NOTES AND QUERIES. 



37 



fucoidal bodies. On this visit he discovered that these Silurian slaty- 

 schists are undeiiaid by a Lingnla-bearing sandstone, of probably the 

 same age as the Potsdam sandstone of North Ameriea, and the 

 Lingula-flags of Wales. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Communications from Colonists. — " In a coiBmmiity so small, so occupied 

 v. ith business, and in general so destitute of all taste for science, as a colonial 

 town, where there are no men who combine the leisure and means with the 

 inclination to foster scientific inquiries, it is all up-hill work to the amateur in 

 science. He has no one to s}^npatllize with and assist him in his difiiculties, nor 

 to share his triumph in success ; while, if engaged m professional duties, the 

 public regard the time spent in his scientific pm'siiits as worse than wasted. I 

 liave always ob.served the public are more tolerant of cards or biUiards than of 

 Geology or Botany. The appreciation of our laljours at home is the only reward 

 v.e can look forward to. The colonial pubhc is profoundly igaiorant of and 

 indifferent to science. I wish much that some means could be devised by which 

 such questions as those we wish to submit to special Geologists, could be answered 

 hy eminent men, without directly troublmg them with letters, which I am quite 

 sensible must be a gi-eat and unjustifiable tax on their valuable time. Many 

 dilficidties beset the early progress of the colonial Geologist in his science, which 

 lie has no means of getting over but by refemn^ to Europe ; and he is often too 

 straitened in means to afi'ord to pay for an analysis. Some years ago, a lengthy 

 dispute, as to whether a gdven rock was igneous or aqueous, was tenninated by 

 sending home a specimen of it, which was pronounced to be oxide of iron and 

 quartz. In this case, certainly, the chsputants ought to have settled their argu- 

 ment l)y an appeal to the blowx)ipe ; Vait there are many cases in which the 

 authority of eminent gentlemen of the scientific Societies at home would clear up 

 difficulties, and encourage to further exertions. As I said before, men at home 

 work with hope that their labom'S will lead to distinction ; here we have none to 

 appreciate our researches. Now, apropos of the tmnble, 'Ai the one hand, to 

 eminent men of science, of questions on Geology and ]\Iineralog}% and on the 

 other desirableness of smoothing difficulties to tyros in science, by appeal to 

 authorities at home, I .should be glad to know if there be any way of asking these 

 questions without unnecessary truuble and inconvenience to those whose time is of 

 so much value to themselves and to tlie scientific world in general. If not, and 

 if any plan could be devised for instituting a coiTesponding secretary tlnough 

 whom information could be obtained, I am sure there must be many who, m 

 common with myself, would be most happy to contribute towards the expenses 

 attending such an institution. I fear such a suggestion may appear presump- 

 tuous from so obscure a collector as myself; but I have so long wished to hear of 

 f tssils, &c., I have sent home (some ten years at least), and the mformation could, 

 perhaps, have been given so easily by some members of the Geological or other such 

 Society, that I have often wished for some such means of asking a question or two. 

 One forgets and loses interest in specimens after lapse of years. — An Antipodean 

 Colonist." — It is with sincere pleasure that we put our pages at the disposal of 

 our countrymen in far distant lands : and the attention which we have already oflered 

 to give, and, in very numerous cases have given, to the specimens forwarded to us 

 from our correspondents in the British Isles, we will, with equal readiness, extend 

 to those forwarded us from any region, however remote, which the adventurous 

 traveller or geologist might chance to ^'isit or to reside in. ^^'e think, moreover, 

 that this magazine woidd prove a valuable source for obtaining such knowledge and 



