322 Eskimos, their Geographical Distribution and Origin.\

Should you deem this communication worthy of a place in your journal, I shall consider myself honoured by its insertion. -I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

II. M. DE LA CONDAMINE.

PROF. JAMESON.

Eskimos, their Geographical Distribution.

The Eskimos are essentially a littoral people, and inhabit nearly five thousand miles of sea-board, from the Straits of Belleisle to the Peninsula of Alaska; not taking into the measurement the various indentations of the coast-line, nor including West and East Greenland, in which latter locality they make their nearest approach to the western coasts of the Old World. Throughout the great linear range here indicated, there is no material change in their language, nor any variation beyond what would be esteemed in England a mere provincialism. Albert, who was born on the East Main, or western shores of James' Bay, had no great difficulty in understanding and making himself understood by the Eskimos of the estuary of the Mackenzie, though by the nearest coast-line the distance between the two localities is at least two thousand five hundred miles. Traces of their encampments have been discovered as far north in the New World as Europeans have hitherto penetrated; and their capability of inhabiting these hyperborean regions is essentially owing to their consuming blubber for food and fuel, and their invention of the use of ice and snow as building materials. Though they employ drift-timber when it is available, they can do without it, and can supply its place in the formation of their weapons, sledges, and boat-frames, wholly by the teeth and bones of whales, morses, and other sea-animals, The habit of associating in numbers for the chase of the whale has sown among them the elements of civilization ; and such of them as have been taken into the company's service at the fur-posts fall readily into the ways of their white associates, and are more industrious, handy, and intelligent, than the Indians. The few interpreters of the

natives that I have been acquainted with (four in all), were strictly honest, and adhered rigidly to the truth; and I have every reason to believe, that within their own community the rights of property are held in great respect, even the hunting-grounds of families being kept sacred. Yet their covetousness of the property of strangers, and their dexterity in thieving, are remarkable, and they seem to have most of the vices, as well as the virtues, of the Norwegian Vikingr. Their personal bravery is conspicuous, and they are the only native nation on the North American continent who oppose their enemies face to face in open fight. Instead of flying, like the northern Indians, on the sight of a stranger, they did not scruple, in parties of two or three, to come off to our boats and enter into barter, and never on any occasion shewed the least disposition to yield any thing belonging to them through fear.-(Sir John Richardson).

Origin of the Eskimos.

The origin of the Eskimos has been much discussed, as being the pivot on which the inquiry into the original peopling of America has been made to turn. The question has been fairly and ably stated by Dr Latham, in his recent work "On the Varieties of Man," to which I must refer the reader; and I shall merely remark, that the Eskimos differ more in physical aspect from their nearest neighbours than the red races do from one another. Their lineaments have a decided resemblance to the Tartar or Chinese countenance. On the other hand, their language is admitted by philologists to be similar to the other North American tongues in its grammatical structure; so that, as Dr Latham has forcibly stated, the dissociation of the Eskimos from the neighbouring nations, on account of their physical dissimilarity, is met by an argument for their mutual affinity, deduced from philological coincidences.-(Sir John Richardson.)

324

On the Artificial Formation of Minerals. By HAUSMANN, EBELMEN, SANARMONT, and BECQUEREL.

1. Artificial Formation of Minerals by Igneous Action. By Professor HAUSMANN of Gottingen.

Mitscherlich, many years ago, published important details on this subject. More lately, Professor Hausmann of Gottingen, in an interesting Memoir, of which a copy was forwarded to us, gives an account of minerals he observed forming about furnaces, by furnaceaction. He enumerates the following:-Silver, lead, copper, iron, bismuth, lead-glance, blende, oxide of zinc, red copper ore, ironglance, magnetic iron ore, chrysolite, pyroxene, containing alumina, Humboldite, orthoclase, lead-vitriol, and arseniate of nickel.

Brown, yellow, green, and black blende were observed formed in the furnaces of the Lauten valley in the Hartz, in regular octahedrons and dodecahedrons; also, in lamellar and radiated concretions. Lead-glance, he informs us, is often formed by sublimations in the chimneys of furnaces, and the crystals are cubical with the usual cleavage; and crystals of magnetic iron sometimes incrust cavities in the stone or brick work of the furnaces.

2. On the Artificial Formation of Minerals in the Dry Way, or through the agency of Heat. By M. EBELMEN.

1 The method pursued by M. Ebelmen in his investigations, consists in dissolving the constituents of the mineral to be formed in an appropriate solvent, and submitting the whole to evaporation at a high temperature in a porcelain furnace. Boric acid was the solvent commonly employed, but the author also used borax, phosphoric acid, and certain alkaline phosphates and alkalies. Many minerals were formed by this method. Thus of the minerals belonging to the Spinel group several were obtained by the author. The experiments, however, have been repeated, and with better success, as regards the size and perfection of the crystals obtained.

