302 



Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



of apparatus, geology and palaeontology, the earth's magnetism, and the 

 invention of the Electro-chronograph, which he claimed the honor of, 

 against one or two rivals. On the subject of the earth's magnetism he 

 extended much our knowledge, by his explorations over the regions of the 

 Northern Mississippi and Lake Superior. As a writer in Cincinnati ob- 

 serves, u he was an ardent student, a profound scholar, an indefatigable 

 explorer into the causes of things, and a man of pure reputation, of genial 

 nature, and of all the virtues that adorn private life." 



16. Manual of Coal and its Topography, illustrated by original draw- 

 ings chiefly of facts in the Geology ot the Appalachian Region of the 

 United States of North America ; by J. P. Lesley, Topographical Geolo- 

 gist. 224 pp. 12 mo. Philadelphia, 1856. 



The scope of this work is hardly indicated in the title. It does not 

 take up the subject of coal in its economical bearings, but rather in its 

 lithological and topographical relations, as illustrated in the Appalachian 

 Regions, especially in Pennsylvania. Neither is it restricted to the sub- 

 ject of Coal, but enters freely into the general topics of mountain struc- 

 tures and forms, the origin of mountains, formation of valleys, theory of 

 drift, topographical drawing, and directions to geological and topograph- 

 ical surveyors, yet mainly from an Appalachian point of view. The 

 author was formerly an assistant in the Geological survey of Pennsylva- 

 nia, under Prof. H. D. Rogers. He has been an attentive observer, em- 

 bodies much that is new in his works, and writes with the earnestness of 

 a zealous investigator and thinker, and 'he positiveness of one who be- 

 lieves that he has the truth, although sometimes assuming more, we think, 

 than the subject or facts will authorize. The illustrations are original 

 and generally excellent. The volume is dedicated to James D. Whelpley 

 and Andrew A. Henderson, who were once assistants in the Pennsylvania 

 Geological survey. 



The point in the volume that will excite most remark, is the claim ad- 

 vanced in behalf of Mr. Whelpley and Mr. Henderson, of having first 

 unraveled the Appalachian mountain system. Professor H. D. Rogers 

 published his views on the subject at considerable length in the Transac- 

 tions of the Geological Association of 1842, having presented them to 

 the Association at the meeting in that year. Mr. Lesley makes no allu- 

 sion to the paper of Prof. Rogers, and does not mention his name in con- 

 nection with the subject. " Years of patient toil," he says, " it cost us to 

 unfold the mysteries of the Pennsylvanian and Virginian range," including 

 himself with the two persons just mentioned. These gentlemen had been 

 assistants of Prof. Rogers previous to the publication of that paper, and 

 the facts which they observed, were then collected. To substantiate such a 

 claim it is necessary to prove that Prof.' Rogers was dependent on the 

 suggestions of these gentlemen for the theory he has advanced, and as 

 preliminary, to settle the legitimate relations between an assistant and 

 the superintendent in a Geological survey. 



17. A Treatise on Land Surveying ; comprising the Theory developed 

 from Five Elementary Principles, and the Practice with the Chain alone, 

 the Compass, the Transit, the Theodolite, the Plane-table, etc. Illustrated 

 with 400 engravings and a Magnetic Chart ; by W. M. Gillespie, A.M., 

 Civ. Eng., Professor of Civil Engineering in Union College. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. — This treatise bears abundant evidence in its whole 



