very little clay below or around them, while the clay is largely accumulated in the hollow valleys at the base.

Besides these boulders or erratic blocks, many of which appear to have been transported from a considerable distance, this drift contains also angular pieces of rocks, and these rocks are almost invariably fragments of the prevailing strata in the neighbourhood; and hence they vary in their character with every variation of district. Thus, in the west of Scotland, as in Gallowayshire, the fragments are greywacke and porphyry; in Lanark and Edinburghshire they are carboniferous sandstones and greenstones; in Forfarshire they are old red sandstone; in Aberdeenshire gneiss, mica slates, and granites. In short, it would appear as if this drift had been deposited at the period when the uppermost rocks of the formation had been broken up and elevated, by forces from below, to the position which they now hold; hence I have applied to this apparent drift the designation of cataclys

mic.

Another question arises,-what is the cause of the particular direction which the erratic blocks appear to have observed in their progress? This direction, generally speaking, appears to be the same throughout Europe and North America, that is, from N.W. to S.E.

In estuaries the direction must of course depend chiefly on that of the river flowing into the sea. Thus, on the Forth and Tay, already alluded to, we can easily account for the transport being in a line from west by north towards the east; but this would not account for a general European and American line from N.W. to S.E. It is probable, then, that this course is due to the tidal currents flowing at the period from a northerly to a southerly direction, something in the same way as the great Atlantic currents flow at the present day. This would equally account for the direction of the marine as for the cataclysmic deposits, if we take also into account as modifying agents the then existing valleys and mountain ridges.

As the marine transport of boulders must have taken place at a period anterior to the ultimate and complete elevation of the present dry land, it is not necessary to suppose that the erratic blocks now found on the slopes of many mountains were borne through the intervening valleys and carried over the tops of mountains to be deposited on their farther sides. We may rather suppose that the transport was made before the elevation of the lower mountains, and that the erratic blocks preserved their relative position on the raised surfaces. Thus, in the case of Mont Blanc and the Jura, we have here in the first instance the elevated primary ridge of Mont Blanc, with a gradually sloping declivity of 100 miles, over which the granite fragments of the mountain are profusely scattered by the tidal force of the occan. Afterwards, at the distance of 50 miles, the secondary limestone mountain of the Jura is elevated, carrying upon its heaving sides the granite masses which are now found resting on its exposed surface, while a hollow valley and the Lake of Geneva lie between.

That the marine transport of erratic blocks may be accomplished by the agency of water, we think cannot be disputed, since we have evident proofs of such now in action. That a mixture of clay and water is a still more powerful agent, the above experiments may demonstrate; and the almost universal existence of this clay along with the drifted boulders, renders it more than probable that this universal juxtaposition had some connection with their transport. The grinding and scratching of the subjacent rocks can also be satisfactorily accounted for by this mode of transportation, as well as other circumstances accompanying the diluvial deposits.

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF THE TIGER, &c.-I shall conclude this account, says Humboldt, of the Altai-Kolyvan, or Altai, properly so called, limited on the east by the meridians of 88 or 890, by recalling a zoological fact well worthy of attention. The study of fossil bones has led us to compare the distribution of certain types of forms with

the changes that climates may have undergone during the last revolutions of the globe. The royal tiger, the same species that inhabits the tropical regions of India and the Island of Ceylon, ranges in the Altai over the mountains of Kourtchoum and Narym. It not only shows itself in our time in the plains of Tartary, but advances on the north between Schlangenberg and Barnaoul to the latitude of Berlin and Hamburg (Cambridge or York). This is undoubtedly a most curious phenomenon, considered simply in reference to the geography of animals, but analogous to those in South America, where the jaguar is found to latitude 420; the lion-puma and the humming-bird to 53", that is, to the countries bordering on the straits of Magellan. But in Northern Asia, the southern declivity of the Altai is inhabited at the same time, during summer, by the elk and the royal tiger, by the rein-deer and the panther-irbis. Such proximity of large animals inhabiting the existing earth,-of forms generally believed to belong to the most diverse climates, is one of the best established facts. The elk (Cervus alcis) of the Altai wanders in the marshy forests on the Sugach and Berouksa, two affluents of the river Katunia. The rein-deer (Cervus tarandus) is found wild on the banks of the Upper Tchoulichman, which falls into the lake Telezk; and probably also on some of the tributaries of the Argout. Now, these places are not more in a W.S.W. direction from the mountains where the royal. tiger is seen from time to time than forty to fifty leagues, and it probably extends its excursions even farther north. Skeletons of these animals belonging to such different types might therefore be found dispersed on the surface of the earth, very near to each other, under the influence of conditions of climate like those of the present earth. Let us add, that, without the knowledge of the fact mentioned here, fossil bones of rein-deer, found side by side with those of the royal tiger, might have led to the supposition, that one of those great changes in the distribution of climate, and its sudden change, had occurred, by which the bones of pachydermata, found buried in the frozen soil of Siberia, have been formerly explained.-Humboldt Asie Centrale, Tom. i. p. 339–342.

