Miscellanies. 381 



At Catherinenburg, from the observations made every day of De- 

 cember, 1836, by M. Reinke, the magnetic declination was found to be 

 5° 5' 23''^ east. At the close of the volume is a series of correspond- 

 ing observations made at St. Pelersburgh, on the horary variations of 

 the magnetic declination, during various days in 1835 and 1836. The 

 observations were generally made at intervals of five minutes through- 

 out the entire twenty-four hours. Observations of this nature are 

 now regularly made in various parts of the world, and will soon be 

 greatly extended, through the zeal and liberality of the British nation. 

 We trust that the series, of which the volume before us is so excellent 

 a beginning, will be long continued, and that it may excite the honor- 

 able rivalry of all civilized nations to take part in so important a sci- 

 entific enterprise. 



A recent letter from Sir John Herschel to his distinguished corre- 

 spondent in Boston, expresses an earnest wish that magnetic obser- 

 vations may be extended as far as possible on this vast continent. In 

 anticipation of this view, the American Philosophical Society of Phil- 

 adelphia had already addressed the Secretary of War on the subject — 

 (we trust with succest:) — and we believe we are correct in stating, 

 that the Girard College of Philadelphia has appropriated funds for the 

 establishment of a magnetic observatory in connection with that in- 

 stitution. — Eds. 



10. On the geognostic position of the Zeuglodon, or Basilosaurus 

 of Harlan. — European geologists, whose attention has been direc- 

 ted to the remains of this gigantic animal, seem at a loss to refer it to 

 its position in the scale of formations. If they mean the European 

 formation, of which the American is the equivalent or contempora- 

 neous deposit, I am not surprised at their uncertainty, since the lime- 

 stone, which abounds in the remains of the Zeuglodon, contains a 

 group of fossils which have scarcely any analogy to those of any 

 European formation. But the position of the Zeuglodon in the scale 

 of American formations is well ascertained, no less than the remains 

 of nine individuals having been found in the limestone of Alabama, 

 immediately under the lower tertiary fossiliferous strata, with which 

 the limestone contains a few species of shells in common. This for- 

 mation seems to fill the chasm which in Europe has been often no- 

 ticed to occur between the secondary and tertiary series, or the Maes- 

 tricht deposit and the eocene, and has been termed by Dr. Morton, 

 " the upper cretaceous formation." It contains very {ew species in 

 common either with the middle cretaceous strata below, or the lower 

 tertiary above, and might with equal propriety be considered the last 

 of the cretaceous, or the first of the tertiary series. Dr. Harlan has 



