PREFACE. 
Tue EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL 
ScIENCE was instituted with the view of supplying a deficiency, 
long contemplated with regret by all men of science and infor- 
mation. That no periodical, devoted to the prosecution of 
geographical inquiry, and the careful collection of the important 
facts which every month brings forth, was to be found in this 
country, seemed to argue a degree of supineness very incon- 
sistent with the character of the nation; that natural science 
should be the exclusive property of those only who could afford 
to purchase the expensive periodicals of the day, appeared to 
be an injustice to the public, and a drawback on the progress of 
knowledge, which ought no longer to exist; and that the 
cumbersome quarterly publications should occupy the whole 
field, “dragging their slow length along,” was evidently 
incompatible with that anxious desire for information, which is 
now felt by all ranks and classes in this country. 
This Journal was, therefore, established for the purpose of 
affording to the public, with the requisite rapidity, in a 
eanden-cd form, and at a cheap rate, those discoveries and 
observations, which could hitherto only be arrived at, by a 
slow process, at a high price, and in a form the principal merit 
of which seems to be the respectability of its bulk: and we 
invite the public to open this volume, and judge how far we 
have executed our design. 
Amongst the authors of the “ Original Papers” will be found 
many of the first scientific names in Scotland, the approvers and 
liberal supporters of an undertaking, which they are pleased to 
consider disinterested and praiseworthy ; and our gratitude is, 
moreover, due to several gentlemen, who, though not in the 
character of contributors, have made unremitting exertions in 
our behalf. 
The “ Scientific Reviews” must speak for themselves : we can 
only observe, that we look with pride to that department, in 
which the voice of independence has been first raised against a 
tyranny, under which the public has long suffered, but which 
seems now to be rapidly advancing towards dissolution. The 
