Steadily and zealously the waters worked, stirring up the material from the dark depths with one effort, and collecting them with another, through all time before it was distinguished by light, through day and night, even till the Heaven was made, and then its first works were required at its hands.

It is only by quoting the writer that we can do justice to his ideas, or set them clearly before our readers, the treatment of his subject scarcely allows of condensation :

Blue, hard, and strong the dry land appeared, of fering its breast to oppose the waters, and to prove that "it was good." Thus the currents of water were turned aside; the streams from the south-west could no longer pass the monstrous barrier they had heaped up, and the current from the north-east could no longer meet them on the first disputed grounds: but their dispute was not over; the south-west current came up from the west over the present Persia, from the north-east over the present Pegu, and meeting its adversary on other terms, and with divided strength, built up the continued range of the Himalaya mountains on one side, and finished the great Hindoo Koosh on the other. The winds, still blowing from their normal points, blew over these obstacles, and aided the water-currents in forming the foundations of the Stanovoi mountains, ending in Behring Straits I may as well say here, that I do not insist upon winds and currents acting together: it has been clearly explained by authors that they do not]. Strong currents coming down here from the north built up the mountains of Kamschatka; a troubled and uncertain sea raised the China hills, and continued its work through Pegu, Siam, and the Eastern Archipelago.

While the currents of water-according to Mr. Malet's theory, were forming the Highlands of Siberia, the Steppes of Tartary and of Khiryitz; the north-east current turning westerly along these obstructions built up the Ural, and formed the rough region of the Oronboorg. Nor was it only in the north and east of Asia that the foundations of the mountains were being laid, the author gives the same origin to the great Caucasian range, the Syrian hills, the mountains of Arabia, and the highlands of Abyssinia; he believes that the labour of Creation was going on all over the sphere, and that a sort of relationship or co-relation existed in the growth

of lands.

Asia had a centre, Europe a similar one on a smaller scale in Switzerland. The Alps may correspond with the mountains of Napal, the Bohemian hills with the Ilanovoi, the Hartz mountains with the Altai, the hills of Norway with the Ural, the Pyrenees with the Palestine, the Jura with the Beloochistan, and the Appennines with the Syidra range in India. In both regions the centre evinces similar grand functions of wind and water, similar forces, operating on watery

But while interrupted currents and shifting eddies are presumed to have laid the foundation on the Asiatic side,

crossing Behring Straits other forces were at work; on the American side a steady current flowed for continued ages from west to east, and built up the Rocky Mountains and the Andes over 130 degrees of latitude. There was a disturbing cause in about 20 degrees north, but the line was resumed again on the equator, and carried on till it reached the present rugged regions of Cape Horn.

In this way our author suggests that the foundations of the dry land were raised. It will be perceived that his ideas are contrary to the received opinions of geologists, who, while confidently asserting the first formed solid ground to have been granite, give it an igneous origin. "Basalt and granite are the first dry lands upon which the herb and the tree grew and the light of heaven first gleamed." Both contain similar mixtures. "Basalt is a hard, colourless, dark rock, such as would be formed from the water fine grain, and occurs in horizontal, vertical, or ere light gave her colours to the world." It is of columnar forms, both of which first frequently occur in the same formations, to the perplexity of geologists, who are still unagreed as to the natural cause of the shape of the colums in the Giant's Causeway. Mr. Malet's simple and most feasible cxplanation is, as far as we are aware, original, and conveys to our mind the most clear conception of the primal formation of these and similar basaltic shapes.

If (says the writer) a heavy, porous weight is placed upon a soft matter, that matter will escape from below the weight through the first orifice that opens. Suppose then a mass of liquid mud, the washings of troubled seas collected in a basin of rock at covering of a firmer matter is collected. As this the bottom of the sea, and over this liquid mud a covering sinks by its own weight and by the pressure of the water over it, the liquid mud forces its way up through the covering, which sinks down in proportion to the quantity of mud that has risen. The nature of this rise was in globules; but as many of them rose together each globule retained its situation; but, being pressed by its neighbour, each assumed the shape of au hexagonal prism. Each globule then attained the height above the substance that covered it, which the pressure demanded or the quantity of mud allowed. The perpendicular rise being unobstructed some globules became taller than others, and some had unequal sides.

