very little more than half a mile since the time specified; a vast quantity certainly, but nothing equal to what is insinuated in the text. As to the last statement, it appears to me so extraordinary, and was so heartily laughed at by all the inhabitants of the island to whom I mentioned it, that I cannot help thinking it must be a misprint, or, at all events, a slip of the pen. The cliffs on the north are from 60 ft. to 80 ft. high; and rising ground (richly cultivated land, producing most excellent wheat, and tolerably good hops), extends to near the centre of the island; so that, even allowing fifty acres to have been lost, as stated by Mr. Lyell, within the last twenty years, some part of the island, I should imagine, will be yet standing at the end of the next century, nearly four times the period assigned by Mr. Lyell for its total annihilation. Such, at least, appeared to me to be the prevalent impression of the inhabitants, as well as of several other persons who have visited the island, among them two geologists, to whom I have subsequently mentioned it. Wm. Perceval Hunter. Sandgate, July 10. 1835. [Mr. Hunter subsequently added as follows.] The cliffs are certainly falling rapidly away. In some places, their decay is accelerated by landsprings which eat into the clay, and occasion landslips. The woman of whom I purchased my fossil nautilus was about to leave her house, and a small garden adjoining the cliff, as she no longer considered. it a safe place of abode. She informed me that, during her younger days, some twenty or thirty years ago, at a house not far from the cliff, where she was stopping for a few days, the inmates were awakened early one morning, after a very tempestuous night, with the disagreeable intelligence, that the garden adjoining their habitation, which was about seven or eight rods from the extreme edge of the cliff, containing a fine crop of peas, beans, gooseberry bushes, and a few old apple trees, had disappeared; having, in the course of the night, been carried off by a landslip, and hurled down into the stormy sea below. The house itself was tottering to its foundation; and the occupiers quitted it in trembling precipitation. Such incidents are far from rare on the north-east of these crumbling cliffs. - Sandgate, July 28. 1835.

ART. XV. Retrospective Criticism.

DR. TURTON, in his "Origines Zoologica" in this Magazine (VII. 407.), observes, that "the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Redeemer, at his Baptism, was in the form of a Dove." (Matt. iii. 16.) This, I am aware, is a very usual mode

of interpreting the words of the Evangelist, "katabainon hōsei peristeran," "descending like a dove;" or, "as it were, a dove;" and hence the figure of a dove is usually employed as an emblematical representation of the Holy Spirit. But it is, I conceive, an error to suppose that the Holy Spirit assumed the form or shape of a dove, although the expression in the English version will bear that sense. St. Luke (iii. 22.), indeed, says, He "descended in a bodily shape, like a dove " “sōmatikō eidei hōsei peristeran." All that the evangelists assert is, that the Holy Spirit assumed on this occasion a visible bodily shape, and in that shape (whatever it was) descended in like manner as a dove is often seen to hover and descend in the air. The comparison to a dove relates not to the appearance or bodily form, but merely to the mode or manner of descent. The figure of a dove introduced into pictures, &c., to represent the Holy Spirit, and adopted originally from an erroneous interpretation of the sacred text, has probably mainly contributed to propagate the vulgar notion that the Holy Spirit assumed the bodily shape of a dove. W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, Sept. 9. 1834.

REVIEWS.

ART. I. Notices of Works in Natural History.

ENSOR E. Natural Theology: the Arguments of Paley, Brougham, and the Bridgewater Treatises on this Subject examined: also the Doctrines of Brougham and the Immaterialists respecting the Soul. 8vo, 59 pages. 1836. This has been printed [by R. Taylor, London] for the Author's Friends, but may be reprinted by any one.

THE author's purpose is to show the untenableness of some of the conclusions that have been drawn on the ends and objects for which natural things are as they are; and his mode of pursuing his purpose is mainly by instancing the inconsistency of some of the conclusions with facts, and with one another, when compared. The author's work, one thinks, is worth the best attention of every naturalist whose object in the studying of nature is the acquisition of instruction on the question of his "being's use and end;" although the manner in which the work may subserve to this object is, one judges, rather by showing him conclusions that are disputable, than by supplying him, in substitution, with those that are not.

It may be that portions of the work will be reprinted in future Numbers of this Magazine.

Jardine, Sir W., Bart.; Selby, P. J.; and Johnston, G., M.D.; conductors: The Magazine of Zoology and Botany. No. 1. June, 1836; 8vo, 112 pages, and 3 woodcuts in these, 2 plates of figures, most of them coloured. 3s. 6d.

An abstract of the prospectus is given in our p. 278, 279. That, and the following account of the contents of No. 1., will be sufficient to enable the considerate reader to discern the character of the work.

"Some Remarks on the Study of Zoology, and on the present State of the Science. By the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c." This contribution occupies 31 pages. It includes much instructive information on the principles of modern zoology, and indications of the anticipations that may be entertained of the science, under the prospect of the continuous application of these principles.

"On the Disunion of contiguous Layers in the Wood of exogenous Trees. By Rev. J. S. Henslow, M.A., Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge."

