Sjart 9). \mi.]
��SCIENCE.
��»l Wastiington, at C'aiiibridgc ihaii at Balllmore? The only way we can account Tor this is in the mitloiihtedlj- freer social life »t the soiilh, l>y whidi men arc liroiight into more rre(]iicnt collisioD, with consequent in- lerctifingc of ideas; und this wouhl lend one U> coujccturc, (hat, unless manners change, Robton and Cambridge cannot regain prc-
��It is all very well to say with a complacent nir that science does not depend on the public, and that her great discoveries arc made far fvom the noisy world. Il is orilj' in exceed- ingly rsiv instances that they have iieen niaile by men whose scientific ardor was not Ijorn of contact with living teachers. And men who seek wisdom for themselves alone defruiid the public; especially in these latter days, when it is this very public Hint is to furnish Iheir successors in the investigation of nature. The public covets no man's scientific gold or ap- [larel, hut has a not altogether unwholesome yeamiug for a sight of it; and it is a. travesty of the scientific spirit to keep it IVom view. Science mny be a mild hermit: she can never I* a miser.
But to reltim to Boston. The decadence noticed within the last len years cannot be nt- tribnled to any change of general manners in the tnodeni 'Allienian,' but must be sought in other local causes, und may lie lai-gcly ap- parent. The inerensing proportion of scien- tific men residing outside of Boston itself lias much to do, during tlic colder and stormier season, with the small attendance at meetings which it takes an hour's travel to reach ; and yet it is rare to find at any scientille gathering in Boston, even if it be an attractive feast, any Ih» proportion tiinn one-ltnlf from C'ambiidgc. Tbe university, too, makes larger and larger demands upon its servants ; and the extrane- ous nttractiona of Cambridge itself, not to mention those of Boston, absorb more and more the time and alrenglh of those who were wont in former ycni-s to add to the inlciest of tbe BCieatific meetings in Boston. Their ex- ample is followed by their juniors, and Boston itself fttils lo make gooil its own loss.
��Tiu: geology of the Highlands of Scotland has a peculiar interest for American students, flrsti l>ecauae lliat region has many resem- blances, both straligraphical and litbological, lo parts of eastern North America; and, sec- ond, Itecause therein the same great ques- tions which have been raised and settled with I'egard to New-Kngland rocks, have there also been debated and finally solved, with similar results. There is in north-western Scotland an ancient gneissic series, which the present writer, in I8.i5, pointed out as the equivalent of our older gneiss, as seen in the Laurentidcs and the Adirondacks. Resting u|>on this Lau- leiitian or nebridean gneiss in Scotland, there is found to the east a group of iinai-tzites and limestones containing a lower paleozoic fauna, in part, at least, Cambrian in age ; while ap- parently overlying these fossiliferous rocks, on their eastern side, is a great series of gneisses and mica schists, rising into hills which form the western Highlands, extending south and east, and covering an area of at least fi(lecn thousand square miles. This whole region was studied a quarter of a century since by Murchison, aided by liamsay and Ilarkness, and later by A. Geikie ; and in IHbn and 1860 it was declared by Slurehison that the gneisses and mica schists of the highlands were newer than the fossiliferous strata, and were, iu fact, i-ocks of Silurian age iu an altered or mcta- morphic condition. As I pointed out in 18<i0, the parallelism between these Scottish rocks and those of New Kngland and eastern Can- ada is evident. The ancient gneiss of the Adirondaeks, the paleozoic strata of the Champlain basin, and the crystalline schists of the New-Kngland Highlands, then regarded by most American geologists as of paleozoic age, are a counterpart of the strata of north- wesl4-rn Scotland, and I am aware that Murchison was sustained by these resemblances in his view of the age of the Scottish Highlands. It was, howevei-, tlicn opposed by Nicol, who main- tained that these i-ocks, though distinct fW>m those of the west coast, wei-e, ueverlholess, more ancient than the fossiliferous Cambrian found along their western base. 1 at that time shared the common belief of the nieta- morphic school of American geologists, and. extending it to llie Scottish i-ocks, supported the thesis uf JMurchison and his coilengucs against that of Nicol. When, however, I be- c.tme satisfied of the errors of this school, anil asserted the prc-C.Tnihnaii age of the various
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