Gleanings.

SERVING THE PEOPLE.-All who serve the people are poorly paid. To be very usefully employed is to be degraded. A shoemaker is a snob; a tailor is a snip, and the ninth part of a man; a weaver is something worse than a tailor; a ploughman is a bumpkin; a smith a mere bellows blower; a carpenter is chips; a sailor (for whom, nevertheless, there prevails a kind of affectionate feeling, as if he were a helpless child,) is Jack Tar; a soldier is a lobster, or jonny raw; and a servant, particularly if he be very useful, is a flunkey. The services of all these classes are indispensable. We could neither be waited upon, defended, lodged or clothed without them; yet they are poorly paid and harshly treated. Magistrates pounce upon them for every indiscretion, and stringent laws hold them to their duty. The harder the occupation, generally, the worse it is paid.—Douglas Jerrold.

EDUCATION IN FRANCE AND IN ENGLAND.-Need we ask if Great Britain possesses institutions like these.-Where have we a NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION devised by legislative wisdom, and sustained by legislative liberality? England cannot boast even of its skeleton, or of its sha-' dow. In one place we see the schools of the Church, in another the schools of Dissenters, and throughout the kingdom numerous establishments founded by the piety and munificence of our forefathers. In Ireland we have a national system of education which the nation does not recognize denounced by the Established Church, and but partially accepted by the Roman Catholics. In Scotland we have a system of parochial schools, paid by the heritors, and controlled by the Establishment; yet ejecting teachers, and rejecting candidates, who refuse to conform to its discipline and worship; and everywhere in the three kingdoms we have rival seminaries-teaching different truths inculcating different principles-and educating in political and religious antagonism, the generous youth who are to be the future instructors, and lawgivers, and defenders of the empire. Where are our NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES— regulated by Parliamentary statute-strong in the unity of their doctrine and their discipline conferring their li terary honours upon the men that merit them-inviting to their chairs of office the genius and learning of the age, and seeking no other test but that of fearing God, and honouring the King? Alas! where are they to be found! Not surely in the two noble institutions which stand in

hoary antiquity and unreformed grandeur on the Cam and the Isis-mighty in intellectual power and glorious memories yet rejoicing in ancient and exclusive privilege, and politely shutting their portals against every class but their own:-Not in the colleges of the metropolis, chartered by the State, yet depending on the casual bounty of private munificence:-Not in the University of Dublin, admitting to its offices and its rich Fellowships but a small portion of the nation: Certainly not in the Universities of Scotlandoverborne in the metropolis by the incubus of municipal control;-degraded in the provinces by internal abuse, and ecclesiastical domination; and impoverished everywhere by self-plunder, or national parsiinony.-We do recognize them, however, if not in the maturity of their fruit, at least in the freshness of their germ, in the IRISH COLLEGES, those light-towers of knowledge which a wise government has erected in a dark land; aud which, we trust, will be the harbingers of a Grand Intellectual Reform, conferring the noblest of all political rights-the franchise of a liberal and religious education upon every subject of the British empire.

