476 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
on shore, tlioiisauds of years may elapse without a single skeleton being 
embedded in a flm-iatile forriiation ; and yet tlie same formation may be 
full of the traces of his existence, a'^^sociated with abundant remains of 
contemporary animals." 
The June number contains a paper " On the Superficial Geoloajy 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 Clialem 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 Bocks 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 
tlie Chemical and Mineralogical Eelation of Metamorphic Eocks," 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. Howi) 
from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Nova Scotia ;" and Mr. T. Devine 
a " Description of a new Trilobite from the Quebec Group {Meyiocephalus 
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 Ncav Eed Sandstone, 
Carboniferous, Mispeck group, Little Eiver 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 Eocks," by Mr. Thomas Macfarhine. 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 tlie translation of 
a chapter from Naumann's 'Lehrbuch der Geognosie.' in which the views 
entertained by geologists on the subject are slated. 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 o])posing theories might with 
justice be termed respectively the aqueous or metamorphic theory and 
the igneous theory, such names must not be regarded as having connection 
with the old theories of the Neptunists or Plutonists. Indeed, instead of 
there bemg any analogy with the old controversy, Hutton himself w^as 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 
authvor of the igneous, although the wi-itings 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 ' Eeport on the Geology of Cornwall : ' — " If we consider our planet 
as a cooling mass of matter, the present condition of its surface being chiefly 
