Miscellanies. 413 



embodied all his own observations, together with a vast quantity of 

 new facts, brought to light since the first appearance of the work, 

 which has been most materially improved by these corrections and 

 additions. Several new illustrations have been added and the glos- 

 sary at the end of the fourth volume, will considerably assist thos6 

 readers who are unacquainted with the elements of geology. 



35. Manual of Mineralogy, by Rob. Allan, F. R. S. E., F. G. 

 S. L., &;c., comprehending the most recent discoveries in the min- 

 eral kingdom, was published in Edinburgh, in Sept. last, with 174 

 figures, price 10s. Qd. 



36. Notice of the WorJc of T." Hawkins, F. Gf. S.— Memoirs 

 of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, extinct monsters of the ancient 

 earth ; with twenty eight plates, copied from specimens in the au- 

 thor's collection of fossil organic remains. 1 vol. large folio, Lon- 

 don, 1834. 21. lOs.—Ed. 



A favorable notice of this very extraordinary work, with some 

 judicious criticisms, is contained in Loudon's Magazine of Natural 

 History, for September, 1834, — London. It is supposed to be from 

 the pen of Mr. Bakewell, and we had marked it for insertion in our 

 present number, along with another from the pen of Mr. Mantell ; 

 but for want of room, we can insert only a part of the latter, which 

 first appeared at Brighton, England. 



" There was a period when reptiles of the most wonderful forms, 

 and appalling magnitude were the principal inhabitants of the earth, 

 ere man and the animals which are his coteruporaries were created. 

 In very early records there are obscure notices of the discovery of 

 these ancient animals, and in more modern times the allusions are 

 more frequent, but not more satisfactory. Even as late as 1726 

 Scheucher, an eminent physician described, as he supposed a fossil 

 man found in the quarries of Oeningen ; he called him homo diluvii 

 testis ; but Cuvier determined that the bones were those of an enor- 

 mous Salamander or Saurian. Still it is probable that similar mis- 

 takes might be committed in most places in the civilized world, so 

 few persons lire there, even among medical men, who are intimately 

 acquainted with comparative anatomy. The splendid work of Mr. 

 Hawkins is confined to fossils which are peculiarly British, namely, 

 the Ichthyosauri or fish lizards, and the Plesiosauri or animals that 

 are much like lizards. These remains were first noticed in the blue 



