124 /ina/i/sis of' Scieiitijic Books. 



improbable, that if there were that desirable union among scien- 

 tific establishments to which we have adverted, the nation might 

 atleastafi'ord such assistance as would enable them to be suitably, 

 and even sumptuously, lodged. We have indeed heard that it is 

 in contemplation to remove Carlton Palace, to continue the new 

 street down to Westminster Abbey, and to erect in an open 

 part of it, opposite to theHorseguards and Whitehall, a building 

 appropri'ited to the Royal Society and the Royal Academy : if 

 this be so, we trust that the British Museum will not be forgotten ; 

 and that its treasures will be removed to some repository less 

 frail than that which now contains them; not one of those eva- 

 nescent combinations of lath,plaster,cenient and brickbats, which 

 adorn Waterloo-Place, but a good honest stone building, which, 

 in our opinion, could not be better situated than upon the site 

 of the present edifice. It has, indeed, been rumoured, that the 

 Duke of Bedford has thrown difficulties in the way of such an 

 undertaking; but surely the ungracious impediment of which we 

 heard could not come directly from a person possessed of less 

 patriotism than his Grace, for the houses which surround the 

 garden of the present Museum would be rather improved than 

 injured by the erection of a series of courts and galleries for 

 the reception of the various collections ; there is " rottenness" 

 somewhere, or something would, long ere this, have been accom- 

 plished towards redressing those grievances of which we have 

 only given a scanty outline, and of which not only the scientific 

 world, but the public at large, have a right to complain. 



The casual mention of the Geological Society led us to this 

 digression, which is not, we hope, altogether misplaced in an 

 examination of the labours of the Royal Society, to which we 

 now revert. One geological paper is contained in this nart of 

 the transactions, relating to a subject which requires more at- 

 tention than it has received ; and if the author be not in error, 

 he has discovered a fact of much curiosity, and some impor- 

 tance. The mountain limestone of Plymouth lies directly upon 

 clay-slate, and is remarkably scanty in organic remains ; it in- 

 cludes certain caverns, perfectly insulated, some of which are 

 incrusted with stalactite, and present nothing remarkable. In 

 others, Mr. Whidbey, the author of this communication, has 

 discovered certain fossil bones ; these caves were without any 

 stalactitical incrustation, having only a little dry clay at the 

 bottom, and we beg the reader's attention to the following par- 

 ticidars : " The cavity was entirely surrounded by compact 

 limestone rock, about eight feet above high-water mark, fifty- 

 five feet below the surface of the rock, one hundred and seventy- 

 four yards from the original face of the quarries, and about one 

 hundred and twenty yards in that direction from the spot where 

 the former bones were found in 1816." The bones, as appears 

 from Sir E. Home's annexed catalogue, are those of the rhino- 



