his intention of visiting, during the present year, the whole Tertiary 
frontier of our country from New Jersey to Alabama. 
It is our intention to resume this subject more in detail on ties 
occasion, and for the present shall close our remarks with a beautiful 
passage from the preface of our author. 
- “'The recent shells have been sought with avidity on the shores 
of every sea, to adorn the cabinets of the curious with the symmetry 
and beauty of their forms, or the brilliancy of their colors ; but the 
science of Geology has given to the more homely fossils, a charm 
which amply compensates for the loss of a portion of exterior orna- 
ment, inasmuch as they are mute interpreters of those strange revo- 
lutions, of which the memory of man has not preserved a solitary 
trace. They chronicle the various eras of an unknown world, where 
one ocean has retired to give place to another with its peculiar tribes 
of animated beings, whose silent eloquence reveals the mysterious 
operations of nature, when the sudden elevation of mountains, irrup- 
tion of seas, and destruction of various races of animals and plants, 
were forming in the crust of our globe those numerous strata, the 
study of which must ever be an inexhaustible source of pleasure and 
instruction. ‘Thus have long periods of violence and revolution been 
necessary to create the beautiful variety of the present surface of the 
earth, and perhaps to prepare it for the support of man, as all these 
changes epee to have been effected anterior to the existence of the 
human race.” 
It will be agreed by all that this important division of our geology 
Could not have fallen into better hands, and if it were needed, the 
ablest assistance is easily obtained from Dr. Morton and other gentle- 
men in Philadelphia, who have already distinguished themselves in 
this branch of research. Sept. 23d, 1832. 
2. Declination of the Magnetic Needle ; by Mr. Geonce Gitter, 
in a letter to the editor, dated Hebron, Cons: May 1st, 1832. 
Sir—In your Journal of Arts and Sciences, the observations of 
Mr. De Witt and of Dr. Bowditch, for the declination of the mag- 
netic needle, are recorded in direct opposition to each other—one 
giving an increase and the other a decrease of west declination. In’ _ 
the year 1813, an article appeared ina Philadelphia paper — 
which the following was extracted. 
‘At that city, “1701, W. declination 8° 30’, by Mr. Scull Scull: 1798) 
W. 1° 30’, by R. Brooks. 1794, the needle was observed to Te 
