Mr. Meikle on the (Economy of the Stea?n-E?igine, 213 



divisions are supposed to be general, and geologists expect to 

 meet with cornbrash in China, much mischief ensues, and much 

 valuable time and talent is wasted in endeavours to prove that 

 the whole surface of the world is minutely the same as any given 

 quarry, province, or even kingdom. 



It does not seem irrational to infer that such minute divisions, 

 characterised by peculiar fossils, can only be traced over com- 

 paratively small areas, unless we are to suppose that the same 

 animals and vegetables existed over the whole surface of the 

 globe at the same time, — that these were suddenly destroyed 

 — imbedded 10, 20, 100, or 400 feet deep, as the case might be, 

 — that then there was a new creation, — then a total destruc- 

 tion, and so on. 



So far as respects the limited area of which we have been 

 treating, there do appear to have been certain general or nearly 

 similar causes in operation. Consequently, though many species 

 of shells &c. are not strictly confined within the small limits 

 usually assigned them, still in the oolitic series taken as a mass 

 there would appear to be a general resemblance in organic cha- 

 racter. 



Belemnites seem to have been equally abundant in the lower 

 parts of the series everywhere. The Gryphsea incurva is found 

 under similar circumstances in Scotland, England, and France; 

 and the same may be said of many other shells. Ichthyosauri 

 of the same species occur in similar situations in Germany, 

 England, and the North of France. 



It therefore would appear that, during the deposit of the 

 oolitic series, the geographical distribution of the animals, whose 

 remains we now find entombed in its various beds, was not 

 widely different throughout the area treated of in these Notes. 

 It also would appear, although some animals may have existed 

 in one place and not in another, and although these remains 

 may occur in various beds in one locality and be confined to 

 one bed in another, that the organic character of the mass is 

 similar in Scotland, England, and France. 



XXXIV. On the CEconomy of the Steam-Engine, and on some 

 very general Mistakes regarding the Expansions of MM. Du- 

 long and Petit. By Henry Meikle, Esq. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 



Sir, 



T^PvOM looking into the Quarterly Journal of Science for 



■*■ January — .March, 1830, page 186, I observe that Mr. 



Ainger, who some time ago showed such a laudable zeal in 



claiming 



