Yet the arguments, objections, replies, and renewed examinations, on this fruitful subject, are not exhausted. Ample and able disquisitions have been published during the years 1841 and 1842, in the Proceedings and Transactions of the Geological Society, the Philosophical Magazine, the Bibliothèque Universelle of Geneva, other French and German scientific journals, and the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, by Professor Agassiz himself, the late Mr. Bowman, Sir George Mackenzie, Mr. Darwin, Professor Brown, Professor Forbes, and others. The general result seems to be, that the Glacier Theory cannot be accepted to the extent for which Agassiz pleads; and that, besides other modifications, floating icebergs must be regarded as, no less than the sliding of glaciers on dry land, essential to the solution of the interesting and complicated problem.

The subject was discussed at great length, at the Third Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, April 25 to 30, 1842, at Boston; upon papers by Prof. Hitchcock, and Mr. Couthouy, and in the oral communications of Mr. Lyell (whose scientific zeal and liberality has led him to cross the Atlantic, and devote a year and a half to the geological exploration of large districts in the United States, thus accomplishing the wish expressed with no less ardour than judgment in one of our national periodicals, Edinb. Rev. vol. lxix. p. 440), Professors Silliman and H. D. Rogers, and others.

The prevalent opinion appeared to be favourable to the course of sentiment above cited from Mr. Murchison; with which however it was scarcely possible that the writers and speakers could be acquainted.

As the design of these Lectures is to serve the highest interests of mankind, I need no apology for introducing some parts of a letter, which has appeared in some of the public papers of London and Paris. The writer was a well known and highly respected clergyman of the English Church, who died lately (January, 1844). His veracity is unquestionable, and his narrative cannot fail to give pleasure to those who are the best friends of mankind and sincere disciples of Christ.

"Amongst the hills of Auvergne and in the Department of the Puy de Dome, is situated the town of Thiers. It is celebrated for its

picturesque position, being planted on the steep declivities of rocks and mountains, which are adorned with chestnut-trees, walnuts, oaks, and other striking ornaments of the forest. In front, and at no great distance, is the pyramidal Puy de Dome, with the whole chain of mountains of Mont d'Or and the Cantal; beneath them is the beautiful plain of Clermont, with the silver stream of the Dore winding its way through the midst, and all around the rugged peaks and deep dark mountain ravines stand in striking contrast with sloping hills clothed with vines and corn-fields. The population of this town, computed at 15,000, is almost entirely employed in the manufacture of cutlery. One universal sound, the hammer clinking on the anvil, and the file rasping on the vice, continually strikes the ear in every street, and no other noise has disturbed, from time immemorial, the dull uniformity of Thiers. During the terrible convulsions of the Revolution and the Empire, this place, indeed, as all others in France, had to deplore its youth sacrificed in foreign fields; and the monotony of human life was then arrested by the news of some falling by the lake of Mantua, others at the walls of Saragossa, and others on the plains of Germany.* But the regrets of such calamities have long since ceased to agitate the hearts of survivors, and nothing seems to occupy attention but to partake of food, to labour for its acquisition, and to die. About two years ago, however, the quiet of the scene was disturbed by a most novel occurrence. The report was circulated, 'There are Protestants arrived at Thiers; they are selling Bibles; they are praying, reading, conversing at the Boullet.' This intelligence acted like an electric shock on the somnolent population. Out rushed no less, it is asserted, than 2,000 persons towards the place, where one of the colporteurs of the Geneva Society was explaining in his simple manner the great truths of the Gospel. So furious was the mob, such their threats, their gesticulations, and their spirit, that the most serious consequences were apprehended. Not only had the colporteur to escape with the utmost haste by a way removed from the tumult, but even the commissaire de police and the gens d'armes had to interfere most promptly to prevent evil. The riot of this day will ever be a memorable fact in the history of Thiers!

"It might have been supposed that truth, meeting with such opposition on its first arrival, would have retired in dismay from the whole region; but such an opinion would have been most erroneous. It has pleased the God of mercy to pour out his Holy Spirit so remarkably on this place, that a considerable number of persons are not only reading with attention the Holy Scriptures, and affording good hopes of eventual conversion, but an infant church of Protestant Christians

"It is positively asserted, that no less than 150 young men, belonging to a single and small quarter of the town, perished in ten or fifteen years."

has been already formed; and at the first sacrament, no less than twenty-seven persons, all of them, in the judgment of charity, sincerely seeking eternal salvation, were partakers.

"I have been residing in the midst of this little flock about a fortnight, and I am deeply affected with admiration at the work of divine grace which is here exhibited. Eighteen months ago the very name of Protestant was scarcely known in the neighbourhood, no right views of Christ and his salvation were in existence, the grossest superstitions of popery and the most reckless infidelity divided the territory between them; in short, a moral midnight brooded over the whole population: now a religious impression has been produced of the most extensive character; not a family, perhaps, can be found, which has not conversed, and thought, and felt, either favourably or unfavourably, on this great subject. Up to this hour the Protestant labours are the theme of universal and perpetual conversation. To my own observation, the twenty-seven communicants above mentioned, and several others, have been brought from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God;' and it is known to God alone how far eventually the blessings of the Gospel will be diffused in this region.

