The following TABLE of GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONS includes most of the LIGHTS round the coasts of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND. ९ 14. Of the geology of Great Britain. Since we have sent to press the article GEOLOGY, Mr. Brande's Outlines' have fallen into our hands. He observes that no country furnishes a better selection of geological formations for the attention of the student than our own. 'A section of the south of England, from the coast of Cornwall, for instance,' he says, 'in the west, to London in the east, will furnish a good exhibition of the phenomena of stratification. It will begin at the Land's End with primitive. rocks; massive and amorphous. Upon this rest several species of transition rocks, especially slates of different kinds, having various inclinations; and these are succeeded by secondary strata, deviating more and more from the vertical, and acquiring the horizontal position; and ultimately we attain the alluvial matter upon which the metropolis stands. It is principally clay, and has once perhaps formed the mud at the bottom of a salt water lake. Tracing this section from the metropolis to the Land's End,' he says, in explanation of his plate, the upper section commences with the blue clay of London, and proceeding westward through the counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire, terminates at the Land's End in Cornwall. The rocks presented in this line are chalk, sandstone, oolite or freestone, lias or argillaceous and magnesian limestone, red sandstone, mountain lime stone or secondary marble, slate, greenstone, serpentine, and granite. The latter frequently penetrates the slaty veins, and is itself pervaded by greenstone.' several places by plains and rivers, giving rise to so many chasms in the great chain. On the subjec. of the secondary or flatz formations of Werner, Mr. Weaver, a pupil of this great geologist, thus exhibits the confirmation which his theory receives from the geology of Great Britain. 'It follows, from the whole of these premises, that the flatz formations of Werner strictly commence with the old red sand-stone of England: and not, as has been stated, with the new or calcareous conglomerate. It follows, also, that the charge of confusion in the views of that naturalist is obviated, and that so far from the flatz formations which came under his consideration having been few in number, they comprehended th whole series, from the old red sandstone up to the chalk, and above the chalk, gravel, sand, clay, wood-coal, and the newest fleetz trap formation. His arrangement of formations in Germany is, when duly construed, quite in accordance with their succession in the British Isles. There is no hiatus. We travel from the primary to the transition, and thence through the whole series of the flatz: in which last, let it be observed, that, though the carboniferous series be less fully displayed, yet other formations are in much greater force in Germany, and afford a greater variety of character than is to be found in the British Isles; and here we may perceive the compensating power of nature. 'I have, therefore, yet to learn that more modern enquiries have at all invalidated the general positions of Werner. His grand outlines of the structure of the globe remain unshaken, from the fundamental granite up to the newest flatz trap. The labors of his followers, and of other geologists pursuing a similar path, have tended more and more to fill up those outlines. Proceeding from London northwards towards the Scotch border, the order of stratification is reversed, and, traversing a highly interesting series of secondary rocks, we arrive in Cumberland at some of the primitive series This second section (in his plate) commences with the coal "The Comparative View of flatz formations, strata, and limestone resting upon slate and gra- which I submitted to the public in the Annals nite in Cumberland, and thence proceeds towards of Philosophy, October 1821, is consistent with the metropolis by Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leices- the main positions of Werner, though, from the tershire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and mode of considering them, there may seem to be Hertfordshire. The passage is here exhibited, some difference: this however is rather apparent from the primary rocks of Cumberland, to the than real. It arises from the following circumsecondary hills of the southern counties. It stances:-1. In the carboniferous series, proshows the grit and sandstone containing coal, ducing the limestone and the coal as distinct which lies upon the mountain limestone of Der- formations, while Werner considered them only byshire, which rock is singularly penetrated by as members of his first flotz sandstone, or rothe toadstone. In Leicestershire slate and granite todtliegende formation: 2. In like manner, in the again occur, and are succeeded by red sandstone, gypseous and saliferous series, producing the lias, oolite, sandstone, and chalk, upon which weissliegende or calcareous conglomerate as a the blue clay of Middlesex is deposited, and of distinct formation; while, by Friesleben and which the valley of the Thames in that county, others, it is included in the magnesian limestone principally consists. The whole arrangement formation: 3. As a consequence of the foregoing, is such as to include the highest and oldest rocks in considering the magnesian limestone as beupon the west side of England, forming a chain longing to the second flatz series: and, 4. From extending from the Land's End in Cornwall, to distributing the floetz formations into four prinCumberland, and thence to the northern ex- cipal series, founded, as I conceive, on natural tremity of Scotland. So that