208 Miscellanies. 
pointing out the advantages to be derived from agriculture, of which 
the Greeks are now comparatively ignorant, although Sicily, a Gre- 
cian colony, was in ancient times the granary of Rome, and after ad- 
verting to Holland and England, as proofs of what skill and industry 
might do even with an ungrateful, and under comparatively rude cli-_ 
mates, M. Levadiefs proceeded as follows :—‘ The Greeks formerly 
worked silver mines in Attica and in some of the islands in the Ar- 
chipelago; but gold came to them through Macedonia and Thrace, 
from Pannonia and Illyria. Hence the gold coins of ancient Greece 
are so few, while those of the Macedonian kings are still numerous. 
The marble quarries of Pentelicus and Paros are too well known to 
need being mentioned. Chromium has been found in Eubcea; Mi- 
Jos is rich in sulphur, vitriol and alum ; Siphnas possesses silver ores 5 
Naxos maintains a trade in emery ; Seca 5 is rich in steatite, or 
soap-stone, which is much sought for, chiefly to make the luting of 
water-pipes. I shall not say any thing of our numerous mineral 
rings, the waters of which are so serviceable to suffering humanity. 
Unfortunately, mines cannot be expected to repay the cost of work- 
ing them, unless where coals are at hand and in abundance. _ It shall 
therefore be the business of the society of Natural History to prose- 
cute the much desired examination, as to the nature and quality of 
the stone coal discovered at Negropont and at Argos, and to report 
on the uses to which it may be applied, whether as fuel for domestic 
purposes or for the making of gas; whether it be adapted for the 
use of furnaces, or smithies, and for steam navigation.” — Jb. 
24. Geological Society.— April 19.—Rev. W. Whewell, President, 
_ in the chair.—A paper was read by Mr. Owen, ‘ On the cranium of 
the Toxodon, a new extinct gigantic animal, referable by its dentition 
to the Rodentia, but with affinities to Pachydermata and herbivorous 
Cetacea.’ 
This cranium forms part of the series of fossils collected by Mr. 
Darwin in South America. It was found in the Sarandis, a small 
tributary of the Rio Negro, about one hundred and twenty miles 
N. W. from Monte Video, and had been imbedded in the whitish, 
argillaceous earth which forms the banks of that rivulet. The sub- 
soil of the whole of the surrounding country is granitic, and Mr. 
Darwin considers the argillaceous covering to be an estuary deposit, 
accumulated by the river now called the Plata, and at a period when 
the land was at a lower level with reference to the ocean, than it is 
at present. 
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