Geognostic and Geographic Situations.

'This curious and rare mineral has been hitherto found only in West Greenland, and but in one place of that dreary and remote region, viz. the fiord or arm of the sea named Arksut, situated about thirty leagues from the colony of Juliana Hope. It occurs in two thin layers in gneiss: one of these contains the greyish and snow-white cryolite, and is not intermixed with other minerals; the other is wholly composed of the yellowish-brown coloured variety, mixed with galena, iron-pyrites, sparry iron-ore, quartz, and felspar. They are situated very near each other: the first is washed at high water by the tide, and a considerable portion of it is exposed, the superincumbent gneiss being removed. It varies in thickness from one foot to two feet and a half in thickness. *

"Observations.

1. As this mineral, when exposed to a very low heat, melts almost like ice, it was named Cryolith, from xguos, ice, and ados,

stone.

2. It has been confounded with Heavy-spar, from which it is distinguished by inferior specific gravity, and its easy fusibility before the blow-pipe: it might also be mistaken for some varieties of Gypsum, but is distinguished from these by superior specific gravity, and its not exfoliating when exposed to the blow-pipe.'

Under several of the families, various new species are introduced, having been discovered and examined since the publication of the first edition.

The remaining portion of the second volume exhibits the contents of the second and third classes; namely, the Saline and the Inflammable Minerals, the former under Orders and Genera, and the latter under Families and Species. The orders of Salts are, in course, the Earthy, Alkaline, and Metallic; and the Inflammable Families are the Sulphureous, the Bituminous, the Graphitic, and the Resinous. Vol. III. is occupied with the Metals; which, being twenty-two in number, are arranged under as many Orders, comprizing their respective species.

Now, although we are not disposed to attach great importance to the mere titles of the divisions and subdivisions of any science, provided that they be sufficiently perspicuous and commodious, we cannot much approve of changing them, without necessity, in the course of the same methodical arrangement. The term sub-species, too, is not a very philosophical category; especially when the object of which it is predicated, as in the instance of lucullite, heavy-spar, &c. is again divided into two or more kinds.

* Allan and Giesecké, in Thomson's Annals, vol. ii. p. 389.'

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To the second volume, as being the least bulky of the three, is subjoined an Appendix, containing descriptions of seven additional species; namely, Pyreneite, Humite, Fibrolite, Lythrodes, Rhætizite, Platiniferous Copper Ore, and Chrichtonite, supplementary notices of British Localities of Minerals, and Tabular Views of Systems of Mineralogy. — Many of the crystalline forms of the species are illustrated by an appropriate series of figures, contained in thirteen plates.

Professor Jameson's nomenclature, though less grating than it was formerly to an English ear, is still susceptible of improved euphony, and might well dispense with such terms as grossular, chiastolite, sphragide, calc-tuff, calc-sinter, meerschaum, clinkstone, and stinkstone. Names, however, not yielding to the foregoing in obscurity or uncouthness, deform the vocabularies of other systematical writers on the same subject; and patience will, in all probability," have her perfect work," before the growing evil of multiplied synonyms shall compel some association of philosophical mineralogists to frame a catalogue on the principles of simplicity and uniformity.

Of careless, inelegant, and incorrect modes of expression, these volumes furnish more instances than can be patiently tolerated in a work of a purely elementary and didactic nature, and which exhibits no list of errata. The following we note in the order in which they saluted us:-Besides these two colours, it occurs;'-'ananting;'-longitudinal streaked ;''concealed foliated;'-scopiform diverging fibrous;'--'promiscuous, scopiform, and scalar-wise aggregated;'-the acuminating planes touch other;'-characteristic for the species;'-Its dull and even fracture distinguish it;'-' in the island Sicily;'-'near the town Goda;'-both of the primitive, transition, floetz, and alluvial classes;'indeterminate angular;' It occurs massine, tuberose, and a shape;' very slightly common flexible;'-'finer granular;'-imperfect floriform foliated;'-'the radiated varieties, &c. occurs;' when the truncations on the angles becomes;' - and hard other minerals ;'- Eizenertz and Schladinirig in Stiria affords it;'-The fragments is;'- &c. &c.-The orthography of the names of places is, on many occasions, needlessly varied; and in one passage we are informed that, in Upper Egypt, the potstone is named Pierre de Baram, as if the natives of that country spoke French.

We observe, with much satisfation, that Mr. Jameson has considerably enlarged his lists of references, and his notices. of the chemical composition and the crystallized forms of the several species; that, in imitation of the laudable example of

T3

Brongniart,

Brongniart, he carefully states the discriminating characters between species which the student might readily confound; and that he adverts with more uniformity than heretofore to the economical uses of the productions which he describes. On this last-mentioned department of his subject, he even leads us to expect the appearance of a separate work. If this and the geological portion of his labours shall be as much matured as the part of the system which he has already unfolded, we may confidently predict that the whole will form a most valuable record of the present state of human knowlege relative to the mineral kingdom: but, while we venture to augur thus propitiously of the matter of the Professor's future volumes, we would earnestly exhort him to pay some attention to the language in which that matter is conveyed; to preserve peace and good neighbourhood between a verb and its antecedent; and to beware of interlarding the current English of the realm with those lumps of indurated talk, which are little suited to jaws that are not particularly difficultly frangible.

ART. VI. A Treatise on the External, Chemical, and Physical Characters of Minerals. By Robert Jameson, Regius Professor of Natural History, &c. &c. &c. Second Edition. 8vo. PP. 320. 12s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1816.

