252 Dr. J. W. Webster on St. Michael 
work. It has attained a part of the object for which it was 
instituted, a very extensive collection of specimens in all the 
branches of Natural History. The Society has lately been 
incorporated. It has labored chiefly in silence, but has 
accomplished much. The only publication which has ap- 
peared under its auspices, as we believe, is a pamphlet res- 
pecting the Sea Serpent. 
This work on St. Michael, professes to be a communica- 
tion to the same Society. We have perused it with much 
pleasure and satisfaction, and we hope that Dr. Webster’s 
example may excite others to similar efforts. 
In the preface, Dr. Webster observes that “ it isnota 
little remarkable that a group of islands, situated as the 
Azores are, within eight hundred miles of the shores of 
Europe, should not have commanded the attention of 
naturalists, nor have induced some one to undertake an ex- 
cursion to them for the purpose of investigating their geo- 
logical structure. The only notices we have of them, are 
brief, tending to excite the curiosity, rather than affording 
much positive init ion r ing them.” In 1813, a 
communication has therefore been retained. I have, the 
author remarks, thought it would be useful to point out 
the rocks of some 
well known European localities, which 
| le. A refer- 
said that basalt occurs in the United States, but the 
_ rocks which have been thus called, are widely different from 
