SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
205 
Deposition in Salt Water more rapid than in Fresh Water. — Professor T. 
Sterry Hunt, in a recent article in the “ Proceedings of the Boston Natural 
History Society,” calls attention to the fact that the effect of salt in water 
on the rate of deposition was first mentioned by Mr. Slidell, in Humphrey 
and Abbott’s “ Report on the Mississippi River,” and then explains it on the 
.ground of the less cohesion between the particles of salt water, as proved 
by the fact that drops of salt water are smaller than those of fresh 
water. 
Death of Sir Charles Lyell. — Since our last issue science has been deprived 
of, perhaps next to Mr. Darwin, its most devoted and most philosophic 
follower, in losing Sir Charles Lyell. The death of this most eminent 
savant, the father — since the time of Hutton — of geology, took place at his 
residence in Harley Street, on Feb. 22. Sir Charles was in his 78th year 
when he died, and it is not too much to say that from 1824, for quite fifty 
years, he was devoted to the pursuit of geological science. He contributed 
several papers to the especially scientific journals, but it is by his regular 
books that his vast reputation has been made. These are the “ Principles 
of Geology” (2 vols.), “ The Antiquity of Man,” “The Elements of Geology,” 
(2 vols.), and the “ Students’ Elements of Geology,” of which the first went 
through eleven editions, the second went through four, and the third through 
six editions, thus showing how extremely large was their circulation. A 
■capital sketch of his life is given in the “ Geological Magazine,” March 1875, 
to which we must refer our readers for further details. 
Basaltic Sandstone. — “ The Academy ” (March 6), which is now becoming 
an exact and well-edited scientific, as well as a literary weekly, says, 
“that in some Notes from the Island of Bute, contributed to the ‘Trans- 
actions of the Geological Society of Glasgow,’ Mr. D. Corse Glen describes 
a narrow tract of sandstone remarkable for exhibiting a columnar structure, 
resembling that of certain basalts. The sandstone columns, which stand 
nearly vertical, vary in diameter from six inches down to half an inch, and 
although usually hexagonal, are in some cases four, eight, or ten-sided. 
There can be little doubt that this structure has been induced by the action 
of heat, but although igneous rocks are found in the neighbourhood it is not 
easy to determine precisely how they have affected the sandstone. Mr. 
Glen suggests that the effect has been due to the action of steam or highly- 
heated vapour passing through a vertical fissure in the rocks. Connected 
with the columnar sandstone of Bute, it may be interesting to remark that, 
at a recent meeting of the Imperial Geological Institution of Vienna, 
Dr. Hornes brought forward a similar example in sandstone, obtained by 
Herr Baumheyer at Kriesdorf, in Bohemia. The sandstone appears to 
belong to the Lower Quadersandstein (Cretaceous), and the prismatic 
structure has evidently been induced by contact with basalt. In section 
the prisms are triangular, square, pentagonal, hexagonal, or seven-sided. 
Many other instances of a columnar structure in sedimentary rocks are 
mentioned by Dr. Hornes. ” 
Marsh 1 s Miocene Expedition. — We learn from “ Silliman’s American 
Journal ” (Feb. 1875), that Professor Marsh and his party have returned 
after an absence of two months in the West. The object of the present 
expedition was to examine a remarkable fossil locality, discovered during the 
