Editorial Coutnicnt. 63 
After considerable search the writer has succeeded in ob- 
taining a complete set of the twelve numbers issued. The 
volume contains 576 pages, octavo. The first number dates 
July, 1831, and the last, June, 1832. The subscription price 
was $3.50, invariably in advance. It was published by Henry 
H. Porter, at the office of the Journal of Health, Journal of 
Law etc., Literary Rooms, 121 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. 
The journal was well arranged and immaculately proof-read. 
Its pages are full of highly interesting scientific matter. 
In the first number, besides the prospectus, and introduction, 
by the editor, is a description, with plate, of Rhinoceroides 
alleghaniensis, in form of a letter to Dr. Buckland, Oxford, 
England, by G. W. Featherstonhaugh. The same author pre- 
sents also a discussion of the "ancient drainage of Xorth Amer- 
ica and the origin of the cataract of Niagara," with a "flat 
view of the cataract," made "upon scale," by George Catlin. 
This was executed prior to the New York geological survey. 
It gives measurements in all directions across the gorge, from 
Goat island to Table rock, curvature of horse shoe fall, etc., etc., 
and shows the "rapids on the cherty beds of ye Carboniferous 
limestone." Mr. R. Harlan gives the "diary of a naturalist," 
kept by John B. Carr "at the Bartram Botanic Garden on the 
right bank of the river Schuylkill, below the city of Philadel- 
phia," during the spring of 1830. This begins Mar. i, and ends 
June 7. It notes the weather and the coming of birds and 
flowers. The editor's discussion of "Nomenclature," in a 
short article, is very piquant and amusing, setting forth the 
striking penchant of the French to consider themselves as 
having the langne iiniversellc, and to convert all scientific 
terms, even all ideas of classification, into a French cast. 
Inere is then an interesting history of the origination of the 
Wollaston medal and the bestowal of the first of those medals 
on Wlikam Smith, the father of English stratigraphic geol- 
ogy, 18 Feb. 1831 ; then an account of the earl of Bridge- 
water's bequest. A correspondent treats of the "influence of 
climate on the fruitfulness of plants." The volume closes 
with a few pages of "scientific memoranda." notes and com- 
ment, including a report by a committee consisting of Messrs. 
Cooper, Smith and Dekay, on a collection of bones from 
the Big Bonelick, of Kentucky, lately brought to New York 
city. 
