Notice of Harvey’s Marine Alge@ of North America. 5 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large 
(And) floating many a rood.— 
Here the Sea Otter (Lutra marina) has his favorite lair, resting 
himself on the vesicle, or hiding among the leaves while he 
pursues his fishing.”—p. 82. On page 86, a fuller account of 
this wonderful sea-weed is given, translated from the narrative 
of its discoverer, Dr. Mertens. We wish to call the particular 
attention of travellers, and of our fellow countrymen of Oregon, 
to this and to the Thalassiophyllum of the Northwest coast, be- 
cause they are very imperfectly known ; and whoever meets with 
, OF a 
would confer a great favor and advantage by collecting charac- 
teristic specimens of these and also of all other Alge, immersing 
smaller specimens in proof spirit or Goadby’s solution, and trans- 
mitting them to the Smithsonian Institution. These great air- 
vessels, it appears, cannot be preserved by drying, but probably 
they might be packed, with their leaves, in strong brine, so as to 
reach us in good condition. 
This leads us to remark that clear directions for collecting and 
preserving specimens of sea-weeds are given in the Introduction, 
pp: 28-30. Their habitat, or place of growth, and their geo- 
graphical distribution, especially on our Eastern coast, whic 
Prof. Harvey has explored in person from Halifax to the keys of 
Florida, are presented with considerable fullness in the Introduc- 
tion. All these topics are treated in the happiest manner, and so 
abound with interest that it is needless to indicate particular por- 
tions ; for it can hardly be that any general reader, still less one 
with the smallest tincture of science, who opens the Introduction, 
will lay it down before he has finished it. ‘Still we cannot deny 
ourselves the privilege of adverting to its appropriate close, in 
Vindication of the moral influence of science, and of the teach- 
ing of the book of nature, from the aspersions of the ignorant 
and the prejudiced. 
“Unfortunately, it happens that in the educational course prescribed 
to our divines, natural history has no place, for which reason many are 
ignorant of the important bearings which the book of Nature has upon 
the of Revelation. They do not consider, apparently, that both 
are from God—both are His faithful witnesses to mank id. And i 
this be so, is it reasonable to suppose that either, without the other, can 
be fully understood? It is only ne at the absurd com- 
mentaries in reference to natural 7 