The author conceives that for an unknown length of time, the pressure was renewed and the supply came up-that the original holes through which the mud escaped being the weakest point of the covering, the globules of each succeeding season were forced up through them. "The hectagon of the previous year had now become a firm mass, so that the fresh mud

did not adhere to it, but pushed it up, and proved, by a concavity on its upper surface, that the first globule of mud had become a hard mass, while its lower extremity still retained its convex form." To illustrate great things by small ones-"A coarse sieve reversed and placed over a mass of prepared material will, upon pressure, send up the mass of matter through its orifices, and this would assume the shapes which the contiguity of the next globules allowed." The principle is seen in the mud which oozes up from our pavements, in the water that bubbles from the rock, in the petroleum oil which rises through the strata above it." The ingeniousness of this hypothesis will be perceptible to every understanding. On the other hand Mr. Malet conceives the lava principle in its spasmodic and violent action to be an impossible agent for such results-"Volcanic eruptions, from their very nature, are incapable of measured effects, especially of such a measurement as we find at the Giant's Causeway for several consecutive occasions." Our author considers lime to have been the material which, constantly growing in weight, pressed down on the slime-pits below, and drove its matter up into

the shapes and forms so curious but so expressive of this natural arrangement. We regret that we cannot give in detail the author's arguments in favour of the formation of both basalt and granite by water power rather than by volcanic agency; but our space is filled for the present, and we can only hope to do so in a future number. Those who read our notice of Mr. Malet's previous work-" New Pages of Natural History"-will be prepared for the expression of many ideas and conjectures wholly at variance with those of the present school of geology, but which tend to remove many of the difficulties with which its theories are surrounded. Evidently a man of science, of keen and reflective observation, he reasons from the processes still active in nature, her probable agents in the past, and opens in his interesting and suggestive volume new views, as it were, of the wondrous story of creation and the glorious works of God.

*BOOKS RECEIVED, but kept over from press of matter. "The Life-boat Journal;" "Hanover Square;" "The Odd-Fellows' Quarterly;" "Shakesperian Gems, in French and English Settings."

The tricksy spirits of pantomime have this year as unwillingly remained to play their pranks in the realms they have made their own for well-nigh a century. At such a juncture a short retrospect of pantomimic history seems called for. Mr. E. L. Blanchard, who has written the pantomime openings for Drury Lane for nearly twenty successive years, records in his interesting Playgoer's Portfolio, forming part of the Era Almanack for 1869, that "Mother Goose," destined to acquire a degree of popularity unprecedented in the history of pantomine, was announced "in a very modest manner," to be performed for the first time at Covent Garden theatre, Monday, December 29th, 1806 (not on the usual Boxing Night); and as Grimaldi has recorded the management entertained no very sanguine hopes of success. Drury Lane had in opposition hurried on the production of their pantomime "Harlequin Sultan," which was brought out three davs before the one at Covent Garden, and to oppose Grimaldi, they engaged Montgomery, who had acquired some celebrity at the circus to play clown. The Drury Lane pantomime was a decided failure, although brought out with great splendour of decoration. On the other hand "Mother Goose" had neither splendid scenery nor gorgeous dresses, neither gaudy banners

nor showy processions. No blanc-mange transformation scene such as latterly our eyes have been feasted with. There was not even a spangle used except for the harlequin's jacket, the latter hitherto unaccustomed to the luxury of tin-foil. Grimaldi considered the pantomime a bad one, said his own part was the worst he ever played, and that there was not a trick or situation in the piece to which he had not been well accustomed many years before. "Mother Goose" was, however, received with deafening shouts of applause and became immensely popular and profitable to the manager, who bore precisely the same name as the now manager of the Christmas entertainment at Covent Garden, Harris, who, we believe, is a descendant of the ancient lessee. Doubtless the success of "Mother Goose" was due to the highly original grotesque genius and humour of Grimaldi, but partly due also to the agile and vigorous dancing of the Harlequin Bologna. Some notion of the kind of transformation or last scene may be formed from the perusal of the fact that a new last scene was added to "Mother Goose" in her second season representing the ruins of Covent Garden theatre (which had been burnt down at the end of the first season), transformed by a touch of harlequin's wand into a new and splendid building. The career of Grimaldi was of

being nick-named "The Frightful Hair." But it will be more to the purpose to state that an excellent new play has also been produced here for Mr. Sothern, entitled "Home."

