All that pertains to the science of Palæontology is of consequence to the geological inquirer; therefore a few notes and illustrations relative to the Brachiopoda may, perhaps, prove acceptable to the general reader, and, at the same time, stimulate some others to prosecute an inquiry upon which so much time and labour have been already expended.

It was justly observed by a distinguished naturalist, that there exists a decided advantage in the same subject being investigated by a number of different observers; and the truth of this statement has been fully substantiated by the information already acquired on all that concerns the affinities, classification, and anatomical structure of the Brachiopoda. But it must also be remembered, that, although these topics may have been individually and collectively the subject of considerable investigation, much still remains to be discovered and satisfactorily explained before many of the problems relating to the character and history of the class can be considered as finally determined.

All palæontologists seem to agree that the Brachiopoda should bo divided into two principal groups. The first will include all those genera and species which have their valves articulated by means of teeth and sockets; the second will comprise those forms which, being un-articulated, have their valves kept in place by means of muscular and other contrivances.

I. “Il suffit de parcourir des parties très circonstrites de la surface du globe, pour voir qu'elle est composée de matériaux très-variés.” The most striking of these differences were, of course, noticed even in the least civilized times; and, as observation advanced, and experience accumulated, the minor and less obvious variations of constitution and texture were gradually reduced to order, and classified into the science of Mineralogy.

II. So far our science concerned itself merely with what we should now call a correct description of the mineral character of rocks, without entering into the question of their genesis or mode of origin. But at the dawn of geology—that is, when men first conceived that the various rocks and strata at the surface of our earth were formed at different, and often immeasurably remote periods—then the study of rocks entered on a new phase. The age and succession of these formations were judged, in the first place, from the order of their superposition; and when it was found, as a general rule, that each formation, or stage of this succession, was marked by rocks of a specific mineral character, it was hastily concluded that this mineral character was typical of their age, and that the latter could be deduced from the former: nor was this generalization devoid of broad principles of truth; the ancient and more recent formations are each undoubtedly composed of rocks of very different mineral character—the former being made up such of rocks as granite and the so-called primary limestones and clay-slates, while the latter consists of clays, chalk, or slightly consolidated sandstones.

Hotham is a small village between the towns of South Cave and Market Weighton, in the East Biding of Yorkshire, situated upon the Lower Lias formation, about five miles above where that zone crosses the Humber at Whitton and Brough.

Several interesting rooks of the secondary series pass by this village, generally in bands of inconsiderable thickness, and in a direction nearly N.W.N. In most other districts widely separated, they can here be examined near a single point; for we can walk in about two miles from the New Red Sandstone, across the Lias and Oolite, to the top of the Chalk. And as these rocks are, in part, little known, and, in part, have been long held to be exceptional and peculiar—moreover, as they seem to me to throw light upon questions not quite settled at the present time—such as the existence of the Bone-Bed and Insect-Bed, at the base of the Yorkshire Lias, and of the Inferior Oolite in the long litigated neighbourhood of Cave—I am induced to offer some observations upon them, which I made at Hotham during two very short vacations, and which, I trust, will be found to be of general, as well as of local interest. The purpose of this paper will be, to compare some of the most important formations occurring near Hotham with the same formations as they are more typically represented, and more familiarly known, in other parts of England.

The object of this essay is to view the science of Geology on a more extended scale than is generally attempted in popular treatises; not dwelling on matters of detail, but regarding physical principles and fundamental propositions with those logical sequences by which remoter conclusions are arrived at.

“But how, it may be asked, is the student or mere general reader to enter upon these larger views of the subject without a previous acquaintance with its details? And, doubtless, if any one would make himself an accomplished geologist, and prepare himself to enter fully into the more profound investigations of the science, he must gain a knowledge of its phenomena with a certain degree of detail; but the more complete a science becomes as a science of observation, the less necessary is it for the philosopher who would solve its physical problems to become himself an observer. Newton and Laplace troubled themselves little in looking through astronomical telescopes. They took their facts on the authority of others. And so, also, the general geological reader may accept the facts established by the observations of the field-geologist, when he would acquaint himself with the conclusions of those who have endeavoured to solve the physical or palæon-tological problems which the science presents to us.”

My Dear Sir —As something towards enabling amateur and other geologists to communicate some of the results of their researches to their fellow-inquirers, I beg to offer the enclosed directions for making a preparation of gutta-percha and bees-wax, much better adapted for taking casts and moulds of fossils than gutta-percha itself; and also some useful remarks for the preparation of plaster-casts. These directions have been chiefly drawn up, at my request, by my friend, Mr. John Wetherell, of Highgate. I have also to observe that the prepared gutta-percha is capable of being applied to the purposes of the museum in another way, which has been suggested to me by a friend lately. Thus, have some narrow slips of tin folded into squares, of convenient sizes, and into these press some of the composition, and use these as pedestals for such fossil shells, and other specimens, as will not stand steadily by themselves. By warming these pedestals in hot water, they are readily softened so as to receive the fossils when pressed into them, and the latter can be at any time raised for examination.

Of course this composition, or even gutta-percha itself, is unfit for use in hot climates, and for transmission, by post or otherwise, to the tropics.