130 First and last Appearances of 
form different distinct beds, in which will be found remains 
of fresh-water fish, of vegetables, and of quadrupeds. Large 
animals are frequently borne along by the rapidity of the cur- 
rent, and precipitated down the cataracts : their broken bones, 
mixed with the calcareous sediment, may form rocks of cal- 
careous tufa, where the waters first subside after their de- 
scent.” 
It may be proper to remark, that the partial drainage of 
Lake Erie will also effect a corresponding drainage of the 
other lakes connected with it, and add many thousand equate 
miles of productive soil to the continent of North America. * 
Art. IV. Dates of the first and last Appearances of the Hiriin- 
dines in the Neighbourhood of Allesley Rectory, for the Year 1829, 
with Remarks. By the Rev. W.T. Bres, M. A. 
Sir, 
Your correspondent, L. E. O. of Bradford (Vol. IT. p. 458.), 
communicates the interesting fact of his having observed the 
common swallows (he does not state the number of them), on 
the 15th of November, at Richmond in Yorkshire. This is 
certainly late in the season for these birds to be seen; later, 
indeed, than I have ever observed them, except in one in- 
stance, which was on November 20th, as appears by referring 
to the table of arrivals and departures (Vol. IL p. 19.) under 
the year 1806; and in this instance it was only a single bird 
that was seen. 
Your correspondent is pleased to say that ‘ it was his in- 
tention to have communicated this previously to the present 
time, in the form of an essay on the arrival and departure of 
the Hirindines, along with some other observations and facts 
* The few rock specimens my son brought from the vicinity of Niagara 
are: — 
1. A hard subcrystalline grey limestone. 
2. A dark very close-grained limestone. Both the specimens closely 
resemble some of the lower beds of English mountain or transition lime- 
stone. 
3. The same dark limestone, with an indistinct vestige of chain coral, in 
which the organic part is chert. In this specimen there is a small str ing of 
yellow blende (sulphuret of zinc). ‘The above three specimens are from 
the hard limestone (d d) in fig. 23. 
4. A dark argillaceous limestone, from the shale / /. 
Though there are few or ganic remains in the limestone at the Falls, the 
mineral characters indicate that it belongs to the transition class of rocks. 
—R, B., Sen. 
