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12. Hyæna Cave.-M. Billaudei, civil-enginer at Bourdeaux, discovered in a quarry on the banks of the Garrone, a cavern, in which he found a quantity of the bones of various animals, among them jaws of the hyæna, of the lion, or the tiger, and of the badger, bones of the fox, &c.

MINERALOGY.

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13. Crystallizations of Sulphate and Carbonate of Lead observed by M. Hartmann.-The following forms of sulphate of lead (Prismatic Lead Spar) were observed in a series of beautiful specimens, from a vein in transition clay-slate, near the smelting works of Tanne, five hours from Brunswick, by the translator of Beudant's Mineralogy, M. Hartmann, and by him communicated to us :— 1. (Př+ ∞)3. P —∞. very frequent in crystals half an inch in length, which are often tabular. 2. (Pr+∞), Př bling fig. 1. Mohs's Treatise, vol. ii. 3. (Př + ∞ )з.. Př. P—∞0. 4. (Pr+∞)3. Pr+ ∞. 5. P+∞. P. 6. (Př + ∞ )3. Př. Pr. 7. (Pr+∞.)3. Př2 +∞. P∞. Twin crystals exhibiting the form represented in Pl. III. Fig. 5. M. Hartmann observed, from the same place, the following combinations of carbonate of lead, or white lead spar :—1. P. 2. P. (Př + ∞)3. Fig. 54. Pl. 91. Hauy. 3. M. 1. s. (Hauy's Letters) 4. M. 1. f. u. Fig. 36. Hauy. 5. M. 1. s. y. Fig. 57. 6. M. e. 1. f. k. u. Twin, or rather triple crystals, grouped according to the law in Fig. 65. Pl. 93. Hauy, and the termination of the planes

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14. Geognostic Position of Platina in America.-Hitherto this metal has been found, in the New World, only in the alluvial districts of Choco and of Brazil; but Mr Boussingault has discovered roundish grains of platina, mingled with native gold, in veins in the province of Antioquia. These veins traverse a formation of greenstone, diorite, and syenite.

15. Jet discovered in Wigtonshire.-Beautiful specimens of this mineral have been found between a bed of peat and yellow clay, in the peninsula formed by Loch Ryan and the Irish Channel, by Sir Andrew Agnew.

16. Geognostical Distribution of Gold in the Uralian Mountains. The gold-bearing districts in the Uralian mountains are

almost universally composed of magnesian rocks; of these the most frequent is talc-slate, and less abundant are serpentine and ophite. The gold occurs either disseminated in these rocks, or in quartz veins which traverse them, where it is generally associated with varieties of iron pyrites, which are usually auriferous. Beresowsk is a remarkable point in the Urals: the whole of the district is talc slate, surrounded by serpentine, and traversed in all directions with an infinity of auriferous quartz veins. In one place Mr Menge found gold in decayed syenite. Erdmann, in his account of the interior of Russia, gives an interesting account of the alluvial gold of that country. The alluvial deposit, on the left bank of the Beresowka, is about thirty feet thick,-the upper layer a loam, underneath which, and forming the great mass of the alluvium, is sand, of which the coarsest kinds are lowest. The gold occurs in the sand, and in largest quantity, in the deepest seated, and coarsest varieties. Two opinions as to the mode of formation of this alluvium have been proposed;-according to the one, it is believed to be derived from the neighbouring hills, because it is intermixed with masses of quartz, and fragments of brown iron ore, both of which occur in the mountains in the vicinity ;—the other opinion, that it has been brought by a flood from a distance, receives additional support from the circumstance of it sometimes containing bones of tropical looking animals, and the gold being different from that of the neighbouring mountains. This alluvium, or auriferous sand, occurs chiefly on the east side of the Urals, extending from Bogislowich smelting establishment, to the Polkowischen mine, an extent of 1000 wersts from north to south. It is very rich in the district between Nischni-Tagilskoi and Kuschtymskoi, and the district Lenowka and Lugoowka. There is over the sand a layer of peat and black earth, 11 archines thick. The uppermost bed is richest in gold, the middle less so, and, at the bottom, the gold is scarce. The sizes of the single pieces of gold which have been met with, are worthy of being noticed. The Governor of Perm presented the University of Dorpat a specimen worth 800 rubles. When the Emperor Alexander visited the Mines of Orenburgh, he was presented with twenty-nine different pieces, one of which weighed eight pounds. In the royal

mines of Slatoust, there was raised, in April 1825, within twenty-four hours, a series of beautiful specimens. Several weighed from five to nine pounds, and one sixteen pounds. This bed of sand also affords other metals. Soon after the commencement (1819) of washing for the gold of the Urals, many grains were noticed amongst the grains of gold,-these were of magnetic iron-ore, iron-pyrites, lead-glance, brown iron-ore, &c. In the year 1823, Lubarsky detected along with these, also platina, iridium, rhodium, and osmium.

