246 Foreign Notices in Mineralogy, 
knowledge of the science, when he finds that, in addition to 
the usual qualities of weight, lustre, and external form, min- 
erals possess an internal organization which displays itself 
by the most beautiful optical phenomena, and exercise fune- 
tions of a physical nature, not less interesting than those 
which are exhibited in the agencies of animal and vegetable 
life. This Treatise will consist of two volumes, 8vo., with 
numerous plates, and will be preceded by an Introduction, 
containing a popular account or the action of crystals upon 
polarised light; an explanation of the new method of deter- 
mining primitive forms from the number of axes of double 
refraction; and a description of various new methods and in- 
struments for examining and distinguishing the precious 
stones and other mineral substances.” 
“ Discovery of the Fossil Elk of Ireland, in the Isle of 
Man.—Some months ago, in digging a marl-pit in the Isle 
of Man, there was discovered a skeleton of that remarkable 
animal, the Fossil Elk of Ireland. ‘This specimen, which 
is the most perfect and beautiful hitherto found, has been 
placed in the Museum of the University of Edinburgh.” 
From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No.8. 
“ Notice regarding the working and polishing of Granite in 
India ; by Alexander Kennedy, M. D. F. R. S. Edinburgh. 
The following observations have been suggested by the 
very excellent paper upon the Temples of Thebes, lately 
read by Colonel Stratton in this Society. (The Royal Soci- 
ety, Edinburgh.) In that paper he had occasion to mention 
the very high polish ‘still retained by the granite statues, 
columns, and other remains of Egyptian antiquity ; and in 
illustration of the great hardness of the material of which 
these are formed, he noticed incidentally the difficulty which 
had been found in operating upon one of these granite stat- 
ues now in the British Museum, and the number of tools 
which had been broken in the process of replacing one of 
its arms. 
That the arts, as well as the religion of the Hindoos, were 
originally derived from the Egyptians, seems not to admit of 
any doubt; and among the arts now practised by the Hin- 
doos, that of working and polishing granite, has, in all prob- 
ability, undergone no change from the period of its first in- 