the length of Great distinctions; namely, on their relative position Britain, and its general shape, appear in a con- in the order of succession, their mineralogical siderable degree dependent upon this chain of characters, the organic remains which they remountainous land, and upon two lower ridges, spectively contain, and the mutual affinities of the which extend in one direction from Devonshire, formations which constitute each series or group. through Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Sussex, In this view there is no real incongruity; for, in into Kent; and, in another, nearly from the same fact, had the carboniferous limestone appeared point, to the east of Yorkshire. in force in the north of Germany, it certainly would have been designated by Werner as the 'The western ridge is broken in upon in first flæetz limestone; and this according to the established method of that naturalist, who, in arranging the mineral masses of the globe, was led to distribute the predominant into principal formations, and the incidental into subordinate. Bearing this in mind, the carboniferous limestone would have been his first flatz limestone formation; and, as a necessary consequence, the magnesian limestone would have become his second flatz limestone. The whole difference, therefore, is a mere question of enumeration. In conclusion, I must observe, that, in awarding the meed of praise due to the services of Werner, French writers appear in general to have been more just than the English. Not a few of the latter seem to forget, or not to consider, that, though others might before his time have hit upon the general division of rocks into primary and secondary, yet geology, as a science, had no existence. To Werner belongs, in the first place, the merit of introducing a nicer discrimination in the examination of simple minerals, and of inventing an appropriate language by which they might be described and distinguished, previous to which mineralogical science was quite in its infancy. And, in the second place, to him also belongs the chief merit, not merely of distinguishing and giving names to rocks, but of accurately marking out both the grand distinctions of primary, transition, and flætz classes, and the various principal formations of which those classes consist. If, then, it be the glory of the Saxon to have laid the broad foundations of the edifice, let that of the Briton and Frank be to complete the structure.' It has been long doubted whether a genuine crocodile was ever found among the fossil animals of this country. In 1823, however, this question seems to have been set at rest by a specimen discovered in the alum shale near Whitby. We can only copy the following description from the pen of the Rev. George Young, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal of 1825, and refer the reader to the work for further particulars accompanied by a drawing. "The length of the animal, following the curvature of the spine, is fourteen feet six inches; but in its entire state it must have been about eighteen feet long; as the snout is considerably mutilated, and a small portion of the tail also was left in the cliff, owing to the difficulty of extracting the vertebræ. The mutilated state of the snout has been occasioned by its exposure to the atmosphere; in consequence of which successive portions of the muzzle must have been detached, and have dropped down on the beach. Fortunately, another specimen of the head of this animal, having the muzzle complete, is also in the Whitby museum; and it is figured in the drawing, to show the entire length and form of the head. The dimensions of the latter, compared with what we have of the new discovered specimen, show that it has belonged to a specimen only half its size; and hence, to make it correspond with the other, it is drawn on a scale twice as large. The entire head measures two feet three inches; and the imperfect one must, therefore, have been about four feet six inches long; so that, as it now measures only nineteen inches, it must have lost about a yard of its length. The cranium, towards the upper part, is a foot broad in the larger specimen, and half a foot in the smaller. The orbits of the eyes approach near to each other, and look upwards, as in the recent crocodile. They are much smaller than those of the ichthyosaurus. Behind them are two very deep fossæ, of an oblong form, separated only by a thin septum. Before them, at a short distance, are seen the nostrils; in the position of which the animal differs greatly from the common crocodile, which has its nostrils near the end of the muzzle. The great length of the snout is another point of difference; our fossil animal, being, in this respect, more nearly allied to the gavial. The region of the nostrils being injured in the smaller head, they cannot be discerned; but they are very conspicuous in the larger, and in another head of the same animal, in the collection of Thomas Hinderwell, esq., of Scarborough, published in the Geological Survey of the Yorkshire coast, plate XVI., fig. 2, as the head of an ichthyosaurus. The teeth are small and very numerous, and they are arranged in straight lines, as in the ichthyosaurus, and not in the bending or curved form, in which those of the recent crocodile are placed. 