surfaces, where they adjoin to each other, are adapted in the nicest manner to each other. In some species, there is a larger plate of vertebra at short intervals. In one kind, the column, and, of course, the plates also, are fivecornered, for which reason, the name of Pentacrinites is given to that species. These animals, although we know them almost solely through the remains of them which are found embedded in rocks, have been classed in an order, comprehending several genera and many species; and several splendid books have been published respecting them. Each individual, says Dr Buckland, exhibits ' in every one of its many thousand component little bones, a mechanism which shews them all to have formed parts of a well-contrived and delicate mechanical instrument; every part acting in due connection with the rest, and all adjusted to each other with a view to the perfect performance of some peculiar function in the economy of each individual. The joints or little bones, of which the skeletons of all these animals were composed, resemble those of the star-fish. Their use, like that of the bony skeleton in vertebral animals, was to constitute the solid support of the whole body, to protect the viscera, and to form the foundation of a system of contractile fibres pervading the gelatinous integument with which all parts of the animal were invested.'

While the place assigned to crinoideans in the animal creation was extremely humble-merely a stationary post at the bottom of a sea, where they caught and gorged themselves with marine animalcules-they have been formed with an amazing degree of care, and exhibit a structure even more complicated and wonderful than that of many animals which act a more conspicuous part in the world. An enumeration of the bones in an individual of a particular species (Encrinites moniliformis, or lily-shaped encrinite) presents curious matter of reflection. First, there are ten arms, with six bones in each; then, proceeding from the ten arms are twenty fingers, each with forty little bones; then, branching from these, a great number of tentacula, or smaller fingers, each

consisting of so many bones, as makes up the whole number to 26,680! Great as this number is, it is exceeded by that of the ossicles, or little bones of another species, the Briarean Pentacrinite, which amount to no less than 150,000. These animals seem to have had that power, resting in all creatures liable to much personal damage, of repairing any minor injury which might befall them. Many of the fragments found in a fossil state exhibit the marks of such repairs having been in progress, or completed.

The fragments of decayed encrinites must have formed vast accumulations at the bottoms of ancient seas, for immense beds of rock formed in that situation are composed mainly of this rubbish. Such are many of the limestone beds of the transition period, and the entrochal marbles which extend over such large tracts in Northern Europe and North America. The fragments are of all sizes-sometimes a piece of stalk of considerable length, or a whole flower-like part; sometimes only a short bit of the former, or a mass of detached vertebræ. Many a parlour chimney-piece, composed of that kind of marble, affords opportunities for studying the encrinite structure, without the necessity of stirring from the fireside. The fragments may there be seen in complete confusion, as they were originally deposited at the bottom of their native element, the saw of the marble-cutter having cut through some pieces lengthwise, some obliquely, and some directly across. But it must be allowed that these masses of ruins give but a poor idea of the complete animal, as it lived in its original stately form, rooted to the rock below, and throwing abroad its many filament-like fingers in search of prey.

It will now, then, be understood by the lovers of the marvellous, that what superstition has thought fit to term St Cuthbert's Beads, are the loose vertebral bones of an animal, petrified by long enclosure in fossil rocks, and now dislodged and rolling about like pebbles in the bed and on the shores of the ocean.

EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERICAL INFLUENCES
UPON THE MENTAL FACULTIES.

Not always actions shew the man: we find
Who does a kindness is not therefore kind :
Perhaps prosperity becalmed his breast;
Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east.
POPE'S Moral Essays.