Magnesian Spinel was prepared, by igniting a mixture of alumina, magnesia, chromate of potash, and boric acid, the mixture re'maining in the furnace eight consecutive days. The crystals thus produced were octahedrons, truncated upon the twelve edges; some of them three or four millimetres in the side; they were transparent, of great lustre, and of a more or less marked rose colour. The angles measured perfectly corresponded to the theory; the density of the crystals was 3.542. Gahnite was obtained by a precisely similar process in well-defined, white, octahedral crystals, of density 4:58. By adding a small quantity of bichromate of potash to the mixture, ruby-red truncated octahedrons were obtained of great beauty and

lustre.

Chromite of Manganese was obtained by igniting together oxide of chromium, oxide of manganese, and boric acid. The crystals were regular octahedrons, of a semi-metallic iron-gray colour, of density 4.87, and of a hardness sufficient to scratch quartz. mite of Zinc was procured in the same manner, and obtained in the form of small, very brilliant, regular octahedrons of a greenish-black colour, and of density 5.309, at 11° C. The atomic volumes of the chromites were found somewhat higher than those of the aluminites, that of chromite of zinc being 27.5; of chromite of magnesia 28·7; of chromite of iron 28.3. Ferrite of Zine was obtained in the form of small black brilliant octahedrons, of density 5.132. Its atomic volume is 29.3.

The formation and properties of artificial Chrysoberyl, the aluminate of glucina, were described by the author in a memoir, in the year 1847. By repeating the experiment, with the addition of carbonate of lime to the mixture of alumina, glucina, and boric acid, a perfectly pure Chrysoberyl was obtained in transparent crystals 5 or 6 millimetres in length. These crystals have a slightly greenish tint, are hard enough to scratch topaz, and of density 2.759 at 12° C. The crystalline form was found to correspond perfectly with the determinations of Descloizeaux, made with the natural mineral; many of the crystals were similar to those found in North America, in Brazil, and the Ural. Chrysolite or Peridot was obtained by fusing together silica, magnesia, and boric acid; the crystals were several millimetres in length, perfectly transparent, but slightly yellow; their form was an octahedron, with a rectangular base deeply truncated upon its two summits. The angles measured agreed perfectly with those of the mineral species. A borate of alumina, having the formula (A12 0o) BO2 was prepared by igniting alumina with borax, or by igniting alumina, oxide of cadmium, and boric acid. The crystals were rectangular prisms from six to ten millimetres in length, transparent and colourless, and hard enough to scratch quartz. The addition of silica to the mixture prevented the formation of a borate, and the alumina then crystallised in large hexagonal crystals of a very high lustre. These crystals are double sixsided pyramids, deeply truncated upon their two summits; the measured angles exactly corresponded with those of Corundum. The density of the crystals was found to be 3.928 at 20° C.; their hardness was that of Corundum, and they easily scratched topaz. In this process the silica may be replaced by other substances; carbonate of baryta gave large crystals of the same forın; carbonate of soda produced the same effect, and several other bodies were employed without essentially modifying the result. Rutile was obtained in long acicular prisms by igniting a mixture of titanic acid with the phosphate of soda and ammonia; the crystals were transparent, and of a golden-yellow colour; their density was 4·283, which agrees with that of rutile. It will be remembered that

Daubrée obtained titanic acid crystallised by the action of the vapour of water upon the chloride of titanium at a high temperature; the crystals were however identical with Brookite.

3. Experiments upon the Formation of Minerals in the Humid Way, in Metalliferous Repositories. By M. DE SANARMONT.

Geology has means of investigation which are peculiar to itself, and now comprehends a certain number of especial truths definitively acquired to science.

It is thus that geology has been able, without foreign aid, to characterise the manner of the formation of the sedimentary rocks, and to arrange them in series; it is thus that it has succeeded in distinguishing in crystalline rocks, and in metalliferous repositories, different classes of which it can assign the probable origin; and in so far as it has not drawn conclusions too far removed from its fundamental principles, its anticipations have almost always been confirmed by experiment.

It is to mineralogical chemistry that geology owes the useful experimental control of its rational conceptions. Crystalline minerals have, in fact, a complete chemical origin; and it is chemical experiment which ought to support geology in its future progress in the study of the rocks of which it is composed.

Chemistry, then, can do much for geology by lending its means of experiment; but upon the condition of itself remaining purely geological; and of borrowing in its turn particular means of study, and the general data which the science à priori has collected upon all the conditional peculiarities of structure, relative position, association, or mutual exclusion, to which certain mineral species must needs be subject. In a word, it is necessary that all the circumstances where the natural operation has left characteristic traces, discovered by the geologist, should reappear in the artificial operation of the chemist.

The experiments, then, of mineralogical synthesis should embrace the different groups of mineral species which are united in nature, and should support themselves upon certain probable geological inductions concerning the formation of the beds which they enclose. Certain isolated species have already been obtained, and principally those which approximate to the usual products, according to the dry method. I have attempted to do more, and to discover some indices of the general causes which have originated the different classes of metalliferous beds.

I now commence this great problem, by the study of the concretionary veins which approach most nearly to the existing formations;