17. Geognostic situation of the Siberian Platina.-M. Menge of Lubec, one of the contributors to our Journal, who is at present travelling in Siberia, gives the following account of the geognostic situation of the Siberian Platina. Being very desirous of examining the locality of that mineral, he proceeded to the spot, on the western side of the Uralian range, with one of the officers of the mine of Nischnin Tagil. There he found primitive clay-slate, much traversed by quartz veins on the banks of the Utka. The ridge of the Urals where he saw it, was composed of Serpentine : at the foot of a hill, named Pugina, which is composed of serpentine, resting on talc-slate, he found, under the soil, in decomposed talc-slate, a quantity of platina associated with gold and native lead. Forty hundred weight of this slate afford half a pound of platina. The slate is a compound of smoke-grey quartz and common talc-slate. Grains of platina were, in all probability, also disseminated through the quartz. The serpentine abounded in grains and crystals of magnetic iron-ore; and, in decomposed varieties of the same rock, grains of platina, but none of gold, were met with. On the east side of Pugina, the serpentine appears first in diallage rocks, and in this rock platina also occurs. North-east from Kuschwa, near to Nischnin-Turah, platina occurs in blue limestone, connected with disintegrated green porphyry.-The occurrence of gold and platina, in quantity, in serpentine and talc-slate, is a fact worthy of the attention of those proprietors in Scotland, where these rocks abound, as in Shetland, and various parts of the mainland of Scotland.

18. Cordierite found in Norway. This mineral has been met with in Norway associated with Wernerite, quartz, garnet, and mica. The pierre de soleil probably belongs to this species. The Norwegian cordierite, when cut and polished, exhibits a stellular opalescence, resembling that of the stellular sapphire.

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19 Magnificent Crystals of Sulphate of Iron, or Greenski&triol. Although this mineral fis mot of rare occurrence, it sel-dom appears regularly crystallized. Lately crystals, exceeding in colour, transparency, size, and form, the finest specimens produced by art, were found at Bodenmais in Bavaria, by M. Moldenhauer, and noticed by Leonhardt.

20. Iserine and Iron-sand in Cheshire I send you a bag of mixed iserine and iron-sand, which I have, a few days ago, traced quite across the Hundred of Wirral in Cheshire, from the shores of the Mersey to those of the Dee. I found it many years ago at Seacourse in that district, opposite to Liverpool, doose on the beach, and disseminated through a bed of crumbtling sandstone, which lies below the thick bed of loam which forms the Cheshire soil at that spot. I afterwards traced it along the shores of the Mersey for several miles; and lately, in a/short marine excursion to the islet of Kilberry, at the mouth of the river Dee, I was pleased to recognise my old acquaintance, washed out of the sandstone rock which forms that island, and the greatest part of the ridge of the Hundred of Wirral. I conceive this stone to be the Millstone Grit of the English geologists. Its upper bed is almost a farcilite, from containing many nodules of quartz, and occasionally some of a reddish felspar. It forms the ridge of Bidstone-hill and of Wallesey. At Hilberry Isle it lies just under the scanty soil, and rests on a much softer red sandstone, which appears to be identical with that on which Liverpool stands, and which cuts off the coal-measures in the coal-fields at St Helens and Prescot, ten miles east of Liverpool, as well as that of Neston in Wirral, on the shores of the Dee, opposite to Flint, and the portions of that same basin on the Welsh shores of the Dee. Indeed, in Liverpool the hard upper bed has been quarried as millstones, while the under red or yellow sandstone, is much charged with iron, and forms but an indifferent building material, which readily corrodes, when exposed to the weather."-Letter from Dr Traill, Liverpool, to the Editor....

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21. Bismuth Cobalt Ore. External Characters-Colour intermediate between lead-grey and steel-grey; lustre metallic, and glistening or glimmering; texture radiated, partly stellular, partly parallel. It scratches fluor-spar, but this degree of

Hardness is occasioned by intermixed quartz. Streak dull, colour not changed, but the powder soils. Specific gravity ± 45

4. Chemical Characters.Before the blowpipe on charcoal, gives out white vapours of arsenious acid; deposits on it

yellow crust, during which the ore becomes of a brown colour, When well roasted before the blowpipe, and then mixed with glass of borax and melted, it communicates to it a smalt blue colour. If some small pieces of the ore are exposed to a low red heat in a glass tube it affords a considerable quantity of arsenious acid. Constituent Parts.Arsenic 77.9602; cobalt 9.8866; iron 4.7695; bismuth 3.8866; copper 1,3030; nickel 1.1063; sulphur 1.0160 99.9282. The characteristic ingredients of this ore are arsenic-cobalt and arsenic-bismuth, a combination of these metals hitherto not met with in the mineral kingdom Geographic Situation.-Has hitherto been found only at Shneeberg in Saxony.-We owe our knowledge of this mineral to Mr Kersten of Göttingen.

1422. Selenium in Red Copper Ore.-Kersten of Göttingen, on exposing the capillary red copper ore of Rheinbreitenbach to the blowpipe, perceived a seleniferous smell, which, on farther examination, he found to be owing to the presence of selenium sin that ore. The capillary red copper ore of the Bannet he did not find to contain any selenium. live

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23. Discovery of a New Substance in Sea Water.-M. Ballard of Montpellier, has discovered a peculiar substance in sea-water, which he names Brome, and considers it intermediate between iodine and chlorine. It has a disagreeable smell; hence its name, from Bewus (foetor)*. It occurs, in very small quantity, in sea-water: even the mother water of salt water contains but very little.

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Brome is fluid at the average temperature of the atmosphere, and even 18 below 0° centig. In quantity its colour is reddish-brown; in small quantity it is hyacinth-red; colour of its vapour exactly similar to that of nitrous acid. It is very volatile, and is converted into vapour at 47° centig. Smell very strong, resembling that of chlorine; its density about 3. It d stroys colour, as chlorine does, and is soluble in water, alcohol, and ethe Weight of its atom 9,328, that of oxygen being 1. It forms interesting co pounds with different substances, and is an active poison.

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