'The discovery of this valuable relic of a former world, is not only highly interesting of itself,' says Mr. Young, 'but serves to throw light on other discoveries. When the geological survey of the Yorkshire coast was published, I was inclined to think that no genuine crocodile had been found in our alumshale; but that the fossil animals, so called, had all been fishes, or marine animals furnished with fins; except, perhaps, a few very imperfect specimens. But on comparing this new discovered animal with the one found by Messrs. Chapman and Wooler, in January, 1758, described and figured in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. i., in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxx., and in the Scarborough Catalogue, it would appear that both animals have belonged to one family, and probably to one species, as the head and vertebræ (as far as can be ascertained from Wooler's incorrect drawing), seem to correspond, and as the gentlemen who discovered the animal of 1758 assure us that they observed part of an os femoris, with other bones belonging to a quadruped. The fossil animal of 1791, found between Staiths and Runswick, as noticed in the Geological Survey, p. 263, appears to have been another crocodile.' Professor Buckland's description of the cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, supposed to contain bones of numerous hyænas, is also a recent contribution to the geology of Great Britain. The professor considers these as establishing the fact that these animals were once natives of this country. The first thing that is observed on entering the cavern is a sediment of argillaceous and slightly micaceous mud, covering the whole of its bottom to the average depth of about a foot, and concealing the actual floor. Upon advancing some way into the cave, the roof and sides are partially studded and cased over with a coating of stalactite, which descends to the sur face of the mud, and forms over it a plate or crust, spreading horizontally over its surface like ice over a surface of water. The thickness and quantity of this crust varied with that on the roof and sides, in some places covering the mud entirely, when the stalactite on the sides was most abundant, and in other places being totally wanting, both in the roof and the surface of the mud. A great part of this crust had been destroyed in digging up the mud to extract the bones; but professor Buckland saw several places where the stalactitic crust was very thick, and formed a continuous bridge across the mud. In some cases insulated stalagmites, have been formed on the surface of the sediments by drops from the roof, but they are commonly not larger Upon first removing the mud the bottom of the cave was strewed all over like a dog-kennel, from end to end, with hundreds of teeth and bones, or rather broken and splintered fragments of the bones of all the animals above enumerated. They were found most abundantly near its mouth; those of the larger animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, &c., occurring as extensively as all the rest, even in the inmost and smallest recesses. With the exception of the hard and solid bones, scarcely a single bone has escaped fracture; and in some of them marks may be traced, which, on applying one to the other, appear exactly to fit the form of the canine teeth of the hyenas that occur in the cave. From this comminuted and gnawed condition of the bones, professor Buckland concludes that the cave at Kirkdale had been inhabited during a long succession of years as a den, by hyænas, who had dragged into its recesses the other animal bodies whose remains are found mixed with their own. This conjecture received a very interesting confirmation from the discovery made by professor Buckland, of many small balls of the solid calcareous excrement of an animal than a cow's pap, the name by which the workmen distinguish them. The bones have been found enclosed in the stalagmites, formed before the introduction of the mud, but principally in the lower part of the sediment. A few perfect bones have been obtained, but most of them are broken into small angular fragments and chips, lying separately in the mud, whilst others are wholly or partially invested with stalactite. The action of this mud in preserving the bones from decomposition is very remarkable, and professor Buckland found that almost the whole of their gelatine was preserved. The following table will show the nature of the bones which have been discovered, and the animals to which they have belonged that had fed on bones. This substance was at first sight recognised by the keeper of the menagerie at Exeter Change, as resembling, both in form and appearance, the faces of the Cape hyæna which was greedy of bones beyond all other beasts under his care. As the bones of the hyenas are as much broken to pieces as those of the other animals, professor Buckland likewise infers, that the carcases even of the hyænas themselves have been eaten by the survivors. The modern hyæna is about one-third smaller than the fossil animal. 5. The state of the arts in Great Britain requires some further attention than we have as yet bestowed upon the subject. While the continental nations were cultivating the imitative arts, England was engaged with those more solid pursuits of science which became the basis of her modern fame, and manufactures. Then arose her Newton, her Boyle, and her Locke; then were founded her Royal Society and various kindred institutions, all of which have fostered her genius for the application of science to practical life. In no country have equally laborious and persevering effects been made to abridge labor, produce superior articles at the least expense; and turn to the fullest account the productions of the surface, and the most remote depths of the earth. Even her Davy willingly attaches his fame to the invention of a afety-lamp for miners. This peculiar bias of the country towards the useful rather than the fine arts has been well illus trated in a late number of the Edinburgh Review. Speaking of the French periodical exhibitions' of the products of their industry, this writer observes, No body of British manufacturers, we are persuaded, would submit to be actors in such a theatrical pageant. The only