The HOLBORN theatre has provided for the

season a new burlesque entitled "Turco the Terrible," in the fable of which Fairy Roses contend for the mastery or the mystery as the case may be. E. H. MALCOLM.

EVENING

"Evening parties are doubtless a great institution, and according to some people the structure of society would be rendered unstable were any. thing to happen to put an end to the due observance of such solemnities. But, like other institutions without which we cannot conceive ourselves existing, evening parties are apt to gather about them a species of venerableness which conduces more to their claims on our respect than on our liking.

"There are, indeed, circumstances under which we can conceive evening parties to become truly charming. The number of people invited must not be too large; they must know or must desire to know something of each other; there must be some topic of interest common to at least the larger number of the guests; and, above all, there must be no strain upon any one to be or appear to be something which he or she is not. "We know, unfortunately, that in the majority of evening parties these conditions do not exist. People have a large circle of acquaintances to whom they owe something in the way of entertainment; and, heedless of everything but that consciousness, they rush into the giving of an evening party. So it happens frequently that a number of people are collected who know little or nothing of each other, and who do not care to know more, who have no interest in common, who very rapidly exhaust the weather, and, having done this, are at their wits' end for something to say to each other. It is possible that people may be thrown together who do not agree in any one single subject of liking. Books, public amusements, politics, are all matters which cannot be touched on, unless one of the parties be content to be considered pedantic and the other intensely ignorant. It is not everyone who has the tact to find out the subject on which his or her interlocutor is au fait, and to enter on that with a semblance of interest. We do read and hear of people who have such all-embracing sympathy; but it very seldom indeed falls to our lot to meet them. Besides, we are supposed to go to evening parties for enjoyment, and the exercise of a very large amount of self-denial is not compatible with the species of pleasure we expect to accrue to us from association with our fellow-creatnres. We need not only to exercise our faculty of admirationof others; but we want to be admired a little ourselves. If we are so unfortunate as to be thrown among unappreciative people, how are we to display those qualities, the possession of which is so pleasant to ourselves, and we conteive, ought to be so delightful to other people? It is hard indeed to have to be a social martyr,

PARTIES.

without any reward of admiration accorded to our suffering.

Miscellaneous evening parties appear to us to be a great mistake in so far as the giving of pleasure to the guests is concerned. When a number of people of varying ages, different pursuits, and uncongenial tastes are thrown together, nothing but weariness and a general sensation of the vanity of such meetings can be looked for. People who will give such parties are responsible for a greater amount of discomfort than is generally imagined. We grant that when there are a large number of young people, and dancing is possible, there may be much enjoyment. But that circumstance changes the character of the party entirely, and provides no amusement for the elders of it.

"When conversation cannot be sustained, when music is a dreariness, when dancing is impossible or looked upon as wicked, what remains to be done? For there are still evening parties, in which, by the nature of circumstances, all these varieties of amusement fail, and yet, in which something must be done to prevent immoderate yawning from becoming too evident. We have had experience of such as these ourselves, and it may be written among the things that are to be that we shall have experience of them again. We have tried hard to be entertained by the smallest of small talk, the feeblest of jangling on the piano, the mildest of uninteresting games.

"It seems to us that people have no right to invite others to meet unless they provide proper means of amusement for them. We cannot wonder that, in a large number of cases the advent of refreshments' constitutes the only real enjoyment to be extracted from the meeting.

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"The French fashion of being "at home" on a certain evening presents all the advantage of the evening party with none of its drawbacks. If one's friends care to come they come without so much ceremony; they stay as long as they choose, and they probably are amused because they come willingly.

If, however, this plan does not suit, we would recommend to the consideration of givers of evening parties the undoubted fact that their assemblies would be invested with new charms if they were to exercise a judicious amount of the principles of selection with regard to affinities between their guests, and of adaptation of amusements to capacities in the entertainments provided for them.”