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all those of Cuckfield, are terrestrial, lacustrine or fluviatile. We have not sufficient information concerning the bones, teeth, and palates of the various fishes and sharks to decide that any two of them agree in species. This remark applies with still greater force to the remains of cetacea and birds. No Didelphis has yet been found in the Tilgate beds, no Iguanodon at Stonesfield. That the bones of gigantic dimensions procured at Cuckfield belong strictly to the same genus as the Megalosaurus of Stonesfield, we have little doubt, although the bones of the skeleton hitherto found in actual apposition at either place are so few, that to determine this point, much less to decide on their specific identity, is impossible. The same may be said of the Plesiosaurus and Crocodile. Although the tortoises are numerous in both localities, none have yet been shown to be of the same species. correspondence, in short, of the remains at Stonesfield and Tilgate Forest, imbedded in strata totally dissimilar in mineralogical characters, is what we might expect to find between the same formations and the deltas of the Nile, Ganges, and all large rivers of the present day in hot climates.

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We have only space to allude briefly to some of the geological papers in this volume. They contain a great mass of new information, and we cannot but express our regret that the Geological Society, possessing so many zealous members, and engaged in promoting a science so fertile in new discoveries, should have permitted a lapse of two years to intervene between the completion of the volume we have been reviewing, and a new part, published whilst we are concluding this Article. There are two papers by Mr. Colebrooke on the valley of the Sutluj river, in the Himalaya mountains, and on the north-eastern border of Bengal, and another by Mr. Fraser on the country between Delhi and Bombay, which, when considered together, are sufficient to establish a remarkable resemblance in the leading geological features of the vast continent of India to that of Europe and North America. The primary rocks in Central India and in the Himalaya mountains are identical in mineralogical character with those of the Alps, and, in fact, of all primary ranges in the world. The striking analogy of the fossils from the north-east of Bengal to those of the formations above the chalk in England, is extremely curious, and quite consistent with the conclusions already deduced from the organic remains procured in the strata near Madras, and deposited with specimens from various parts of India in the museum of the Geological Society. The identity of the basalts and amygdaloids, and other varieties of trap brought by Mr. Fraser from India, with those found in similar situations in England, is no less interesting; and lastly, the coal formation, consisting

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whether it might not be proper to commit to competent persons the task of examining this part of our law, with a view to determining if any improvement can safely be made in it, which might lessen the expense and parrow the field of litigation respecting the transfer of property?

The recommendation contained in this passage of the Report is indeed conveyed in terms which are framed with all the caution to be expected from persons in the exercise of so high and responsible an office, when speaking on a subject not strictly within the scope of the inquiry committed to them, however incidentally connected with its objects. But it is impossible for the most superficial reasoner not to perceive the extent of meaning couched beneath the guarded expressions which they have employed, and in which sense they seem to have been considered by Lord Redesdale himself where he signifies his full approbation of this part of their suggestions. What (it must be asked) is the law of Conveyancing, the niceties and subtleties of which give rise to so many questions, the origin themselves of suits so complicated and protracted, but the whole system of jurisprudence by which the transmission of property from person to person is governed; and how can any investigation of the subject be limited, so as not to embrace that entire system, and the very principles on which it is founded?

Scarcely had these intimations been given, when they were answered by a work of singular novelty, both in its exhibition of the system itself, so far as regards the subject of real property, and in suggestions for its amelioration. Embracing, as does the work alluded to, the entire subject which it professes to discuss, its copiousness and, at the same time, its severe compression, alike forbid the supposition of its being the mere production of the moment; and we are forced to conclude that, by a fortunate coincidence, the author was already prepared for the enterprize in which the sudden demand of the occasion induced him, perhaps, more immediately to embark.

Mr. Humphreys, a gentleman well known for his professional skill and experience, (qualities which cannot fail to add weight to his theories, and force to the confidence which we are disposed to place in his reasoning,) commences the work which we are about to consider, with a distinction, hitherto unremarked by us, between political and civil institutions, as regarded with a view to correction. The former, he observes, are in their nature comparatively simple, and they affect the great body of the people.

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When a government possesses the elements, and a people the character of freedom, it is by the quick perception and the energies of the public that political defects are detected or abuses remedied; and, in

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clined, and exhibit marks of disturbance in every form of fracture and irregular position. Those of the second series, on the contrary, (the newer red sandstone, lias and oolite,) are either perfectly level or inclined imperceptibly to the horizon: they seldom show traces of internal derangement, and they rest transversely on the truncated edges of the strata of the former series. That the inclined strata were formed originally in a nearly horizontal position is highly probable; for the order of their superposition is very regular. But the convulsions to which they owe their present fractures, curvature and elevation, must have been long subsequent to their formation; for all the members of the series are affected in the same manner. As these disturbances very rarely extend to the over-lying beds, the lapse of a considerable interval of time between the deposition of the two series is clearly indicated. In consequence of the total want of conformity between these, and the occasional absence of some of the overlying formations, any member of one series may in this district be in contact with any member of the other.

