caused most discussion, and which require the most profound reflection and patient investigation, is that which endeavours to account for this change. Hitherto the question has been studied almost exclusively with reference to organisms not microscopic. But just as the study of recent microzoa has thrown light upon the phenomena of life in the higher animals, which could not otherwise have been obtained; so it may well be surmised that the examination of the fossil microzoa of successive geological ages will lend very considerable assistance in the elucidation of this most interesting and, at present, most unsettled problem.

It is obvious that, before studying the succession of microscopic life in time, it is required to have a trustworthy list of organisms found in the various strata. The compilation of such a catalogue will again necessitate the complete examination of each formation, and especially of those in which no such examination has as yet been made. The ground yet to be explored is immense. So far, the limestones have yielded the most promising results; but, with few exceptions, it is only the limestones of comparatively recent formations that have been examined microscopically. We may hope for results interesting in the highest degree from such an examination of limestones of Silurian age-as previously mentioned, they have already furnished organisms. Or, to go still farther back in the world's history, the oldest rocks that have hitherto furnished fossils are those of the Cambrian age. So far, these fossils are very scanty. But in formations still older, the Laurentian of America, there are bands of limestone; and it has already been shown as highly probable that all limestones have been formed by organic agency, often by microscopic beings.

But other beds besides those which are calcareous will doubtless yield evidence of life on examination. Many shales, from their carbonaceous character and plant remains, have

evidently been deposited near to land possibly under conditions not far removed from marshy or boggy-conditions highly favourable to the growth of microscopic organisms. The same remark holds with even greater force of beds formed mainly of carbonaceous material, as lignite, coal and cannel. In connexion with beds of peat we often find deposits of infusorial remains; it is in my opinion extremely probable that similar remains will be found along with coal and other varieties of fossilized vegetable matter.

In the examination of rock materials the ground has scarcely been broken. Yet the precise manner in which sediment has been collected, deposited and consolidated, the various sources from which it has been derived, the materials which have been subsequently added and the changes to which it has been subject since its deposition, changes which may be purely physical, or chemical, or organic, or a combination of these, cannot well be discovered or understood without constant reference to the microscope. On this and the preceding subjects Mr. T. Rupert Jones makes the following remarks :—“The careful microscopical examination of a good series of successive deposits cannot but be useful both to the geologist and palæontologist. The conditions of deposit will be elucidated by the proportions of fine and coarse materials in the beds, especially if these be traced 'along a considerable tract by the examination of many "samples of the deposit through its variations from clay "to sand (or vice versâ), or in its changes from an argil"laceous or arenaceous to a calcareous condition.

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Except by careful separation in water and patient sorting and "picking, the minute shells and other fosils cannot be obtained "in anything like a fair average; and year by year the Fora"minifera, Entomostraca, Bryozoa and the small fry of the "mollusca are becoming more valuable as leading characters "of strata, as our knowledge of these microzoa in the recent

"and fossil state advances. Such researches as these made

on any series of deposits, whether British or foreign, must "be of use, either for the improvement and correction of "observations already made and published, or for the ground"work of future descriptions of strata and their fossils."

Special attention might be paid with advantage to certain beds of exceptional origin. Thus the materials composing the tertiary "drift" are within the reach of every one. It would be interesting to know whether or not it maintained the same general microscopic character over the whole of the immense area which it covers. In the same way the breccia of the Permian formation may give some indication which will throw light upon its supposed glacial origin.

The origin of flint in chalk and of corresponding silicious masses in other rocks is not by any means cleared up. Many of the supposed organisms found in agate and attributed to sponges are by some microscopists considered doubtful. (See the Micrographic Dictionary.) Much more is wanted in our knowledge of these singular masses of silica.

The substance Cannel, so different from coal in structure, so similar to it in composition, has received but little attention. Nothing is known regarding its formation; and little, probably, will be discovered, until it is carefully examined by the help of the microscope. The vegetable origin of the diamond was partly inferred from the structure of its undisturbed ash, which under the microscope presented a regularly arranged network of silicious fibres. I would suggest that this instance furnishes an indication of a method which may give valuable information when applied to the examination of the varieties of fossil fuel.

In the case of igneous rocks I must content myself with observing that the experiments of Mr. Sorby and of M. des Cloizeaux are highly interesting, from the important results which we see them to have obtained at the outset of their

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journey into this hitherto untrodden country. And those of the latter observer are also useful as indicating another mode in which may be made available that powerful aid to the microscopist, polarized light.

Lastly, the structure of mineral veins and the nature of the deposits contained in them will, probably, on microscopical examination, enable geologists to make a nearer approach than they have hitherto done to a definite and trustworthy idea of their mode of formation and the laws governing them and their contents. If so, the practical advantages of such an investigation will be very great.

Such is a very brief and imperfect sketch of what man has done and of what man may expect to do with the help of the microscope in furthering the study of the science of geology. It will have been seen what a small proportion the knowledge hitherto obtained by this means bears to that which we may yet hope to gain; and we have incentives to such a pursuit in the numberless points of interest which have already shewn themselves, in the vast area still unworked and in the certainty that we shall, by such investigations, be enabled to throw light upon some of the grandest truths which it is the privilege of man to discover. In following out the object which every true student of science bears constantly in view we have the unalloyed satisfaction of assisting in the great work which has engaged so many master minds; and we shall feel that we are members of one great family whose distinction it is to combat error and, with a perseverance unaffected by personal considerations and an energy borne up by the consciousness of a pure intention and a holy ambition, to labour on in the great cause of TRUTH.

EVERY-DAY LIFE OF A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN

OF CHESHIRE IN THE 17TH CENTURY :

AS SHEWN IN THE PRIVATE EXPENDITURE JOURNAL OF COLONEL HENRY BRADSHAW, OF MARPLE AND WYBERSLEIGH.

By A. Craig Gibson, F.S.A.

(READ 8TH JANUARY, 1863.)

AMONGST the letters and other documents relating to, or written by, the Lord President Bradshaw which, last session,* I had the honour of bringing under the notice of this society, were included a few, especially connected with the elder brother of that dignitary, Colonel Henry Bradshaw, of Marple Hall and Wybersleigh, in the parish of Stockport and county of Chester.

Of these the most important, as well as the most interesting, is Colonel Bradshaw's Journal of Expenditure, extending over more than seven years, namely, from the beginning of 1637 to the middle of 1644. The little volume in question has probably contained the diary of more years than these originally, for it exhibits signs of having been considerably mutilated; and it is to an examination and analysis of what remains that our attention, on the present occasion, will be mainly directed. It may add to the interest of such examination to take first a glance at the career of the gentleman who has thus incidentally left to us so minute and suggestive a record of his daily life; for though it does not, like an ordinary diary, directly chronicle events, the entry of every sum ex

Vol. II, N.S., p. 41.