exhibition about which an Englishman cares is the diffusion of wealth and comfort in all its shapes; and he measures it, not by its surface or its brilliancy, but by its depth and its solidity. He does not collect rare specimens into palaces, that princes may gaze at them; he spreads out his every-day productions over the world, that men may imitate and enjoy them. The cottages and hamlets of the peasants, the neat mansions of the yeomanry, the larger habitations of the more wealthy, and all the gradations of dwellings up to the palace of the monarch, are the places where the products of British industry are to be found, not exhibited, but in use; and where active comfort reigns in every due proportion. To a Frenchman, indeed, exhibition is the limit of ambition; and the industry of which he can make a parade is that which he will ever most value. Even while we look back-and forward-on the changes of empires and the overthrow of states, the rise of some upon the ruins of others, and the dread and interminable rotations of the wheel of fortune, we cannot but feel there are characters inscribed on the hearts of nations which fortune can never wholly erase. What has long been among multitudes has, for the most part, wisely been; and it is allowing too little to habit, to say, that it is our second nature. It is more commonly the symbol of our first impulses, and our first feelings; the expression of an original bias, no matter how or when impressed, but continued to our latest years. Of this kind is the industry of England, together with the habit of reflection, by which it has been matured; hot a result from any of the fortuitous events which chance has brought to light, and may again overwhelm in darkness; but a deep and indestructible proclivity, more long and lasting than her power itself. The splendor of nations may pass away; their wealth may be swallowed up in the vortex of revolutions; and the strength of to-day may be weakness to-morrow. But their characters are not thus to be effaced, nor their genius to be extinguished. With the power of Greece, the characteristic vivacity of her intellect did not perish and when the martial ardor of Rome, the last of all her virtues which forsook her, had become the dream of past ages, another spirit of glory, more peaceful, though not less ambitious, took possession of her soul; and the world beheld with admiration, a successive sceptre in her hands. The seat of the useful arts, of those which mankind bless, and by which they are blessed, of those which the heart reveres, and the understanding approves, is Britain :-and should her armies be laid low,—should wars or tempests sweep her fleets from the ocean,-should even her star of liberty grow dim; she may yet hold her empire over the mind, and maintain a place among the nations, by the united influence of sense, industry, and beneficence.' But, in the fine arts, those nations who have cultivated them more have allowed Great Britain to have some claims to distinction. Do we include in them the higher departments of literature? Of the present state of English poetry Madame de Stael has said :-English poetry, which is fostered neither by irreligion, nor the spirit of faction, nor licentiousness of manners, is still rich and animated, experiencing nothing of that decline which threatens successively the literature of most other countries in Europe. Sensibility and imagination preserve an immortal youth of mind. A second age of poetry has arisen in England, because enthusiasm is not there extinct, and because nature, love, and country, always exercise great power there. Cowper lately, and now Rogers, Moore, Thomas Campbell, Walter Scott, lord Byron, in different departments and degrees, are preparing a new age of glory for English poetry; and, while every thing on the continent is in a state of degra dation, the eternal fountain of beauty still flows from the land of freedom.' She further remarks, that English works on criticism, and in particular most of their treatises on poetry and the imitative arts, are distinguished by greater freedom, originality, and knowledge of the antique, and bear on these accounts a greater affinity to our own (German) modes of thinking, than those of the French,' "Of all the works connected with elegant literature, which the English produced during the last century,' says M. Schlegel by far the most important are their great historical writings. They have in this department surpassed all the other European nations; they had at all events the start in point of time; and have become the standard models both in France and Germany. Speaking of painting, and similar topics, In the commencement of the reign of George I.,' says Horace Walpole, 'the arts of England were sunk almost to the lowest ebb.' Portraiture, it is true, had been at this time successfully practised by Dobson, Riley, Cooper, Greenhill, Jervas, and Richardson, but by none with any remarkable eminence. It was not, however, to continue always thus: the time at length arrived when the English artists appeared not only desirous but capable of raising the character of their country, in this respect, to a level with that of any other nation. The principal difficulty was to rescue the art from the degrading influence of a vicious taste, to retrace the steps of our predecessors (or rather to burst the bandages in which they had enthralled us), and resort at once to the original principle of imitation; which, when pure and select, is the only sound basis of the art. The first step towards this "eformation was the establishment of a school for drawing from the living figure. This had been begun by Sir James Thornhill, in conjunction with Sir Godfrey Kneller, who, however, one would imagine, from his latter works, had left all consideration |