Miscellanies. 397 



plausibility, turn the tables upon him and say; I cannot help suspeC' 

 ting- that he is one of those to whom the observations made by me 

 were imparted through the medium of Silliman' s Journal in 1 834, 

 and now published as his own in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 in 1838. 



15. Gold in Georgia. — A correspondent in Georgia, intimately ac- 

 quainted with the gold mines there, informs us recently that, although 

 the gold is of a very superior quality, averaging 940 to 1000, the 

 deposit mines are nearly exhausted, and until labor in this country 

 becomes redundant, it is doubtful whether the vein mines will pay the 

 expense of working thera. 



16. Yale Natural History Society. — This Society has been already 

 mentioned in our pages. The progress of institutions of this nature 

 must always be slow, especially during the first years of their exist- 

 ence, and before a considerable library and museum, and important 

 transactions have called public attention to them. Already, several 

 valuable original papers have been published, by the Society, in this 

 Journal, evincing originality and accuracy of scientific investigation, 

 and illustrated by ample and finished engravings, by no means unwor- 

 thy of older and more celebrated associations. We learn that it is the 

 intention of the Society, as soon as practicable, to collect these papers, 

 and to publish them as transactions. It has doubtless been an advan- 

 tage to the Society, that they have been able to place their memoirs 

 before the public so soon after their being ready, and it is to be hoped 

 that they will always be able to do so. 



The museum of the Society has advanced faster than was expected. 

 A valuable collection of several hundred species of birds was received 

 two years since from a member in China, (Dr. Parker,) and the liber- 

 ality of the public has enabled the Society to display them to great 

 advantage. Their collections in the other departments of zoology, 

 and in botany, are small, but a nucleus is formed in each. The spe- 

 cimens collected by Prof. C, U. Shepard, illustrative of the geology of 

 this State, were, by the permission of his Excellency Gov. Edwards, 

 deposited in the Society's rooms, and constitute a cabinet of more 

 than ordinary interest. 



The library is yet small, but the means exist to a certain extent, of 

 increasing it as soon as is deemed expedient. Some additions have 

 been made to it during the past year, of which none are more impor- 

 tant than the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. An 

 eflbrt was just commencing by the Society to raise a fund of $20,000 

 for the increase and support of the library ; but before much could be 



