200 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



aibly have produced the footprints of theTriassic sandstones, and concludes 

 by suggesting that "Darwin and his adherents will probably employ the 

 new discovery as an exceedingly welcome occurrence for the justification 

 of their strange views upon the transformations of animals. But in this 

 they will be wrong," as, according to Professor Wagner, *' the interme- 

 diate steps by which the transition of some one living or extinct animal 

 from one class into another was effected " cannot be shown. The failure 

 of such proof, he says, induces us to reject their views "as fantastic 

 dreams, with which the exact investigation of nature has nothing to do." 



We have laid the above brief summary before our readers, and hope 

 that some expression of opinion from our numerous contributors may be 

 at once evoked. The problem is one which demands the highest efforts 

 both of anatomists and geologists. 



Glauconite in the Lowee Silubian Roces. — Mr. Sterry Hunt, in 

 1858, noticed, in * Silliman's Journal,' that glauconite was probably the 

 colouring matter of some Silurian sandstones ; and in the Canadian Survey 

 Report for 1859 he gave the analyses of this material from rocks of the 

 Quebec group at Point Levis and in the Island of Orleans. In the latter 

 rock there are layers which contain more than half their weight of soft, 

 rounded, bright green grains, closely resembling the green sand of the 

 Cretaceous period. These are a hydrous silicate of alumina and protoxide 

 of iron, with about 8 per cent, of potash, and differ from glauconite of the 

 secondary rocks in their larger proportion of alumina. A similar mineral 

 is found in limestones of the Quebec group in Texas, and in the Potsdam 

 sandstone of the Upper Mississippi. Sir Roderick Murchison has also 

 recorded layers of green sand at the base of the Pleta limestone in Russia, 

 and Schmidt in Esthonia and Livonia, in strata overlying the alum slates. 



Canadian Pleistocene Fossils and Climate. — Professor Dawson has 

 given, in the ' Canadian Naturalist,' a complete list of the fossils of the 

 drift in Maine, Canada, Labrador, etc. His conclusions are, that a far 

 greater degree of cold prevailed during the Pleistocene epoch than at 



f)resent. The causes of this difference he attributes to great changes of 

 evel, and in the different distribution of land and water; during the cold 

 period the relative proportion of land in the Arctic regions being greater 

 than at present. 



EEVIEA¥. 



Physico-Prophetical Essays, ontlie Locality of the Eternal Inheritance, 

 its Nature and Character, the Resurrectiun Body, and the Mutual Re- 

 cognition of Glorified Saints. By Rev. W. Lister, F.G.S., Yicar of 

 J3ushbury, and Rural Dean. London : Longmans. 



This work deserves a notice in our pages, from the large amount of 

 gook-igy in it, the discoveries of which have been carefully employed in 

 dotorinining the meaning of some of the prophecies. We believe that 

 many of our readers will be much interested with these portions of the 

 work , 



One great feature in Mr. Lister's volume is that it strives to fairly and 

 fully prove that the Scriptures uniformly set before us a physical future, 

 and that, in this respect, tlieir authoritative declarations are in exact har- 

 mony with tlie logical deductions and suggestions of science. 



We ^yisll Mr. Lister's volume success, "for the work, taken as a whole, is 

 an original one. 



