214 
A farmer in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux has recently con- 
verted waste land worth 300 francs per annum into enclosures 
for leeches, which now bring him in 25,000 francs annually. 
Besides the well-known brown and green leeches, a communi- 
cation to the Société Zodlogique d’Acclimatation of Paris, by 
M. de Filippi, describes a new genus, Yementaria, from Mexico 
and the Amazon, which possesses the valuable property of leaving 
no mark on the skin to which they are applied ; acting not by 
biting but by suction, 
AN interesting paper on the introduction of Maize into China, 
by Dr. Hance and Mr. W. F. Mayers, appears in a recent 
number of the Pharmaceutical Fournal. Theauthors are inclined 
to believe that Asia may rank as a native country of this cereal ; 
“the remote date assigned by Chinese records to its introduction, 
and the circumstance that the introducer is unknown,” being, 
in Dr, Hance’s judgment, ‘‘ irreconcileable with the supposition 
that it was brought to this country by the Portuguese, their first 
arrival here under Ferdinand Perez d’Andrada being in 1517, and 
the earliest notice of maize in European literature dating later 
than 1530. Mr. Mayers gives translations of passages from 
Chinese authors bearing upon the subject, as well as facsimiles 
of early Chinese engravings of the maize and millet. 
Mr. Enwarp Newman, in the /e/d for December 31, directs 
attention to the fact that during 1870 there has been an unusual 
immigration of quails to this country, and that a still more 
unusual number have stayed to breed; and desires to acquire 
materials for what he terms ‘‘a census of quails’’ during this 
exceptional year. The statistics particularly desired are: The 
number of quails bagged, and the dates ; the number of nests 
found ; the number of eggs in each nest ; and especially remarks 
as to the period and direction of flight, both on the arrival and 
departure ofthe migrants. The occurrence of the quail in Britain 
in such unusual numbers is, as Mr, Newman observes, a matter 
of great ornithological interest. 
Mucu good would accrue to our peasantry and working classes 
generally, if a better knowledge of the value of Nature’s pro- 
ducts were diffused amongst them. Blind prejudice prevents the 
proper application of a host of ‘‘unconsidered trifles.” We 
in England might take a lesson from what is done in Sweden by 
a Public Society, who, during a time of scarcity of food, and for 
the purpose of diffusing a knowledge of the edible Fungi and 
Lichens of that country, prepared, published, and distributed to 
the public schools no less than 10,000 copies of a pamphlet on 
the Fungi illustrated with coloured figures, and 4,000 copies of 
one on Lichens illustrated by actual specimens. 
THAT the Boehmeria nivea, or China Grass fibre, will, ere long, 
become a reguiar article of import to this country, is highly 
probable, both from the fact of the recent reward of the Indian 
Government for the invention of machinery suitable for its 
cleaning and preservation: and from the nature of the plant 
being such that the climate and soil of many of our colonies 
are quite suited for its culture. There is no doubt that it is well 
adapted for a variety of uses, and could, by careful preparation, 
be applied to purposes for which our present commercial fibres, 
though to some extent used, are nevertheless unsuited. The 
Chinese bestow an immense amount of care and labour upon its 
preparation, hence the very fine fabrics which are produced in 
that country. In Sumatra, also, much care is given to its cul- 
tivation and preparation: the stems are usually cut when they are 
about six feet high. They are sometimes allowed to dry before 
the fibre is taken from them, but the most common practice is to 
take it as soon as the stems are remoyed from the ground. A 
viscid gum is found on the stem which, in Macassar, is scraped 
off and used as a mild sort of arrow poison. In China three 
crops of the stems are usually obtained in one year, but the 
second crop is considered to yield the best fibre, 
NATURE 


[Fan. 12, 1871 
ON THE GEOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA* 
THE author, in treating on the Laurentian Rocks of Arisaig, 
Nova Scotia, discovered by him in 1868, referred to the oc- 
currence of pebbles of diorite, syenite, and granite in the con- 
glomerates of the Lower Carboniferous area of the townships of 
Arisaig and Antigonish, and the highly micaceous character of 
their grits and sandstones. He had experienced difficulty in ac- 
counting for these appearances. It appeared singular, especially, 
that the mica seemed to increase in those strata in proportion 
as they became removed from known granites. The lithological 
character of the discovered Laurentian band appeared to account 
satisfactorily for the occurrence of those constituents of the Lower 
Carboniferous strata. There are some gneisses and porphyritic 
diorites; hornblendic rock in great variety ; serpentines, black 
quartzite strata with veins of quartz, with abundance of crystals 
of mica (some would be disposed to call them granite veins) ; 
white syenite with stripes of green felspar and red syenite, both 
very sparingly hornblendic. South of these lies a Carboniferous 
area which seems to overlie the Laurentian band unconformably. 
