But if we take a wider range, and include the extent of country of which om- 

 city is the Metropolis, we shall find still further corroboration of our views. 

 To the Geologist, the Mineralogist, the Zoologist, and the Botanist ; to the 

 student of Natural History in any of its ramifications, our rocks and valleys 

 afford ample material ; and the man of practical art will find both occupation 

 and instruction in the great manufacturing operations of the district, and in the 

 business of a commercial port. At a greater distance, the coimty of Cornwall 

 and the province of South Wales, offer objects of intense interest to the man of 

 Science, the general Antiquary, and the Philologist. The iron works of Mon- 

 mouth and Glamorgan are the largest in the world, and the mining operations 

 in Cornwall, among the most extensive. The ancient language of both these 

 districts — still preserved in all its purity in the Principality — its grammatical 

 construction, and its general analogies to and connexions with other tongues, 

 are well deserving attention ; and every fastness is crowned by the traces of 

 some British habitation, of some Roman encampment, or of some Norman 

 fortress. 



Such then are the causes out of \vhich the prospects of our Journal originate ; 

 and such being the causes, the objects of the work are almost self-evident — the 

 work should be the echo of the causes. It has been produced by the increasing 

 local diffusion of a taste for science and literature ; it will endeavour still further 

 to promote that taste, by rendering more efficient and more available all the 

 local facilities which our neighbourhood so amply presents for its cultivation. 

 It will open a channel for the publication of the most valuable original commu- 

 nications, which may from time to time be made to the Philosophical Society 

 attached to the Institution at Bristol. And — as many similar bodies are dis- 

 persed through the neighbouring counties — it is trusted that^ should our 

 Journal become permanently and respectably established, it would afford equal 

 advantages to them, and thus become the centre of a system of union and co- 

 operation, which must greatly increase the efficiency of Institutions of this 

 description. 



But while it will be one great object with us thus to give publicity to valuable 

 materials of local origin, it will be equally our endeavour to supply brief but 

 comprehensive announcements of all the most important works, whether Britisli 

 or Foreign, which may contain original discoveries, or throw material light 

 upon any of the subjects which this .lournal professes to include. 



It can only be necessary to say a very few words on these subjects, under the 