But while it is necessary to educate our youth in national institutions, under men of undoubted genius and learning, and with a high yet liberal tone of religious feeling, there is yet another duty which belongs to the state-a duty which it owes to the world as well as to itself. The arts and the sciences demand from every government a more than paternal care. Statute cannot create them by its enactments: nor can royal patronage allure them by its favours. They must be the slow growth of institutions which the state supports, and the sovereign honours. When creative genius has completed its apprenticeship in the schools, it must develope its energies in the closet for still higher functions, or it must exhaust them in the ordinary routine of professional labour. Hence it becomes the duty of the state to endow national institutions like the Royal Institute of France, and the Imperial Academies of Science at St Petersburg and Berlin, where men of the highest attainments in science, literature, and the arts, shall be incorporated, and unite their talents in advancing knowledge, and in aiding government in every enterprise where theoretical or practical skill is required. Such has been the policy of almost every nation in Europe but our own. The Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, have been, to a certain degree, substitutes for the endowed institutions of the Continent; while the Geological, the Astronomical, the Linnean, and other societies, supply the defects of the parent establishment. But noble as these institutions are accomplished as are the men that guide them, and valuable as are the transactions which they publish, there is yet a want of unity in their efforts, and, to a certain extent, an antagonism in their pursuits. When the noble patrons of science, and its opulent amateurs, stand in the same rank with its highest functionaries and its most active cultivators, their joint action must be feeble, however common and well-directed be its aim. A heterogeneous body is as defective in moral as it is in physical power; and there is a reaction among its elements, which tends to corruption or decay. Cabals will arise-incapable office-bearers and unqualified members will be elected-a system of favouritism will spring up the rewards of invention and discovery will be improperly bestowed-and men of high principle will retire, in disgust, from an institution thus mismanaged and dishonoured.

If private associations, then, thus characterised, have hitherto failed to accomplish what national institutions everywhere secure, how unsuitable must they be in the present day, when science, in its theoretical and practical embrace, has grasped all the great interests of the state, and is the only safe guide to their future development, and their final safety. With steam-ships on every sea-with steam-power in every farm and factory-with a system of agriculture leaning upon science as its mainstay-with a net-work of railways demanding for their perfection the highest efforts of mechanical skill-the time has doubtless arrived when government should summon to its aid, and unite in its service, all the theoretical and practical wisdom of the country. An institution thus composed would not merely combine the living talent which is in active exercise around us: it would concentrate what is scattered, and rouse what is dormant; and under its fostering wing, as the home and the temple of science, we might expect, without the excitement of a revolution, to nurse a race of sages, like the Baillys, the Carnots, the Cuviers, and the Fouriers of another land-men who united the characters of the statesman, the hero, and the philosopher, and who, in the hour of danger, were the best defenders of their

country. In the erection of a temple like this, our present patrons and amateurs of science would either occupy an honorary place in the pediment which adorns it, or crown as ornamental capitals the Corinthian pillars upon which it rests.-North British Review.

TRUE HEROISM. The following affecting anecdote is given in Marshall's Military Miscellany.

In the year 1795, a serious disturbance broke out in Glasgow among the Breadalbane Fencibles. Several men having been confined, and threatened with corporal punishment, considerable discontent and irritation were excited among their comrades, which increased to such violence, that when some men were confined in the guard-house, a great proportion of the regiment rushed out, and forcibly released the prisoners. This violation of military discipline was not to be passed over, and accordingly measures were taken to secure the ringleaders, and bring them to punishment. But so many were equally concerned, that it was difficult to fix on the proper subjects for punishment. The soldiers being made sensible of the nature of their misconduct, and the consequent punishment, four men voluntarily offered themselves to stand trial, and suffer the sentence of the law, as an atonement for the whole. They were accordingly marched to Edinburgh Castle, tried, and condemned to be shot. Three of them were, however, afterwards reprieved, and the fourth was shot on Musselburgh sands.

