e it as above cited. No species of Lagride are known to frent aquatic plants, while the Donacide are entirely confined to shy localities.

1

REVIEWS.

lian Geology: An Account of the Geological Structure and Mineval Resources of Nova Scotia and portions of the neighboring Prorinces of British America. By John William Dawson, F.G.S.* Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. 1855.

The author of this well-timed volume has been favorably known the scientific world for some years, by the publication of various ble memoirs on points connected with the geology of Nova Scotia. .These have appeared principally in the Proceedings and Journal of the Geological Society of London, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in the Journals of the Legislature of Nova Scotia. In the work now before us, Principal Dawson has gathered together the results of his personal observations during the last ten or twelve years on the geology of the districts cited above. The mass of valuable facts thus collected, is here presented to the public in a very readable form; and the work is furthermore liberally supplied with a number of well-executed views and wood cuts, besides a large geological map of the entire province of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and part of New Brunswick. To be thoroughly appreciated, Mr. Dawson's book should of course be read in Nova Scotia itself, or employed as a guide to the numerous interesting localities of which it contains descriptions. But, apart from its local value, the work is not without many points of general interest; and in its masterly treatment of the leading questions which come under review, it may be referred to with profit by all interested in the progress of geological inquiry. Take, for instance, the following description of certain alluvial deposits of marine origin, spread in places along the deeply indented coasts of the Bay of Fundy:

"The western part of Nova Scotia presents some fine examples of marine allu vial soils. The tide-wave that sweeps to the north-east, along the Atlantic coast of the United States, entering the funnel-like mouth of the Bay of Fundy, becomes compressed and elevated, as the sides of the bay gradually approach each other, until in the narrower parts the water runs at the rate of six or seven miles per hour, and the vertical rise of the tide amounts to sixty feet or more. In Cobequid and Chiegnecto Bays, these tides, to an unaccustomed spectator, have rather the aspect of some rare convulsion of nature than of an ordinary daily phenomenon. At low tide, wide flats of brown mud are seen to extend for miles, as if the sea Principal of McGill College, Montreal.

the antecedent ones; head short, eyes black; thorax granulate, of same width as elytra-the sides depressed, rounded posteriorly, with two anterior obtuse angles, and finely serrated beneath-disc elevated, on which are several tubercles; scutellum black, elevated; elytra with three ridges longitudinally arranged—the two anterior form a series of tubercles, and the exterior reaches from base to apex, where there are two large tubercles on each elytrum-margin of a darker color, and densely serrated beneath. Length 4 lines. Toronto, rare.

In some characters it agrees with Kirby's specimen. The rare occurrence of the species in this neighborhood prevent a determination of the sexes at present. Their attachment to Boleti and other vegetable excrescences confine them to old forests.

OPLOCEPHALA-NEOMIDA

BICORNIS, Oliv. Ent. 3, 55. Kirb. N. Z. 235 (Arrhenoplitis). virescens Lap. 23, 341. Hispa F. Mant. p. 215.

;

Antennæ black, the three first joints attenuated and rufous clypeus armed with a pair of minute teeth; head dark green, glossy, armed behind the eyes with a pair of cylindrical vertical horns, which are rufous at the apex; thorax rounded at the sides and minutely punctured; scutellum triangular; elytra dark green, glossy, slightly furrowed and punctured in the furrows; beneath black, glossy, and punctured; legs rufous. Length 2 lines.

same color as ; the head is transversely impressed between the eyes, and unarmed.

This species is one of the most common of our fungivora; in summer they devour fungi and other excrescences on decayed trees, and in winter they hybernate and are found congregated in large numbers under the bark.

STATYRA-ARTHROMACRA

AENEA Say, Long's Exp. 2, 287. donacioides Kirb. N. Z,, 237.

Antennæ longer than the head and thorax, tawny-yellow, black at base-11-articulate: 3d to 10th of equal length, downy and ringed with black-apical articulation longest; above black bronzed, glossy, with a slight tint of green-thickly and irregularly punctured; thorax cylindrical; elytra wider than thorax, rounded posteriorly; body beneath glossy, breast densely punctured; femoræ clavate; joints of tarsi tawny-yellow. Length 5 lines. Toronto, on young oak trees. Rare.

One distinctive character by which this insect may be determined is, that the tarsi are conspicuously dilated, and, behind the cysts the joint supporting the ungues is surrounded by a transparent ring at the base. At "first sight," its resemblance to a Donacia, as Mr. Kirby states, is merely from color; that alone probably led him to

name it as above cited.

No species of Lagrida are known to frequent aquatic plants, while the Donacide are entirely confined to marshy localities.

REVIEWS.

Acadian Geology: An Account of the Geological Structure and Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia and portions of the neighboring Provinces of British America. By John William Dawson, F.G.S.* Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.