This area is bounded on the south by a subtriangular band of 
metamorphic Arisaig, or middle and upper, Silurian rocks. This 
band is disposed in two anticlinal folds with an intermediate 
synclinal, The author designates it the Antigonish Sugar-loaf 
Band, so named froma prominent mountain of 710 feet elevation. 
The extreme breadth of this band, 7¢. N. and S., is about five 
miles. The axes run easterly and westerly. The S. side of the 
Carboniferous area referred to rests unconformably on the N. side 
of the northern anticlinal, the strata in contact being Lower Car- 
boniferous conglomerates. This area extends to St. George’s 
Bay and Cape St. George on the Gulf of St. Lawrence; it is 
basin-shaped, and is said to contain seams of coal. This area 
may be called the Arisaig area. South of the Silurian area lies 
the Antigonish Carboniferous area, The lower part of this area 
consists of conglomerates, limestone, and gypsum. The con- 
glomerate lies unconformably on the Silurian slates of the S. side 
of the southern anticlinal. The slates dip < 55°S. 5 E.; 
the Lower Carboniferous conglomerates and limestones dip 
< 30° S. 35 W. The observations made are at variance 
with two theories that have been advanced by different geologists 
to the effect—uist, that the Upper Silurian and Devonian forma- 
tions of Nova Scotia have been thrown into a few gveat folds, 
synclinal and anticlinal ; 2nd, that the Carboniferous and under- 
lying Devonian or Upper Silurian formations acquired their pre- 
sent positions simultaneously, the mountains having had a thick 
Carboniferous saddle, which had been subsequently removed by 
denudation, This theory supposes that the Carboniferous areas 
of Nova Scotia had been once united with each other and those 
of other countries. The Nova Scotia areas that are now 
separated have always been so, the only connection ever existing 
having been merely geological. F 
The author discovered an interesting outcrop of Laurentian 
syenite in the Silurian area. This forms, in conjunction with 
limestone, a noticeable hill of 300 feet elevation, in the middle 
of the Antigonish area of Carboniferous limestone and gypsum. 
This syenite is seen to a large extent in direct contact with lime- 
stone of Lower Carboniferous age, having abundance of cyrto- 
ceras, conularia, dentalium, and Leferditia okent. The limestone 
and its fossils have not been altered by contact with the syenite, 
showing, as a consequence, that the syenite had its existing con- 
stitution when the limestones were formed upon it in the bottom 
of the sea of the Lower Carboniferous era. A specimen from the 
summit of the hill in the collection of rocks in the Provincial 
Museum is reddish, like specimens in the same collection from 
the Arisaig Laurentian rocks. It is more hornblendic, and shows 
green mica, like that of a specimen of granite from a moun- 
tain in Baddeck, Cape Breton. The author made interesting 
observations on supposed Laurentian rocks in the Island of Cape 
Breton, which lies to the N.E. of Nova Scotia, being separated 
from the latter by a narrow strait called the Gate of Canso. In 
the Nova Scotia department of the Paris Exhibition of 1867, . 
there was a specimen of serpentine from a rock at St. Annez, 
Cape Breton. Prof. Wyville Thomson detected in this speci- 
men supposed eozobnal structure. The author lately received 
specimens of granite from White Head, Aspy Bay, Cape Breton; 
and also from a position seventeen miles S., and seventy-three _ 
W. from White Head. He also referred to the existence of 
auriferous slates, like those of Nova Scotia, at Middle River, 
* Abstract of a paper read before the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural 
Science by the Rey. D. Honeyman, D.C.L., F.G.S., &c., Professor of 
Geology in the Provincial Museum, 