On the march to Edinburgh a circumstance occurred, the more worthy of notice, as it shows a strong principle of honour, and fidelity to his word, and to his officer, in a common Highland soldier; and while it reminds the reader so strongly of that fine incident in the classical story of Damon and Pythias, as almost to appear like an inferior imitation of that high act of heroic honour and self-devotion, it exemplifies this truth, that a fine sense of what is honourable and sublime in human conduct is not confined to any particular class of men, but is as inherent to the baseborn peasant as to the nobly born and the nobly bred. One of the men stated to the officer commanding the party, that he knew what his fate would be, but that he had left business of the utmost importance to a friend, in Glasgow, which he wished to transact before his death; that as to himself, he was fully prepared to meet his fate; but with regard to his friend, he could not die in peace unless the business was settled; and that if the officer would suffer him to return to Glasgow, a few hours there would be sufficient; that he would join him before he reached Edinburgh, and then march as a prisoner with the party: the brave Highlander added,-"You have known me since I was a child; you know my country and kindred; and you may believe I shall never bring you to any blame by a breach of the promise I now make, to be with you in full time to be delivered up to the castle." This was a startling proposal to the officer, who was a judicious, humane man, and knew perfectly his risk and responsibility in yielding to such an extraordinary application. However, his confidence was such, that he complied with the request of the prisoner, who returned to Glasgow at night, settled his business, and left the town before daylight, to redeem his pledge. He took a long circuit to avoid being seen, and being apprehended as a deserter, and sent back to Glasgow, as probably his account of his officer's indulgence would not have been credited. In consequence of this caution, and the lengthened march through woods, and over hills, by an unfrequented route, there was no appearance of him at the hour appointed. The perplexity of the officer when he reached the neighbourhood of Edinburgh may be easily imagined. He moved forward slowly, but no soldier appeared; and unable to delay any longer, he marched up to the castle, when, as he was delivering over the prisoners, but before any report was given in, Macmartin, the absent soldier, rushed in among his fellowprisoners, pale with anxiety and fatigue, and breathless with apprehension of the consequences in which his delay might have involved his benefactor. In whatever light the conduct of Major Colin Campbell, the officer, may be considered by military men, his confidence in human nature must endear him to the hearts of the humane; and it cannot but be wished that the Highlandman's magnanimous self-devotion had been taken as an atonement for his own misconduct, and that of his brother prisoners. It was not from any additional guilt that the man who suffered was shot: it was determined that only one should suffer, and the four were ordered to draw lots, when the fatal chance fell upon William Sutherland, who was executed accordingly.

author announced the startling and important fact, if such can be substantiated by future experience, that "whin feeding, as thus recommended, was not only a specific cure, but a positive preventative' of that curse to the store farmers, the rot, when occurring in the early part of the season. In proof of this, the following case was adduced: Mr Somner of West Morriston, in Berwickshire, on taking possession of his farm, found that his flocks (Leicesters and Cheviots) were liable to rot, from the nature of the pasture. Being aware that whin feeding had an effect on this disease, he established a nursery of the plant, by means of which, and through the agency of his shepherds in sowing it, he soon raised a sufficient supply of whins.

From the time that the sheep had access to them, "the disease disappeared," till the year 1837-38, when a severe frost cut them down; "the rot then reappeared to an alarming extent, till the whins were restored, when it again vanished."

When we come to consider the destructive ravages of this "most ancient" of the diseases of sheep, and above all, call to painful recollection the sweeping destruction of sheep and lambs that took place so recently as the winter of 1830-31, when, by Parliamentary report, above two millions were destroyed, it becomes a matter of national importance to learn even the approximation to a single fact, as to the management of, or encountering a disease so fatal in its results.

In looking over the annals of the natural history of this disease, no defined mode of management, feeding, or treatment, is any where to be found, and, with the exception of our very general ideas and information, that a well drained and healthy pasturage, not overstocked, together with the occasional exhibition of common salt when the rot threatens, or actually exhibits, we are perfectly in the dark as to those principles on which the disease ought to be treated and managed.

Without

It is to be regretted that in the above report no mention is made of the condition and nature of the pasturage when the farm was first entered on; the improvements, if any, that were made upon it; the state in which it was when the rot exhibited itself; the nature of the seasons that preceded and accompanied it; and above all, the general management of the flocks pursued by his informant. such information, it would be premature to consider the therapeutic action of any remedy, or any particular mode of management, as possessing specific or even preventative powers; but as the recommendation is simple and safe in its principle, and easy, in the majority of cases, in its application, it is unquestionably worthy of a more careful and extensive trial amongst our store farmers.

University and Educational Entelligence.

FACHITIES FOR THE ADMISSION OF YOUNG MEN TO HOLY ORDERS. The University of Durham has made provision for facilitating the adinission and shortening the period of residence necessary for obtaining a licence in theology. Several rules have been published to this effect.

We understand that the Rev. M. Martin, A.M., teacher of mathematics in Madras College, St Andrews, has been appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in Marischall College, Aberdeen.

Fine Arts.

EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY.-The first day of the exhibition! What, a casting off of this "mortal coil," to leave the dull common place, crowded streets, and enter the pillared dome of the Institution! A fairy scene opens before us. The cherished fancies of years, the realized visions of the imagination-the labour and anxious study of weeks and months, are all here displayed in rich and gorgeous arrangement. The eye at first glances over the varied hues, and glittering gildings with bewilderment, and some time elapses before vision is sobered down to the individual attractions ranged around. First of all, many well-known portraits gaze upon us with all the sparkling animation of life. Here are the calm, manly, and truthful forms of Colvin Smith, breathing almost a vital reality, here the somewhat more etherealized countenances of Watson Gordon. The expressive lineaments of Mackenzie, S. Watson, and the soft and sweet forms of Musgrove.

