NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Lanntk, 2nd Con., lot No. 2 town lot. 

 N. Burgess 9ih Con., lol No. 2. 



N. Burgess, Slh 



S. Shei brook, 3rd 



S. Burgess, 2nd 



Dalhousie, 5nd 



« 1S& 16. 

 3. 



" N. Burgess, 6ih Con., lot No. 3. 



•• ii. Ferru r i iuus Uilivat* 

 ol Manganese - - 



No. lfi. Copper Ore, - - - 

 " 17. Serpeiiliiie, contain- 



ing Cuiunduin - 

 " IS Magnetic Iron Ore, 

 ,: 19. Graphite - - - - 

 " 20. An unknown mineral 

 " 21. Weailieredspecimeua 



of Perlhile - - 



Tue spscieieBS marked 1, 2, 3, 4 have been characterized by the late 

 Dr. Thomas Thomson, Professor of Chemistry in the University of 

 Glasgow, as new t-pecies. Although the Doctor has been a powerful 

 leader arid contributor to chemical science for more than forty years, 

 yet his decisions concerning these minerals have been denounced by 

 Mr. Hunt, Chemist to the Geological survey of this province as 

 altogether erroneous. In the Geological report for 1847 and 1848, Mr. 

 Hunt says that the Perthite of Dr. Thomson is "nothing more than a 

 reddish felspar ;" that from the Doctor's analysis it would appear that 

 this wineral. unlike other felspars, contains no potassium, which is, 

 according to him, replaced by calcium ; and it was upon tins chemical 

 difference principally, that he predicated its distinctness as a species. 

 It has however, been analyzed by my pupil, Mr. Hartly, in the labo- 

 ratory of the survey, and the results shew that it contains both potas- 

 sium and sodium, aiid is indeed quite similar in composition to other 

 felspars." 1 have no apparatus fit for delicate analysis ; but if I had 

 and were ever so capable, would feel no small reluctance in venturing 

 to dispute Mr. Hartley s investigations, but would be inclined to put 

 more confidence in Doctor Thomson's statements than in Mr. Hunt s 

 pupil In October, 1849, I was favored with a letter and special 

 messenger from B. Silliman, Juur., in which he says, '■ I propose to 

 make some new analyses of the minerals described by Dr. Thomson 

 as new species, and will feel particularly indebted to you for authentic 

 specimens of them" I sent the Professor the specimens he wanted 

 and begged that ue would- favor me with the results of his analysis. 

 In his reply he says : " 1 am uuable at present to give you my own 

 opinions of the species ; 1 have, however, put them into the hands of 

 my brother-in-law, Mr. Dana, who is now preparing for the third 

 edition of his mineralogy, to be issued next spring, and they will get 

 justice done them" It is only lately I got a chance of seeing the 

 third edition of Dana's Mineralogy, and do not observe that it gives 

 any new analysis of these minerals— it refers the reader to the Cana.'a 

 authorities, Mr, Hartley and Mr. Hunt, for information. I am sorry to 

 observe m this book that even the localities of the minerals are not 

 correct— it gives the locality of Perthite and Bytownite as being in 

 Bathurst, and they are several miles distant from the township. Since 

 my correspondence with Professor Silliman, I have got Mr. Logan's 

 report for 1850 and 1851, wherein Mr. Hunt again declares Dr. Thom- 

 son's decisions incorrect, and when speaking of the Perthite, he says: 

 The colors of this felspar become much darker by exposure to the action 

 of the weather, the analytical results which follow were obtaiued from 

 freshly broken light colored fragments, and the mineral rendered, <fcc 

 <fcc. Mr. Sunt was with me at the locality ol the Perthite, examined 

 the surface of the rock and the mineral in situ with apparent attention, 

 and, after having done this, how he can state that thismiueial becomes 

 darker by exposure to the action of the weather is very extraordinary. 

 Whenever the mineral is exposed to the weather, it becomes ot a 

 li^-ht color, and, in some places, bleached almost white ; such light 

 colored specimens, must be partially decomposed, and therefore unfit 

 for giving by analysis, the several constituents of the mineral. The 

 specimens marked \ were taken by me from the surface of the rock 

 where thev were exposed, to the weather, and will speak for them- 

 selves. Mr. Hunt further observes that " the quantity ot Potash present 

 jn, and the extensive deposit of this felspar, are such as make it worthy 

 of attention.' as an economical source of this alkali, which in propor- 

 tion as w..od becomes scarce, is increasing in value so much as to make 

 its extraction from its mineral constituents a source of profit." Now, 

 as this mineral is only to be found mixed up with a kind of granite 

 which occupies a bit of surface no more (the proprietor of the laud 

 iuforms me) than four acres, these four acres must afford a very great 

 quantity of potash indeed, or the demand must be very small, if it 

 will yield a sufficient supply when our woods are all gone— the pro- 

 cess of extracting the alkali, too, from the rocks, must be less expen- 

 sive and less laborious than it is at present. Possibly this is 

 not the only locality of the felspar; but I have yet to learn 

 whether this mineral has been found in any other place. The 

 external characters of the Perthite differ from those of other fels- 

 pars and Mr. Huut gives it no credit for being new on this account ; 

