398 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



species, but there may be certain species, which have ceased to exist." Should 

 this Neanderthal man have proved an intermediate species between the papuan 

 and the gorilla, a great point of controversy would be gained by the transmu- 

 tationists ; but the failure of the proof which Dr. Sohauffhaussen has brought 

 forward, leaves the human species as far from the apes, as it was when xhe 

 author, who founded the genus, placed it apart from the other primates. 



It seems, therefore, irrefrably proved the the human species existed in 

 Europe in the post-pliocene age, in as well as we can judge from the " celts " 

 of Abbeville, a state of semibarbarism. However, sparse the population, he 

 still found some enemy to contest with him the products of the forest, and the 

 spoils of the chase. His vast solitude, compared with the present activity and 

 teeming millions of modern Europe, reminds the contemplative observer of the 

 beautiful exclamation of the patriotic espronceda. 



" Cuan solitaria la nacion que un dia Poblara inmensa gente !" 



We have thus evidence of the existence of man-man, the highest-brained 

 (archencephalate, Owen) individual of the highest sub-division of known Mam- 

 malia, in whose image the most specialized adaptation of structure to fixed 

 purpose is superadded to the original type of created animal life, which great 

 Archetype was conceived by a Divine Mind, millions of years prior to the 

 advent of the human race. — I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, Charles 

 Carter Blake. 



Destruction of Deer by Cold. — Keysler, in his " Travels in Wurtem- 

 burg" (1756), has this passage : — "At London, Paris, and other large cities, 

 the number of inhabitants is calculated by the bill of mortality; in like 

 manner a conjecture may be formed of the multitudes of deer in this country 

 by considering that in one single hard winter above seven thousand of them 

 expired." In a note he adds, "The two winters of 1731 and 1733 carried off 

 above ten thousand head of deer and boars." 



Is it not probable that the cold during the great mammalian age may at 

 periods of unusual intensity have exercised a like influence in the destruction 

 of life, and that to this cause may be attributed some of the great local accu- 

 mulations in drift deposits which seem diflicult to account for ? 



A Salt Spring in a Coal Mine. — Mr. Charlton, mining engineer and 

 manager for the coal company, has communicated' an unusual occurrence that 

 was recently met witli in the Dunkirk Coal Company's Astley Deep Pit, at 

 Dukinfield. He states that in cutting a tunnel from the Black Mine Coal in a 

 horizontal line towards the Cannel Mine, a beautiful spring of salt water or 

 brine issued from a fracture in the rock, though remote from the trias and 

 saliferous or salt bearing strata, and at the depth of 700 yards in the carboni- 

 ferous measures. Mr. Charlton also states that in a careful analysis there were 

 found in every 100 grains of the water — 



Chloride of Sodium 4*50 grains. 



Chloride of Calcium 037 „ 



Chloride of Magnesium 0 26 „ 



Total 5 13 grains. 



( )r about seven ounces, (nearly half a pound) of common salt per gallon. The 

 specific gravity is 1.037, and the boiling point 211 e Eahrenheit. Another re- 

 markable fact stated is that a fine specimen of petroleum, containing naphtha 

 or naphthalin floated on the surface, accompanied with a small quantity of car- 

 burotted hydrogen. 



The pit alluded to is very deep, and the flow of brine from the spring dis- 

 covered amounts to above 300 gallons in every 21 hours. The Cheshire 



