finite distance before the first of the six days described in the Mosaic History of creation, I see no reason for extending the length of any of these beyond a natural day; and I suppose that an interval sufficient to afford all the time required by the Phenomena of Geology, elapsed between the prior creation of the Universe recorded in the first verse of Genesis, and that later creation, of which an account is given in the third and following verses, and which has especial relation to the preparation of the Earth for the abode of man. At p. 29, it is shown in a Note by Prof. Pusey, that the notion of such a prior act of creation was entertained by many of the Fathers of the Church, and also by Luther.

P. 42. Professor Kersten has found distinctly formed crystals of prismatic Felspar on the walls of a furnace in which Copper slate and Copper Ores had been melted. Among these pyrochemically formed crystals, some were simple, others twin. They are composed of Silica, Alumina, and Potash. This discovery is very important, in a geological point of view, from its bearing on the theory of the igneous origin of crystalline rocks, in which Felspar is usually so large an ingredient. Hitherto every attempt to make felspar crystals by artificial means has failed. See Poggendorf's Annalen, No. 22, 1834, and Jameson's Edin. New Phil. Journal.

Professor Mitscherlich has also succeeded in producing synthetically, by the action of Heat, artificial crystals of Mica; these are difficult to make, unless the ingredients pass very slowly from a fluid to a solid state; as they are supposed to have done, in an infinitely greater degree, in the formation of Granite, and other Primary Rocks, of which Mica forms a large ingredient. In more recent igneous rocks of the Trap formation, in which Mica is rare, and crystals of Pyroxene abound, it is probable that the cooling process was much more rapid, than in rocks of the Granitic series; and crystals of Pyroxene have been formed synthetically by Mitscherlich, from their melted elements, under much more rapid cooling than is required to produce artificial Mica.

The experiments of Sir James Hall, on whinstone and lava, made in 1798, first showed the effects of slow and gradual cooling in reproducing bodies of this kind in a crystalline state.

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Similar experiments were repeated on a larger scale, by Mr. Gregory Watt, in 1804. Sir James Hall's experiments on reproducing artificial limestone and crystalline marble, were made in 1805.

Mr. Whewell, in his Report on Mineralogy to the British Association at Oxford, 1832, refers to observations of Dr. Wallaston and Professor Miller on crystals of Titanium, and Olivine, found in the slag of Iron furnaces; and to the experiments of Mitscherlich and Berthier on artificial crystals, similar to those found in Nature, obtained by them in the furnace by direct synthesis, regulated by the Atomic Theory. With respect also to artificial crystals obtained in the humid way, he refers to the observations and experiments on artificial salts, by Brooke, Haidenger, and Beudant, and to the experiments of Haldat, Becquerel, and Repetti.

At the meeting of the British Association at Bristol, August, 1836, Mr. Crosse communicated the results of his experiments in making artificial crystals by means of long continued galvanic action, of low intensity, produced by water batteries on humid solutions of the elements of various crystalline bodies that occur in the mineral kingdom; and stated, that he had in this way obtained artificial crystals of Quartz, Arragonite, Carbonates of Lime, Lead, and Copper, and more than 20 other artificial minerals. One regularly shaped crystal of Quartz, measuring

of an inch in length, and in diameter, and readily scratching glass, was formed from fluo-silicic acid exposed to the electric action of a water battery from the 8th of March to the latter end of June, 1836.

P. 58, Note. In the note respecting the Fresh-water shells which occur in the upper region of the great Coal formation, I have omitted to refer to an important discovery of Mr. Murchison, (1831-32,) who has traced a peculiar band of limestone, charged with the remains of Fresh-water animals, e. g. Paludina, Cyclas, and microscopic Planorboid shells, interposed between the upper Coal measures, from the edge of the Breiddin hills, on the N. W. of Shrewsbury, to the banks of the Severn, near Bridgnorth, a distance of about thirty miles; and has farther shown that the Coal

measures, containing this "lacustrine" limestone, pass upwards conformably into the Lower New Red Sand-stone of the central counties. (See Proceedings Geol. Soc. V. i. p. 472.) The chief localities of the Shropshire limestone are Pontesbury, Uffington, Le Botwood, and Tasley.

Beds of limestone, occupying a similar geological position, and containing the same organic remains, (some of which belong to the well known deposite at Burdie House, near Edinburgh,) have more recently been recognised at Ardwick, near Manchester; these beds were identified with those of Shropshire, by Professor Philips (Brit. Assoc. Adv. of Science, 1836,) and have also been described by Mr. Williamson, Phil. Mag. October, 1836.

