THE BRUCE MANUSCRIPTS.-The fine collection of Ethiopic, Arabic, and other oriental manuscripts, obtained by Bruce, the celebrated traveller in Egypt and Abyssinia, have been brought to the hammer. They consist of nearly one hundred volumes. Among the Biblical manuscripts is an Ethiopian version of the Old Testament, in five volumes, containing the whole of the sacred books, except the Psalms, made from manuscripts used by the Greek Church at Alexandria, at a remote but unknown period. This copy is considered unique. Each page is divided into three columns, and the manuscript has a considerable number of marginal variations. It is written on vellum, in very clear and beautiful characters. It includes the Book of Enoch, which was first brought into Europe by Mr. Bruce. The three copies of it originally belonging to him (one of which is at Paris, and another at Oxford), are all that are known to exist of it in our own continent. There are also in this collection two copies of the Four Gospels in the Ethiopic, and the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles, in two volumes, on vellum; the Constitution of the Apostles, or a collection of the canons made by the first General Council (which is the statute-book of the Church of Abyssinia), in one volume; and the Synaxar, or history of the saints venerated in Abyssinia, in four large volumes. Among the historical manuscripts is the celebrated Chronicle of Axum, on vellum, in double columns. It professes to have been compiled from materials or records found by Damatious (Damascus), Bishop of Rome, in the church of St. Sophia, and read at the first Council of Nice to the three hundred and eighteen fathers assembled there. There were also a variety of Arabic MSS. relating to the histories of Syria and Egypt, and the conquest of Spain by the Saracens; a topographical description of Egypt, the course of the Nile, &c.; several works on medicine and natural history; and an unique Coptic MS. on papyrus, said to have been found in the ruins near Thebes, in the former residence of some Egyptian monks. It contains seventy-six leaves, in small folio, of papyrus of a dun colour, and exceedingly brittle. The character is neat, of the uncial kind, and, consequently, all in capitals, without points or spaces. This manuscript is supposed to have been composed in the second or the beginning of the third century. It was brought from Scotland by Mr. Bruce, for the purpose of being inspected by Dr. Woide, whom he permitted to copy it. There were several booksellers and literary men present, but no advance was made upon the sum at which the collection was put up on behalf of the proprietor, viz. 5,500l.

GERMAN LITERATURE.-In Germany, among the unaccountable number of non-political journals, there appear at this time a Morning-a Mid-day-an Evening-and a Mid-night gazette. The latter, so far from being sleepy, is the most lively and spirited of them all, being edited by the celebrated Poet Mullner. There is also announced as nearly ready for publication, at Berlin, the Fool's Gazette (die Narrenzeitung), to appear three times a week, for the benefit of every description of fools.

There

At the last book-fair at Leipsic, the sum total of the works that have actually been published by German houses was 2125; the number of the houses publishing, 338. In the mass were 222 new editions, including the 23d edition of Bogatzky's Golden Treasury, and the 86th edition of Wilmsen's German Children's Friend. were in the catalogue 239 works in foreign languages, of which 160 were Latin, and 37 Greek; also 156 translations from foreign languages, among which are 54 from the French, and 65 from the English. There were no fewer than six editions (one in English) of the Complete Works of Sir W. Scott. According to the subjects, amongst 2125 books, there were 337 theological; 21 philosophical; 167 historical; 116 political and juristical; 160 pedagogical; 50 grammatical; 208 technical; 88 on natural history and philosophy; 159 medical; 44 geographical; 11 epic; 58 lyric; 38 dramatic; 27 musical; 186 romances and novels; 87 ancient classics; 69 maps. The remainder miscellaneous.