 yet says that a mineral he found in 1847. at the grand Calumet on the 

 Ottawa, gives by analysis the same constitution as chlorite, the prin- 

 ciple difference Wing 'in the proportion of water, and "that the hardness 

 completely distinguishes it from chlorite, and constitutes it a new and 

 Jhrhnet species." Thus itfeemehardness.nnd other extern?.! orphysical 



149 



characters (independent of chemical analysis) are quite mfrieient to 

 confer on this mineral the dignity of a new species ; whilst the Per- 

 thite (notwithstanding its peculiar external and physical characters) 

 gets no credit for these, but is condemned to the plebeian rank of com- 

 mon falspar. Much can be said about Mr. Hunt's treatment of tho 

 other three minerals, but I feel 1 am encroaching on your time and 

 pa'tienre. You will much obl.ge me by giving me your opinion of 

 the red colored mineral, No. 5, and also of No. 20. 



I am, Sir, your ob'dt. servant, 



JAMES WILSON. 

 Pkof^H. Croft, ) 



Corresponding Sec. Canadian Institute, > 

 Toronto. ) 



Notices of Books. 



Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia and the peninsula of Sinai, by Dr. Richard 

 I.epsivs, with extracts from his chronology of the Egpptians, with refer- 

 ence to the Exodus of the Israelites. Revised by the Author; Translated 

 by I.eonara and Johanna JB. Horner: p.p. 578, London, Henry G. Bohn, 

 1853. 



Egypt and Ethiopia, still lands of mystery, notwithstanding all that 

 has been thought, said and written respecting them, aie partially 

 unveiled to us in these interesting and erudite letters, coupled with 

 the startling fact that the discoveries of Dr. Lepsius add not less than 

 two thousand TEAKS to the generally assumed period of man's 

 existence on earth, and place the period of the first Manethonic Dynasty 

 between three and four thousand years, before Christ. Not less 

 interesting is the discovery of the true position of Sinai, which has 

 been for so many centuries hidden as it were behind a cloud. 



The origin of these letters is too interesting to be pasted over without 

 recognition, and before offering any illustrations of their varied 

 contents, we will give the account of Dr. Lepsius's object of the 

 expedition, and the means by which it was accomplished. 



The object of the scientific expedition, which the King of Prussia 

 sent to Egypt in the year 1842, was to investigate and collect, with an 

 historical and antiquarian view, the ancient Egyptian monuments in 

 the Nile Valley and upon the peninsula of Sinai. — It was fitted out 

 and sustained for more than three years by the munificence of the 

 King, and enjoyed uninterruptedly his gracious favour and sympathy — . 

 as well as the most active and kind attention from Alexander Von 

 Humboldt, and by a rare union of fortunate circumstances — it attained 

 the purposes they had in view as completely as could be expected. 



We shall probably find space to give a more complete account of 

 the results attained by this expedition in future numbers of the jour- 

 rial— let it suffice at present to present a few of the most striking. 



The most important results we obtained, therefore, were in chro- 

 nology and history. The Pyramid-fields of Memphis gave usa notion 

 of the civilization of Egypt in those primitive times, which is 

 pictorially presented to us in 400 large drawings, and will be 

 considered in future as the first section in that portion of the history 

 of man, capable of investigation, and must be regarded with the 

 greatest interest. 



Those earliest Dynasties of Egyptian dominion, now afford us more 

 than a barren series of empty, lost, and doubtful names. They are 

 not only free from every real doubt and arranged in the order and tha 

 epochs of time, which have been determined by a critical examination, 

 but by showing us the flourishing condition of the people in those 

 times, both in the affairs of the state, civil affairs, and in the arts they 

 have received an intellectual and frequently a very individual historical 

 reality. We have already mentioned the discovery of five different 

 burial-places of the 6th Dynasty in central Egypt,and what we obtained 

 from them. The prosperous times of the new monarchy, viz. : the 

 period of splendour in the Ibebaid as well as the Dynasties which 

 followed, were necessarily more or less completed and verified. Even 

 the Ptolemies, with whom we appear to lie perfectly acquainted in 

 the clear nanatives of Grecian history, have come forward in a new 

 light through the Egyptian representations and inscriptions, and their 

 deficiences have been filled up by persons who were hitherto con-.' 

 sidered doubtful, and were hardly mentioned by the Greeks. Lastly, 

 on the Egyptian monuments we beheld the Roman Emperors in still 

 greater and almost unbroken series, in their capaeity of Egyptian 

 governors, and they have been carried down since Carracalla who had 

 hitherto been considered as the last name written in heroglyphics, 

 through two additional later Emperors as far as Decius, by which 

 means the whole Egyptian monumental history hat been extended, 

 for a series of years in the other direction. 