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N acquaintance with its arrangement and nomenclature is an indispensable pre-requisite to the study of mineralogy. The means of procuring this acquaintance have been supplied, with more or less ability, by various writers; and, in our own country, by none with more success than Mr. Weaver and the learned author of the present treatise. To the purchasers of the second edition of the System of Mineralogy, recently published by the latter, (and noticed in our preceding article,) the essay before us will prove a desirable acquisition; not only because it proceeds from the same pen as the work which it is intended to explain, but because it is printed in the same form and type. It contains, besides, a succinct and perspicuous account of the rival method of arrangement followed by Hauy and the mineralogists of the French school. The whole is illustrated by a series of suitable plates.

In framing a Tabular View of divisions and terms, prefixed to the more detailed explanations, Professor Jameson has more happily conceived than executed a German, French, and Latin translation of the characteristic epithets. His German equivalents are, we believe, generally correct: but they are occasionally omitted; and, at page 33., the phrases Longitudinally and transversely streaked are rather queerly in

verted.

verted. Sometimes, we can find no Latin interpretation, and meet with an obvious misprinting, as obseletis, bellulosa, planem, &c. We can perceive no good reason for the French adjectives, applied to coloured delineations, being put in the singular, and the corresponding Latin, with one exception, in the plural; nor for the neuter gender being preferred when figura is the implied antecedent. At page 40., ' on four sides' is rendered duobus lateribus;' doubtless from mere inadvertence: but such a slip, like those of the press, should have been corrected in a list of errors, for which we have searched in vain.

In the French department of his vocabulary, the Professor's omissions and mistakes are still more numerous. Externe, for example, is confounded with exterieur; we meet with 'leur variations,'-imperfait, très gros,' for the translation of large, bulbeur and tuberculeux, predicated of forme, -miroirée for miroitée, - tabuliformis for tabuliforme,—emmelées, we presume, for entremêlées, - biais for the adjective oblique, -irreguliere with contour for its antecedent, fossil for fossile, la trop grand petitesse,'-long, as the equivalent of longish, la surface interieur,' - etoilles and entoilles for étoiles, des pieces separés,'-lises for lisses, viscuse for visqueuse, mediocriment for mediocrement, par la frottement,' and salée as the French of sweetish taste. Fluid is translated by parfaite, unctuosity by toucher ou gras, and garlick-like (we like not this licking-like language) simply by

ail!

C

Our utmost reverence for the oracles of the Wernerian school can never cordially reconcile us to such expressions as scopiform, pair-wise, scalar-wise, seldomer, exacter, oryctognost, oryctognostically, unctuosity, suitability, &c.

The author's ordinary English is less faulty than it was in the first edition: but it is still occasionally deformed by a few vulgar improprieties; as the inelegant suppression of the relative pronoun, the indiscriminate use of each other and one another, a plural verb when disjunction between two nouns is expressed, the whole colours, the whole species, &c. for all the colours, all the species, &c.

Most of the definitions contained in this volume are sufficiently perspicuous: but, even in the first page, not fewer than three of them include the very terms which they are intended to explain; and the same remark applies to that of Amygdaloidal, at page 128. Microcosmic salt is stated to be a very generally useful flux: but, for the sake of the uninitiated, its composition should have been particularized.

In every publication of which the object is to elucidate the language and elements of any department of science, we are intitled to call for correctness, precision, and neatness of style. To the display of these qualities, the present writer will sometimes be found unconformably-wise disposed: yet his explanatory labours possess great intrinsic merit, and will eminently contribute to facilitate the apprehension of his large work.

ART. VII. An Historical Review of the Policy of the British Government, in the Treatment of its Catholic Subjects; with a Consideration of their present Claims. By Henry William Tancred, Esq., Barrister at Law. 8vo. pp. 341. Booker. 1815.

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7E all know that the slave-trade was long assailed before it was abolished; and that the Legislature, which but a few years ago sanctioned the traffic, has lately declared the carrying it on to be felony, and made penal the lending of money for that purpose. In the same manner, the persecution of the Catholics is still slow in expiring, and strives hard to prolong its hateful existence: but its struggles are vain, and we have no doubt that we shall ere long witness its last gasp. "Persecution!" say its abettors, "the Catholics suffer no persecution; they are permitted to worship God according to their consciences, without restraint or molestation of any kind." To the persons who put in this disclaimer, we shall beg leave to propose a case. A young man finds a liberal career open to his means and views, the bar for instance, or the army; he enters on the one or the other, his progress is rapid, no obstacle stands in his way, and he bids fair to reach the head of his profession: but alas! he soon discovers that he must stop short; and the ardour of his pursuit is damped by learning that in the one case he cannot get beyond a stuff gown, and that in the other he can never command a brigade. Would it not be more manly and less ungenerous to forbid his entrance on the course at first, than thus to arrest him in the heat of the contest, condemn him to torpidity, and force him to behold the palm borne away by competitors much his inferiors? To an ardent nature, alive to honourable feelings, and desirous of distinction, what can be so mortifying as this treatment? The soul that does not feel in such a case cannot be that of a man! - and is not this persecution? It is persecution, it is torture, and of a most exquisite kind. It is not, indeed, to persecute after a vulgar manner: but it is to persecute the most worthy, to inflict such sufferings on a fine nature as it

feels