pierce calcareous stone with the shell of a _Pholas_, yet he himself
has done it, and holds the success to be a proof that the animal can
do the same. The idea of the acid might be accepted, while it was
proved that the creatures were to be found only in limestone; but now
that he has sent to the Académie specimens of gneiss and mica schist,
containing pholades, on which the acid has no effect, he conceives
that they must have entered by boring. They have also been found in
porphyry--a fact of which Brongniart said, many years ago, that nature
had concealed the explanation, and we must wait for a solution.
Whether M. Cailliaud's solution be the true one or not, is a point
that will soon be verified or disproved by geologists and naturalists,
who are never better pleased than when an inquiry, which may lead to
new views of nature, opens before them.

That the age of great books is not past, is proved by an arrival from
America--the United States' government having presented to several
public and private institutions in this country, a large, handsome
quarto, which contains, to quote the whole title, _Historical and
Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and
Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, collected and
prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per Act
of Congress_. The preparation and arrangement of this work having been
intrusted to Mr Schoolcraft is a sufficient guarantee for its value.
It throws much light on the Indian tribes of North America, and
rectifies many erroneous ideas and impressions concerning them and
their origin. Perhaps you will allow me to give you, in a few words,
the author's views on this part of the subject. He considers the
ancient monuments, found in parts of the United States and in Mexico,
to have originated within five hundred years of the dispersion from
Babel; that the Indians are the Almogic branch of the Eber-ites; and