36 



TUE GEOLOGIST. 



to cou^ult works of a higher order ; and. if we mistake not. such has 

 been the author's intention. 



We are grieved to learn the death of the celebrated traveller, 

 Madame Ida rfeitrer. wlio has been known for some time to our English 

 readers bvher ■• Visit to Iceland,'' " The Scandinavian Xorth'' Travels 

 in the Holy Land, Egypt and Italy/' or perhaps better still bv ''A 

 Woman s Journey round the Wof-Id. and -'A W'r//ir/u'.i StCind Journey 

 round the World.'" The writings of the late rvFadame Ida Pfeit^er are 

 more adapted for the general reader than the scientific world. ^She 

 appears to have travelled from pure curiosity to see the different places 

 she has visited, and her works are naturallv of a very interesting 

 character. It is rarely that she speaks of tlie geological formations 

 of the numerous sp^ns on which her feet have trod, though in her 



Visit to IcJand." for instance, she speaks of what she saw at the 

 Geysers, without, however, bringing away any new scientific fj\ct. 

 Here is a passage from her work entitled " A Wo7nan'$ Journey )'ound 

 the IVjrld." which is not uninteresting in a mineralogical sense, and 

 which will perhaps give an idea of her style of writing. Speaking 

 of the environs of Valparaiso, she says : — •■ Persons discovering 

 mines are highly favoured, and have fuQ right of property to their 

 discovery, being obliged only to notify the same to the government. 

 This license is pushed to such au extent, that if for instance, a person 

 can advance any plausible grounds for asserting that he has found a 

 mine under a chttrch. or a house. lV'c. he is at liberty to have either 

 pulled down provided he is rich euongh to pay for the damage. 

 About fifteen years ago a donkey-driver accidentally hit upon a pro- 

 ductive silver-mine. He was driving several asses over the mountain 

 when one of them ran away. He seized a stone and was about to 

 throw it after the animal, but stumbled and fell to the ground, while 

 the stone escaped from his grasp and rolled away. Rising in a great 

 passion, he snatched up a second stone, and had stretched his arm to 

 throw it. when he was surprised by its enormous weight. He looked 

 at it more closely, and perceived that it was streaked with veins of pure 

 silver. He preserved the stone as a treasure, marked the spot, drove 

 his asses home, and then communicated his discovery to one of his 

 friends who was a miner. , , . In a few years both were rich men." 



Bur, to retium to Geology. — At Leghorn, recently, a thick smoke was 

 perceived to arise from the water in the new port, and it was feared 

 that a vessel was on hre : it turned out. however, that it was occasioned 

 by a submarine volcano, and the authorities deemed it advisable to 

 remove at once the gunpowder magazine to a distance. We hope to 

 receive more news of this by and by. 



In one of the recent meetings of the Academy of Scien^^es^ at Paris, 

 M. ^[arie Rouault called attention to what he supposed to be the 

 remains of some vertebrate animals from the Silurian schists of 

 St. Leonhard in Brittany. M, de Yerneuil, having subsequently 

 visited the locahtv, has obtained several of these fossils, called eels 

 by the quarrymen, and finds that they are merely pyritous casts of 