The Bibliographie de la France gives a view of the new books published in France, as it appeared to be in the first six months of the years 1814 to 1826-i. e. since the restoration. If we compare these with the number of books announced as completed in the Leipsic Catalogue of the same years, we find the following result :-

Thus it appears that far more books are published in Germany than in France, especially when we recollect that the books announced as not ready, which, with a few exceptions, have really issued from the press without being again announced, fill 785 pages in the twenty-six catalogues for the years under consideration; and we may reckon ten works per page; and that among the books in foreign modern languages not reckoned here, many are published by German princes. We also see that the production of books has augmented more rapidly in France than in Germany; the French having increased from 979, in 1814, to 4347, in 1826, and the German from 2529 to 4704. The largest number in Germany for one year was that of last year, viz. 4836 works, and the smallest that of 1814; the largest catalogue that of Easter 1825, and the smallest that of Michaelmas 1815. If to the 50,303 books announced as ready, we add 7350 stated to be not ready, and the works in foreign languages published in Germany, we shall have about 60,000 works printed in Germany since 1814 (inclusive). A person reading on an average one work every day (whether

of one volume, or, like the most amazingly cheap pocket editions, of some 100 volumes) would require 170 years to complete his task. The number of writers may be at least half that of the works, i. e. 30,000 as thirteen years is not half a generation (reckoned at thirty years), there must exist at least 40,000 other writers; for if to thirteen years we reckon 30,000, we must add 40,000 for the other seventeen years. The present generation has therefore 70,000 authors, who (whether we reckon backwards or forwards) have written, are writing, or will write, in the space of thirty years.

The university of Gottingen counts at present 1460 students, of whom 352 study theology, 652 the law, 284 medicine, and 172 the philosophical sciences. The university of Munich had on the 23d of December last 1342 students.

GEOLOGY. An extraordinary and very curious fossil reptile, a singular remain of the antediluvian world, was lately found by Mr. Shirley Woolmer, of Exeter, who now has it in his possession.. This antique remain is three inches in length, from the mouth to the tip of the tail; and three inches and a half round the body, which appears like three distinct parallel bodies united in one; it has two legs, each an inch and a quarter long; two short or stubbed horns; a round head, exhibiting four prominent eyes; and is in an incurvated position, with its tail under it, which reaches only half an inch from its mouth. It is in a high state of preservation, and is not described in "Argenville's Fossils," or "Parkinson's Organic Remains."

A short time since, some workmen, employed in digging stone, at Boughton Hall, the seat of Braddock, Esq., near Maidstone, discovered bones and teeth of several animals, some of which the proprietor of the estate transmitted to the Geological Society. As they were found to be those of the hyæna, considerable interest was in consequence excited, and it was determined that some of the Fellows should examine the quarry, as there seemed reason to conclude that a cave might be found there, like that of Kirkdale in Yorkshire. Accordingly, Dr. Buckland, Mr. Lyvell, and several other scientific gentlemen, visited Boughton last month; when it was discovered that the bones in question had been found in a fissure in the rock, which had evidently been filled up by diluvial action. The bones of at least two hyænas (of the extinct Kirkdale species) were found, together with bones and teeth of the horse, rat, &c. But the fissure extended so deeply in the solid rock, that it could not be traced to the bottom, and it will not be possible to ascertain whether it leads to a cave formerly inhabited by hyænas, or is merely a fissure filled up by the effects of the deluge, until the quarry is considerably enlarged. The fact, however, of the bones of a race of extinct hyænás having been found so far southward, is important.

A discovery, interesting alike to the naturalist and the geological student, was made a short time since in the Moat-Colliery, in the parish of Tipton, in Staffordshire. A petrification, resembling part of

the trunk of a considerably sized tree towards the butt, measuring in length two feet four inches, and in circumference four feet ten inches, with the bark formed into coal, was found in nearly an upright position among the strata of iron-stone, at the depth of upwards of two hundred yards below the surface, and which, in the extraction of it, was broken from the upper part of the trunk, that still remains in the earth. On the exposure of this fossil to the atmospheric air, the coal formed from the bark shivered from the trunk. So great a curiosity is the specimen considered, that the proprietors of the colliery, at their quarterly meeting, passed a resolution generously offering it as a present to the Trustees of the British Museum; and there can be no doubt that it will be deemed a valuable acquisition to the numerous fossils which are already deposited in that national institution.

