expected results. The coprolites are imbedded in a vein of clay from three to six feet beneath the surface, and the vein itself has a thickness of from six inches to three feet, running down in places to deep pockets. The width of the vein is ascertained to be a quar

creditable to Mr. Bennett Woodcroft. We hear that a new office is to be built in the vacant ground behind Burlington House, where the several collections and documents may be seen and consulted with ample space and accommodation. In a paper read before the Geological Soci-ter of a mile, and its length is supposed to be ety, "On the Geological Structure of the equal to that of the fen-fifty miles; when North of Scotland," Sir Roderick Murchison we consider that the contents per acre range takes occasion to notice "the great value of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred the Caithness flags as paving-stones; their tons, we can form an idea of the importance extraordinary durability being due to a cer- of these eastern counties diggings. Near tain admixture of lime and bitumen-the Burwell, numerous diggers have been at work latter derived from fossil fishes-with silica for months getting out the clay, and washing and alumina, while in some parts they contain the fossils; and English agriculturists may bitumen enough to render them of economic soon supply themselves with a fertilizer which value." The region is interesting in another contains full seventy per cent of phosphate sense, on account of the numerous fossils and of lime, without sending for it to the guano footsteps in sandstone slabs recently found rocks of the Pacific Ocean. The owners of there. One of the fossils, the Stagonolepis, the land traversed by the vein of clay will is a remarkable reptile partaking of the char- | doubtless make an enormous profit. acter of the crocodile and lizard; yet, as Pro- We conclude with a fact highly interesting fessor Huxley says, "it widely diverges from to physiologists. M. L. Ollier of Lyon has all known and recent fossil forms, and throws no clear light on the age of the deposit in which it occurs." It is, in fact, a higher order of reptile than those of the age to which it might be supposed to belong.

We mentioned some time ago the discovery in Cambridgeshire-in the fen country-of a large deposit of fossil coprolites which had been found valuable as manure. The discovery has been followed up, and with most un

discovered that, if a portion of the periosteum be taken from the surface of a living bone, and buried in the flesh of the back, hip, etc., it will grow into real bone, with a channel for marrow in the interior. The bone, moreover, will grow into any shape into which it may be bent when grafted into the flesh. It is thought that surgeons will be able to make this fact available in their cures of broken limbs.

Ir is no novelty to attempt the combination | ver has impregnated the wood. The block may of photography with the devices of the wood engraver, by covering the block on which he is to work, with a coating susceptible to the actinic rays; but the latest adaptation is one commended by the Photographic News, consisting of a mixture of oxalate of silver and water with a little gum or pulverized bath brick. About as much as would lie on a fourpenny piece for a block four inches square is sprinkled on the surface, and is spread evenly by rubbing the wetted finger which applies the preparation backwards and forwards across the block, until a delicate and almost impalpable coating of oxalate of sil

be then exposed under a negative in the printing frame to sunlight, and a positive picture is ob tained in the same manner as on paper prepared in the ordinary way. To avoid the chance of a blackened surface the engraver is cautioned against exposing the block to the direct action of the solar rays whilst working at it. The invention is commended as a means for the cheap and rapid transference of pictures of all kinds to the wood; but we wait, before distinctly supporting this commendation, to test its merits among the engravers ordinarily employed on the press.

No. 774.-26 March, 1859.-Third Series, No. 52.

POETRY.-Warnings, 824. Calm, 824. You ask a Merrier Strain, 824.

SHORT ARTICLES.-What Constitutes Theft, 809, General Hamilton, 823. Records of the Bastile, 823.

CORRECTION.-The Poem "At Sea," page 640 of this volume, and there headed "By W. H. Longfellow," was copied by us, just as it is there printed, from some newspaper which neglected the proper credit, and guessed at the authorship. We are now informed that it was written by Mr. J. T. Trowbridge, and was first published in the Atlantic Monthly. The lines are well worth reclaiming, for they would do additional honor even to him to whom they were attributed.

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.-Chrisna, a Novel. From the French of M. de Saintini. Littell, Son, & Co.

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JOHN JAY. A Statistical View of American Agriculture, its Home Resources and Foreign Markets, with Suggestions for the Schedules of the Census of 1860; being an Address delivered before the American Geographical and Statistical Society. By John Jay, Esq. Appleton & Co., New York.

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