390 Miscellanies. 



and it is all around full of coal. There is also at the east, a gallery 

 a few yards from the bottom, to the extent of forty or fifty yards, all 

 surrounded with coal, so that they see nothing else on all sides,' " 



5. Encouragement for the Fine Arts. — George Combe, Esq. under 

 date of March 16, 1841, writes to the senior editor of this Journal : 



" I am glad to hear that Mr. Ives (sculptor and modeller in stat- 

 uary) has obtained so much patronage among you. It appeared to me 

 that there is no lack of genius for art in the United States ; all that is 

 needed is encouragement. Scotland was too poor to encourage artists 

 by buying their works, until we formed an association, to which any 

 one who chooses subscribes five dollars ; we buy pictures with the 

 funds, (last year they amounted to <£3,000,) and draw lots for them. 

 The annual exhibition has recently opened, and it is very creditable to 

 the country. The improvement in art, within my recollection, is very 

 great, and the public taste is improving in proportion. Such a scheme 

 is what your country wants." 



We hope that the valuable suggestion of Mr. Combe may be favora- 

 bly regarded, both in the revival of institutions already existing for the 

 impi'ovement of the arts, and in the creation of new and efiective asso- 

 ciations. 



Twelve months have passed since the above remarks were written, 

 and they have lain among our unpublished miscellanies until we can 

 have it in our power to confirm their justness and propriety. 



6. Geological Survey of Louisiana. — We are happy to learn from 

 Prof. Wm. M. Carpenter, of Jackson College, Louisiana, that he has 

 for some time past been engaged in making, by direction of the legis- 

 lature, a geological examination preliminary to a complete survey of 

 that state. Prof Carpenter is well known to the readers of this Jour- 

 nal by various interesting geological papers in our previous volumes, 

 and we rejoice that the legislature of Louisiana have had the wisdom 

 to select, from her own sons, one so able to answer their liberal views. 

 From Prof. Carpenter's letter we extract the following. 



Notice of an interesting Fossil. — The sketch represents the crown 

 of a molar tooth, which was taken from a jaw bone found at the depth 

 of forty five feet below the surface, in digging a 

 well in a prairie twenty or thirty miles from the 

 town of Opelousas, in the western part of this state. 

 When taken up, the jaw bone is said to have been 

 nearly entire, but was fragile, and soon crumbled, 

 and as the discoverers saw nothing remarkable in 

 the jaw except the circumstance of its being found at such a depth below 



