NEW PUBLICATIONS. 269 



in other countries, to fall in now and then with free and easy people. 

 I am bound, however, to say, that in the two most glaring instances 

 of vulgar familiarity which we have experienced here, we found out 

 that both the oflenders had crossed the Atlantic only ten years be- 

 fore, and had risen rapidly from a humble station. Whatever good 

 breeding exists here in the middle classes, is certainly not of foreign 

 importation ; and John Bull, in particular, when out of good humor 

 with the manners of the Americans, is often unconsciously behold- 

 ing his oiun image in the mirror, or comparing one class of society 

 in the United States with another in his own country, which ought, 

 from superior aflluence and leisure, to exhibit a higher standard of 

 refinement and intelligence." 



A subject which Mr. Lyell has discussed, is that of the drift, or 

 the comparatively recent formation which embraces those of the 

 period coincident with that of the true drift, and of the deposits 

 which were formed quietly and subsequently thereto. We shall give 

 his remarks, inasmuch as the subject is especially interesting, and 

 cannot be too thoroughly contemplated. It is proper to premise that 

 the entire formation consists of sand, coarse gravel and loose rocks, 

 and of fine argillaceous and siliceous sediments, which in some 

 places contain fossils. These deposits rest upon the surface rock, 

 the upper layer of which is scored and smoothed, and sometimes 

 polished ; the scores and grooves having a northerly and southerly 

 direction, differing many degrees, however, someti«ies westerly and 

 sometiines easterly : the variation in most cases seems to be pro- 

 duced by an opposing barrier, as a range of mountains ; but this 

 is not always the case, for in some instances these grooves and 

 scratches pass obliquely over steep mountains. 



Mr. Lyell, in giving his views upon this formation, occupies an 

 entire chapter, from which we extract the following : " This forma- 

 tion occupies the vallies of the St. Lawrence, Champlain and the 

 Hudson : it rests every where upon a grooved surface, the direc- 

 tion of the grooves northeast and southwest ; and it is remarked 

 that the blocks or boulders have been transported southwards along 

 the same lines as are marked out by the direction of the furrows. 

 The inference, therefore, is, that there is a connection between the 

 grooves on the solid rock, and the boulders found upon it ; or, in 

 other words, the agency by which boulders have been transported, 

 and the grooves made, is one ;" and that agency is attributed by 



