Miscellanies. 205 



his intention of visiting, during the present year, the whole Tertiary 

 frontier of our country from New Jersey to Alabama. 



It is our intention to resume this subject more in detail on a future 

 occasion, and for the present shall close our remarks with a beautiful 

 passage from the preface of our author. 



" The recent shells have been sought with avidity on the shores 

 of every sea, to adorn the cabinets of the curious with the symmetry 

 and beauty of their forms, or the brilliancy of their colors ; but the 

 science of Geology has given to the more homely fossils, a charm 

 which amply compensates for the loss of a portion of exterior orna- 

 ment, inasmuch as they are mute interpreters of those strange revo- 

 lutions, of which the memory of man has not preserved a solitary 

 trace. They chronicle the various eras of an unknown world, where 

 one ocean has retired to give place to another with its peculiar tribes 

 of animated beings, whose silent eloquence reveals the mysterious 

 operations of nature, when the sudden elevation of mountains, irrup- 

 tion of seas, and destruction of various races of animals and plants, 

 were forming in the crust of our globe those numerous strata, the 

 study of which must ever be an inexhaustible source of pleasure and 

 instruction. Thus have long periods of violence and revolution been 

 necessary to create the beautiful variety of the present surface of the 

 earth, and perhaps to prepare it for the support of man, as all these 

 changes appear to have been effected anterior to the existence of the 

 human race." 



It will be agreed by all that this important division of our geology 

 could not have fallen into better hands, and if it were needed, the 

 ablest assistance is easily obtained from Dr. Morton and other gentle- 

 men in Philadelphia, who have already distinguished themselves in 

 this branch of research. Sept. 23d, 1832. 



2. Declination of the Magnetic JVeedle ; by Mr. George Gillet, 

 in a letter to the editor, dated Hebron, Conn. May 1st, 1832. 



Sir — In your Journal of Arts and Sciences, the observations of 

 Mr. De Witt and of Dr. Bowdhch, for the declination of the mag- 

 netic needle, are recorded in direct opposition to each other — one 

 giving an increase and the other a decrease of west declination. In 

 the year 1813, an article appeared in a Philadelphia paper from 

 which the following was extracted. 



At that city, " 1701, W. dechnation 8"^ 30', by Mr. Scull. 17&3, 

 W. 1° 30', by R. Brooks. 1794, the needle was observed to re- 



