JMiscellanies. 167 
8. Mineralogy and Geology of Nova Scotia, by C. T’. Jackson 
and F. Alger. Memoir—from an unpublished Vol. of the Trans. 
of the Am. Acad. Boston; pp. 116 with a map and views. 
The original of this excellent memoir, appeared in this Journal in 
1828—9. Since that period, the authors have revisited and reexam- 
ined the country in question, and by a careful revision, and enlarge- 
ment of their memoir, giving it a highly improved form, they have 
made it well worthy of republication, in the Transactions of the 
American Academy. ‘This memoir may well be proposed, as a 
model to future explorers of districts yet undescribed, especially on 
the North American Continent. It is exact and scientific, both in its 
generalizations and in its details, and it gives due prominence to the 
very important deposits of useful minerals, with which Nova Scotia 
and the vicinal parts of New Brunswick abound. Its geological, 
speculations are reasonable and philosophical; the style is perspicu- 
ous and correct, and the getting up is in every view worthy of, the 
memoir, which might well find a place in the Geological Transactions 
of London. Nova Scotia is evidently based upon granite, although 
that rock is almost every where covered by more recent formations, 
or appears only in loose boulders on the surface. 
A transition slate, with marine organic remains, and containing beds 
of limestone, and very rich beds of iron ore covers the greater por- 
tion of the country; the iron ore, an oxide, sometimes a peroxide, 
is itself often beautifully impressed with organized bodies, and some- 
times a shell is half moulded in the slate, and the other half adherent 
to the iron ore, thus evincing their contemporaneous formation. 
The sandstone formation is next in extent after the slate, and it is 
the most important to the interests of the country. It corresponds, 
geologically, with the new red sandstone or red marl of England. 
It contains great beds of gypsum, and it is from this deposit that 
the gypsum imported into the Atlantic American States is derived ; 
grind stones, which also form an important article of commerce between 
the two countries, are obtained from the same formation; beds of coal 
are moreover explored in it, and this valuable mineral is now finding its 
way into the Eastern States, both from the peninsula of Nova Scotia, 
and (if we are not misinformed) from the island of cape Breton, 
which is separated, only by a very narrow strait, from the north eas- 
tern main land. As there is no bituminous coal, in any quantity, 
hitherto discovered in New-England (nor from the geological char- 
acter of the country, is it probable that there ever will be;) as the 
