186 GEOLOGT AND MINERALOGY. 



vince that those to whom is committed the intellectual culture of 

 their sous aud daughters, are struggling with the sordid cares which 

 pecuniary pressure involves, and degraded by a social humiliation 

 which it is impossible to disguise ; and until the Common Schools 

 and Grammar Schools are doing their work effectively, and have been 

 eo doing for years, it is as vain to expect our Universities and 

 Colleges to nourish, as for our farmers to look for their harvests be- 

 fore they have begun their clearing. 



D. W. 



SCIENTIFIC AND LITERAKY NOTES. 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



The London Gazette of January 30th, dated from Buckingham Palace, an- 

 nounces the gratifying intelligence that Her Majesty has seen fit to confer the 

 honor of Knighthood upon William Edmond Logan, Esq., Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Canada ; a well earned and justly merited tribute of honor, which 

 will be confirmed by universal acclamation throughout British North America. 



PRESKRVATION OF ORGANIC REMAINS. 



The causes which mainly influence the preservation of organic bodies in the 

 fossil state, are the following : — 



1. The habitat of the plant or animal. 



2. The conditions prevailing at the spot to which its remains may be brought, 

 or at which it meets its death. 



3. The inherent power of these remains to resist mechanical disintegration. 



4. Their powers of resistance to chemical decomposition. 



6. The nature of the rock-matters in which they may be enclosed ; and the after 

 conditions to which these matters may be subjected. 



With regard to the first condition, it is abundantly evident, that aquatic types 

 are far more favorably circumstanced for preservation, than purely terrestrial forms ; 

 and littoral species, again, more so than pelagic tribes. But, allowing the body of 

 the dead fish or floating cephalopod to be cast, uninjured, by winds and currents, 

 on the shore; or the drowned mammal swept down to the river estuary ; the 

 co-operation of various conditions is required to ensure its preservation. Briefly — 

 there may be no sediments under process of distribution at the spot ; or the sedi- 

 ments may not be thrown down with sufficient rapidity to arrest decomposition; 

 or the shore may be rocky and exposed, and mechanical destruction follow. Finally, 

 if entombed forthwith, its calcareous parts may be readily dissolved to constitute a 

 cementing material for the surrounding mass; or subsequent metamorphic agencies 

 may obliterate all traces of its form. 



The more an organised substance approaches inorganic matter in its composition, 

 the greater, of course, will be its capability of resisting the usual process of decay. 