THERE are some who deny that particular states of the weather have influence upon the sensations and powers of the mind, but for no other reason than that they never were sensible of anything of the kind in their own case. They do not advert to the possibility of persons of a different constitution from themselves being liable to influences of which they are insensible. Milton is stated by his nephew to have been most able and disposed to write between the autumnal and vernal equinox; and this provokes a sneer from Johnson, who felt nothing of the kind; though elsewhere, at a subsequent period, he was brought to acknowledge, that there might be differences amongst men in this respect. It is one of the few places where Boswell exceeds in wisdom the subject of his biography, when, in reply to a remark of Johnson on the silliness of those who believe their minds to be affected by meteorological causes, he exclaims: Alas, it is too certain that, where the frame has delicate fibres, and there is a fine sensibility, such influences of the air are irresistible!' 'Our country,' says Sir William Temple, 'must be confessed to be what a great physician called it—a region of spleen; which may arise a good deal from the great uncertainty and many sudden changes of our weather in all seasons of the year. And how much these affect the heads and hearts, especially of the finest temperaments, is hard to be believed by men whose thoughts are not turned to such speculations. This makes us unequal in our humours, inconstant in our passions, uncertain in our ends, and even in our desires.' These, of course, are only opinions, not physiological

proof; but, as proceeding from men of observation and experience, they are entitled to respect. That particular winds, states of the weather, seasons, and climates, do exercise some power over the minds of men in general, is not now generally denied, though perhaps some rather fanciful speculations have been indulged in on the subject.

It is a remarkable fact, that the nations living in the tropical and frigid zones have neither of them such energetic intellects, generally speaking, as those which reside in the temperate latitudes. Dr Copland says: 'Countries situate between 45 degrees and 63 degrees of northern latitude are inhabited by the most robust and enduring of our species, in respect of both physical and intellectual powers. It may be stated, in general, of the northern temperate zone, that the inhabitants of its more southerly countries have made the earliest advances in civilisation, and that those of its middle and more northerly climates, have carried the useful sciences and arts to the highest perfection. Within the range of this zone, man presents the greatest variety of temperament, of constitution, and of mental endowment.' He adds, that 'climates which are the most variable as to both the commencement and the course of the different seasons, are, notwithstanding the many disadvantages imputed to them, the most favourable to the advancement of the various bodily and mental powers. Certainly, a remarkable contrast exists between the people of temperate and those of tropical and frigid climes. The intertropical nations are generally of an enervated or effeminate character, the easy conquest and the ready slaves of whatever energetic neighbour chooses to invade them; while the inhabitants of the arctic regions are, again, stunted in mind as well as body, as if the excessive cold literally froze the genial current of the soul. What furnishes strong proof of the operation of these causes, is the fact, that elevation of situation gives all the advantages of a medium latitude; hence, for one example out of many, the great difference between the timid children of the plain of the Ganges, and the energetic tribes which

hold by the mountains of Mysore. Well might Milton speak of the mountain nymph, sweet Liberty'-though that is a term that only can be applicable in climates not exceeding the medium temperature.

When we come to personal sensations, we readily see how this should be. Every one must have been conscious of the lassitude and indolence produced by an unusually hot summer day, especially when the air has been moist as well as hot. He easily imagines how little business he could get through in a year, how little advance he could make in study, and how useless a being he would become in general, if the same degree of heat and moisture were constantly, or all but constantly, maintained. On the other hand, all must be sensible of the obstruction which extreme cold gives to intellectual operations. In that state, the mind is absorbed in its own uneasy feelings, and the means of alleviating them; there is no roaming abroad for pleasure or instruction; the thoughts and sympathies are all alike confined to the narrow circle around the domestic hearth. Hence there can be no mental progress. Such a state of things, experienced in generation after generation, at length tells upon the organic structure of a people; and behold, as an ultimate result, the puny forms, flat heads, and impoverished intellects of the Samoiedes, Laplanders, and other races of the colder latitudes.

The warmer of the temperate climates, though they probably operate to some extent against the development of the active powers of the intellect, may be allowed to have the effect of elevating the spirits and contributing essentially to the happiness of life. The inhabitants of southern Europe are less industrious, and, as a necessary consequence, poorer than those of the north; but, to judge from external appearances, they pass more cheerful lives. The clear mild weather seems to give directly the happiness which the children of the north are obliged to seek through the circuitous route of a constant application to hard work. It serves them for everything besides a small modicum of the most ordinary necessaries of life.