing or 

 filling cavities in trap rocks, and accompanying different mem- 

 bers of the zeolite family. 



It happened that Professor Schumacher had, about the same 

 time, applied the same name to a variety of limestone, deriving 

 his term from the Greek, xona or xon;, as applied to chalk or 

 lime. The inconvenience of this was, of course, immediately 

 apparent ; and although it is not likely that the term conite, 

 thus used, will long maintain its place in our catalogues of 

 minerals, since, like lucuUite, and many others, it only serves 

 to encumber the science with a catalogue of useless names, I have 



