476 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



on shore, thousands of years may elapse without a single skeleton being 

 embedded in a fluviatile formation ; and yet the same formation may be 

 full of the traces of his existence, associated with abundant remains of 

 contemporary animals." 



The June number contains a paper " On the Superficial Geology of the 

 Gaspe Peninsula," by Mr. Robert Bell, of the Canadian Geological Survey. 

 The Gaspe peninsula embraces the region lying to the eastward of a line 

 drawn across the country, from the head of the Bay of Chalem to about 

 Matan, on the St. Lawrence, and measures a hundred and forty miles in 

 length by seventy in breadth. The superficial accumulations of this district 

 differ in their general character from those of the country to the west, one 

 of the most remarkable points of difference being the absence of foreign 

 boulders. Sir William Logan, the Director of the Geological Survey, 

 contributes one "On the Rocks of the Quebec Group at Point Levis," 

 being a letter, now illustrated by a map, addressed by him to M. Barrande, 

 commenting on M. Jules Marcou's disputations respecting the Taconic 

 rocks of Vermont and Canada. Mr. Sterry. Hunt's excellent paper "On 

 the Chemical and Mineralogical Relation of Metamorphic Rocks," read 

 before the Dublin Geological Society on the 10th of April last, is reprinted 

 from the ' Dublin Quarterly Journal,' in this number, as it is also in 

 Silliman and Dana's ' American Journal,' for October. Mr. Billings 

 also furnishes a " Description of a new species of Phillipsia (P. Sowi) 

 from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Nova Scotia :" and Mr. T. Devine 

 a " Description of a new Trilobite from the Quebec Group {Menocephalus 

 Salteri)." 



The number for August contains " Observations on the Geology of St. 

 John County, New Brunswick," by Mr. G. F. Matthew, with maps and 

 sections ; the rocks in the vicinity of St. John being New Red Sandstone, 

 Carboniferous, Mispeck group, Little River group, Bloomsbury group, 

 St. John's group, Coldbrook group, and the Portland group. There 

 is also the first part of a paper of much interest " On the Origin of 

 Eruptive and Primary Rocks," by Mr. Thomas Macfarlane. This gentle- 

 man has, on a previous occasion, published in the same periodical (vol. vii.) 

 a series of papers describing the primitive formations of Norway, and 

 comparing them with their Canadian equivalents. In those essays he ab- 

 stained altogether from attempting to explain the various phenomena 

 described, although he subsequently appended to them the translation of 

 a chapter from Naumann's ' Lehrbuch der Geognosie,' in which the views 

 entertained by geologists on the subject are stated. One of these theories 

 hitherto most generally adopted supposes the primitive or primary rocks 

 to have resulted from the alteration or metamorphism of sedimentary 

 strata ; another supposes them, in part at least, to represent the first soli- 

 dified crust of our planet. Although these opposing theories might with 

 justice be termed respectively the aqueous or metamorphic theory and 

 the igneous theor} r , such names must not be regarded as having connection 

 with the old theories of the Neptunists or Plutonists. Indeed, instead of 

 there being any analogy with the old controversj^, Hutton himself was the 

 founder of the Plutonic school of former days, and the originator of the 

 theory at present in favour, of the aqueous origin of the primary stratified 

 rocks. On the other hand, it is scarcely possible to say who was the 

 author of the igneous, although the writings in which it was propounded 

 are of comparatively recent date. Mr. Macfarlane names Sir Henry 

 De la Beche amongst its earliest supporters, and quotes the following passage 

 from the ' Report on the Geology of Cornwall : ' — " If we consider our planet 

 as a cooling mass of matter, the present condition of its surface being chiefly 