P. 64, Note, and 369, Note. The Coal of Bückeberg, in Nassau, respecting which various opinions have been entertained, some referring it to the Green sand, and others to the Oolite series, has been determined by Prof. Hoffmann to belong to the Wealden Fresh-water formation.

See Roemer's Versteinerungen des Norddeutschen Oolithen Gebirges. Hanover, 1836.

P. 75. An account has recently been received from India of the discovery of an unknown and very curious fossil ruminating animal, nearly as large as an Elephant, which supplies a new and important link in the Order of Mammalia, between the Ruminantia and Pachydermata. A detailed description of this animal has been published by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley, who have given it the name of Sivatherium, from the Sivalic or Sub-Himalayan range of hills in which it was found, between the Jumna and the Ganges. In size it exceeded the largest Rhinoceros. The head has been discovered nearly entire. The front of the skull is remarkably wide, and retains the bony cores of two short thick and straight horns, similar in position to those of the four horned Antelope of Hindostan. The nasal bones are salient in a degree without example among Ruminants, exceeding in this respect those of the Rhinoceros, Tapir, and Palæotherium, the only herbivorous animals that have this sort of structure. Hence there is no doubt that the Sivatherium was invested with a

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trunk, and probably this organ had an intermediate character between the trunk of the Tapir and that of the Elephant. Its jaw is twice as large as that of a Buffalo, and larger than that of a Rhinoceros. The remains of the Sivatherium were accompanied by those of the Elephant, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, several Ruminantia, &c.

We have seen (p. 74) that there is a wider distance between the living Genera of the Order Pachydermata than between those of any other Order of Mammalia, and that many intervals in the series of these animals have been filled up by extinct Genera and Species, discovered in strata of the Tertiary series. The Sivatherium forms an important addition to the extinct Genera of this intermediate and connecting character. The value of such links with reference to considerations in Natural Theology has been already alluded to, p. 95.

P. 77. Farther light has recently been thrown on the history of the organic remains of the Miocene system of the Tertiary deposites, by an account of discoveries made in the strata of this formation in the South of France, near the base of the Pyrenees. On the 16th of January, 1837, a Memoir was presented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, by M. Lartet, respecting a prodi gious number of fossil bones that have been lately found in the tertiary fresh-water formation, of Simorre, Sansan, &c., in the department of Gers. Among these remains are bones of more than 30 species, referable to nearly all the orders of Mammalia. The most remarkable among them is the lower jaw of an Ape, which presents the first fossil type of the order Quadrumana yet discovered. The individual from which this jaw was derived, was probably about 30 inches high.

The following is a List of the Genera under which these fossil remains are comprehended.

QUADRUMANA. Simia, one species.

PACHYDERMATA. Dinotherium, two species. Mastodon, five species. Rhinoceros, three species. One new animal allied to Rhinoceros. Palæotherium, one species. Anoplotherium, one species. One extinct species allied to Anthracotherium. One extinct species allied to Sus..

CARNIVORA.

Canis, one Species. A new Genus, between a Dog and a Rackoon, one large species. Felis, one large species. Genetta, animal allied to. Coati, animal allied to Coati, large as a White Bear.

RODENTIA.

Lepus, one small species. Many other small

species of Rodents not yet determined.

RUMINANTIA. Bos, one species. Antelope, one species. Cervus, several species.

EDENTATA. One large unknown species.

M. de Blainville, who is about to publish an account of these remains, points out their importance in illustrating the ancient Zoology of France, since, in a single locality, which was formerly a Basin, receiving an abundance of alluvial waters, we find confusedly mixed together in a Tertiary fresh-water formation, scattered and broken bones and fragments of skeletons of a large proportion of the fossil Quadrupeds which are found dispersed over the Tertiary strata of the rest of France, and derived from genera of almost all the orders of Mammalia.—Comptes rendus, No. 3. - Jan. 16, 1837. These remains appear to be of the same age with those of Epplesheim.

P. 89. In September, 1835, the author saw at Liège the very extensive collection of fossil Bones made by M. Schmerling in the caverns of that neighbourhood, and visited some of the places where they were found. Many of these bones appear to have been brought together like those in the cave of Kirkdale, by the agency of Hyænas, and have evidently been gnawed by these animals; others, particularly those of Bears, are not broken, or gnawed, but very probably collected in the same manner as the bones of Bears in the cave of Gailenreuth, by the retreat of these animals into the recesses of caverns on the approach of death; some may have been introduced by the action of water.

The human bones found in these caverns are in a state of less decay than those of the extinct species of beasts; they are accompanied by rude flint knives and other instruments of flint and bone, and are probably derived from uncivilized tribes that inhabited the caves. Some of the human bones may also be the remains of