The Adventures of a Soldier, or Memoirs of E. Costello, K. S. F. formerly a non-commissioned officer in the Rifle Brigade, and late Captain in the British Legion, 1 vol. Nearly the whole of these personal sketches of an adventurous life have already appeared in the United Service Journal, and have acquired sufficient reputation to justify their collection and republication,

Two works on Criminal Jurisprudence may be considered of general interest; the first by Dr. Rees, on the existence of Arsenic as a natural constituent of human bones; and the second, Criminal Jurisprudence considered in relation to mental organisation, by M. B. Samson: the latter of course being the work of a phrenologist.

In the History of the Knights Templars, by B. G. Addison, 1 vol., the author is accused of having become the blind apologist of these celebrated warrior-monks, in his attempt to prove that the destruction of their order was totally unmerited. He seems to have forgotten their crimes in his sympathy for their warlike virtues and bravery. Considerable interest will however be found in his description of the Crusades, of Cœur de Lion, of the ninety-nine years of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and the wonderful feats and slaughters conected therewith.

Under the head of poetry is another volume of Poems, by Thomas Miller, the basket-maker, containing many passages of remarkable beauty, when considered as coming from the pen of a man who has enjoyed so few of the advantages of edu

cation.

We also find a Narrative of a recent Imprisonment in China after the wreck of the Kite, by John Lee Scott, one of the sufferers, which gives some new insight into Chinese manners and customs.

MISCELLANEA.

GEOLOGY OF RUSSIA.

MR. MURCHISON'S SECOND SURVEY,-All the details of this interesting survey, with full illustrations of the organic remains, mineral structure, and physical features of the country, will as soon as possible be laid before the Geological Society, and be reported at length in our columns. A short sketch, written at Moscow, near the close of the journey, dated 8th October, 1841, and addressed to M. Fischer de Waldheim, the president of the Society of Naturalists of that metropolis, has been translated by the writer, Mr. Murchison, and published in the Philosophical Magazine for the present month: whence were we not to transfer the concluding portion of the sketch, we should neglect the gratification of our geological readers. It describes a discovery in central Russia; and is thus given in the words of the president of the Geological Society of London.

In concluding, however, I must tell you of a very interesting discovery we made in returning from Taganrog to Petersburgh. Count Keyserling took the line of Voroneje and the Don, and Mr. de Verneuil and myself that of Koursk, Orel, and the river Oka; and on meeting at Moscow our results completely agreed. It was, as you know, generally be

lieved up to this moment, that central Russia presented a
regular succession from older to younger deposits as you pro-
A great
ceeded from north to south. This is not the case.
axis of Devonian rock, or old red sandstone, having a width
of at least 120 miles, rises in the heart of the country around
Voroneje and Orel, and stretches to the W. N. W., in which
direction it probably connects itself with deposits of the same
age in Lithuania and in Courland. This, discovery seems, in-
deed, to have an intimate relation to one which we made în
entering Russia early in the spring, near to Schavli in Li-
thuania, of much red ground, and a band of upper Silurian
rocks. In fact, it also explains the cause of the great differ-
ence which exists between the deposits of the carboniferous
basin of the Donetz and those of your Moscow region, now
proved to constitute a vast basin, for as the two seas in which
these deposits were accumulated from high antiquity, were se-
parated by the ancient lands in question, so must we infer
that the conditions and nature of their shores, their rivers,
their currents and bottoms (on which, of course, the nature
of marine deposits depends), must have been essentially diffe-
rent. This discovery also proves the symmetry of the oppo
site edges of the Moscow basin; since, in advancing from the
governments of Toula and Kalouga on the south, we see the
same ascending order as that which we before described in
the Valdai hills on the north. In both tracts the Devonian,"
or old red rocks, with Holoptychius nobilissimus, and many
fishes and shells of that system, well known in the British
isles, pass under the lowest strata on the carboniferous era,
and serve as a base line to those thin beds of poor coal, asso-
ciated with Unio sulcatus and Productus gigas (hemispheri-
cus, Sow.), which are at present the subject of new researches
on the part of the Russian government. »

T

Mr. Murchison mentions that the Emperor, his ministers, and officers, have powerfully and kindly contributed to the results of the survey, by every possible aid and support which geologist could receive. (LITERARY GAZETTE.)

