ments: hence many, eager to obtain riches, spurn the purer pleasures of a country life, and plunge into all the hazards and anxieties of business. It is with individuals, as with nations; and the consequences are the same to both. The lust of power, and the lust of gain, are equally fatal to happiness.* "While self-dependent power can time defy, GOLDSMITH. Though some accounts of Jersey have been published, yet the subject of mineralogy seems to have been nearly unnoticed. Dr. Mac Culloch is the first who made it an object of scientific inquiry; but he did not enter minutely into the geological character of the island. Sercq appears to have more particularly engaged his attention. From his account of the rocks that are dispersed throughout St. Michael's bay, there is good ground for supposing that Jersey, and all the other islands in the same quarter, are composed of secondary rocks, resting on a basis of + See Trans. of the Geolog. Soc. vol. 1. See Note (YY). real granite. This primitive mass, though not found in its strict form in Jersey, exists in some of them: indeed each island exhibits various stony substances, that are not common to the rest: this, in so circumscribed a district as St. Michael's bay, is a curious and unusual circumstance, especially if connected with the idea, that the whole was, probably, a part of the continent itself. Thus, in Jersey, no rocks of steatite have been observed, though along the northern and north-eastern shores innumerable small portions are found. This fossil exists in Sercq; and as the tide, at its outset, rushes from thence to Jersey, detached pieces are probably carried thither, broken still more in their passage through the Pierres de Lecq, and the Dirouilles. Gneiss is found in Guernsey, but not in Jersey. Though Sercq contains a diversified assortment of mineral substances, it is deficient in sienite, which granitic variety may be traced in almost every quarter of Jersey. Those remarkable pudding-stone masses, that form the lofty north-eastern boundary of the latter island, do not exist in any of the other islands. Dr. Mac Culloch, speaking of Jersey, says that, in a general view, the whole of the high and northern tract may be said to consist of granitic rock, and the southern and flatter part of a mass of schistus, incumbent on it. He mentions a pudding-stone rock, of argillaceous brec cia, consisting of large and small scraps of schistus, cemented by a basis of the same nature, but having lost its tendency to a schistose fracture; and occupying the whole of Bouley bay, from Rosel to Belle Hougue, Dr. Mac Culloch does not however give the full extent to the rock, as it rises in St. Catherine's bay, of which it constitutes the northern boundary; nor does he distinguish be tween this rock and another, nearly similar in quality, connected with it, which runs inland.* These deficiencies must be imputed to the short space of time in which his observations were made. The rock described by Dr. Mac Culloch is unfit for building, not being able to sustain any considerable pressure, when applied in detached pieces; the indurated cement, though in a petrified state, is not, in all places, very strongly attached to the stony nucleus of which it forms the matrix: many of the pebbles, on receiving a slight stroke, fall out, and disclose a polished cavity, as if composed of fine clay: others indeed break in thus attempt ing to remove them from their sockets. Some persons assert that they have seen, in this adventitious fossil, the shells of limpets; but, on a diligent search, the author of this work could not discover any marine exuviæ whatever! That this concrete was once in a soft state cannot be See Mr. Konig's account subjoined. doubted: some of the stones appear to have been rounded by attrition, like those on the border of the Black sea, mentioned by Dr. E. D. Clarke ;* others do not; and some are angular. The rock resembles, in several respects, the celebrated English pudding stone, which Pinkerton supposes not to exist in any other part of the world. The interiour of the pebbles is generally of an unnatural colour, and some have externally a white crust like that of flints. They are not in strata, as if deposited at various times, or as if composed of substances differing in density; but form one compact aggregate. As this combination spreads inland, it becomes less pebbly, and the petrified gluten or mucus more friable, until, by degrees, the whole disappears, and is lost in other terrene commixtures. Dr. Mac Culloch says, that no metallic traces, except of iron, and lately of manganese, have ever been observed in Jersey; and that the schistus, though spread wide over the island, has not hitherto, afforded any slate. Ochres of various hues, particularly those of a reddish cast, are found in many places; and, near Rosel, the author observed some specimens of fine tripoly. That there is not any appearance of lime has been no * See Note (ZZ). ticed by every one; and yet at a spot called English harbour, within the pier, at St. Helier's, are many flints both black and grey.* This fossil is frequently present in gravel, and perhaps always in chalk; yet neither of these substances is to be found in Jersey; the only substitute for the former being particles of sienite, in a disinte grated state, from the decomposition of its feldspar: but though pure lime does not seem to hold a place in the geological department of Jersey, the author has found it combined with other substances. It exists in strata, blended with clay or alumine, and also with silex. He has likewise, found veins of gypsum. Though no true granite has been observed in the island, yet micaceous -particles abound in some places. The author has in his possession a large rounded stone, almost wholly composed of quartz and mica; and in which the latter substance may be said even to predominate; he found it on the beach, at St. Helier's, so that its origin cannot be ascertained. On a level with the sea, but deeply buried under high cliffs, that impend over the harbour at St. Helier's, are large masses of rounded rock, the smooth surfaces of These flints are not found in any other place, nor even in any other part of the harbour: this seems to prove that they are, from time to time, washed in by the sea, from some neighbouring sub-marine situation. ། |