"It is most interesting to mark the new converts, to observe their diligent study of the Bible, some of them even in old age beginning to read, that they may peruse the sacred pages; to listen to them singing delightfully the praises of God, in the beautiful hymns and tunes of our Geneva brethren; to hear with what simplicity and unction they lead the prayers of the congregation when invited to do so; and, above all, to notice that 'where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound.' The habitual deportment of the converts is highly consistent; the world cannot reproach them with ill-conduct some of their number, who had been notorious for drunkenness and other sins, are now eminent examples of temperance and holiness; and the peace of God which passeth all understanding,' reigns over the whole Church. I was exceedingly struck with the expression of countenance of many persons amongst them. There is a calm, solid happiness portrayed on their features, which no principle, no ideas, no events, however prosperous in life, nothing but the assurance of eternal glory, through the sacrifice of Christ our Redeemer, could ever produce.

"Thiers, Puy de Dome, August 5th, 1839."

"JOHN HARTLEY."

[K.]

Referred to at page 111.

AN objection to these reasonings from the extinct volcanoes of Auvergne has been advanced in the Quarterly Review, vol. lxxiv. p. 295; 1844. It is grounded upon one of the numerous Epistles of Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius (the correct order of his names, often mistaken), who was Bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, from 472 to 487. In that epistle, addressed to Mamertus, the Bishop of Vienne, he describes phænomena which had taken place, some fifteen years previously. Allusions also are adduced from one of the homilies of Avitus, the successor of Mamertus, of which the date is about another fifteen years later. From those writers are drawn accounts evidently exaggerated of terrifying prodigies driving the inhabitants out of the city of Vienne, noises underground, earthquakes, and fires bursting out, buildings thrown down, and their ruins covered with a mountainous mass of ashes, animals fleeing into the city for protection, combined with the efficacy of relics and the bishop's saintly presence and processions, as affording preservation and deliverance. Now, be it observed that Vienne is a hundred miles from the extinct volcanoes; that Sidonius says not a word about that region, his own residence; that he is a remarkably extravagant and bombastic writer, strongly inclined to turn the poetical into the historical (—he represents Homer as an historian,-G. J. Vossius de Histor. Latin. 1651, p. 515:-) and that he, Mamertus, and Avitus were credulous devotees of superstition. Hence, we could not rely upon the accuracy of his statements, if even they did refer to the tract of country in question; and we are compelled to regard his testimony as irrelevant.

Mr. Lyell has examined these allegations, with his characteristic acuteness and fairness, in a lecture at the Royal Institution in April last; and he adds,—“ Although the epistle proves Sidonius to have had a fair share of the credulity of his age, in respect to both miracles wrought in favour of a contemporary saint and the efficacy of relics, it would be unfair to charge him with a belief in the occurrence of a volcanic eruption at or near the site of the city of Vienne, which the investigation of the ablest government surveyors, to whom the construction of a Geological Map of France has been intrusted, has entirely disproved. There are, in fact, no monuments of volcanoes, ancient or modern, in Dauphiny," [Mr. L. must include the Viennois;] "and, if there had been, they would not throw light on the date of the eruptions in Auvergne." Reported in the Athenæum, May 15, 1847. My readers will study the article with great advantage. They will find much further evidence of the antiquity of the

Auvergne volcanoes, an antiquity immeasurable when compared with our historical periods, yet small in its relation to the anterior geological formations.

[L.]

Referred to at pages 117 and 211.

ON THE LONGEVITY OF TREES.

THIS is a subject of great interest. There are species which, in this respect, strongly attract our attention. The tree, called in our version an oak, but we have reason to believe that it was the terebinth,* under which Joshua deposited the ratification of the covenant made by his countrymen, was probably the very tree made memorable by events in the life of Abraham and that of Jacob. Our English oak attains to the age of a thousand years, and instances have been ascertained of one thousand five hundred.† To the yew more than two thousand, even above three thousand years are on good grounds attributed. But there are other trees possessing a higher longevity, and individuals of which have been ascertained to go back from our times to dates long prior to the Noachian deluge. Of the Baobab (Adansonia digitata,) a tree of stupendous magnitude § growing in

* Pistacia terebinthus; elon, unhappily rendered plain in Gen. xii. 6, and other places.

+ Prof. Henslow's Princip. of Descr. and Physiol. Botany; p. 248: 1835.

Ib. p. 245; and a paper, by the lamented John Eddowes Bowman, Esq. (who died, after three days' illness occasioned by inadvertent exposure to cold, Dec. 4, 1841,) on the Yew, in Charlesworth's Magazine for 1837; in which the admirable methods of obtaining sections for determining the age of trees, without injuring them materially, are clearly described. That paper was read, in an abridged form, at the meeting of the British Association at Bristol, August 1836; where it excited great interest. With regard to the application of the trephine-saw to such treetrunks as those here mentioned, it may be apprehended that to penetrate to the heart, 14 or 15 feet, and to extract the cylinder, are hopelessly beyond the power of art. I reply, that the ingenuity of British engineers has overcome greater apparent difficulties than these; and that a cylinder of 12 inches, should none longer be obtained, would supply very good data for a safe inference, considering the other known parts of the case.

$ Called by Dr. Lindley, "the largest tree in the world ;- -the trunk has been found with a diameter of 30 feet." Nat. Syst. Bot. sec. ed. p. 94. The traveller M. Russeger, in the interior of Africa, as far as 10° N. L., saw "Adansonias measuring 56 feet in circumference,- -exciting the astonishment of the beholder." Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. Feb. 1838, p. 108. Second ed. The first account of this tree occurs in Cadamosto's Travels (Ramusio, col. 1, f. 118, 6,) to this purport. The Venetian navigator, Cadamosto, by command of the Portuguese Prince Henry in 1456, visited the Cape Verd Islands and the western coast of Africa.