178 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



before the fraud was discovered. Tliis shell-marl Avoiild appear to rest on the 

 houlder-formation, according to the description given by the workmen. When 

 they pierced it, water immediately sprung up and_ inundated the pit. It is worth 

 while to notice that the peat and timber are confined to the surface of the basin, 

 and that in them no remains of the elk were found ; and this has been universally 

 the case in the Isle of Man. Under the portion of the Ballaugh Curragh which 

 stretches down towards the Ballamona and pours forth its accumulated waters by 

 the Carlaane ch'ain into the sea, similar basins to these have been discovered, con- 

 taining the remains of the elk, but they are all below the great turf-bogs, in which 

 we meet with trunks of trees, both upright and prostrate.* There is no doubt 

 that great changes have taken place throughout this northern area, even within 

 the period which has been called historical. The old map of the Isle of Man, 

 performed by Thomas Durham, as given by Speed, Camden, Chaloner, and in 

 Blean's Atlas, exhibits ancient lakes, both in the south and north of the island. 

 There was the Malar lough, in Lagazayre, a lough in Andi-eas parish, and Bala 

 lough, the corruption of wliich has given the present name of the village in its 

 vicinity— Ballaugh. The gTeat lake of Myreshaw, or IMnascogh, seems to have 

 occupied, at one time, a large portion of the Curragh, near the base of the moun- 

 tains ; and, so late as 1505, we read of a gTant of one-half of the fishery of it to 

 Huan Hesketh, Bishop of Man, by Thomas, Earl of Derby. The names of several 

 estates in this neighbom'hood, such, for instance, as Elian Vane, White Island, 

 &c. point to their original condition, as well as the nature of some of the holdings, 

 which show that even since the Act of Settlement, there has been a large territory 

 once occupied by water reclaimed to the purposes of husbandly.' Further in- 

 teresting particulars are noted in the work from which the account has been 

 extracted, -'The Isle of Man,' by the Rev. J. G. Cumming, M.A., F.G.S. 

 -Yours, &c. F. S. A." 



REVIEWS. 



Deis Minemlreicli in Bildern. Natm'historiscli-technische Beschreibung und 

 Ahhildung der ivichtigsten Mineralien. Von Dr. J. G. von Kurr. Stuttgart : 

 Sclneiber & Schill. 1858. 



The Minercd Kingdom. By Dr. J. G. KuRR, Professor of Natural History to the 

 Polytechnic Institution of Stuttgart. Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 

 88, Princes Street. 1859. 



Dr. Ktirr is Professor of Natural History to the Polytechnic Institution of 

 Stuttgart, and he has in this work offerred a most valuable elementary volume to 

 the public. 



The original work is in German, nicely printed on stout paper, bound in a 

 prettily-desimed ornamental cover, and illustrated by twenty-two plates. 



The size Dr. Kurr has chosen for his work is a fine folio, and the handsome 

 plates by which examples of the most important minerals, rocks, and petrifactions 

 are displayed, deserve high praise for the judgment manifested in the selection, 

 and for the beautiful manner- in which they are "drawn and coloured. 



The name of the editor of the English translation does not appear, but his work 

 seems to have been carefiiUy and conscientiously performed. The price of the 

 English edition is, howeverj nmch more than that of the German ; the plates 

 being the same, and probably imported in their finished state into this country. 



* See the statement of Bishop Wilson, " History of the Isle of Man," p. 314 : — " Large trees 

 of oak and fir have been found, some two feet and a half in diameter ; they do not lie promiscu- 

 oui.ly. but where there is plenty of one sort there are generally few or none of the other." 



