Chalk in N. America. — Trumpeter-bird. i69 



with it. The great loss in the analysis is due to the violent 

 action of the nitric acid upon it (the capsule being small), also 

 to the filing of the same, and to the great difficulty of cor- 

 rectly operating upon so small a quantity of matter. — Journal 

 of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 



EXISTENCE OF THE CHALK FORMATION IN NORTH AMERICA? 



Geologists have hitherto believed that the Chalk Forma- 

 tion is entirely wanting in America : Thus, Messrs. Conybeare 

 and Phillips, in their Outlines of the Geology of England and 

 Wales, observe (p. 67) : " Chalk has not been found in any 

 part either of North or South America yet explored, and Mr. 

 Maclure positively asserts that it does not exist on that conti- 

 nent." Dr. Bigsby, however, in his notes on the geography 

 and geology of" Lake Huron, printed in the newly published 

 Part of the Geological Transactions, states (p. 191), whilst de- 

 scribing the secondary rocks of that district, which are a por- 

 tion of an immense basin that extends from the southern shore 

 of Lake Winipeg, through Lake Superior, &c, to the Gulf 

 of Mexico, that " Dr. Wright, Inspector of Hospitals, has a 

 specimen of chalk from the neighbourhood of Lake Superior" 

 This statement appears to demand an examination of the lo- 

 cality, in order that so important a circumstance may not rest 

 for proof merely on the characters of a specimen. The sub- 

 ject is one of much interest in geology, and worthy of imme- 

 diate attention. We would suggest "the determination of the 

 point to the American Geological Society. 



THE TRUMPETER-BIRD, A TRUE VENTRILOOUfST. 



Dr. Traill informs us, that one of his friends in Liverpool 

 has a living specimen of the Psophia crepitans, the Trumpeter 

 of English ornithologists. It is, he says, a very social bird, 

 following every individual of the family, and allowing itself to 

 be caressed. The noise it makes has been supposed by some 

 naturalists to have proceeded from the anus: but Dr. Traill 

 lias ascertained that the bird is a genuine vrntriloquist, of the 

 most perfect sort. In this specimen, too, the bill is remark- 

 able, by having the lower mandible about one quarter of an 

 inch longer'than the upper. This seems to be the usuai form 

 of the bill, but may easily be lost in dead specimens, or in 

 stuffed skins. — Some of the frog tribe are also remarkable for 

 their ventiiloquial powers.— Eetin. I'hil.Journ. vol. xi. p. 417. 



GRANITIC COLUMNS. 



Tin; first of the immense columns designed by Mr. Smirke 

 for the interior of the King's Library, was delivered at the 



II' v. 