The fragments of a piece of stone, in which a live toad was found, and which may probably have been its dormitory since the Flood, was lately discovered by some persons in the employ of Messrs. Barber and Walker of Eastwood, while at work in a limestone quarry at Watnall. The stone is hard, but of a gritty texture, and its place in the quarry was sixteen feet below the surface of the earth. When found, the toad was alive; it was buried by the men in its petrid cradle, they intending to remove the whole at their leisure. Some unlucky urchins, however, who it seems had been watching the workmen, in the absence of the latter went to the spot, and killed the animal. The cavity in which the toad was embedded is so confined as barely to admit of its turning round in its cell, and is coated with a crystallized or sparry substance.

A beautiful fossil of the sea turtle has recently been discovered, and by the perfect condition of all the organic parts, as well as its locality, may be considered an interesting remain of a former world. It is incrusted in a mass of ferruginous limestone, and weighs 180 pounds. The spot on which it was found is in four fathoms water, and is formed of an extensive stratum of those stones, called the Stone Ridge, about four miles off Harwich Harbour, and is considered to be the line of conjunction between the opposite cliffs of Walton and Harwich. The collection of them gives employment to numerous small vessels, for the purpose of forming the Roman cement, and through these means was brought to light this magnificent specimen.

A treatise on the great geological question, whether the continents now inhabited have or have not been repeatedly submerged in the sea, has lately been read to the Académie des Sciences, by M. Constant Prevost. M. Prevost maintains, contrary to the generally received opinion, that there has been but one great inundation of the earth; and that the various remains of plants, animals, &c., which have given rise to the supposition of successive inundations, have been floated to the places in which they are occasionally found.

ANTIQUITIES.-A valuable discovery was lately made in Westminster Abbey. It had become necessary to make repairs near the

tomb of Edward the Confessor, when, by removing a portion of the pavement, an exquisitely beautiful piece of carved work, which had originally formed part of the shrine of Edward's tomb, was discovered. This fine relic, the work of the eleventh or twelfth century, appears to have been studded with precious stones; and the presumption is, that during the Civil Wars it was taken down for the purpose of plunder, and, after the gems were taken out, buried under the ground (very near the surface of the earth) to avoid detection.

A very curious discovery has been made in the cathedral at Durham. In carrying into effect certain alterations and improvements at the eastern end of the church, and in that part known as the Chapel of the Nine Altars, an old oaken coffin was found, containing the remains of some distinguished personage; believed to be no other than the patron saint, St. Cuthbert," whose restless body, in the three hundred and ninth yeare after his first buriall, was with all funeral pompe enshrined" in "the White Church" at Durham, in the year 995, eight hundred and thirty-two years ago! The skeleton was found to be remarkably perfect, and enclosed in the remains of robes richly worked with gold. A large and bright gold ring, having a crucifix, apparently of silver, appended, was found lying on the breast, and below it the remains of a book. A large comb was also found in the coffin. The wood of which the coffin was composed was about three inches in thickness, and strongly clamped with bars of iron.

A curious discovery was made a few days ago at Fornham Saint Genevieve, near Bury. Men had been for some days employed near the church in felling a pollard-ash, which had the appearance of great antiquity, being not less than eighteen feet in girth and very much decayed, and standing upon a small hillock, which seemed to have been left at a very distant period, when the rest of the soil around it had been lowered. On the fall of the tree, the roots, which were of unusual size and length, tore up the ground to a considerable extent; when, immediately under the trunk, were discovered a large quantity of skeletons, or rather fragments of skeletons, all lying in a circle, with the heads inwards, and piled tier above tier, from the depth of about four feet, being probably the remains of several hundred bodies. The most perfect of the bodies was a lower jaw of large dimensions, containing the whole of the teeth; all the rest were very much decayed. It is well known, both from history and the tradition of names, that in the reign of Henry II. A. D. Ï173, this village was the scene of a sanguinary and decisive battle. According to Hoveden, the Earl of Leicester, having made a descent upon Suffolk, at the head of a great body of Flemings, to support the claim of the king's undutiful son to his father's dominions, and having been joined by Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk, who put the castle of Framlingham into his hands, was encountered here by Richard de Lucy, the guardian of the realm in the king's absence,