2d.  Brydone, the traveler, says, on the authority of Recupero, a priest, that in sinking a pit near Iaci in the region of Mount Etna, they pierced through seven distinct formations of lava, with parallel beds of earth interposed between each stratum.  He estimates that two thousand years were required to decompose the lava and form it into soil, and consequently that fourteen thousand years were needed for the whole series of formations.  A little further on, he however furnishes data, showing to every candid mind on what very vague estimates he had before relied.  He says the fertile district of Hybla was suddenly turned to barrenness by an eruption of lava, and soon after restored to fertility by a shower of ashes.  The change which he had required two thousand years to produce was here accomplished suddenly, and the whole argument by which he had arrayed himself against the Mosaical chronology overturned.  Of such materials is a good deal of modern pseudo-philosophy constructed.

I received, this morning, a number of mineralogical specimens from Mr. Johnston, which had been collected by him at various times in the vicinity.  Among them were specimens of copper pyrites in quartz, sulphate of strontian, foliated gypsum, and numerous calcareous petrifactions.  He also presented me a fine antler of the Caribo, or American reindeer, a species which is found to inhabit this region.  This animal is called Addik by the Ojibwas. Ik is a termination in the Ojibwa denoting some hard substance.

3d.  Forster, in his “History of Northern Voyages,” mentions some facts which appear to be adverse to Mr. Hayden’s theory of a north-western current.  The height of islands observed by Fox, in the arctic regions, was found to be greatest on their eastern sides, and they were depressed towards the west.  “This observation,” he says, “seems to me to prove that, when the sea burst impetuously into Hudson’s Bay, and tore away these islands from the main land, it must have come rushing from the east and south-east, and have washed away the earth towards the west—­a circumstance which has occasioned their present low position.”

4th.  I read the review of Schlegel’s “Treatise on the Sanscrit Language.”  How far the languages of America may furnish coincidences in their grammatical forms, is a deeply interesting inquiry.  But thus insulated, as I am, without books, the labor of comparison is, indeed, almost hopeless!  I must content myself, for the present, with furnishing examples for others.

The Indians still continue their New Year’s visits.  Fresh parties or families, who come in from the woods, and were not able to come on the day, consider themselves privileged to present their claims.  It should not be an object of disappointment to find that the Indians do not, in their ordinary intercourse, evince those striking traits of exalted and disinterested character which we are naturally accustomed to expect