Journal of Microscopical Science. 63 



are made aware of its applicability to the extensive areas between 

 tbe Ottawa and Lake Huron and elsewhere, it becomes almost a 

 matter of certainty that the large rivers traversing this region may 

 thus be made accessible and of commercial value. Consider again 

 the lime and soda felspar rocts which throughout the Laurentine 

 Country are associated with the crystalline limestone, and remem- 

 bering the words of Sir William Logan, we shall not despair of, 

 but rather hope well for, this vast uninhabited region. The val- 

 lies underlaid by these lime and soda felspars guarantee a fertile 

 soil and agricultural capability, wherever they are to be found, and 

 the discovery of important ranges in the Laurentine Country es- 

 tablishes this capability over wide areas. It is of the highest im- 

 portance to give due prominence to this part, for an impression 

 has prevailed almost universally that the Laurentine Country, now 

 comprising the uusurveyed part of Canada, is hopelessly sterile, 

 and consequently incapable of supporting agricultural people so 

 necessary in the proximity of a great mining district. Whereas 

 the real facts of the case, when fully known, show conclusively 

 that not only in the river vallies but over extensive ranges occupied 

 by particular rocks, all the elements of fertility exist in singular 

 abundance, and that it requires only the industrious hand of man 

 to convert wide areas in those unoccupied solitudes into cultivated 

 and fruitful farms. 



ARTICLE IX. — Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science. 



No. 18, January, ISSY, p.p. 114, with six plates. London : John 



Churchill, 4s. 



Contents. 



Monograph of the Genus Abrothallus; by W. L. Lindsay, M. D., 

 Perth. (An elaborate and erudite article of this obscure Genus of 

 Lichens.) 



The existence of Birds during the deposition of the Stones field 

 Slate, proved by the comparison of the Microscopic Structure of 

 certain bones in that formation with Recent Bones ; by Rev. J. 

 B. P. Dennis, F. G. S., Bury St. Edmunds. 



On Dysteria ; a new genus of Infusoria ; by T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. 



On the Origin of Greensand and its Formation in the Oceans 

 of the Present Epoch ; by Prof. J. W. Bailey, N. Y. 



Further Observations on Vegetable Growth ; by the Hon. and 

 Revd. S. G. Osborne. 