3 and odd pages, including 2 woodcuts. Instances have been met with of the case of the occurrence of intervals between the concentric layers of wood in a tree, and inferences have been argued from the case relatively to theories of the manner in which the concentric layers are formed. Professor Henslow has described, and inferred on, an instance that he had met with.

"The Natural History of the British Entomostraca. By Wm. Baird, Surgeon." 6 and odd pages. This is the author's beginning of his treatise on the subject; and is a succinct history of the progress of naturalists' knowledge of the Entomostraca as to number of kinds, systematic relations, and habits. The author purposes to give, in a future number, various interesting details "under the history of each genus."

"Notices of British Fungi. By Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A." [Author of Part II., on Fúngi, of Vol. V. of the English Flora.] 8 pages. The author has proposed to supply, from time to time, detailed descriptions and figures of such as are newly discovered, or are of any peculiar interest; and notices of newly discovered localities of the rarer species, and any additional information on such as are already recorded. In this contribution, 37 species are noticed or described. There are to be three plates of figures illustrative of certain of them: one plate, supplied, bears figures, most of them coloured, of 4 species, and details of them.

"Contributions to the Ichthyology of the Firth of Forth,

By R. Parnell, M.D. No. 1." More than 6 pages. The white bait (Clupea alba Yarrell), the sprat, or garvie herring, (C. Spráttus), and the herring (C. Haréngus), are the species elucidated; and this is done in detail: as to personal characteristics, by description and a coloured figure of each species; as to habits, by description.

"The Honey Bee Community. Length of Life allotted to its different Members. By Edward Bevan, M.D." About 5 pages. The conclusions are, that the average length of the drone's life is about four months; that of the working bee's, about six months; and that of the queen's, about four

years.

"On the genus Paradoxornis. By J. Gould, F.L.S., &c." More than a page. An Asiatic species of bird of remarkable form, described, and figured in a woodcut. Mr. Gould has preferred not to offer an opinion on its place in the natural system.

"The Natural History of British Zoophytes. By George Johnston, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. 1. History of Zoophytology." More than 17 pages. To be continued. Dr. Johnston's Descriptive Catalogue of the Recent Zoophytes found on the coast of North Durham, published, 1832, in the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle upon Tyne, and noticed in our V. 702.; his announcement of his intention of publishing a work on the natural history of the zoophytes of Britain (VI. 267.); and his elucidation of some species in this Magazine (V. 43. 163. 631.; VI. 497.; VII. 491. 638.; VIII. 59. 81. 83.); bespeak his proficiency in this subject considered relatively to its difficulty, and the limited original examination that has been applied to the creatures which are the themes of it.

21 pages. 11 pages

"Reviews and Critical Analysis." and extra are given to a review of the Iconographia della Fauna Italica di Carlo Luciano Bonaparte, Principe di Musignano; from which interesting matter on Mammalia and serpents is elicited.

66

Intelligence: zoological, botanical, miscellaneous." 8 pages and extra. Under these heads are notices of the nature of the "Short Communications" of this Magazine. "Proceedings of Societies." "Obituary." More than 3

pages.

No. 2. is to be published on August 1. It is proposed to include in it the first of a series of papers illustrative of the British Diptera: of the genera, by description and woodcuts; of the species, by description and by notices of localities. The VOL. IX. No. 63.

FF

lending of specimens, and the communicating of notices of localities, are invited.

The Back Woods of Canada; being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer, illustrative of the Domestic Economy of British America.

This little volume has been published under the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and contains much valuable information for those who, from choice or necessity, are seeking to exchange the unprofitable labours of the old country for the severe but more promising of those of the new. To use the words of the Introduction, speaking of the authoress, "Truth has been conscientiously her object in the work; for it were cruel to write in flattering terms, calculated to deceive emigrants into the belief that the land to which they are transferring their families, their capital, and their hopes, is a land flowing with milk and honey, where comforts and affluence may be obtained with little exertion. She prefers honestly representing facts in their real and true light, that the female part of the emigrant's family may be enabled to look them firmly in the face; to find a remedy in female ingenuity and expediency for some difficulties; and, by being properly prepared, encounter the rest with that highspirited cheerfulness of which well-educated females often give extraordinary proofs." (p. 2.) And no one more so than the fair writer of the work before us. Who can rise from the perusal of the narrative of all the perils she encountered in the forest, perils and difficulties which might have appalled a stouter heart, without sentiments of admiration and respect? And yet there is not a particle of boasting from first to last: all is true to nature; and you feel as certain of the correctness of every particular as if you had seen them with your own eyes. For this, indeed, our personal knowledge of the authoress, of her high talents and respectability, is ample guarantee; and most sincerely do we wish her and hers that success to which they have proved themselves so well entitled.

A few extracts must complete our brief notice; and these we shall select from passages bearing more immediately on the natural history of Canada. On their way thither, there are many scenes described, which every lover of nature will enter into with peculiar gusto. Take the following as an instance:

"The waters of the Otanabee are so clear and free from impurity, that you distinctly see every stone, pebble, or shell, at the bottom. Here and there an opening in the forest reveals some tributary stream, working its