But we turn from these to scenes which touch the feelings and emotions; or which awaken the imagination to visions of what has been done and suffered in human life.

Here we have a domestic tragedy-The distraining for rent of Wilkie-which at one glance tells a tale of deep distress and mental anguish: How feeble were our conceptions of this picture, even from the finest prints of it so well known. Every group and figure is full of the most unequivocal expression, and the details how truthful and calmly managed! Next we turn to a picture of gorgeous beauty and surpassing loveliness, Cleopatra on the Cydnus, by Ettey, beautiful in conception, rich and mellow, and chaste in its tone-a picture that would demand, and would well requite hours and hours of study. These two paintings display the mellowed tints of time though new to our North Countrie." At that corner sits our old boyish friend Robinson Crusoe, by Frazer, admirably conceived and executed. How solemnly the poor care-worn solitary sits at his dinner board, surrounded by his dog and cats, and parrot, and goat, in his goat-skin dress, and cap, and in his self-built hut, with its cautiously contrived doorway, looking up into the blue sky and distant mountains, hemmed round by the vast ocean which shuts out from him the world! We recollect of old a Crusoe by this same artist, excellent too, but we like the present better. Turn we a little aside and another artist, Munro, shows the same Crusoe on his raft, and a calm soft and beautiful sea stretching out before him, with an island in the distance, his only hope and solace.

A bevy of happy, laughing, rosy-faced urchins, now meets our view-it is Harvey's "Schule Scaling," and the dominie, a real bona fide dominie of the old school, lagging behind to take to task some urchin delinquent. Nor is that scene in the Greyfriar's Churchyard, by Johnstone, with its group of depressed and disheartened covenanters, under guard of a stern soldier, to be rapidly passed at present without regret. A deep eastern morning gleam, and stalwart Circassian in the foreground Sir W. Allan, invites also a passing look of admiration. Hunt the Slipper, by Maclise-Peter the Hermit preaching the Crusades, by Scott-the presentation of Samuel to Eli, by Lauder-with numerous other historical pieces of no common merit, crowd upon us, and put in claims for future inspection.

If we turn from these scenes of life and human action, we have the ever fresh and simple scenes of nature to call up our fondest sympathies. Behold before you, wide and fully displayed, "a Highland Landscape"-a calm and still lake pouring its waters into a rich lower valley, by a soft gushing rivulet-a range of soft blue mountains fading into the distance, and that hazy, soft, yet perfectly airy and mist-clouded sky, which only a Maculloch can depict with all its natural tints and lineaments, Bothwell Castle on the Clyde, by the same pencil, is also a rich and laboured scene. Cooper, on the other side, scatters his cattle over a soft-toned, beautiful landscape, with much of the art of Cuyp. Sea views, by Williams-river scenes, by Crawford-Highland mountain scenery, with much of nature in them, by the fair touch of Miss Stoddart, and many other really beautiful selections from the profuse stores of nature, by various artists, arrest the attention in almost every corner. We have said nothing of three pictures by Turner-we are almost afraid to do so or to confess that we see art and fancy, and even beauty in them -but nothing of nature. We know this opinion will be scouted, but we speak honestly. There is one picture which caught our eye from the first, and now we linger by it at the last-the Enterkin Leadhills (Harvey). A piece of actual nature is here, yet touched with a fairy brush--a long, narrow, sloping, green smooth gorge, running up a mountain side, with a streamlet winding its tortuous way through it a few scraggy birches and alders, the sun gleaming and lighting up bright green spots here and there, with groups of sheep feeding in the hollowsdark shelving rocks on the foreground, out of which spring the tortuous branches of stunted trees a most difficult scene to attempt, yet wrought into a perfect gem. So much for a general view of one of the richest exhibitions of the bye-past twenty years. We hope to enter into fuller particulars on a future occasion.

LONDON ACADEMY. On Tuesday, the 10th inst., a general assembly of the academicians of the Royal Academy of Arts was held in their apartments in Trafalgar-square, when Thomas Webster, Patrick M'Dowell, and John Rogers Herbert, Esqrs., were duly elected Royal Academicians, in the room of Sir Augustus Wall Callcott, Robert Smirke, and Thomas Phillips, Esqrs., deceased.