1855.

The author of this well-timed volume has been favorably known to the scientific world for some years, by the publication of various able memoirs on points connected with the geology of Nova Scotia. These have appeared principally in the Proceedings and Journal of the Geological Society of London, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in the Journals of the Legislature of Nova Scotia. In the work now before us, Principal Dawson has gathered together the results of his personal observations during the last ten or twelve years on the geology of the districts cited above. The mass of valuable facts thus collected, is here presented to the public in a very readable form; and the work is furthermore liberally supplied with a number of well-executed views and wood cuts, besides a large geological map of the entire province of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and part of New Brunswick. To be thoroughly appreciated, Mr. Dawson's book should of course be read in Nova Scotia itself, or employed as a guide to the numerous interesting localities of which it contains descriptions. But, apart from its local value, the work is not without many points. of general interest; and in its masterly treatment of the leading questions which come under review, it may be referred to with profit by all interested in the progress of geological inquiry. Take, for instance, the following description of certain alluvial deposits of marine origin, spread in places along the deeply indented coasts of the Bay of Fundy:

"The western part of Nova Scotia presents some fine examples of marine allu vial soils. The tide-wave that sweeps to the north-east, along the Atlantic coast of the United States, entering the funnel-like mouth of the Bay of Fundy, becomes compressed and elevated, as the sides of the bay gradually approach each other, until in the narrower parts the water runs at the rate of six or seven miles per hour, and the vertical rise of the tide amounts to sixty feet or more. In Cobequid and Chiegnecto Bays, these tides, to an unaccustomed spectator, have rather the aspect of some rare convulsion of nature than of an ordinary daily phenomenon. At low tide, wide flats of brown mud are seen to extend for miles, as if the sea * Principal of McGill College, Montreal.

had altogether retired from its bed; and the distant channel appears as a mere stripe of muddy water. At the commencement of flood, a slight ripple is seen to break over the edge of the flats. It rushes swiftly forward, and, covering the lower flats almost instantaneously, gains rapidly on the higher swells of mud, which appear as if they were being dissolved in the turbid waters. At the same time the torrent of red water enters all the channels, creeks, and estuaries; surging, whirling and foaming, and often having in its front a white, breaking wave, or "bore," which runs steadily forward, meeting and swallowing up the remains of the ebb still trickling down the channels. The mud flats are soon covered, and then, as the stranger sees the water gaining with noiseless and steady rapidity on the steep sides of banks and cliffs, a sense of insecurity creeps over him, as if no limit could be set to the advancing deluge. In a little time, however, he sees that the fiat, "hitherto shalt thou come and no farther," has been issued to the great bay tide its retreat commences, and the waters rush back as rapidly as they entered.

The rising tide sweeps away the fine material from every exposed bank and cliff, and becomes loaded with mud and extremely fine sand, which, as it stagnates at high water, it deposits in a thin layer on the surface of the flats. This layer, which may vary in thickness from a quarter of an inch to a quarter of a line, is coarser and thicker at the outer edge of the flats than nearer the shore; and hence these flats, as well as the marshes, are usually higher near the channels than at their inner edge. From the same cause, the more rapid deposition of the coarser sediment, the lower side of the layer is arenaceous, and sometimes dotted over with films of mica, while the upper side is fine and slimy, and when dry has a shining and polished surface. The falling tide has little effect on these deposits, and hence the gradual growth of the flats, until they reach such a height that they can be overflowed only by the high spring tides. They then become natural or salt marsh, covered with the coarse grasses and carices which grow in such places. So far the process is carried on by the hand of nature; and before the colonization of Nova Scotia, there were large tracts of this grassy alluvium to excite the wonder and delight of the first settlers on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Man, however, carries the land making process farther; and by diking and draining, excludes the sea water, and produces a soil capable of yielding for an indefinite period, without manure, the most valuable cultivated grains and grasses. Already there are in Nova Scotia more than forty thousand acres, of diked marsh, or "dike," as it is more shortly called, the average value of which cannot be estimated at less than twenty pounds currency per acre. The undiked fiats, bare at low tide, are of immensely greater extent.

The differences in the nature of the deposit in different parts of the flats, already noticed, produce an important difference in the character of the marsh soils. In the higher parts of the marshes, near the channels, the soil is red and comparatively friable. In the lower parts, and especially near the edge of the upland, it passes into a gray or bluish clay called "blue dike," or, from the circumstance of its containing many vegetable fragments and fibres, "corky dike." These two varieties of marsh differ very materially in their agricultural value. It often happens, however, that in the growth of the deposit, portions of blue marsh become buried under red deposits, so that on digging, two layers or strata are found markedly different from each other in color and other properties; and this change may be artiâcially produced by digging channels to admit the turbid red waters to overflow the low blue marsh.