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.

T