102 
Analyses of Books. 
[February, 
requires to be educated before it would endure such a structure 
placed permanently so near Belgravia.” Precisely ; and this is 
one of the many reasons why the Museum should never have 
been taken to South Kensington. 
One of the reasons alleged for this ill-starred removal was to 
give sufficient room for specimens of whales, &c. But where 
are these animals placed now ? In a hall where the view is 
broken by massive brick pillars ! 
Mr. Higgins’s pamphlet must commend itself to all sincere 
votaries of natural history, and we hope that all such will give it 
a careful reading. 
A Treatise on Gold and Silver. To show a Chief Cause of 
Present Depression in Trade, and Shrinkage in Value of all 
Produce and Property. By George O’Brien. Dedicated 
to the Right Hon. W. Ewart Gladstone, M.P. London : 
Mining Journal Office. 
The objecft of Mr. O’Brien is, firstly, to inquire whether the 
amount of gold in circulation throughout the world is sufficient 
for the requirements of commerce, and whether we can increase 
the supply ? For this purpose he enters upon a close examina- 
tion of the auriferous districts throughout the world. This 
survey is not, it will be observed, such a one as could be got to- 
gether by a mere reader. • The author is practically acquainted 
with the natural distribution of gold in such important districts 
as California, Nevada, the Wynaad, and, we believe, Peru and 
Bolivia. As gold, so far, has been found under identical condi- 
tions wherever it occurs at all, we may trust his judgment even 
concerning regions which he has not personally explored. He 
shows that our stock of gold has been chiefly derived from allu- 
vial deposits, which in course of time have become much 
impoverished, if not exhausted. Many of these deposits have 
been worked profitably only by means of slave-labour, and now, 
in spite of all the devices of modern science, the output is 
gradually falling off. 
It is a somewhat singular circumstance that the elements of 
highest specific gravity, such as gold, platinum, and iridium, 
should exist chiefly in superficial deposits. We can only account 
for this fact by supposing that they were primordially deposited, 
alike in profound and in superficial strata, in traces too minute for 
profitable working, but that these particles have been liberated 
during the weathering of the surface formations, and have become 
agglomerated. 
Beginning with that collapsed bubble, the Wynaad, on which 
