151 
EEVIEWS. 
Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches, in Neiv Granada, Equa- 
dor, Peru, and Chile. By William Bollaert, F.E.G.S. London : Trubner 
and Co., 1860. 
What has an antiquarian and ethnological book to do with geology ? 
Something, we reply, if it contain any geological facts. And geological 
facts are spread about in antiquarian, and ethnological, and geographical, 
and many other sorts of books that appear to have no partievdar connec- 
tion whatever with the science of rocks and fossil remains. There is an 
old adage referring to tlie futility of looking for a needle in a load of 
hay ; and, although we should never attempt to search through the thou- 
sands of volumes of travels, descriptions of races, of idols, and of the dug-up 
relics of times gone by, for the few disseminated facts they contain, yet 
there is no reason why we should not adopt Captain Cuttle's famous prin- 
ciple of " when found make a note of," and record these accidental inci- 
dents as they fall in our way. So it is that in noticing Mr. Bollaert's book 
here, we shall offer an olla jpodrida of gleanings, rather than a systematic 
review. We shall pay less attention to the fair of Turmeque than to the 
emeralds which are brought there ; we shall dwell less on the exhortations 
of Xue at Bosa than to the rib which the Spaniards found there venerated 
by the Indians, and believed to have been brought thither by that person- 
age. In a foot-note about emeralds, we are told the green varieties are 
found at Muzo, north of Bogota, and that tantalic acid and columbiuni 
occur in some varieties. Fine emeralds can be seen at Carthagena, ex- 
tracted from the mines of Muzo by a French company. They are found 
in attached and imbedded crystals in alluvium, but the finest are from 
veins in a blue slate, of the age of our lower chalk, in the valley of Muzo. 
One statue of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Bogota, besides ] 358 dia- 
monds and other precious stones, has 1205 emeralds. Not far from the 
mountain of Itoco, in the country of the Muzos, were found, in a.d. 1555, 
two emeralds weighing 24,000 castellanos.* Three leagues from Itoco is 
Abissi, where emeralds are found. In the East Indies, medicinal and 
talisman ic virtues are ascribed to this gem. The Great Exhibition of 1851 
contained the finest known emerald, two inches long, weighing 8 ozs. 
18 dwts., which came from Muzo, and is supposed to have been brought to 
England by Don Pedro, who sold it to the Duke of Devonshire. We are 
not informed how the Cliibchas worked emeralds and other hard stones ; 
but the Mexicans, with tools made of copper and tin, fashioned emeralds 
into flowers, fish, etc. Cortez sent an emerald to Spain, the base of which 
was as broad as the palm of the hand. 
But to return to the bone of Nemterequetaba or Xue, the ancient pro- 
phet of the Cliibchas, who came from the East, wore a long beard, and had 
his hair tied in a fillet, for it brings us to another topic of some interest. 
Mr. Bollaert takes away all the romance of this religiously-preserved 
I'elic — the Goth ! "It is probable," he hints, "this was the rib of a mas- 
todon, for bones of that animal are found in the alluvium of Suacha, where 
teeth and other fossil remains are also met with. Holton says this place is 
famous for the bones of carnivorous (?) elephants once exhumed here," 
Coal exists at ('irnaga de Oro, on the Biver Sinu ; on the banks of the 
Carare ; at Conejo, below Hondu ; also near Bogota, and is used at Mr. 
Wilson's iron-works. It also occurs in "Veraguas, Chiriqui, and Costa 
Bica, and on the Isle of Muerto, and at Tarraba. The coal is probably. 
* The castellano is 1415 grains. 