A YANKEE GOURMAND. A man returned home one night, very late, and rather the worse for liquor; and being hungry

"

withal, he stuck his fork in a bowl of something that his wife had left upon the table before retiring. He worked away with his mouthful very patiently for some time; at length, not being able to masticate what he considered was intended for his supper, he sung out to his wife, I say, old woman, where did you get your cabbages from ? they are so nation stringy, I can't chew them.

My gracious! cried the good lady, if the stupid filler ain't eating up all my caps that I put in starch over-night!.

མ༞།།་་

The Bude Light.-The Bude light has been irradiating the fog and extinguishing the gas-lights in Waterloo-place those few evenings, besides attracting crowds of gazers, whom its luminous rays failed to enlighten as to the nature of the phenomenon. The appearance inside the lamp is that of a huge Argand burner emitting a rush of flame of a bright orange hue, in an intense state of combustion, reaching to a considerable height; the upper portion of the lamp is shaded, in order to soften the glare and throw the rays on the pavement; and the light is so vivid and penetrating as to illuminate the surrounding space to such an extent that any other lamps might be dispensed with between the York Column and Jermyn-street, and along Pall-mall from the Carlton Club on one hand to Cockspur street on the other. It was in Pall-mall, on the top of Mr. Winsor's house, the originator of that mode of illumination, that the first gas-light was exhibited in the metropolis, some 30 years since: in a less time hence we may safely predict that the Bude-light will become as universal as gas now is unless the Drummond light should supersede it by a metropolitan moon of hydro-oxygen, poised high enough in air to prevent the shadows from being too strong. The only objection to the adoption of the Bude light, both in streets and houses, seems to be its expense. The extreme brilliancy of the illumination is caused by conveying through the circular opening of the Argand burner a stream of pure oxygen which feeds the flame. Oxygen is obtained in greatest abundance from manganese; and the quantity of this substance that must be consumed if the whole town were lighted in

!,

66

this way, would raise the price of a not superabundant article, unless some cheaper source of oxygen were discovered. The fact that pure oxygen is the material of combustion, seems favourable to the introduction of the Bude light into dwellings, as any little escape of so vital an ingredient in atmospheric air would not be prejudicial to health; while the consumption of the oxygen of the air would not be so great as from an equal quantity of light produced by other means. The risk of danger attending the production of the hydro-oxygen light, and the extreme care and nicety required in directing the two gases on to the lime whose combustion causes the intense light must militate against its general employment, unless each parish or district were furnished with its lamp, or one immense focus of illumination were to suffice for the whole metropolis.og · Pilas (Spectator),

AMERICAN ARTISTS.-A painter in New Orleans possesses such extraordinary talents, that he can paint a pine-plank, or any other piece of wood, so exactly like marble, that when thrown into the river it will instantly sink to the bottom.

CANINE SAGACITY—Murder detecTED.-In the year-two miserable, emaciated dogs made their appearance one July morning at the house of Mr. C., a settler of Hunter's River, New South Wales, and, after finishing a substantial meal, trudged slowly away in the direction whence they had come, but returned again at the same hour on the following day for food; and this being repeated day after day caused a good deal of curiosity and conversation on the farm. Mr. C. therefore desired one of his men to mount and follow, who, after a ten miles' ride through the woods, saw then suddenly dive into the bed of a creek, and squat upon a sandbank in it. Alighting, and digging up the sand with the toe of his shoe the body of their murdered master was found buried beneath. The murderer was shortly after apprehended, tried, and executed; various articles of the property of his victim, which he had been disposing of, tending mainly to his conviction.

(TIMES.)