marble. In the vicinity of the spring, this formation is, in some places, about six feet thick. In the plains of Hungary, horizontal beds of travertino, including recent fresh water shells, are being constantly formed, and sufficiently indurated to be used as a building material. We would add to these a similar deposition of calcareous matter, which is in process of formation in the "Walker mine,” near Newcastle, which possesses some curious features of a rather unusual character: it duly registers its own age; becomes a singular chronometer or calendar of time; and, from its inscription of lines, has been called the "Sunday or Walker Almanack." A fragment from the cabinet of the author is correctly delineated, fig. 24, PLATE III. During the operations of mining, the water is rendered dark and turbid, and the lamina then deposited are of a dark hue; those streaks which are of a light tint are nocturna! depositions, when the miners cease from working; the double space, of a light colour, distinguishes the Sundays, and thus curiously indicates the several weeks; while a diminution in the number of the dark lines, which denote the working days, and corresponding increase of light space, exhibit occasional holidays, with the miners' cessation from work. Thus, a silent register has been kept in nature's book, in the "Walker mine," and the deposition exhibits palpable proofs of a natural chronometer. Twenty weeks are enrolled in a deposition of 4 inches in thickness; this amounts to one foot, nearly, in twelve months; and since creation, calculating by the Hebrew text, it would have reared, (had it commenced at that epocha, and continued uniform,) a mountain 5835 feet high. Nor is this equal to the deposit of the thermal waters of San Filippo, already referred to, which would have formed, in the same period, an alpine structure as lofty as the great St. Bernard; and, we have no reason to restrict similar agencies to such limits. These facts prove the absurdity of the foolish speculation of f unding chronometric data on the silicified process of the exterior of the piles of Trajan's Bridge, by the waters of the Danube. Silicious petrifactions are sometimes

slow, sometimes rapid: the case in question belongs to the former; and the phenomena of the geysers of Iceland, in the silicified basin, into which the waters descend, present examples of the latter, in the chalcedony, opal, and scinter, of which the basins are composed. It would be just as wise to raise a calculation on a pile driven into the earth, in which no silicifying process, whatever, goes on, and assume from thence, an undefinable and indeterminable period for the deposition of any sensible portion of silicious matter. As for Brydone's tale charged on the canon Ricupero, it is not likely that any thing of the kind was ever promulgated; though Brydone would have been glad of any plea, however absurd or erroneous, to have supported his infidel notions, even at the expense of exposing the friend, under whose hospitable roof he was so kindly treated, to censure or to ruin. And, after all, it was only the mere opinion of Ricupero, even supposing he was weak enough to hazard so silly an idea. The legend is as follows:-On digging a pit on the flank, or at the foot of Etna, seven strata of lava were discovered, superimposed on each other with intervening layers of decomposed earth. It was assumed, that it required a period of 2000 years for the lava to become thus decomposed at the surface; therefore, seven times 2000 amounted to fourteen thousand years. Now according to D'Aubuisson, the lava of Etna, of 1157, is covered with twelve inches of vegetable earth, proceeding from its own decomposition; and that of 1329, is covered with eight inches of decomposed matter. We have, personally, examined the subterranean recesses of Herculaneum and its volcanic covering, and presume it affords sufficient evidence of the absurdity of such sweeping deductions; but we may rest safely on Sir Wm. Hamilton's examination. Within a period of 1700 years, six eruptions of lava have, at stated periods, rolled over that which originally overwhelmed the city: veins of decomposed matter intervene between these strata. But Dr. Daubeny has proved, on the spot, that, the tale of this stratified well of Ricupero, is altogether

a fable. He visited, in person, this well at Aci Reale. The vegetable mould, assumed to intervene, turns out to be a ferruginous tuffa, such as is produced by a shower of volcanic ashes, consolidated by rain, or by a contemporaneous eruption of hot water. Indeed, the volcanic eruption which overwhelmed Herculaneum, called lava, is merely consolidated ashes, composed of pumicestone, lapillo, &c. Similar mistakes have been often made, and require to be rectified. We have observed no chronometers in lavas or their decomposition to warrant any such visionary phantasies, though we have especially examined, and with tolerable attention, the volcanic phenomena of the Neapolitan territory, in detail.