We regret that we cannot present to such of our readers as may not be familiar with the first principles of geology an intelligible analysis of this admirable memoir without extending the present Article to an unreasonable length. But even those who have never before directed their attention to this subject will readily perceive the advantages derivable from the knowledge of the superposition of a succession of formations once ascertained to be constant and regular. In the eastern part of England, where few formations, reckoning from the new red sandstone upwards, are ever wanting, costly trials have been often made to obtain coal; and in some instances the operations have commenced in very recent deposits. In the present state of geological science such futile attempts will scarcely be repeated, In the west of England trials have been frequently made to reach coal by shafts sunk through strata now known invariably to occupy an inferior position to the coal measures when both are present. Wherever, in the map to which we have alluded, we find greywacke, transition limestone, mountain limestone, or old red sandstone, depicted as the superficial rock, it would be clearly absurd to sink for coal. As the coal measures are divisible into groups of strata, preserving among themselves a regular order of succession, and distinguishable by mineralogical character and organic remains, an attention to these points may often assist the judgment when the propriety of enlarging operations in mines already worked with profit is to be decided on. An extensive comparison moreover of the relations of the two series of formations enables the geologist to form an opinion of the probability of obtaining

coal

coal or iron ore by sinking to the coal measures through the overlying deposits. Our authors, by the study of such phenomena, have come to the important conclusion that much of the area in which coal may be found is still untouched, and they have assigned grounds, which are most clearly indicated in their section,* for believing that an unexplored coal basin exists along the course of the Severn, between Aust and Portishead point. They have referred to the places where trials by boring might be made, and they consider it probable also that a coal basin, hitherto unexamined, exists beneath the red marl to the south of the Mendip range.

The above communication is followed by another by Mr. Weaver on the northern angle of the Bristol coal field and part of the adjacent country, also illustrated by a map and sections. The author, from the advantage of local residence, has been enabled to enter into very minute details, and it is therefore highly satisfactory to find his account of this district corresponding strictly with that of the preceding authors, especially as his investigations embrace the whole of the same series of formations. There is, however, one insulated spot on which there is a disagreement with regard to the connection of trap rocks with the transition limestone. A great majority of geologists, in opposition to the Wernerian hypothesis, now ascribe trap rocks to the eruptions of ancient submarine volcanos. And if this theory of their origin be correct, confusion and obscurity in their position and relations ought naturally to be expected.

As we have principally confined our view of geological discoveries to fossil organic remains, we shall conclude with some reflections naturally arising out of this branch of the science. The course of our observations has led us to treat both of the fossil plants of the coal measures and of the connection of the carboniferous strata with other formations. That coal is of vegetable origin is, we believe, doubted by no one. It is observed that peat under pressure, and subjected to the action of water, becomes bituminized, and resembles some kinds of lignite; that lignite, occurring in secondary formations more recent than the great carboniferous series, and being evidently a kind of fossil wood, sometimes passes by imperceptible gradations into coal. Impressions of plants also, though rarely distinguishable, are sometimes found in the coal itself, and are very abundant in the accompanying shale and sandstone, where the cortical part of the tree is often converted into a substance identical with contiguous masses of coal. Of the fossil plants of the ancient carboniferous

*Plate XXXII. section 1.

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strata

strata several hundred species are now described; and it appears that the same kinds are, with few exceptions, common to England, France, and Germany. It has been conjectured that the trees of these ancient forests were swept by torrents into friths and estuaries, and there buried, sometimes unmixed with foreign matter, but often with sand or with argillaceous and calcareous sediment. The accompanying shells are generally of a fluviatile character, but sometimes (as is perfectly consistent with the hypothesis) of marine genera. In whatever manner these strata originated, the arrangement of their materials was evidently governed by the laws of gravitation, and they must therefore have been at first nearly horizontal. By various convulsions they were subsequently thrown into an inclined and often vertical position, and at other times fractured or violently contorted; at a still later period the truncated edges of these strata were covered, in a variety of instances, by marine deposits of great thickness, inclosing shells, zoophytes, and many gigantic reptiles before described, and plants differing almost as widely from the Flora of the coal as from existing vegetable productions. To describe the various formations occurring in England, for the most part of marine origin, all evidently more recent than the carboniferous series, would require a separate treatise. We shall merely add that their organic contents indicate successive changes in animal and vegetable life, and the study of the whole phenomena attending them has uniformly impressed the minds of naturalists with an idea that periods of great duration elapsed during their accumulation.

After so many changes in position, the result apparently of alternate elevation and subsidence, we now find a large portion of the coal measures in Great Britain at various heights above the level of the ocean-sometimes exceeding 1000 feet; but a great portion still remain beneath that level, as is demonstrated by the dip of the strata on our coast. In consequence of the abundance and accessibility of this mineral in our island, and its opportune association with beds of iron ore, and the invariable contiguity of limestone, employed to flux the iron ore, we are enabled to surpass all other nations in the cheapness of machinery. Without this advantage not only would the great superiority of our manufacturing system be impaired, but we should be incapable of availing ourselves of a great part of our metallic riches. Independently therefore of the comfort derived from an economical source of fuel for domestic purposes, we may safely affirm that, without the aid of coal, neither the population nor the commerce or maritime power of the British empire could be maintained on their present extensive scale.

If we pause for a moment and consider how intimately the

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