273 
Reviews and Extracts.—^J^atural History. 
Besides these matters, torrents of water and mud are often ejected by Volca¬ 
noes. Brelslak is of opinion that most of those which are alledged to have issued 
from Vesuvius and Etna, were produced by heavy rains, the water of which, mix¬ 
ing' with the ashes and sand, flowed to the bottom of the mountain, and were 
presumed to have come from its crater. Such Volcanoes as rise into the regions 
of perpetual snow, often give rise to torrents which do not issue from the crater, 
but are produced by the melting of snow and ice. Condaniine relates, that six 
hours after an eruption of Cotopaxi, a village thirty leagues distant, in a straight 
line, was swept away by a torrent of this kind. At other times they arise from 
water accumulated in fissures and subterranean caverns; and in general, cannot 
be supposed to come directly from the focus of volcanic action. 
Earthquakes have been found to be most numerous and violent in volcanic 
countries, and the regions in their vicinity. The great Earthquake which destroy¬ 
ed Lisbon, in November, 1755, extended over nearly the whole of Europe^ and 
even to the West Indies. St. Eubals, 20 miles south of Lisbon,® was engulphed ; 
a wave, 60 feet high, swept over the coast of Spain; at Tangier, in Africa, the 
sea rose and receded 18 times; at Funchal, in Madeira, it rose 15 feet above 
high-watermark; and at Barbadoes it rose 20 feet; at Algiers, Fez, and Mor- 
rocco, the agitation was violent; and tremors were felt in Italy, Switzerland, 
Holland, Germany, Sweden, and Norway ; as well as in Antigua and Barbadoes. 
Earthquakes are usually preceded by an unusual stale of the atmosphere, subter¬ 
ranean noises, resembling the rolling of carriages, thunder, and sometimes the 
discharges of artillery, the drying of springs and wells, the agitation of quadrupeds 
and birds, giddiness and other phenomena, of which it is unnecessary to make men¬ 
tion, D’Aubuisson is of opinion that the effects of Earthquakes are greatly exag¬ 
gerated in a geological sense. “If,” says he, “the geologist confines himself to 
the facts which the historian relates and proves, he will find that Earthquakes are 
nothing more than mere trepidations of the ground. The mineral masses remain 
in the same order, and with the same solidity as before. A few cracks and fis¬ 
sures are the only geological effects that result from them.” Mr. Lyell, on the 
contrary, thinks that the superficial alterations, arising from Earthquakes and 
Volcanoes, important as they are in themselves, are still more so as indicative of 
far greater changes in the interior of the earth’s crust. “The renovating as well 
as the destroying causes, are unceasingly at work, the repair of land being as 
constant as its decay, and the deepening of seas keeping pace with the formation 
of shoals. It appears from these views that the constant repair of the dry land, 
and the subserviency of our planet to the support of terrestrial, as well a’s aquatic 
species, are secured by the elevating and depressing power of Earthquakes.’’ 
After some more interesting observations, which we would have condensed, 
could we have spared room, the writer says, his next object shall be to give some 
idea of the nature and relations of the solid materials of which the exterior of the 
globe is composed. 
2.—Guide to the Arrangement of British Insects: being 
a Catalogue of all the Named Species hitherto discovered in Great 
Britain and Ireland. By John Curtis, F.L.S. author of British 
Entomology. 8vo. Ss.iid. 
Our readers need scarcely be informed, that this catalogue is valuable to those 
who are making a collection of British Insects. It w'ill, according as the 
the Author says, “ lst,-^enable them to arrange their cabinets systematically, 
VoL. I, No. 6 mm 