The hieroglyphics of the obelisks and temples of Egypt, and the mystic characters of tombs and mummies; and especially of the famous planisphere brought from the temple of Dendera, seem to have excited imagination to roam over the vastness of ages and interminable periods of time; and all this because, without being possessed of a cipher to read their symbols, they seemed scarce to belong to our world; or, if they did, they pushed back the era of their history to a period the mind scarce dared to explore; and Count Forbin, if we remember right, assigned FORTY THOUSAND YEARS as a moderate calculation for their antiquity. But all this latitudinarian speculation broke under the touch of truth, like a bubble on the stream; and the conceit now serves for pastime, at the expense of his penetration and judgment. The Count, could he have anticipated modern discoveries in hieroglyphic literature, would have been more cautious and circumspect. The frequent bouleversement of geological speculations, and revolutions in the theories of geologists, should read us a wholesome lesson, and teach them to check the reins of imagination, and put some restraint on the lapse of time. We happily now have a few excellent books on geology; for instance, that of Mr. Lyell, Foreign Secretary to the Geological Society, which forms a judicious arrangement of valuable and interesting facts.

Mr. Lyell does not speculate much, and progresses with caution; though it is not difficult to perceive, that he, like his brethren, would be glad to prefer a petition for time, under an impression, that the Mosaic cosmogony does not give full play to the indefinite measures of time required by a sceptical geology. The most unaccountable part of the matter is this, that individuals, such as Mr. Poulet Scrope, whose researches chiefly have had to do with volcanic phenomena, should have been so extravagant in their demands; when the agent operates on so extensive a scale, and is so sudden, powerful, and frequent, as to change the entire features of a country in a few short hours; and, in illustration of which, Mr. Lyell introduces so many remarkable examples. The lapse of time, according to the Hebrew text, between the epocha of creation and the circumfusion of the waters of an universal deluge; and the ages that have rolled away since that great event, seem altogether sufficient to account for present appearances in the stratification of the globe, and the phenomena of organic remains, as we hope to be able to prove; though, from our being a Fellow of the Geological Society, it may expose us to the charge of heresy, and its members exclaim, "there is treason in the camp." We advocate the truth, however, at the expense of every other consideration. Superadd to the circumstance of an universal deluge, the phenomena of extensive, as well as more limited local catastrophes, both in the antediluvian and postdiluvian era, and there will appear no necessity for the impulsion of time beyond the boundary of its legitimate history. It is found, that since the recession of the diluvial waters, "the gathering together of the waters, called seas,” have shifted their original scites. Practical geology has in its researches clearly proved the comparatively recent formation of our present continents; and, that their origin cannot be traced farther back than the era ascribed in the Biblical Records to the deluge. The alveus or great bed of the ocean, now usurps the place of the former dry land;" and, if we wanted further evidence, as to

local catastrophes of considerable extent and duration, and in comparatively modern times, we have a very remarkable example and decided proof of the fact, in the Temple of Jupiter Serapis. This celebrated monument of antiquity," says Mr. Lyell, "affords, in itself alone, unequivocal evidence, that the relative level of land and sea has changed twice at Puzzuoli, since the Christian era, and each movement, both of elevation and subsidence, has exceeded twenty feet." Our own personal observations on the spot have amply confirmed Mr. Lyell's conclusions ;-the appearance of the circumambient strata, coupled with the honeycombed appearance of the still standing columns of cipolino marble, commencing at a specific altitude, the work of pholades, (from whose cellular cavities, indeed, we have picked some of the shells,) prove the deduction to demonstration, and become a register and metre of the events. That these perforations have been effected in the present position of the columns, and of which Monte Pelegrino, in Sicily, affords so remarkable an example, there can be no doubt whatever; and we may add, that we have seen the work of a living pholas, in a fragment of indurated limestone from Bridlington Harbour. This extraordinary tunnel is effected by a mechanical act on the part of the animal, somewhat in the manner of the "centre-bit" employed by the cooper, its shell being altogether passive in the act. It had been assumed that the achievement was accomplished by the secretion of acid matter, in which it seems to have been forgotten that an acid which would have dissolved the marble, must also have dissolved the shell of the pholas.

The most interesting researches in literature, in modern times, are those which have embraced hieroglyphic symbols. The inquiries into the hieroglyphic literature of ancient Egypt, seem to have mainly originated with the late Dr. Thomas Young, who has exhibited sufficient proofs of his indefatigable and laborious exertions. This is said without the slightest intention to detract from the honour of M. Champollion, whose extensive investigations and interesting disco